SPEAKER_02 0:00

I want to talk uh basically, I think it just got set up so well last week with Reverend Mike's message. How many of you enjoyed Reverend Mike last week? I'll refrain from repeating some of the more humorous parts of uh the message last week. I'm still chuckling as I think about some of the stories, and it's just great when you can hear those real life things. Amen. Uh and Mike just has a great way of bringing it across. But uh today we want to talk about really something similar to what Reverend Mike said, because last week I think he said something like this. He said, Don't assume that delay is God denying you. And I think that really stuck with a lot of us. I think I saw some of you even posting that last week on social media. And I have been thinking about this message for I don't know how long, and it fits in with our Holy Spirit theme that we had been building up over several weeks. So we're gonna jump back into that a little bit today in Acts chapter 16, and we're gonna look at how this plays out in real time in the Bible, okay? And that's why I've simply well, I have two titles for today's message, and they'll probably put another one on it by the time it's on podcast. But my message title for you today is Not Yet. The Not Yet's of God. And uh another title that's more directly taken out of what we're gonna read in just a moment in Acts chapter 16 is When We Are Forbidden by the Holy Spirit. How many of you know that the Holy Spirit empowers us, he leads us, he fills us, you know, all of these good things that we talk about when it comes to the Holy Spirit. He baptizes us, but the Holy Spirit also sometimes stops us. And that's important because you and I need direction in life. And we like to think that direction in our life is simply going to be, you know, that He is going to be opening every door in front of us so that we can just move faster and faster the predetermined direction we're already going. Or am I the only one? How many of you want God to come and just authorize and bless and empower everything you're already wanting to do? But I got news for you. He's Lord, I am not. He is king, I am not. I serve him, not the other way around. And thank God he is a good father and he loves us and he hears our prayer and he answers our prayer, but he also knows what's best for us. And he also knows when we're ready for things, and he also knows when the stage is set for certain things to happen. And he also knows when he has things prepared for us that we isn't even on our radar. Things that he needs us to get done that we would never, ever in a million years do if we didn't get stopped going the direction we already want to go. You know, I think, for example, and I've preached on this in the past, and it's not my message today, but right out of Acts chapter one, where Jesus instructs the apostles that you will receive the Holy Spirit, you will be my witnesses, he says what? That you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. And it was quite a few years ago now when I was reading that, studying that, that the Lord really just opened my eyes and he said, You know, if I hadn't told them specifically that they would have to go through Samaria, those good little Jewish boys would never have gone to Samaria. Because how many of you know Samaria was the last place on planet earth that a bunch of God-fearing Jews wanted to go? I'm convinced that the apostles would have circumnavigated the globe before they went about, you know, whatever it is, 50 miles north to Samaria. They would have just turned a blind eye to Samaria, gone on their merry way. Because Samaria wasn't in their agenda. But God said, I have an agenda, and you need to go through Samaria before you're ready to go to the ends of the earth. Amen. How many of you know that sometimes God has to take you through places you prefer not to go so that you're ready for the things that you want to get to? Because he needs to change something. I mean, am I the only one who thinks that maybe some things in the hearts of the apostles had to be worked out by dealing with their prejudices, by dealing with their hatreds, by dealing with these issues they had with the Samaritans that was preparing them to launch out into the world? Not that we have any prejudices or hatred or offenses or anything like that, right? And the room goes quiet. Right? Because we're not ready for that bigger plan, we're not ready for that, you know, however you want to express it, we're not ready for that bigger picture, that big end goal, that vision that God has put in your heart until your heart's in the right place. Because the last thing that we should want is to be put, to be given all of our hopes and dreams and vision and desires before we're ready for it. Because all your hopes and desires will destroy you if you're not ready for it. Amen. Come on. All right, well, let's get into Acts chapter 16 and see how this played out in the life of the Apostle Paul a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Oh God, help me get through this fast enough.