And He Shall Direct Your Stops

So now that God has your attention to fully give it to him and then remember that before the Lord can turn us around, sometimes he has to completely stop us. And those potholes in the race track. And those obstacles that caused you to swerve and sweat. They're all part of the process. And the process is as critical as the destination, whether it is Europe or Asia minor, whether it is this door or that door.

It is the process of going through the door that is just as important as walking through it.

We've all experienced situations where we had an idea or a dream or a plan. But God had another path in mind for us. Our plans were halted. What should we do when that happens? When doors close on us, especially when we're convinced about something that can be a painful time. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. This week, we continue through our Vintage Wisdom series out of the Book of Acts.

Today, we're going to be reminded that the same God who orders our steps also orders our stops, since God changing our plans is going to happen.

Let's be prepared to deal with it wisely and biblically when it does. Here's Stephen Davíð with today's lesson.

Acts, Chapter 16, everything, and I'll tell you ahead of time is going along as you would think it would go along as you read the Book of Acts and study the life of Paul. This is the great apostle. Every door before him with swing open, every opportunity for ministry would be magnified and multiply.

This is the guy that we have come to know is the greatest apostle as the greatest missionary, certainly who ever lived. And so it starts that way. Verse one. And he came also to Derby. This is the second missionary journey here, by the way, into Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. The way this is constructed originally implies that his father was an unbeliever and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra Iconium. Paul wanted this man, young man, to go with him for the moment. Here, let's pause because there's a layover here in Lystra. Well, Paul is here. He's reunited with believers who have come to faith during his first missionary journey to Lystra.

If you are with us in our study of a few chapters ago, this was the town, you may remember, where Paul and Barnabas were mistakenly identified as being Zeus and Hermes, two gods of the Greek pantheon. But rather than put on their tank tops and flags, they just admitted to the rather disappointed crowd that they were just ordinary men. They weren't gods. The crowd was so disappointed that ultimately they turned against them. And St. Paul and left him for dead. It was in this same town where some had come to faith in Christ, including a woman named Eunice and her mother named Lois and Eunice. And Lois had already been committed to Judaism because they had taught their young son the law. And when they came to faith, no doubt they taught him all that there was about the gospel, in fact. And second, Timothy Paul will refer to the fact that Timothy, as he said, you have known the sacred writings from the time of your youth. And that is a credit to his mother, married to an unbeliever. There was evidently some point in her life when she violated her covenant as a Jewess and married a Greek. But somehow in her heart turned to submission toward her God. She began to try to redeem that time by investing her life and do her little boy and teaching him the sacred drama to the sacred writings. I say all of that to encourage anybody here as a single mother.

I say that to encourage anybody here who's married to an unbeliever, especially women. Mary, do unbelieving men or married to a believer who doesn't act as a believer and provides no spiritual leadership whatsoever? You may wonder, does that automatically mean that your children are without hope or future value to the service of God? Well, far from it. Maybe you could pray the prayer that Younus probably prayed often.

Lord gives my son eventually some spiritual leader, some godly man who will invest himself to pick up where I can only leave off. And God ultimately answers that prayer, although it is later in his life into his late teens when he finally meets the Apostle Paul. But God answers that prayer.

So Timothy is in too, to join the team.

Now, while Timothy is unbelieving, Father had evidently allowed Mom to teach the little boy Old Testament law. He had evidently dug in his heels and said, look, you can teach him that stuff, but he will not be circumcised. He will not bear the mark of the covenant of your people. I'm stopping it at that point.

And so when Paul invites Timothy to go along, we have this problem. He hasn't been circumcised, which means that the Jews will not give him an audience. He would never be allowed in the synagogue to teach, preach. The Jews would never entrust their young ones to this young man to teach without having submitted to the covenant side. Remember, the church is still reeling from this divisive issue. Right. What do you think Paul's solution would be?

I guarantee you, if we were Paul, we probably would have done exactly the opposite, because you notice in the middle part of verse three what Paul does.

