City 2 City

So Paul and barnabas, you'll remember, set out from their home church in a town called Antioch, and they traveled a circuit around the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean, and we've got a nice slide for this. And you might well remember the high-tech nature of these slides. Here we go. So they first stop. They stopped in Cyprus where It was an exciting story.

Paul confronts a sorcerer named Elimas and Elimas is struck blind and through that story, the Roman proconsul, a guy called Sergio Powell Palace, is converted So wonderful result actually, you know, in the the sort of like the first leg of the journey, a very important influential man is converted, and I guess that had a real impact on the whole island. That would be my guess. But they moved on from there, and the next stop, really, next major stop we hear about is city in Antioch. And there we found that large numbers of gentiles were added to the church. So we got a decent strong church planted there.

And then we moved on to a town called Listra as Paul walks down there with Barnnebis. And in Listra, Paul healed a lame man. Do you remember the story? And the crowds got so excited about this. These this pagan crowds that they thought that Paul and barnabas must be gods.

They thought they must be Zeus and Hermies And so before Paul and barnabas even knew what was going on, the high priest is coming into the town with a bull to sacrifice to him. And barnabas and Paul, they they panic. They're trying to calm the crowds. I said, we're not gods. We're just men.

And they're they're all about the gospel. But the funny thing is that in in turning the crowds, in disappointing the crowds, and also a mixture of Jewish people who are upset with them and jealous coming down. The whole town is actually it seems dramatically turned around against them, and they throw rocks at Paul. Do you remember we finished the story there? They stone Paul, they drag his body out of the town to the city dump basically and leave him there for dead.

But After that ordeal, Paul gets up. Next leg of the journey, he hobbles on. Yes. You remember the exciting visuals, as I say? Very good.

There's not too many more of those, so enjoy it while it's up there. And amazingly, Paul hobbles on to this next town Derby where Again, we hear that there's there's a huge number of converts there. So there he is all bruised and battered and still just doing god's work and seeing god's kingdom growing, and that's wonderful. And then they largely they they retrace their steps and they head back home. So they're a slightly different wiggly wiggly, and they make their way back home to Antioch.

And that is where we left the story in February. Okay? And so they've had a good long rest. I think it probably the timing works quite well. They've had a good rest just like you have.

And now we're ready for leg 2 of the journey. So if you've got your bibles there on your seats, it's actually going to come up on the screen, but it's really good to have a bible open. We are definitely a bible open on your laps kind of church. So if you wanna get acts chapter 16 open in front of you and it's on page 1 1 1 1. So it can be easier.

Page 1111, and we're reading from act chapter 16. I'm just gonna read a little chunk to you that's up there on the screen just for verses 6 to 10. To start us off. Now we read here that Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Frigia and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of myaea, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

So they passed by mysir and went down to troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us. After Paul had seen division, we got ready at once to leave from Macedonia concluding that god had called us to preach the gospel to them. It's a really interesting passage that, this first little piece here. In 2004, before our oldest boy Nathan was born, Sarah and I went with Africa inland mission to Tanzania.

And the plans for going there had been years in the making. We'd felt moved as a preacher from the overseas missionary fellowship had visited our home church and he preached a wonderful rousing message. It had it had really struck our hearts and we wanted to go. He said something along the lines of, you know, many churches. They sort of they feel that giving 10 percent towards overseas mission, and they've done their job.

But he said, I want to challenge you. Will you give 10 percent of your people? To overseas mission now. He might have been overstating his case, maybe, maybe not, but we felt challenged by that. And so we the ball was rolling and we spent, months years even looking into this.

We agreed to pursue it. First, we looked at opportunities in the Middle East where Sarah had done her medical elective, But when we pursued that door started to close, it was surprising to us. We thought, well, you know, we're wonderful. Why doesn't people why don't people want us? But the doors started to close.

Very funny. So we joined a prayer group that was focused on supporting work in Africa, Africa inland Mission. And then we applied as candidates to do a short term, missionary stint there with a possibility of staying on longer. And an opportunity came up in Tanzania. And it seemed perfect.

