Oct 19 2009
Sermon: Discovering God’s plan
Texts: 2 Chronicles 20:6-12 and Acts 16:6-10
“Dwight had one goal when he arrived as a teenager in Chicago – to accumulate a fortune of $100,000. Working night and day, he threw himself into his quest.
Dwight also ran a Sunday school program at his church because he was primarily interested in the prestige that came from racking up big attendance numbers. Then one day, one of his teachers was absent, so Dwight had to take the teacher’s class of teenage girls.
He had a terrible time. The girls were unruly and undisciplined. They laughed at his face. He wanted to throw them out and tell them never to return.
The following week this teacher came to Dwight, looking extremely pale and upset. It turned out that he was suffering from tuberculosis.
Dwight told him that he could understand why he was depressed, since he was on the brink of death. “No, that’s not what has upset me,” the teacher replied. “I know that when I die I’ll be going to heaven. No, what upsets me is the girls in my Sunday school class – after all these months of teaching them, not one of them has received Jesus. I can’t bear the thought of dying without that happening.”
Dwight had never heard anyone talk like that before. Moved by this teacher’s concern for his students, he said, “How about if I drive you around in my carriage, and we’ll visit each girl individually and tell them about Jesus?”
That’s what they set out to do. At the first house, the teacher was barely able to climb the stairs due to his illness. The two men talked to the teen about Jesus, and this time there was no laughing – instead, she prayed to receive Christ as her Saviour and Lord.
They drove to the next girl’s house – and the same thing happened. And at the next and at the next. They went out the following day, and the same thing happened again and again.
Finally, after 10 days, the dying teacher came into Dwight’s shoe shop, his face shining. “The last girl in my class has yielded herself to Christ,” he announced joyfully.
Together, they celebrated as never before! Since the teacher was leaving the next day to go home to New York to die, Dwight called all the girls together. Later, he said that it was a meeting that kindled a fire in my soul that has never gone out.”
These children, newly adopted into God’s family, gathered around their dying teacher and read the words of Jesus, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms…”
They sang hymns and then knelt while Dwight prayed. But as they were rising, one girl spontaneously began praying for her teacher – and then another and another. They were prayers of thankfulness for God’s influence on his life, prayers of thanksgiving that his eternity in heaven was assured. Dwight had never seen anything like it – these children were turning around and ministering to their teacher in his time of need.
As he was leaving, Dwight said to himself, “Oh God, let me die rather than lose the blessing I received tonight.”
Dwight’s life was changed that day. In light of all he had seen, his dream of $100,000 lost its attraction. “I got a taste of another world,” he said.
Today, we remember Dwight L. Moody as the 19th Century world-renowned evangelist whom God used to bring countless people to faith. It’s a name that would have been lost to history if he’d been content to merely pursue the lesser dreams of this world – dreams that pale in comparison to the daily adventure and rewards of reaching people with the eternity-altering message of Christ.
So let me ask: What’s God calling you to these days?”
While you think about it, let me tell you about Paul’s great vision… He saw a man from Macedonia, pleading with him, “Come over here and help us.” So he decided to leave for Macedonia at once, for he could only conclude that God was calling him to preach the Good News there.
This was a pivotal moment, not only in church history, but also in the history of the world! This vision from God was the primary catalyst for the timely transporting of the Good News about Jesus from one continent to all the people groups of the earth!
This vision of the man from Macedonia helped Paul and his missionary friends to focus God’s direction for their lives. We all need dreams which that have that kind of focus.
What kind of hopes do you have for your life?
Do you want wealth? Fame? Freedom? Just plain Safety even?
Or do you dream that you had faith to move mountains? Or that you could be an instrument to reach a generation of people for God?
I see the churches in the Wheatbelt full of people. I see revival in our town. I can’t wait for Saturday to see how God is going to use us to make that happen.
What is God saying to you?
Here are five points to help us prepare for Saturday.
1. Be open to new possibilities.
Let’s put the Macedonian vision in context. Paul and his missionary team had just attended the Jerusalem Council. The leaders of the church got together to decide whether or not Gentile converts to Christianity needed to adopt Jewish ceremonies and customs. There had been considerable debate and friction about this matter. Eventually the council agreed that Gentiles did not need to become Jews in order to become Christians. They were expected to follow God’s moral laws, but the church was free to flourish in cultural contexts other than Judaism.
The church had crossed an essential bridge in carrying out the Great Commission. We need to understand that what happened at the Jerusalem Council can help us focus on God’s vision for our life.
Some of the Jews in Jerusalem wanted to limit God by superimposing their personal agenda to it – if you want God’s vision for the church you’ll need to be open to focusing on new possibilities!
Don’t limit God as to how He can achieve His intention. Don’t say, “God, here’s the way I want you to make it happen.”
God’s ideas will not be limited like ours! He has ways of doing things we’ve never imagined. His plans are always bigger and better than ours!
Years ago a team of 3M researchers was trying to develop a high-strength adhesive. One of their attempts produced the exact opposite – a very low-strength adhesive. Most of the team thought the result was a failure, but one man saw it as an opportunity. That “failure” became the glue on 3M Post-it Notes!