And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now, wait a second. Well, we spent a couple of weeks, didn't we, plowing ground that the circumcision. Not necessary for salvation. And all of that. Well, there are many authors that criticized Paul here, considering him to have compromised that position that he took after standing up to the Jews by allowing the Gentiles to join the church without becoming physically Jews. Now he seems to compromise by circumcising Timothy. In fact, the text implies that he personally performed that operation.

Let me say this. Paul was not opposed to circumcision. He was opposed to the belief that circumcision was necessary for salvation. And, well, circumcision was not important for Timothy's salvation. It was important for Timothy's what ministry. And so he followed this Old Testament ritual, which had nothing to do with his salvation, but it opened doors for his ministry.

Now, Timothy would be welcomed in synagogues. They would recognize his bloodline through his mother, and they would now recognize his submission to the Covenant. And even though it had nothing to do with the church.

It opened doors of ministry divers for that while they were passing through the cities. They were delivering the dogma, the decrees or resolutions which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem for them to observe. So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and we're increasing in number daily. Wow. This, again, is rather typical of Paul. It's kind of ministry. We'd expect to hear from him. Right. New recruits for ministry.

New people added to the church's teaching preaching growth development. The old church saying you evangelize or fossilize. Well, he's certainly not a fossilize. You don't stand still long enough to gather dust. This is the apostle Paul we know and love lead the way. It's about to change.

First six and they pass through the Phrygian and Galatians region, having been for bidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

Wait a second. What do you mean the Holy Spirit for Baid Paul from speaking the word in Asia. Don't they need to hear the word in Asia? Do you mean to tell me that Paul has been told to avoid the entire portion of the continent? We is Asia Minor.

Paul, go ahead through this. Five, six hundred miles of Asia minor and you cannot speak. This is what you could call the sovereignty of God and the process of evangelism. We think little of it today. The sovereign's strategy of a sovereign God in deciding who will hear and who will not. He avoids this continent. Why? Because in the mind of God, we'll let you in on a little secret here. He didn't want Paul to go into Asia. He didn't want Paul to go east. He wants Paul to go west. He wants Paul to go to what we know as Europe.

And I, for one, benefited from that decision. By the grace of God, my forefathers heard. I would love to know how the Holy Spirit for Babe Paul.

But I bet it took iron on his mouth and locks not to speak better yet. I would love to know why. All the reasons for that matter, Paul. If we'd like to know. What do you think Paul would like to know? I want my second missionary journey. Lord, bags are packed. We've got all the pamphlets and the everything we need. The word translated forbidden might help if you understand it's derived from the word Karloff's, which could be translated to cut off or to cut short to trim.

In other words, here's this missionary team plowing ahead in one particular area and God cuts them off.

He just kind of. That's it.

Cut short. Well, let's let's try this over here. Maybe God would be pleased over here. And they go over this direction and God cuts it short.

We're not told how the Holy Spirit did this. We only know that the Holy Spirit did not allow any open doors in Asia Minor. And just let that settle in.

The reason the Holy Spirit didn't is he is backing Paul into a frustrating corner where he will ultimately reveal the. Paul, you're not to go east here to go west. There's another continent that needs to begin to hear the gospel of Christ. And it is Europe. So the reason we know the Holy Spirit didn't tell Paul why is because he keeps going in verse seven when they had come to my.

They were trying to go into Bethania and the spirit of Jesus did not permit them to get the frustration here. In the words. You are trying to go in, Bethany. But the spirit of Jesus would not permit them. We don't know how. By the way, is a great passage for the deeds of Christ. The Holy Spirit now is called The Spirit of Jesus. But can you see Paul kind of turning all the doorknobs in Asia Minor? They're locked. He's confused and frustrated. This is different than anything he's ever experienced along with the other missionary party. But isn't it great?

Let's stop just a moment to know that even the great apostle at some point in his life didn't know what the will of God was.

That's comforting. Sorry, Paul, but I take great encouragement from that. Paul wanted to go east and God locked the doors even before Paul knew which door was open. One author writes it this way as he applies in our lives.