We went out to visit for a couple of weeks And there was a wonderful clinic right in the center of Dharas Salam, the city, had a flat next to it, had a really, enthusiastic doctor, who was doing some great work and Sarah really clicked with him and it he needed help and it oh, you know, the ducks were lining up as it were. And for me, there was a school in the North City. I was a teacher at the time, a school where I could work, and there was a, a work with street children just down the road from us as well, where we could do ministry. Was brilliant. But a few days, actually, it was literally, I think, a week or so before we were due to get on the plane to go there.

The wheels started to come off the whole thing, and we were very confused. First of all, this was the big 1, the clinic where Sarah was supposed to be working unexpectedly closed The doctor had fallen out with his mission agency and left and the opportunity was gone. The clinic was shut. It was just an empty building. And then second of all, Sarah announced to me that she was pregnant.

I thought, well, this slightly complicates things as far as the school is concerned. We're now gonna have to do some interesting maneuvering here. But having come this far, the mission organization said to us, go and we'll figure things out when you get on the ground. I don't know whether that was wise or not, but it was a tremendously hard 9 months, the following 9 months. We had a motorbike prepared for shipping which was gonna be our mode of transport over there.

It was stolen from the warehouse in Liverpool, where we lived. Okay. And settle down. Sarah got a job there, but it was immensely frustrating. There's a money grabbing organization, and it upset her greatly to see the things that they were doing.

It was frustrating. And then supplies that I had managed to gather for doing projects was street children. We got box loads of supplies for doing that. We're delayed in the port for 8 months. We were only there 9 and then, you know, red tape.

Then the pregnancy meant that Sarah had to struggle through her first pregnancy away from family in a in a place that is like 99 percent humidity every day. Unbelievably horrible, and we had to return before the school year finished, leaving them in a bit of a difficult situation. We were really relieved to get back to the UK, I can tell you. And we were left scratching our heads and wondering What's that past year even been about? What happened there?

It it seems so right from the start the intention to give ourselves to missionary work. We were challenged by the preaching of the word of god. The willingness to say, here I am send me and just to go. Isn't god supposed to be in control of these things? How could our good plans have been so far off from god's plans as it turned out?

Now I suspect that Paul and his little missionary team here felt a little bit of that on this journey we just read about, didn't they? They must have felt that way at times. I mean, if you look at what we've just read, they must have been asking, you know, what's god doing? This doesn't make sense. Have we got something wrong?

Should we be doing something different? Acts chapter 15 ends with Paul and Barnibas going their separate ways, and we're not gonna cover that this morning. But barnabas returned to Cyprus with Mark. There's a map for this, if you want to pop it up, and Paul took a different route He took silas with him and he headed north up into Syria. See now, the first trip that we've already covered, that's started very differently, actually, from this second 1.

In chapter 13, we read and it was over emphasized, really, that the Holy Spirit god the Spirit clearly spoke. Do you remember we had a whole sermon on it, spoke to the leaders of the church in Antioch and said to them in acts 13 verse 2, set apart for me Barnneberson saw for the work that I've called them. And as if for emphasis then Luke the author writes in verse 4, look, as they're leaving his comment is the Holy Spirit sent them on their way. You know, it's really absolutely rubber stamped, isn't it? That first journey?

But the second trip was slightly different if you look at how it's written. It was the trip was born out of a heartfelt concern for god's people. So having rested a while back at base, 1 day, Paul turns to barnabas and says to him something like, Hey, Bonnie, how about we go and see how all those churches are doing that we planted? I mean, I've been having sleepless nights worrying about how they're coping with everything. It's difficult out there.

Let's go and see how they're getting on. Now it's a brilliant idea. It's a godly idea, isn't it? You know, and as they as they get going, it's it's it's it goes well actually. Barnabas went down to Cyprus and you think about it.

They've had their staffing issues, but they separate out. And in actual fact, now you've got 2 teams. Covering both of, you know, both of them covering twice as much ground, I suppose. And Paul has gone up into Southern Turkey where there's many gentiles there. And, they've lots of them have come to Christ and he's encouraging the churches.

It's a plan they've come up with themselves out their concern, and it's going well. Actually with a few wobbles. But then having encouraged and checked up on those churches, Paul and his team then plan to push on forwards into new territory. It's a new missionary trip. They wanna push out further and take the gospel to new places.

You can understand that heart, can't you? And evidently, they then looked at a map and they decided that the province of Asia, that large area of Turkey with its sort of important influential cities and its big ports, all of those towns, that that's a good place to go where there'll be thousands of people to preach the gospel too. That's their plan. They wanna take the whole province of Asia. That whole great big landmass with all of those people desperate needs.