If we’re not careful, we can become so fixated on what we’re expecting to see, that we fail to see what God wants us to see!
The Jerusalem Council helped set the stage for the Macedonian vision. And when you and I are open to letting God do new things we too are setting the stage for God’s vision entering our lives.
2. Be objective enough to see other points of view.
When Paul and his first missionary partner Barnabas started planning their second missionary journey, just after the Jerusalem Council, a problem cropped up. Barnabas wanted to give John Mark a second chance at being a member of the team after he had deserted them the first time.
Who was right in the disagreement over John Mark?
Paul or Barnabas?
We could say that Paul was right because the books of Acts tells us nothing about the missionary travels of Barnabas. But there’s also a point to be made about Barnabas being right, because in later years Paul says, “Get Mark and bring him with you when you come, because he can help me in my work here.”
Was it Paul’s discipline or Barnabas’ compassion that made Mark a good worker after his early failure? Probably both. It’s likely Mark needed his mentors to take two different approaches for his spiritual progress. He needed a mixture of discipline and compassion.
Let me warn you though, you will find that the more focused your vision is, the more it will exclude some people. They can’t see what you see because God hasn’t given them the same vision – don’t let that discourage you. God likes it when our vision focused. It takes focus to see clearly. It takes focus to get specific things accomplished for God.
Our attitude needs to be one of grace when this happens in our lives. Let others work out the vision God has given them while you focus on the vision God has given you. Don’t turn against them, and don’t let their opposition unnerve you. Trust God. He knows what He’s doing.
Actually it was a good thing that Paul and Barnabas split. Now there were two missionary teams going out where there had previously only been one! They were now able to cover twice the territory spreading the Good News, and they were each able to minister with a focused outlook!
3. Be observant enough to spot your support team.
After Paul and Barnabas realized their specific directions were not compatible, Paul found a young man named Timothy who shared his vision.
Perhaps no one understood the religious and cultural gaps between Jews and Greeks like Timothy, a young man who grew up in both worlds! What a great addition to the “dream team” of Paul and Silas – men interested in taking the gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike.
Just as it is true that, when your vision comes into focus, some won’t share it, it is also true that other will! It is precisely because your vision has focus that people will be willing to join you like Timothy joined Paul. Be on the lookout for those people.
4. Be obedient to whatever God says.
Our text tells us that Paul and his companions were kept from going into the province of Asia at that time. Again, they were prevented from entering Mysia and they went on to the city of Troas.
As the missionaries tried to enter what is modern-day Turkey God deflected their efforts. They were doing their best to take the Good News to those who had never heard, but God was saying, “No, don’t go there. Not now.”
We all wonder why God closes doors in our lives sometimes. We’ve all headed out before in what we believed to be the right direction, only to have doors closed in our face. It can be discouraging when God isn’t opening doors when we think they ought to be opened.
Why does God do that?
We need to remember something very important about God. God has impeccable timing. He’s never ahead of schedule and He’s never late. We can have confidence that God will open the right door when the time is right.
This doesn’t absolve us from the responsibility of trying to find the right door at the right time. We should do all that we can according to our understanding – just as the Paul was doing. We simply need to learn to accept God’s “no”.
Too often we have our minds made up and our lives mapped out and all we want God to do is put a rubber stamp on our plans.
There is a never a time when “trust and obey” is more important then when it comes to focusing your God-given dream.
Finally…
5. Be optimistic about the future.
Here are some definitions of an optimist.
“An optimist is a 75-year-old man, newly married, and looking for a house near an elementary school.”
“An optimist is one who takes four pounds of steak, five pounds of charcoal, and one match to a picnic.”
“Optimists are parents who have three teenage children and one car.”
And the Best One – “An optimist is one who has been captured by the love of Jesus.”
Without vision, life can easily devolve into pessimism. But since Christianity is a visionary faith – no one has more reason to be optimistic than the Christ follower!
When Paul followed God’s vision great things resulted. While they were seeing doors closed God was preparing the hearts of people to hear the Good News.
One of them was Lydia from Thyatira –the first convert in Europe. As Paul spoke the Lord opened her heart, and she was baptized along with other members of her household.
The next person who came to faith in Christ was a demon-possessed girl who had been making money for others by telling fortunes. Paul cast the demon out of her.
It caused her owners to turn a mob against Paul and Silas and they were arrested and imprisoned.
You might think this temporary setback put an end to their optimism but they spent the night singing hymns and praying to God. When an earthquake came their shackles fell off and the Jailer, thinking that they had escaped was going to kill himself. Instead they preached the gospel to him and the jailer took the missionaries home, cleaned and dressed the wounds from their beating, fed them, and he and his entire family were baptized!
That’s what happens when we follow God’s vision!
Never lose the optimism of knowing that God is constantly at work to help us accomplish His will. If He is closing doors now, it is only because He is working to open other doors later!
Do you have a clear vision of what God wants you to do?
Are you being open to new possibilities,
Objective enough to see other points of view,
Observant enough to see the support team God has given,
Obedient to whatever God says,
Optimistic about God’s intention in your life?
Remember Jehoshaphat’s prayer – We have no power, we don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You!