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Acts chapter 16, verse 6 says this, and when they went through the region of Frisia 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 to Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. That is a very interesting couple of statements in the New Testament. You ever read that and been like, what is going on with the Apostle Paul? Why is this happening? I'm gonna ask, um, can you put up the map there for a moment? We're gonna enter the Bible college classroom for just a minute, okay? We're in Paul's second missionary journey, right? So maybe you have this in the back of your Bible, maybe you got this imprinted in your brain, or maybe I'm the only one. But when you look at this, what's going on? We know that Paul starts off his second missionary journey by retracing his steps. He he knows that there are already churches in this central area over here: Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derby, Galatia, right? That's where the letter to the Galatians was written to. That was Paul's first success story. So he's going back there and he's making sure the church is okay. He's letting them know what's going on. He's taking the letter from the apostles in Jerusalem from chapter 15, which we're not going to talk about. And he's letting them know don't worry about these people that are bothering you and trying to get you bogged down in religion and legalism. Move on with Jesus. Come on. And then Paul, because he's got this zeal on the inside of him, he knows what he is called to to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. He's like, I gotta keep going. I wanna. One thing that we learn about Paul is that he loved to find a key city and hunker down for a while so that he could use it as a mission center to the region around. He was very strategic. So as he's going through Galatia, he has his eye set on Asia. Asia, not the continent, although this is Asia, right? This is modern-day Turkey we're looking at, if you haven't figured that out. But Asia being the Roman province of Western Turkey. And what is the big apple of his eye? What's the desire that he has? I'm convinced that when he says Asia, he's heading for the capital of Asia, which is Ephesus. Because that's the pattern I see in Paul. Go to the capital, find some Jewish people, find some God-fearing Gentiles, get a work started, and then begin to reach out to the region. And he's looking at Ephesus. Again, just to give you some context and background, at that time, Ephesus was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It was wealthy, it was powerful, it was a center of commerce, it was a port city, so you have ships coming in and trade and all of these sorts of things going on. It's a very connected, influential city. And Paul, I'm convinced, has his eyes. I'm going to Asia and I want to get to Ephesus, but what do we read? The Holy Spirit forbids Paul from going to Asia. Again, we don't get a lot of background. Why is he forbidden? And I've got news for you. Sometimes God won't explain to you why you are not allowed to do certain things. And I mean, maybe it's the generation that we're in, maybe it's because we want everything now, and if we don't get it now, we want a good explanation why we can't have it. And we kind of, you know, I'm gonna get in trouble today with parents, right? You know, like how many of you know you don't have to explain everything to your kids? Like, don't be harsh, don't exasperate them, the scripture says. Don't just have arbitrary rules and be a dictator, but at the same time, you're the parent, they're the kid, and sometimes it's because I say so. God bless my mom and dad. I got a lot of because I say so. And I love my parents today. Boundaries don't necessarily need an explanation. We don't have time for explanations, yes and no. Sometimes it's just a good way to test our hearts. Amen. Does God always have to explain himself to us? Easier to say yes than to live it out, right? Because I say so. No, Paul, don't head to Asia. Well, we still have this map up, and you kind of look, it's little, you can see the color change, right? So what's the very next thing out of Paul's, well, not out of his mouth, but what we read in Acts, it says, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, then when we came to Mysia, so you can see up on the map there, there's a kind of a region towards the north of Asia called Mysia, and it says what? That they were attempting to go into Bithynia. It's like, okay, if we can't go south, then let's head north. Makes sense, right? I'm fall trying to, I'm trying to find the will of God here, not allowed to go to the left. Let's go to the right. All right, well, what happens there? But the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. I really wish we had like a camera, you know? Like, what did it look like for the spirit of Jesus to not allow them? Is that just like a witness in their heart? Is that like Jesus standing there, like resurrected, like mm-mm? We do know that Jesus appeared to the Apostle Paul on numerous occasions, right? So it can't go to the left, can't go to the right. I guess we plow on forward, right? Well, they get to the coast, it's like, okay, can't go to the left, can't go to the right. We gotta keep moving forward. Sometimes the Lord has to fence us in a little bit. It's like narrow your options, focus in, get you to a place where you are ready to move forward the direction that I need you to go right now. Verse 8. 