Well, I invite you this morning to please turn to Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 16, and we're continuing our study in the book of Acts. I was panicked before church because my printer jammed and I could not get the sermon printed. Don't ask what it was like in my study right before church. But here we are. So this morning we come to this wonderful section in Acts. As we have been seeing the Lord, his sovereignty, Acts is showing us that in a wonderful way, and we see how he is working to fulfill and complete the Great Commission. This should be a great encouragement to us this morning. 1176 in your pew Bible will begin at verse 6 of Acts chapter 16. This is the word of the Lord. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, over to Macedonia and help us and when Paul had seen the vision immediately we saw it to go on into Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them so setting sail from Troas we made a direct voyage to Samothrace and following the and the following day to Neapolis 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 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. 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. 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. And there ends the reading of God's Word. This whole passage this morning is showing us how much in control the Spirit is of the Christian ministry. how much he is in control of it all. I've tried to capture that in the title itself. The mission belongs to the Lord. And I think we're seeing now a continual theme through the book of Acts in this way to help us understand this. You'll remember last time that we saw a major fight out on the mission field. Pastors never do that, right? Yes, they do. And these things happen, and a major fight happened on the mission field. And what seemed to us was major hypocrisies and things that happened, maybe even compromises, that by the end of it, the Lord had so worked and accomplished His will, it was amazing what was accomplished through these figures that were separated, who were fighting, who we were confused about, that He had been working the whole time and by the end had taken this very bad separation and turned it all and worked it for good. That principle's everywhere, isn't it, in the Scriptures? I do wonder, however, as we're going through the book of Acts, as we're studying this, if we realize how sovereign the Lord really is over everything. Sovereignty of God. Do we really believe that? Do we understand that? Do we appreciate that? I've come to this conclusion in studying Acts that Acts is teaching us and showing us the sovereignty of God. It's a book on His sovereignty. The Spirit sovereignty, the ministry and the mission, He's showing us the sovereignty of the Spirit in surprising ways. Ways that we didn't expect. And that's why it takes going beyond the surface reading of these texts to see it and understand what's going on. It's intended to be a great encouragement to the church. It was intended always to be a great encouragement to the church through all the opposition and hardship and affliction and trials. This was the intention to show you you have a sovereign Lord who's working and nothing's frustrating His will. That's an amazing message if we take that in. That no matter how everything seems to look, as I've said here, when nothing at all makes sense, we are to trust that the Lord is building His church and that everything that He had planned to do from the beginning is happening. It's a wonderful message. Well, now, as we look at this, we see this ministry under the sovereign spirit here that you see it in three ways, that He's sovereign over where we go, He's sovereign to who we go, and He's sovereign in how it goes. All that is right here in this section. He's sovereign over where we go, He's sovereign to who we go, to whom we go, and He's sovereign over how it goes. And this is now in the heart of the second missionary journey. You'll remember Paul had said to Barnabas last time, let's go back and visit all the churches that we preached to to begin with on the first journey, and let's see how they're doing. We have the letter in hand of the Jerusalem Council. And you'll notice here then that we're in the thick of it as now Paul, we looked at the separation last time, now Paul and Silas and Luke here, we have a spotlight on their ministry as they are going out. And so you'll notice here in verse 6 that we read, and they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia. Fascinating section here that's giving us some details on where they wanted to go. Paul wanted to go to Asia right away. Paul had his sights set on Asia. This, of course, would have been the best, if you're looking at it with outward eyes, the most attractive course for gospel success to head there right away to Asia. You would have come to Colossae and then to the coast of Ephesus. It seems to me as I'm reading this and reflecting on it that they even started heading down the road this way. And went a significant amount of distance in this direction for the second missionary journey. But then we come to one of the most stunning things, I think, in the book of Acts. I'll never forget as a high school Bible teacher years ago, as I was teaching the gospel in Acts, I remember coming to this passage and being absolutely perplexed by it, stunned by it. In fact, it was the most surprising text to me in the whole book. I've never been able to get away from it since. They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. So they wanted to head to Asia. They