That's where we're going. It's a good plan. Let's do it. But then verse 6 tells us, have a look. We read it earlier.

Paul and his companions traveled through the region of Frigia and Malaysia having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. That huge area with all those people and the Holy Spirit keeps them from it It's gotta be actually, I think 1 of the most unexpected verses in the Bible, hasn't it? You might think it's hard enough to get people to go and do evangelism in the first place. And here they are, keen as anything, and it actually seems like god is stopping them. Why?

Well, we're not particularly told actually. Just we have to trust that it's god's plan and that god knows best. And that is often the case, and perhaps we don't like that. You know, the the ESV, I don't know if you have some of you got those on your laps, actually translates the word more literally as forbidden. The spirit of god forbade them from preaching the word there.

It's quite strong, isn't it? And it's surprising. But Paul and his team, they work with it because they know it's from god. And so they head further north attempting to, you know, maybe we can circumvent this area that god doesn't wanna to be in. There's lots more people, you know, let's let's go a different way to Bithynia, but then look at verse 7.

And when they came to the border of my Sierra, They tried to enter Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. It's like they're hitting roadblocks all the time. They're itching to break new ground, aren't they this team? To reach towns and peoples with the good news, but the Holy Spirit keeps knocking them all over the country like a pinball. And verse 8 then tells us that they now headed to troas on the coast to wait and figure out what to do.

Have a look with me at verse 9. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia standing and begging him. Come over to Macedonia and help us. And after Paul had seen the vision, he got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that god had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now look, just in this first section, what I already want to cover before we break and sing a song is the fact that a lot of Christians do stress out about how to make decisions and how god leads us to figure out what god's plans are.

Well, I want us to just I'm not gonna be, you know, completely comprehensive here, but Have a look at 3 lessons from the book of acts here and and you see them in this chapter 16. The first 1 is this and you'll have to excuse me if it going with I started with a military sort of term here standing order, so I just went with it. Okay? So so bear with me on this. The first 1 here is first lesson from act 16 is Well, you've got your standing orders.

Now growing ups, I am not talking about the payments that come out of your bank that you forget about and, you know, that 15 quid keeps going out to so and so. The military definition of standing orders is and I quote a military order or ruling that is retained irrespective of changing conditions. Doesn't matter what's going on, you just do this 1. Okay? This is the 1 that you do.

It's a set of instructions or procedures that you just obey by default they get under your skin. It's what you're about. It's who you are. It's what you do regardless of what else is happening. It's like recruits saluting a superior officer.

Mean, it's absolutely it's just that it's gotta be reflex, hasn't it? So I understand. 1 naval officer once quipped that in the navy, if it moves salute it. If it doesn't move, paint it. That's your standing orders.

It's in your DNA. You just do it. It's a reflex. I get the brush out. Now unlike the first missionary journey, this second 1 rose out of, just a conversation between Paul and Parnibas.

It's a decision that arose out of pastoral duty and concerned standing orders. It's a standard thing that they would do. They love the brothers and sisters. And likewise, we have similar standing orders, don't we? We are to love each other and to serve each other.

Love god with all your heart, love neighbors as your self standing orders. Seek first god's kingdom, standing orders. Earn a living, care for your family, standing orders. You do that 1 no matter what the changing circumstances are. Make disciples, go into the world and make disciples standing orders, isn't it?

Love, encourage, and care for your fellow Christians, etcetera. We we have standing orders. And if you want to get familiar with the company manual for the army that you're in, it's in here. Here are your standing orders, and you need to go to those. It shouldn't be something we, need to be instructed about particularly, on top of that.

Just as a mum doesn't need special guidance about making baby breakfast, Yeah? Mums make breakfast for baby because it's just it's just it's just natural. It's normal. And so likewise, we have our standing orders. That's the first thing.

The second thing is this you don't need to know the whole picture. You don't need to know everything. It's it's on a need to know basis. Okay. That's the military.

Link here. You have your need to know basis and you don't need to know always. And you know, so god stops them twice this team from executing their plans, their good plans. God is more than capable of stopping people, isn't he? You ever thought about that?