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, saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Can't go to the left, can't go to the right, just move forward. You know, don't Pasco, do not collect $200. My son Aiden is kind of obsessed with monopoly right now. And talk about parenting. Do you let them win? Or do you play for all you got? There have been some tears. Thank you, Ryan, for that consolation that I'm on the right path. Oh my. Who knew that landing on Illinois Avenue with four houses could cause such an emotional revolt? That'll be $925, Aiden. Oh, by the way, the snow, if you happen to see that I have a little line on the end of my nose, that wasn't me trying to shave the hairs on the end of my nose. That was having fun with the snow yesterday. And someone threw a snowball. That's okay though. She was also going to town on her mom after that. And her mom was like, help me, help me. And that's when I grabbed the snow shovel. Start catapulting, buckets full of snow. Gotta enjoy the last. You gotta make fun, you know, have fun with it if it's gonna be here, right? It's all melting now. Thank you, Jesus. I feel like I can say that with more confidence than I did last week. Is that the Spirit of God? Please, Lord, let it be the last. I know this is Saskatchewan, but we're done. Uh, but you don't have to explain anything to me. All right. So back to Paul, right? Paul, he's he's stuck in this spot, can't go to the left, can't go to the right, but that positions him for moving forward. And one of the cool things for us is we look at this, we don't know how the game, how the story would have played out if that's not how the God had led Paul, but we know that as soon as Paul crosses over to Macedonia, and where he first gets ministry going is in Philippi. This means the gospel is hitting Europe for the first time. It's always cool to see those firsts, right? You know, we know that he went westward, he took the gospel to Europe. We know that some of the other apostles were heading eastward into what today is Iran, Pakistan, India. Other apostles were taking the gospel already down into Egypt and Ethiopia. The gospel is spreading, but it's by his leading, his time, his way. And so, again, as we look at this, I want you to think for a moment of all of the people and places that God takes Paul that might never have been reached, or might have had to wait, or we don't know. Again, like there's it's a million possibilities, right? We only know what did happen. But I look at the story then moving forward, and what do we see? We see that Paul finds a group of women praying by the river in Philippi, and they get saved, and they begin to gather and they're excited about their faith, but there's this fortune-telling girl that's possessed, that's oppressed by Satan, by demons, and is being used by demons to declare people's futures and all of this sort of stuff. Paul sets her free with a word. Come on. How many of you know that God can set people free with a word? Come on, and we're believing to see that sort of power and authority break out. God, we need to see breakthrough in the realm of the you know demonic strongholds, mental health issues in the name of Jesus. Come on, that's the God we serve. And I look at this story, of course, it wasn't easy, right? God, yay, I wanted to go down to Asia. You sent me here, it's all gonna be wonderful. No, it's not. Oh no, now I'm gonna get in trouble. Because again, we have such a soft gospel in North America half the time that we struggle with the idea that we would ever have to go through anything. And now I am not of the type that's gonna say, well, you know, God is, you know, putting all of these things on you. But at the same time, it's pretty obvious that he allows things to happen. And he will use the things we grow through to shape us, to mature us, to mold us. And even as we jump back into the Old Testament and we see what happens as they went through the wilderness, it says that God did it so that it would show what was in their hearts. Anyway, why am I saying that all this morning? Probably because somebody needs to hear it. Probably me. Probably you the Holy Spirit forbade Paul. I mean, I could just sit on that and meditate all week long. God, is there anything that I am just assuming I am okay to do? That if I was really listening to you and I was really being led by you, you would say, Stop it already. Is there any area of my life that I have presumed your blessing and your go-ahead that you, if I had eyes to see, would be standing there going, I forbid you. I forbey you from going here. Again, not necessarily bad things. It wasn't a bad thing to want to take the gospel to Asia, but maybe God has something else that He needs you to do. And I think this is easy once we've been walking with God for a certain length of time, because we get comfortable, because we have our patterns, because you know, just things are going okay. We need to be sensitive. God, what are you really calling me to now? You know, having I have you ever heard the expression that we're supposed to have short accounts with God? We're supposed to keep short accounts. Meaning, I I mean, I'd always heard that, like, you know, if you have any sin, if you have any issues, if you have anything, it's like bring it to God, bring it to God every day. Don't let it accumulate, don't let this stuff build up and snowball until it's a mess. Get into your prayer closet day after day, deal with it. But I wonder too, it's like keeping short accounts. Is it Lord? Have I gone into cruise control? God, have I just, you know, you think