wanted to go this way. But the Holy Spirit said no. So what do they do? They turn north and they come to the border of Mysia. It was an old name for another place in Asia Minor. They tried to enter Bithynia. So this is round two. They're raking their way. The Spirit said no here. They go another way. They had north and try to enter it through another way. And that had towns like Nicaea there, out there on the shore of the Black Sea. But what do you read? The Spirit would not permit them. I don't know quite how that came, but there was a major roadblock there and the hand was up, no, stop, you're not coming this way. In verse 9 then, it goes further and says that Paul then received a vision from a man in the night, a man standing up and saying, and I could imagine the vision, hands are up, come over and help us. A man from Macedonia, come. And this is where we are entering this first section here in the heart of the second missionary journey. We try to figure all this out and think through this, the oddness of the events. It is absolutely a puzzling set of events here. And to hear the Spirit says no is somewhat jolting. Spirit saying no is somewhat jolting to us, isn't it? You're not going there and you're not preaching there. I think this is meant to be a big moment in the book of Acts. You're not doing it. I can't imagine you go all this way. You think in your head, the missionary purpose of Jesus was to go out and preach the gospel to all the nations. To take the gospel in all the nations and the roadblock to it right now is the Holy Spirit. He forbids them from entering into Asia. I wonder what we would call the Spirit today if we told somebody, right? If you told someone, no, you can't go do that. We wouldn't listen to him. We'd try it. They did on the second round here again. An absolute roadblock was set up so that he couldn't go. And I sat again back from this this week in my study, and I wrestled with this. I tried to understand and think a lot about what do we learn from this? What is the Spirit teaching us through this? and not only was this an impressionable moment for paul he seems to have from this moment looked at ministry now after this in a different way it wasn't just about ministry paul seemed now to understand something that he didn't seem to appreciate before about all of life in fact in the next chapter this must have been a big event for him because he's applying its very truth in how now he speaks to the pagans and the gentiles about life in general remember what he said in athens and he made god made from one man every man of man of every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwellings This affected him. It's in his head now about everything. Do you know that allotted periods of your lives are already determined? And do you know the places you're going to live are determined by him? Do you know that all that is appointed? You're not quite as free as you think. But what is the benefit of knowing that? Well, it's pretty simple. If all of life is under this kind of sovereign control of the Lord, how many breaths I take that it is appointed for me even to die the day I'm going to die, the boundaries of where I'm going to go and dwell, and I'm not going to pass that as the oceans don't. Right? The Psalms talk about that everywhere. If I have come to realize that, then this is going to mean a lot about how I look at everything in life. as James will pick up. That I shouldn't run around in life acting like today I will do this or tomorrow I will go to such and such a city or I will spend up a year there or I will fill my life with my dreams and I will determine what my life is going to be, what I'm going to do, how I will live, what I will spend on. What I will be is not even in your control. You saw this week this whole Nike debacle and everything that's going on and it makes it into all the way up to our president and we see all these things going on and I'm not commenting either way on that fight. It's just sad. Culture is ripped apart with this kind of stuff. But the message itself is something to consider. Nike leaked their ad that's coming out now with Colin Kaepernick and the ad itself says here's the point of it you are a non-believer if and that was used you do not believe that you can become all that you want to become if you want to be the fastest runner ever you know don't just be a fast runner be the fastest i have to say i tried that it didn't happen by the way it did not happen i wanted to be the olympic runner i wanted to be number one and i didn't get it did you know that because there's only one don't settle for anything less follow your dreams never never buy into no become the greatest ever it's not just about your dreams it's whether here's how the commercial ends it's whether your dreams are crazy enough listen there's two problems here it's an absolutely impossible it's an absolute impossibility what the commercial's pitching to you life doesn't work that way you know that right how does anyone not see that but the bigger problem is this the bigger problem is your life is not your own that teaching of christianity is majorly under assault i am not in control of any of this there's only one number one and we serve him i should in everything live with a recognition that the lord wills this or that and i follow but i should live recognizing a plan is already in place you see a plan is already in place and there's a divine calendar already established Do you understand that? You write your calendars out. A divine calendar is already written for you. The beginning and the end and