Make good plans. God can stop you. If it's not the right plan, God can stop you. A friend of mine was once, trying to decide whether he was gonna become a university staff worker. He tells a story of, of getting on a getting on a train going to the interview.

He was deciding whether to take that job or not, and he just felt convicted. Absolutely this is not right and he didn't get off the train. God can stop you. It's like he just felt stopped in his tracks. God can stop you.

Devine guidance does not reveal the plan always very far in advance. All that this team know on each occasion when the the Holy Spirit works is what they need to know. No, not that way. They're not even told where to go particularly. They just head off in a different direction.

Between roadblocks, Without closed doors, we are simply aren't we to proceed day to day with decision making and obeying our standing orders. See, often we make plans with the best intentions, don't we, but god says, no, not there, not that way, not that way. And we're back to square 1. Trust the fact that god can stop you. If you know the whole picture, where would faith be?

God has given us just enough guidance so that we depend on him so that we trust him so that we bring things to him in prayer. He hasn't just given us a whole plan for your life splattered down in front of you that you can just follow step by step because there's no relationship in that, is there? Well, the third thing here is God gave you other Christians to help you. You don't have to be a lone ranger. Yeah?

You have comrades. That sounded sort of communist. So I didn't go with that. But you don't have to be a lone ranger. So even after a really vivid vision.

I mean, if you were looking for directions to where to go and you got that that dream that Paul got, you'd get up in the morning and say, that's it. We're going. Wouldn't you? But even then, it seems Paul discusses it with his friends. That's how it reads in verse 10.

You might well imagine that Paul was so burdened with wanting to preach to this lost world full of lost men, women, and children that he often had those kinds of dreams. This was a particularly vivid 1, but he doesn't get up and announce over breakfast that he's had a word from the lord. That's not how he puts it, is it? When we talk like that, oh, I've had a word from the god law from the lord, god has told me such and such, will you bind people's consciences? It's like saying I am a lone ranger, actually.

I don't need to bounce this off my brothers and sisters. My comrades in arms. I know. Don't talk like that. If they'd had a problem with what he was saying, it would infer that Paul was being disobedient to to god not to do it, wouldn't it, or that they were?

Be very careful about insinuating your speaking on god's behalf in this whole issue. Even Paul doesn't do that there. It's like guys, I've I've had a dream. I've seen this man from Macedonia, he's begging us to come What do you think it means? Come on.

What do you think that means? Tell me if you think I'm wrong here, but I think that sounds like god's trying to get us to get up to to Macedonia. Bounces it off them, doesn't he? Apparently there was a discussion. Well, it fits with the standing order, doesn't it, Paul?

Yep. It does. Okay. Well, that let's let's pursue this. And then there was a conclusion that they all agreed with.

First 10, let's go. Let's go to Macedonia. So there's those 3 things. Follow your standing orders. Follow your standing orders.

It's the first place you look, isn't it? Follow the standing orders. Keep depending on god. Take it to him all the time and talk to other wise Christians. Don't be a lone ranger on this.

Good. Well, I hope that's helpful. We're gonna sing a song before we carry on with this missionary journey. So we're gonna sing the song, strength will rise as we call or as we wait upon the lord, a very important thing in all our decision making. So let's do just give a quick notice that I hope you know your number plate.

Number plate w n 12 k o a. You need to move your car if that's you. I hope you orange choyota. There we go. I hope that's gonna be something.

Oh, maybe it's not us. Okay. We're gonna pray. Come on. Put up on the screen.

I think we have verse 9 up there. There we go. So here's Paul and his team. They're in troas. They're wondering where on earth it is that they're supposed to go after all of this, being stopped, left, right, and center.

And verse 9, let's read it again. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him come to Macedonia and help us. 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. So there's Paul tucked up in his bivy bag, somewhere in a ditch probably. And that night, Paul has a vision.

It's so powerful and it's a vivid dream, isn't it? You imagine getting dreams like this. He sees a man from Macedonia sort of northern part of Greece there over in Europe. And he's calling out to him. Standing before him and begging and pleading.

Come over and help us. Paul, come and help us. And it disturbs him enough that the next morning at breakfast, there he is. He reasons with his partners and they all agree that they must leave right away and sail across to Samothrace to head up to where this vision has come from. And, you know, Sharing the gospel with others is something I'm sure that all Christians want to get behind.