I I've heard stories, I haven't actually experienced this yet, that there are uh places, well, California at least, I don't know about other places, where you can get into a driverless car. I I I really I have issues thinking about that. I'd be like reaching over and grabbing that steering wheel. I don't know. That's you heard about this technology? It's like you have an app and you call the car to you and it stops, and you get in and you tell it where to go, and you just sit there, there's no driver. If I knew the Jetson theme song. I be singing it right now. Like this is but uh sometimes we can be on autopilot and we need just pull back for a moment and say, God, what am I missing out on? What am I missing out on? And who is missing out on you because I'm too busy doing what I'm assuming I should be doing instead of getting to what you would lead me to do.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

You guys are quiet this morning. That snow god inside you.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

If Paul hadn't have been more sensitive, he would have plowed ahead into Asia and that girl would have wouldn't have been set free. Those ladies, they would have just still been waiting, praying their Jewish prayers, not knowing that the Messiah had come. We see then he gets sent on to Thessalonica, right? And there's a mighty move of God there, but there's again resistance and persecution there, and he he's only there for about a month, we think, and he gets driven out of town, and he finds some more receptive people. Finally, Lord, you're giving me a break. Berea. You ever heard of the Bereans? They were more noble than those of Thessalonica. That must have felt like a breath of fresh air to Paul, right? It's like, oh, these people, they're just hanging on my words and they want to get into the word of God, you know, whatever pastor wants, right? It's just like, and come back tomorrow, and we're just gonna open up the Bible and see where it takes us. Until the folks back in Thessalonica hear where Paul is and they get the people down there. It's like, no, no, no, can't have any of that. They keep driving Paul along and along, but all the way there are people being reached with the gospel. Amen. Paul is doing things, going places that were not on his agenda. He is spreading the gospel through Greece, through Macedonia, through these regions, planting churches in what we could say was at best Paul's plan B, but it was God's plan A. It was what God had wanted him to do. Again, we could look at how he went down into Athens, a very discouraging place, a very difficult place. Paul gets, he's he's out on the streets, he's preaching. We don't really get any sense that he's having much breakthrough because the Athenians live in their heads so much that they're willing to entertain any idea, but none of those ideas get down into their heart and cause any sort of real reaction or repentance. You ever met people like that? They'll debate with you all day long, but nothing you say can actually get through to them. Right? That's what Paul's up against when he hits Athens, and they even bring him before the authorities on Mars Hill there, and we only hear about two people getting saved that day. Again, God, I wanted to get down to Ephesus, the third largest city in the empire. I wanted to see that region reach for the gospel. Why am I spending this time against these people dealing with people that don't want to listen? Well, I know a little bit about church history, and I know that that guy that got saved that day ended up being the first pastor, essentially, of Athens and was a powerful witness to Jesus. And in the heart of the intellectual world of that time, the Greco-Roman world, he spoke the truth and he built a community of faith.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Come on. You're getting lots today. I hope you're crap in this.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

And when I say that, I just want to point out to you don't get wrapped up in numbers. Don't get me wrong. We want to see growth, we want to see our city impacted, we want to see, you know, those things, but it's more important to be in the will of God than to have numerical growth. Come on. Success outside of the will of God. Is it really success? Even if it looks like God. And again, I don't think God is like a harsh taskmaster that, oh, well, you know, you shouldn't have done that. Well, he'd probably tell you, right? But but my point is, I would rather be in the perfect will of God and have that one person get saved that it might look fairly insignificant in the moment, in the time, and I might be wanting to get on to something else, but God says, just stop. Do you not see? Because again, it's easy to read about this, and I'll just read it in Acts chapter 17, and in verse 32, this is after Paul gives his defense, he preaches that message on Mars Hill, and he says, Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, We'll hear you again about this. Kind of a lukewarm response, right? Some people just outright, you're out to lunch, Paul. What are you talking about? Other people, yeah, maybe. Let's talk about this again. So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined them and believed. And among them were Dionysius, that's the guy I was talking about. Dionysius, the if I can pronounce, can you pronounce that?