the points in between. Now what happens when I don't live that way? That everything is under the sovereign discretion of the Lord in His sovereign predetermined counsel. The Lord does what He wants in heaven and on earth, is the song. He kills and He makes alive. You're not in control of your destiny. So this is an important point this morning. I am set up for a large failure if I think like the world teaches me to think. For I've learned that often in life, nothing goes according to plan. And yes, because your plan may not be God's plan and His plan wins out always. Always. He holds the strings to your life and he has the cane to pull you off your own stage that you've made any point. Understand that? And when we don't live this way, when we don't think this way, you're set up for major disappointment, frustration, anxiety, even fighting against the Spirit. As he stands in front of you and says, no, no. the spirit did not allow it the spirit said no why am i making a big point of this well because without this perspective you become incredibly i suppose myopic with regard to the ministry and self-centered with regard to it and this is where i think it's really helping us to learn about christian ministry and how the apostles looked at christian ministry how they They were taught to think about Christian ministry. And this is so incredibly helpful for today. I'm really enjoying Acts. I'm learning so much through the book of Acts that I still don't have this figured out. And this one really convicted me that I don't. And I'll show you why in a minute. The event that we're studying right now gave him an entire reorienting as to how he was to view and think about how we deal with the ministry and how the Great Commission goes. sure a vision came to him in the night you'll notice here of a man who is saying come over here and help us come over here and help us and and in that then they got together and they concluded in a group that this must be where the lord is sending us to go and preach the gospel now we don't have visions today like this we talked about the time of acts was an apostolic time but there are ways that paul taught us throughout the new testament to discern the will of the lord to think through the will of the lord in these things and the one way that paul used that was to say to think a lot about open and closed doors it's all over the new testament if you go through the epistles he uses this experience to describe the ministry as god opening and closing it listen to this uh first corinthians 16 at the same time pray also for us that god may open to us a door for the word but i will stay in ephesus until pentecost for a wide door for effective work has been open to me and there are many adversaries right now i see the door open here pray that it's opened over here it's not open yet but here it's really clear the door's open we're staying when paul came to troas he said a door was open thanks be to god he goes on to say for in christ he always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere he said to the church in philadelphia remember see I've opened a door dear church go go through it so Paul and Silas and Luke conclude that they are to go to Macedonia we read in verse 11 that they made a direct voyage to Samothrace and the following day to Neapolis and from there here they went to Philippi a Roman colony Philippi was the leading city of Macedonia, a large city, a beautiful city, a city that was known as Little Rome. What a place to be sent. It's exciting, isn't it? You get to go to Philippi. You get to go and go and minister the Word of God in this leading Roman city. It was a population center. It was a great city. this is what the spirit had shown them the spirit wanted them to go and from this vision of the man in macedonia they were to go and when you read this you're beginning to expect something great to happen aren't you i mean this is the spirit he's going to tell you to do something big isn't he this is god's project he's in control of where we go And now he's going to show you that he's in control of who we go to. We know that whenever Paul would enter a city, he would always look for the Jewish synagogue. Problem was, Philippi didn't have one. So it must have been that a rumor was that there were some women gathering down by the river praying. Here's, I think, a really important point. And all this work of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Let me understand this. The Spirit so far has stopped them from going to Asia. He gives a vision that they need to come to Macedonia. They come to this great, powerful Roman city called Philippi, and they don't enter into the main streets. They're not down at the proconsuls and the leaders' homes. Where are they? down at the river to a few women gathering for prayer. What is this? I mean, really, that's a total, if you're looking at it in our standards, that's a total letdown, right? This is what I'm coming to? I did. I could have gone to Asia and you brought me here. I would have said that respectfully to the Holy Spirit, but I would have been frustrated. Isn't this what we often feel today about the church? It just doesn't seem like much is happening. Ministry, you know. Before us are masses of people. The cities are packed. and we have few people it seems you know we're kind of an enigma in this church i've told you before the churches are really small and mission works it's even worse you give all this effort there's no glory in it where's the glory in the mission work really very little ever seems to get off the ground we invest all