How many of you wanna get behind sharing the gospel with people? Yeah? Okay. Oh, some hands didn't go up. That's interesting.

I think it's just, you know, you didn't understand the question. We want it to happen. That's what being a Christian is, isn't it? We want it to happen. We wanna see god's kingdom growing.

And we know we ought to be involved in it. That's slightly more tricky for some of us. We know we should be involved. We know it's what we're called to do, isn't it, to be about that work? So why don't we all do it?

Why aren't we all at it? It's really, really easy to make excuses, isn't it? You know, maybe you're like me, you just leave it to the next opportunity, you know, opportunities. You you look back over the day and you think, yes. Couple of opportunities just just went by today.

I could have done something. I could have done something. My children, love listening to the band. I don't know if any rest of you know, it's a Christian band called casting crowns. And 1 song that we have on in the car that they do like to sing along is 1 that's called here I go again.

And it expresses that familiar scenario. Here's the lyrics from the chorus. It says here I go again. Talking about the rain, mulling over things that won't live past today. And as I dance around the truth time is not his friend.

This might be the last chance to tell him that you love him. But here I go again. Is that familiar to any of you? Yes familiar feeling, isn't it? Sometimes we need to be shaken out of our complacency about this sort of stuff.

We can make all kinds of excuses. And we can feel all sorrowful every every every day, but but what will shake you out of it and make you take that charge, those standing orders seriously? But we'll do it. Imagine having a dream like Paul's dream. That'd be something, wouldn't it?

You ever had a dream like that? It's incredible. Being confronted in our dreams by people begging us to come to them, to share the gospel with them. I wonder, have you ever heard that cry? Have you ever felt that cry around you?

The begging of a lost world out there come and help us. Don't you think there's an element in Kingston that is crying that out? Think you think so. Now you'd have thought that with a vision like that Paul and the boys would cross the sea and they would be greeted by throngs of crowds of people waiting on the shore, desperate to hear the gospel. You know, thousands saved like at Pentecost, but no.

In fact, generally speaking, the Macedonians are really frosty to the gospel as you read on. We're told that there are very few converts. Only 2 households of converts are mentioned. It's really just individuals that we're talking about here. This quite something, isn't it?

And before we get to the end end of chapter 16, in fact, Paul and silas have been falsely accused of making trouble They've been beaten and whipped and thrown in a prison cell. And this is the man of Macedonia calling. Now this vision is no indicator of the state of people's hearts, is it? Not really? The average man on the street still today as it was then couldn't really care less about Paul or his message.

And they certainly didn't seem to be looking for anyone to help them, they didn't want help from anyone. So what's this vision even about? That actually sounds a lot more like Kingston, doesn't it? Don't want any help from anyone, don't wanna listen to anything. You know, the Bible describes the state of mankind.

We know this, don't we? Of men and women and children who don't know Jesus as dead. They're dead. It's a dead world. Fhesians chapter 2 says this as for you, and he's writing to people who who've been converted.

But he says, you were dead. In your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world. In the world, you're dead. People are dead. They're deaf and dead towards God because of their sin.

It's clear, isn't it? And dead people don't beg, do they? They don't beg. But can you hear the begging? Listen carefully.

Can you hear London begging? Cornerstone come help us Well, if you can't hear that, that's because they're in such a desperate need that they can't beg even. It's funny, isn't it? Have you ever been anywhere where it's so silent that it's loud? My my brother used to take great delight.

He was an audiologist. He used to take great delight when we were children in shutting us into those acoustic rooms, until you're almost freaking out because the silence is so loud. You know, this town is full of dead people, wretched lost blind people, desperate for the words of life to fall on their ears. So desperate they don't even know how desperate they are. So helpless they can't even cry out that they might live.

Don't you and I go to them? Where we go to them? When we take the words of life to them, we must never be ashamed of the gospel, must we because it is the power of god for the salvation of all who believe. Do we believe that? So we must go.

We must plead with this world. Come to Jesus. Only Jesus can offer you eternal life. Your life is just full of death, but you can have eternal life. Only Jesus lived that perfect life and died that cruel death on the cross in your place to take your sins away you could be forgiven.

What wonderful good news? Only Jesus rose again to bring you and I the certain hope of eternal life. Only Jesus can rescue, and he will do it as a free gift to those who'll put their trust in him. Well, let's be challenged by this. Let's leave here this morning hearing that cry of our world around us.