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

I hear murmuring, and a woman named Maris and others with them. Do we have eyes for the one? Do we have eyes to see? You know, and and I we can read these stories about the Apostle Paul, and of course, I have a bent towards missions, I have a bent obviously towards ministry in general, so it's very easy to read it in that context. But sometimes we need to remember, even like God, you might be in your heart looking past all the people around you that God has strategically placed you to reach because your head and your heart are somewhere else all the time. Whether it's just human nature, whether it's the technology that we have, that we're always looking at everything else around the world, what about the people that are right in front of us? What about our kids? It's really easy as a parent to look beyond our kids to everything else instead of valuing them as highly as God would have us value them. And I know it can sound cliche or whatever, but some people have put it this way that you know, your mission field starts at home. Right? And that may be your biggest contribution to the kingdom of God, is not who you win out on the street as much as we're uh, you know, for evangelism and missions and those things. It might be the ones living under your roof.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

I gotta get going here. The next place Paul ends up is in Corinth.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

And I tell you what, Paul, if anything was gonna test what was inside Paul, it was Corinth. Just go read 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and you will discover what a gong show, what a mess the Corinthian church was. And again, remember I said that Jesus appeared to Paul on numerous occasions? Just think about this for a moment. Jesus appeared to Paul when he's in the middle of a storm, they're bailing water, they're throwing cargo overboard, everybody's convinced they're gonna die. That's the moment when Jesus appears to Paul and says, Paul, you're gonna survive. You know the other moment we read about when Paul sees Jesus in Corinth. Just put those two stories together in your head for a moment. I'm on a ship, I think I'm gonna sink and die, or I'm trying to preach and teach these people. It kind of puts it into context for you a little bit, right? Corinth is a shipwreck. Corinth is a storm, Corinth is a mess. We're bailing water. God bless all the pastors out there that feel like they're bailing water every Sunday. You know, it's real for some people. Thank God that is not faith alive. I mostly manage to keep my head above water around here. Help me out with that. Pray for your pastor, okay? But again, you read about Corinth and you see what's going on there, and as much as we can laugh and we can talk about how difficult it was, it was also in its way a vibrant spiritual place, very, very spiritual place. And you know what I'm grateful for? I'm grateful for the difficulties that Paul had to go through because we would have about this much teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit if it wasn't for the mess that was Corinth. You ever think about that? Just think about this for a moment. We know as much as we know about how to be a church today because they were kind of messed up then. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like we think that, you know, the the apostles, they're just like these saints, like living up on the holy mountain, receiving revelation and writing this stuff out, you know, from some very, you know, just lofty, high, you know, place of intimacy with the Lord. Most of it is in the trenches, bleeding. It's this is ugly, we need to write course. This, you know, there's a lot of spiritual stuff going on, but it's not really the way it should be. Thank God that the early church wasn't perfect. Or we wouldn't know how to do church today. It would have just been like a comment in the book of Acts, and the church multiplied and grew in numbers and in the grace of the Lord, hallelujah. And then we would just assume that we are so messed up, which we can be. But doesn't that tell you something? Doesn't that tell you something about what we go through? The things that make us bleed, cry, call out to God, seek Him for answers, those are the things that are gonna leave the most lasting impact in your life and in the lives of those who are around you, and as your legacy for the future. Let me say that again. We have our eyes on this big whatever it is. If you're, you know, you feel called to ministry, it's the big ministry, it's the numbers, it's the whatever you know that looks like in your mind. If it's business, it's the big business, it's you know, being successful, if the career, I don't know. Just put yourself in there. The thing that's gonna speak the loudest is the things that you have to go through that you never wanted to go through. It's being put in a place where it's like, I would have my eyes this way, and when that wasn't working out, I was turning this way, and I got so boxed in there was nowhere else to go but forward. Maybe you feel like that this morning. That you've tried this, you've tried that, and you're just between a rock and a hard place, and it's just one day after another, moving one step forward, it's like I feel trapped. Maybe you're in the perfect place.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