this money and all this effort and if you look at the numbers when things start you're standing back from it and thinking i don't know that's how we think i don't know i don't know what good is this really doing right i mean we just came hundreds of miles to meet a few women by the river Paul great Paul the text here then does something else that's surprising did you catch it? only one responded and one one one that's the Holy Spirit's work? one The biggest lesson here before us is for church life and missions. Just like life, we try to make often on our terms. So today, this is a single great point about gospel ministry. I think we've lost this today completely. If I sound arrogant in saying that, I'm blaming myself. I think we've lost this. We think ministry is on our terms. we've lost the understanding that it's a calling i i hear and i i was a seminary student i did this i hear seminary students all the time who have in their heads they're going to handpick their calls you know we're going to go to europe or we're going we're going to do something great for the kingdom and they've got it all mapped out and then when it doesn't happen that they're discouraged they're angry they're bitter because nothing ever goes according to your plan remember they're going to do something great in the kingdom and you see what's being shown to us here is the kind of humble willingness to understand that this number one is not our ministry and that this ministry belongs completely to the spirit and his discretion when ministry becomes on our terms it's all about what? numbers because we're all about glory now Acts is showing us don't think anything too great and cosmic in your own eyes is happening right now because we look at things a little differently than the Spirit what do I mean? well, it's all about our reach today. We've got to reach, we've got to reach, we've got to reach. And all the discussions in terms of our people groups today. It's all about ethnic groups. Corporate structures need to be changed. People groups need to be talked about. And here come our strategies. Right? And we've forgotten something. With all of our parachurch organizations out of control today, we have taught people that ministry is about book writing. We have taught people that ministry is about names. We have taught people that ministry is about our heroes, our celebrities, and getting as many people around them as we can. That's what we think ministry is. And we've got to be the most cutting edge in the conversation to reach. Have the best technology to reach. And we're teaching a whole new generation of pastors. That's ministry. What have we lost? The value of the individual. What do I mean by that? a real concern for real people. That people are just used in our projects as commodities to build kingdoms and names and ministries. That is not the Holy Spirit's strategy. I say that emphatically today. That is not. Where is the great Apostle Paul? Not on Philippi's main street, down at the river. To a few women, after traveling miles and miles and miles, this is where the Spirit sent him. And now the Holy Spirit takes all of our attention to one individual. See, this is teaching us something that true ministry is about a humble willingness to go where we're supposed to go and to whom we are supposed to go. And now that applies here to everything. Why does that matter? because this right now looks a lot like who? Jesus. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? How about this? Now, when Jesus learned that the Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but only His disciples. Let me explain that. when Jesus heard that it was being passed around, that His ministry was big, He left. And He went out to Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. See, He's on a divine calendar that is for Him. And He had to pass through Samaria to see who? One lowly Samaritan woman. By their standards, a prostitute. Remember what happened? Just then his disciples came back. He's alone. They marveled that he was talking to a woman. They marveled that his ministry would spiral down to this. remember what happened though they marveled but no one said what do you seek or why are you talking with her so the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people come see a man who told me everything i ever did can this be the christ then the town went back after him though i mean it's the language of the town got up and came off her witness we would never look at ministry this way so here it is paul's out by the river holy spirit says you go here you go here you go here stop right here here's here's who i want you to speak to i love this verse 14 then one heard us it's the biggest statement in the text she heard that that is no little statement that's not a passing statement that's not oh you know i just heard someone talk acts has been teaching us something about this the whole time jesus has been teaching us something about this the whole time when he said this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased the father said hear him and then jesus said blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear he who has ears let him hear and acts has been steadily showing us this with individuals as we've been going through at lystra i remember the man who is lame with his feet and any it says another statement as As he's listening to Paul, he heard him. That's when Paul said, I saw it. When Cornelius, when Peter was preaching, remember what happened? And I quote, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the word. Here's the