Once again, let us leave with our zeal renewed to wanna go and do this to stop just passing by those opportunities, feel the weight, feel the the urgency of the task unfinished to go and make Christ known. I just want us to really feel the weight of that challenge this morning. We were gonna sing a song before we move on. It's we belong to the desk then. I think they're good timely reminders for us, aren't they?

To seek the lord in making our plans and to allow his guidance in our lives to turn to our standing orders. And again to just be full of zeal for the gospel like those first missionary apostles were. Let's carry on reading just a little bit further. We're going to read from verse 11 if you've got, acts 16 in front of you still. It will pop up on the screen, but have a look at this.

From troas, we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace. And the next day we went on to Minneapolis. From there, we traveled to Philipppeii, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there for several days. On the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer.

We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 1 of those listening was a woman from the city of Fire Tyra named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of god. The lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message And when she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us into her home. If you consider me a believer in the lord, she said, come and stay at my house, and she persuaded us.

So there we see Paul and his team, they head eventually working their way up into Macedonia, they head to Philip. And Philip was an important city. It was the sort of proud Roman stronghold on the main road that led to the east. And hence, it had become full of rich citizens and important people, important officials, people passing through on the road is a great place for business of of all sorts. And 1 such trader was an apparently very wealthy businesswoman named Lydia.

We've got a Lydia here. We've got some lydia's here. We have Lydia in the church. Good name as we'll we'll we'll we'll find out. Lydia was wonderful.

Paul and his team decide that they'll set up camp in Philip for a few days. We're told in verse 12. And their usual strategy was you'll remember to go ahead for the synagogue when you get to a big city, and start talking to people. They'll start reasoning with the Jewish community, but they're in Pagan Europe now, and there is no synagogue in Philip. However, in the absence of a synagogue, what seemed to have happened is that the Jewish community would make a sort of they would meet in a makeshift location.

And that's where they head. They know that you go down to the river. That's where you'll find gatherings of people on the river banks. And so verse 13, on the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find the place of prayer. And we sat down and began to speak to the women who were gathered there.

And 1 of those listening was a woman named Lydia A dealer in Purple Clough from the city of thyTira. Who was a worshipper of god and the lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. You know, there's a wonderful third reminder that's really encouraging for us here. Down by the river, they discovered this little prayer place where the women were sitting. And it was outside the city away from the Pagan temples, a gathering of women, who wanted to pray to the god of the Jews.

That's what they found here. The creator god. And they were open to hearing Paul's message as he comes and sits with them. And 1 woman was named Lydia. She was a dealer in purple cloth purple cloth was, of course, you probably know, was only really worn by the mega rich and by royalty.

It was, you know, she was, She was kinda like the coco Chanel, I suppose, of her day. She's making, you know, she's providing the textiles and maybe making the dresses for some some pretty big, important people. She'd be an influential woman. People would have known her. You want, you know, you want your purple linen.

Yeah. You gotta go to Lydia. She's she's the 1. And so she's a businesswoman supplying the top fashion houses, and there she is. She's also, we're told a worshiper of god.

Now she's not Jewish, but something has convinced her. You can picture it, can't you? That The big answers to her big questions were not found in worshiping petty little pagan gods. The Gods of the Greek Panther. That's not where she's finding answers.

And so like Cornelius earlier on in the book in chapter 10, that centurion, she'd become a worshiper of god, but she worshiped to god that she didn't really know. She was still dead in her sins, still deaf and dead, but the life giving power of the Holy Spirit was starting starting to breathe so to animate the twitching corpse as Paul preaches the word. Can you see it? Because she lacks 1 important thing. She doesn't know about Jesus.

Jesus said in John chapter 14, I am the way the truth and life. No 1 comes to the father except through me. And as Paul preaches his message all about Jesus, suddenly life starts to come to Lydia. There's life there. She's coming alive.

Verse 14, we're told explicitly, aren't we? And this is what we need to remember. The lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. It wasn't her. She didn't open her heart.

That's not what it says. She didn't She wasn't I will become a receptive person to this message. No. The lord opened her heart. Paul didn't convert her with persuasive words.

Don't get the impression that he's there having an argument anyway or he's not having a debate. Is he? No. We're told very, very clearly here. God did it.