God will sometimes shut down an exciting ministry or allow obstacles in our paths. We can identify with this, can't we? We can't imagine why God would shut some of the doors that he does. So we try harder. But when Jesus Christ closes the door, he merrily has his sights on something better. Something around the bend we can't see yet. For Paul, that something was Europe.

Paul had planned to evangelize Asia, but for now, Asia was merely God's whole way for his men to pass through. And along the way they tried the door knobs and tested locks, but no doors opened until they reached the very end of the corridor.

Good word picture. The end of that quarter was the western most tip of Asia Minor.

A city called Troas, the place where Paul eventually reached. It was a difficult journey, taking months. It was five to six hundred miles and all the way down this corridor. They're attempting different things and they're cut short. They're forbidden. The spirit of Jesus won't allow the gospel to come from their lips. You can't imagine how frustrating that must have been for this eminent missionary whose life passion was the gospel.

Now they end up on this territory known as TRO, as it's situated on the edge of the Aegean Sea. What that tells you geographically in your mind, you just picture this dead end.

Nothing but the water between them and another continent. There's nowhere else to go. They've tried going north, south and east. And now there's nothing to do but limp into Tropez and find some shelter and get some sleep.

And notice first aid passing by my sea. It came down to Troas and the vision appeared to pull in the night, a certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Now, this is not a dream. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a supernatural vision. God designs the hologram said Were Paul awake and conscious? Witness is this apparition.

And it is a man.

And the text tells us from Macedonia, we're not told that Paul knew he was from Macedonia, maybe read letters behind them and said Macedonia blinking on and off was very clear to him, though.

And this man is appealing. This is a deep emotional word. Come over and help us.

You can kind of imagine that his arms would be outstretched as he pled. Come over and help us.

How do you think Paul would respond after that?

Like you think he would first 10 when he had seen the vision? Immediately, we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now, finally, light breaks and it's clear, you know, some things about this passage strike me as I tried to climb into Paul's sandals. Let me give you three of them if you're following in your notes. Some of the observations related to God's timing. First of all, you notice here that God did not tell Paul whenever Paul started on his journey where Paul was going to end up.

Paul didn't know that. He didn't know when he started his journey where he's going to end up.

Second, Paul was repeatedly hindered from what he wanted to do without being told why.

Like Abraham and Hebrews eleven verse eight, he went out not knowing where he was going. How many of you would live like that?

Maybe you're having two right now.

Third, Paul was subjected to physical and emotional challenges without knowing how long the ordeal would last.

Well, that's one of the tougher parts of the problem, and that could be great if the Lord's in. Stephen, we're gonna put you through this particular issue that's gonna take you three months. Yeah, I can do that. I can watch my calendar and hang on. But he doesn't tell us either, does he? Let's apply this passage three ways.

Number one, while you wait. Begin by giving God the right to take his time. Now, I say that tongue in cheek because God has the right whether you give it to him or not. Right. But there is there's something to the fact that when you're when you're in the corner and the lights are out, there's a dead end.

You don't know what's next. And you consciously, maybe even verbally, along with God, say, Lord, I. I know that you have the right over my life and the timing related to everything. And I just want to I want to afresh that commitment to you.

I submit to your right. Our values. Our timing. Our thoughts are not his. And I want to show you something here because had stubbornly resisted the Holy Spirit and refused to continue journeying but to maintain ministry in Asia Minor.

When I was called to do. I'm going to do it. I'm staying lard.

Well, I want you to notice something in verse 10. Would you look there again? There's a little word that you to circles to it. It's a word that has a volume behind it. It's the little word. We w e.

Now, this is a shift. This is the first time in the Book of Acts that you have something personal from the author. And you know what happens. The author of Acts has suddenly slipped into the story casually, humbly.

He just he lets the readers know that he is now part of the drama before it's been. They and them and Paul did this in the church. And now all of a sudden it's we all Luke, his part of this.