program. Well, you know it. How will they call on him in whom they've not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach unless they're sent? Individuals. Real people. And next comes the Philippian jailer. Isn't it interesting in the point of Acts he's not showing us the conversion of stadiums? That he's showing us this. Oh sure, many would come in and that needed to happen. But he's teaching us something as this goes about the ministry. So there was one woman there, Lydia, who heard. And then comes the second wonderful statement. And the Lord opened her heart to heed the things that were spoken by Paul. Let me give you a sense of this. The Lord... held on to the heart and opened it. She could not, the Lord had so opened the heart, she could do nothing but pay attention and take inwardly the Word. Powerful sovereignty is shown to you here. And you can't help but to think that this is how sovereign the Lord is over everything. He's taught you already that He not only hardens the heart, He hardens Pharaoh's heart, but he opens the heart. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and all her household were baptized, she begged us saying, if you've judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. She prevailed over us. The entire household, babies and all, were baptized. That was everything that was promised to Abraham coming to fruition and about in the promises. But here's what I can't stop thinking about. God opened her heart and she opened her house. She opened her house. So here, look at the big picture for a minute. We have gone from heading to the masses in Asia to coming back and the Spirit putting up his hand and saying, you're not going, you're not doing this, to now direct him all the way to Macedonia to one woman out by the river who he had in mind and he opened her heart to the word and she now has opened her house. And what happens? Well, only a whole church starts meeting there. See? It's the same story as John 4. So the woman left her water jar, went into town and said, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. This is how the church was built. Could this be the Christ? They went out of the town and came to him. Acts is surprising, isn't it? Acts is surprising. It's one thing it keeps showing you as we read in Acts 13, 48, as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. That's how sovereign he is. Understand that? His determination to save, he's today come to you. Think about this. If you believe he's opened your heart, he thought of you. Look at how He considered you. Look how He's loved you. Can't you see the story? What He's done for you, everything. What more can He say to you than what He has said? He has brought you salvation. He's brought you His gift in eternal life. He did the hard work. He did even the hard work of opening your heart, which you couldn't do. And now, you, if he's done that, have opened your hearts to one another. What a passage for encouragement. What a passage for life. If all of life is under his sovereign control, if he opens the heart, stop underestimating the small things. He knows you. Let that get into the heart. We rail against this today sometimes in the reform world that it's too Gnostic or whatever to talk individually or inwardly. The Spirit works this way through the preaching of the Gospel. And because of this, you don't need to go out and convert your neighborhood. Do you? Sometimes I think we're putting way bigger pressure on ourselves knowing we can't do this so we don't do anything. My guess is God has put on your calendar somebody. Someone whose heart is ready to be opened by the Spirit. You can talk to them. You can tell them the wonderful things that the Lord has done for you and you can bring them here. And watch the fruit of what comes out of a truly born-again heart. That's what we need today. Truly born-again Christians. Don't ever underestimate what the Spirit does and how He works. Sometimes our greatest challenge is simply to believe that where He leads us, to whom He leads us, and what He tells us to do is right. And look at the open doors. To trust those things. And at times when it seems that He's not with us, to believe His Word is prevailing and He's accomplishing everything that He said He would do even when the situations seem absolutely not promising at all. So I close then saying today, may we learn more and more to trust His wonderful Word for He's promised us that Word will never fail. He's promised us He'll not lose one and believe that He has the power to open the hardest of hearts. That's the greatest encouragement for the ministry to us and He can open those of our friends and neighbors who come down our path. He is a sovereign Lord and He's proved it to you. Opening your heart, now open your hearts to one another. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your word of grace and gospel to us today and thank You for showing us Your design and Your power. We are such failures in and of ourselves, so weak, so sinful, It's so needy. But Your power prevails over it all. Thank You for encouraging us about Lydia today. And may we look at ministry the way that You want us to. Help us to be servants in it. Help us to look at all of life this way under Your sovereign control. Direct us. And may we be satisfied with what You're doing, knowing that it's always the perfect will of God. And we'll accomplish everything that you have determined it will accomplish. Thank you for hearing us this morning. And thank you for opening our hearts to hear you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.