God opened her heart. It's a powerful reminder, isn't it? That all we can do is share the gospel with people. All we can do is preach We share the gospel with people we meet and that's right, but god is the 1 who saves. God saves.

And that should really encourage us isn't it? As long as we're actually getting the gospel message right. Yeah? As long as we can actually stumble through it somehow and get the truth across in what we say, then there is no such thing as a really as a bad gospel evangelism attempt there's no such thing as it. If we're getting it right, we might feel discouraged like, oh, I really screwed that up, but did you get the truth across then it's not bad.

It's not a bad thing. We're not to judge, certainly not to judge your efforts simply by the results that they bring. It's easy to become discouraged. We just sow seeds. We meat them 1 to 1 and we water those seeds, don't we?

But who make who brings the growth? Who brings the life? Who brings that spark of life. God does, and it's made so clearly here, isn't it? Salvation comes to Lydia's household It's wonderful.

The first converts on mainland Europe, she may not have been European herself. We don't know. But she's the first convert in mainland Europe. Verse 15, look, when she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home, If you consider me a believer in the lord, she said, come and stay at my house, and she persuaded us. I guess you couldn't say no to the woman like Lydia.

Now in closing, I want you to get this see the size of what god has done here. Please try and just take in the whole picture of what we looked at this morning. Paul and his tea have traveled hundreds of miles all the way from Southern Turkey to Macedonia. They've gone all around the houses as it were, and they've come there to talk to a woman from Turkey. It's a bit strange, isn't it?

And god has brought Lydia from thyTira. He's drawn her to himself, weaning her away from paganism so that she's searching and seeking out the living god. The stuff that she's grown up with, she's rejected. And he's brought her to Philip. And she's he's brought her that day to the river.

So that she could hear the good news of Jesus from these weary travelers. Why? Why all the convoluted plans? Why this way? Wouldn't it have been easier just to go straight through Turkey planting churches.

Wouldn't that have been easier if you want to grow the kingdom of god? Well, not according to god's mysterious plans. We may never know why. Things work out the way that they do, but we must be confident that god knows best. We make plans, but god overrules, god leads, We preach.

God does the saving. It's interesting, you know, I remember a conversation with actually a close family relative. He was just so discouraged. We were talking over Christmas. He was just saying, you know, he'd been a believer for maybe 40 years, said I've never led anyone to Christ, Andy, so discouraged.

And he we needed to gather to just look at this. And say, well, that's not your your job, actually. You are to obey your standing orders and get on with it and let god do the growing and let god do the saving. Let god do the leading and the guiding. Makes a difference, doesn't it?

Proverbs chapter 16 says this, in their hearts humans plan their course. Of course, we do. Some of us love doing that. But the lord establishes their steps. It's worth reminding, isn't it?

3 years after we returned from Tanzania Sarah and I, moved down to Surrey, where I spent, about 4 years nearly as a, as a youth worker. And while we were there, you know, we put Tanzania behind us. It was a traumatic experience for us, and we we're still scratching our heads over it. But 1 time we just decided we would go visit our friends up in Liverpool, and it must have been maybe 2 or 3 years after we'd left Liverpool. We went up there.

And we arrived in our church and obviously, you know, tap churches change every 2 or 3 years. We didn't really recognize very many people initially. There's a large church and we sat at the back And, it just happened that as we were sitting there, at the beginning of the service, a girl named Heather, whom we hadn't really known very well was brought up there and interviewed. And she just spent the last 2 years training at bible college to go out as a full time missionary in Thailand. And she was asked, what made you decide to give everything up and go to Thailand?

Why did you do it? Now nobody knew me were there, but I was a number of years ago, I watched Andy and Sarah Brots. Go to Tanzania. It's so humbling actually to see. God just working his plans out in our lives, isn't it?

Isaiah 55 verses 8 to 9 says for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither a hallway's my ways declares the lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for your sovereign guide and leading.

We thank you that you are so much bigger than our plans. Our plans are often foolish, They're often not very well thought through, but you are the wonderful leader and guide her, you are a wonderful savor, even through our stumbling and humble words, even through our puny efforts, you do great things, and you do it all your way. And so we asked lord that you would help us to leave here with confidence confidence in your gospel to save and confidence in your leading and guiding us through our lives. We pray lord that you would help us to live our lives for your glory. We ask this in your precious name, amen.