We don't like that.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Well, look at the Apostle Paul. He didn't really want to be in Corinth. Jesus had to show up in the midst of that mess and say, There's a whole lot of people here that I'm going to bring to myself. Stick it out. Just look at what it says in Acts chapter 18, verse 9. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you. Come on, I am with you, I am with you. That's enough. That's enough. Why that's the what's on Jesus' lips at the end of the gospel, Matthew chapter 28. What does it say? And lo, I am with you even to the end of the age, even to the end. I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. That is the greatest promise. That's better than prosperity, people. That's better than even healing, as much as God is a God of healing, that He would be with us, come hell or high water, that is the best promise that we have. And no matter how we find ourselves today, we might want our circumstances to change. We maybe feel like they should have changed five years ago, ten years ago. But Jesus is like, have you realized that I am with you yet? Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent. Even the apostle Paul got afraid sometimes. I think of Paul as a pretty radical, pretty strong, pretty courageous guy, but I also see things like this that say Jesus wouldn't be showing up saying, Do not be afraid if Paul never got afraid. We wouldn't find Paul writing to the church saying, Pray for me if he was invincible, if he lived on a different plane of spiritual existence to ask for our prayers, for the prayers of regular people, right? But we all have weaknesses, we all have fears, but God will meet us in that place. Amen. Don't be afraid, go on speaking, do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed there for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. And again, we see it, the results, the fruit that this produced. But where do we start? We started with an apostle Paul that had his eyes set on Asia. So I don't know, maybe it's just me, but when I read this story, I find it significant that the same God who in one moment, in one season, forbid him, showed up and said, No, directed him a completely opposite direction, then turns around two or so years later and says, Give it go, Paul. Asia is yours, and that's where, again, I think that resonated so strongly with me and so many of us last week is sometimes we feel like we feel like the not yet is a 100% no never. That the delay is a complete denial, that if I haven't been healed yet, if success hasn't happened yet, if my career hasn't worked out yet, if ministry hasn't taken off yet, whatever it is, not yet, not yet, not yet. I'm directing you, I'm shaping you, I'm putting you through things and you know, letting you go through difficult places. Well, not yet can turn into now. Now is the time. Now is the time. And you know, there's there's some things, you know, and I'm just I was even praying about this, Lord. Should I share things? But I feel like there's still things I need to keep in my heart that I just see starting to happen in my own heart and for this ministry that, you know, it's like they've always been there as part of, you know, God's desires that He's put on the inside of me, things that He's planted into the DNA and the spiritual inheritance of this house. But sometimes it feels like we're trying to get there, we're trying to get there, we're trying to get there, and it's like maybe it's a not yet. Maybe it's a not yet, but that doesn't mean it's never gonna happen. That doesn't mean give up. That doesn't mean get comfortable, that doesn't mean stop getting prepared. And that uh that is a great danger for us, right? The first not yet that we get, oh my, we're so soft, right? The tears, it's like monopoly, right? Like, it's over.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Oh, I played a lot of Monopoly, okay.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

The first not yet. You know, we're like balloon Christians. It's it's just it just takes a little all the air's gone, we're deflated, you know, woe is me. Where's the remote? Where's my comfy chair? Where's my snacks? Don't get me wrong, snacks are great. Lord, revive in your people those things that you didn't say no to, you just said not yet. And revive in us the desire and the pursuit, because if we've given up the preparation, then we're never gonna get there. But Lord God, if it wasn't a no, if it was a not yet, then get us back on our feet, get us back into the trenches, get us back out into the field with our hands on the plow, moving forward for the kingdom of God, and prepare us so that in this life we can experience the now is the time. And for the apostle Paul, it's just amazing to see how this plays out. But again, Paul lands, just look at this quickly, and I know I've given you lots to think about, and I encourage you to go home, reread the story, look at some of these things. In Acts chapter 18, Paul lands in Ephesus for the first time, as far as we know. So he leaves Corinth, and in verse 19 it says, Then they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. Remember, Ephesus, Asia, big center that could be strategic for the gospel. He had his eyes set on this place years ago. He's finally there. He's in the synagogue, he's reaching out to the people, and look what's happening. It says, it says that he went into the synagogue, he reasoned with the Jews. Verse 20, but when they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. I find that mind-boggling. It's like if I have my heart and eyes set on something for years and I'm there and they're like, please come back, then my assumption is, you know, I'm just gonna run for it. Again, thank God for men like Paul who knew how to follow God and were careful. He was mature, he was seasoned enough to know I can't go on results, positive or negative. Right? We are too easily swayed by both the negative results and the positive results. And we assume a lot. If it's negative, not God's will. If it's positive, must be God's will. So he declined, but on taking leave, he said to them, I will return to you if. God wills. Now I know among faith circles we don't like that statement. God willing, if God wills. How many of you know it is in the Bible? And the Apostle Paul uses it here. I'll just read to you a couple of verses so you can see them. In James chapter 4, verse 13 to 17, it says, Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a town, spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. I mean, there's faith and then there's presumption. There's faith and then there's just arrogance, right? And Paul is speaking to people that are assuming on their previous success that they've now put themselves into a place where I've got this figured out, God. If I just play my cards right, I know how to wheel and deal, I know what this is supposed to look like. They have a formula. God is not a formula. Following God is not a one, two, three equals whatever. No, following God is a day-by-day relationship, leaning in, listening. God, this is what I think, this is what I feel, but what do you think? What do you want? So he says, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Like that's pretty weighty stuff. I know James was a pretty serious guy. I mean, I don't know if any of the apostles, this is gonna sound bad. Would any of the apostles been fun to hang around with? I don't know. Um, but James on my level, my fun meter, mmm. You know what I'm saying? Like Peter, he seems like kind of a spontaneous guy. It'd be a lot of fun to at least watch Peter, right? James is like, your faith without works, he's dead. You know, okay. How about this? This is Paul again in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 7. For I do not want, for I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend more time with you if the Lord permits. So, yes, there is faith, there is believing, there's all of these things, but there's also, Lord, what is your will? I want to submit to your will. And so we move forward, and I'll res I'll just sum it up for you like this. When Paul finally does get to Ephesus, is at least as far as we know, in the book of Acts, that's where he spent the most time. And he went from a group of 12 disciples, and we read about that a month or so ago when we talked about those who they had believed, but they had not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit. They get filled in Ephesus, the place that he's had his eyes set on. I want to go to Asia, but I'm forbidden from it. Now is the time to get down there. When he's in Ephesus, it says that I gotta read these verses for you so you can see it. Oh, there's too many things to really get into. But again, like the it's a rocky start. He only sees a couple of people get saved and filled. He goes to the synagogue, they kick him out, he moves to this other place, and what happens? He says he continued for two years. Verse 10 in chapter 19, Acts 19, verse 10. Look at this. This continued for two years, his teaching, his preaching, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. He's standing in the third biggest city in the empire, in the middle of one of the in a whole big province called Asia, and it says that the entire region heard the gospel. What does that tell me about the things that God said not yet? And I just gave up on, and I just said, Well, that's not for my life. God maybe is saying to you, I never said no. Of course, I want to do those things. Of course, that that was in your heart because I put it there. You just weren't ready, the conditions weren't ready. Can you imagine if Paul had just been, you know, stubborn and said, Well, Paul, but God, you said I shouldn't go there, so you know, dogmatic, not doing it, not going there. The entire province of Asia was reached for the gospel. So maybe this morning you need to revive some things that you've let die in your heart, and say, God, was that a noer or not yet? And again, he says, we read about this. Ephesus is where Paul it says that God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. Like there was a special grace upon Paul's life for this city and for this region. And I can get into it more and more. You actually get into this, you understand Ephesus was one of the most important places for the gospel in the early centuries of the church. I mean, not just decades of the apostles, for centuries, this was a powerhouse for the kingdom of God. Because Paul understood that a not yet doesn't mean a not never. He knew how to follow God. So I know we have fellowship today. But why don't we stand to our feet and pray this morning, this day, whatever it is now. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you. I thank you for men like Paul. I thank you for Luke, who was inspired of the Spirit to write these things down for our edification. And Lord God, it's more than just history, it's your spirit teaching us things. Lord, I ask you over this body that you would revive in us those desires that were your desires in us that we just weren't ready to walk into yet. Lord, like Mary who heard a word from an angel and said, I'm gonna put that in my heart. I'm gonna guard it, I'm gonna keep it, Lord God. Things that we were supposed to guard and we just threw in the trash. Lord God, we pull those out and we say, God, breathe on them again. Bring life back into them again, for we know that the gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. In other words, Lord God, there's no expiry date on what you've called us to. There's no expiry date on the gifts that you want to break out of us. So, God, take us, lead us day by day and step by step. Lord, if there's anything that we killed off that you were just telling us to wait for, God, bring it back to life in the name of Jesus. And God, just like the Apostle Paul experienced, may we step into things where the anointing increases, where the grace is present in amazing, extraordinary ways, Lord God, extraordinary miracles, extraordinary healings, Lord God, regional impact, Lord, that we could never manufacture on our own. It's just by your spirit. That's what we're believing for, God. And we pray in the mighty name of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

Amen. We I know we have to announce some things. I guess we have more time than I thought.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

And those who feel stirred this morning by the word will pray for a couple of minutes here, amen. But before I get excited about praying, I'll encourage you one more time. Stay for fellowship. Invite somebody. I know I am inviting all of you, you're invited. Can I pay for your lunch? You know, if if that's in the books for you, bless somebody. And for that matter, if you're really strapped for for doing lunch today, we don't like anybody to just run away because they feel like I don't have the extra, you know, 20, 30, 40 bucks for my family to stay and have lunch. We want you to be there. So if you're able, great, contribute. If you're not, come over. It'll be a blessing to have you there. Father, in the name of Jesus, we just open this altar to you and we say, Lord God, bring those not yet to life in us. Those things that were on pause, but are still there, they're still part of the calling of God. Lord Jesus, revive them in us. We just want to seek you today as we worship, amen. Amen.