In fact, there are three times for depending on how you outline the book, what they call the wee passages, where Luke is involved as a traveling companion of Paul, that we know from other scripture that Luke was indeed this medical doctor and he was a traveling companion of Paul. In fact, in Paul's near the end of his life, as he is awaiting execution, he's in a Roman dungeon and he writes to his son in the faith, this young boy that he adopted and mentor, he said, Timothy, I'm alone.

Come to me. Bring John Mark with you. I want you to know that only Luke is with me. The implication is that Luke voluntarily incarcerated himself so that in that dungeon he could care for this person that had become beginning a TRO as his dear friend.

Well, I'd like to know, was Luke a believer when they met at the second trip?

Was was his practice in TRO as or was he traveling through? How did he meet Paul? And the only thing that the only thing that you can do is guess. And you paid me to do that all week. So I've got some guesses here. Actually, what I'd want to do from researching this is read you a wonderful guess from an expositor that lived a hundred years ago named Deathy Meyer, one of my favorite authors. He sort of pulls some clues together and and then he makes his best guess. A wonderful thought. Had Paul stayed months in the marketplaces of Asia, Europe might never have heard the gospel. However, and this is most important. This difficult march of five to six hundred miles over and through inhospitable territory would have exhausted the already physically frail Paul. The rugged terrain and high plateaus through which the missionary party traveled on their way to Troas would require some sort of medical attention once they arrived. Perhaps Timothy went in search of a doctor and he found Luke, and when he did, he made history. If the young doctor came to visit the needy traveler, he would talk with a patient, possibly returning several times. It's not too much to believe that the impact of Paul's personality and the thrilling quality of his gospel message brought that physician to faith in Christ. Wasn't long before he heard of Paul's instructions to continue his journey. His new friend would most certainly be taxed to the limit. The inviting frontiers of Europe were both thrilling and menacing. There was a prison in Phillip High and mobs in that city. What would this wonderful man do if his spirit and body were broken? The more Dr. Luke considered these frightening possibilities, perhaps the more insistent became a whisper within his soul. Could there be a place for a doctor in that brave little group of Christian warriors? Could he preach with his hands while Paul preached with his voice? Could he visit? The sick and the aged and the churches, while his famous companions stood in the synagogues to proclaim the master's message.

We have no way of knowing if these questions troubled the physician. We only know that when Paul and his companions went to the dock to board their ship bound for Europe, they were thrilled to see that doctor bag in hand, hurrying to join their party.

What happened in Cairo as there was a dead end? But Paul, by patiently waiting and submitting to the frustrating will of God, made a lifelong friend by the name of Luke, second, believe by faith that God desires for you to discover his will.

When you were saved. God didn't brush off his hands and say, there, that does it. I'm finished with him or her. Now run along and I'll see you when you get home to heaven. I'd be like taking a young man who's just made a decision to be a pilot and immediately placing him in the cockpit of a 757 and saying congratulations on your decision to be a pilot.

Have a nice flight. Well, God didn't say congratulations on your decision to becoming my child.

Now do the best you can.

Paul himself will later encourage the collection. Church shows we need encouraging that it is God's will for them to be filled up with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And one of those ways of wisdom operating in our lives is understanding that his will involves places like Tarot as dead ends and the journey that got you there without any answers provided.

Third. Be sure to look at your stops from three different angles. Number one, look up from your knees is the vantage point of prayer.

More than anything, the best thing about kneeling and praying with your head resting on a closed door that just won't open is that God finally gets your attention during those moments of of desperation and dependency.

We're told that if any man lacks wisdom, let him or her. Ask of God. Who, who, what. Who gives liberally and doesn't rebuke you for asking. So ask.

Be sure. Secondly, to look carefully at the word. This is viewing it through the lens of scripture. Make sure that your dilemma is not violating the word of God. Maybe you're where you are because you have been violating his word.

Make sure that you're not doing something that the word would not endorse. Make sure you're praying about and a door to be opened that would only allow you to further your commitment to to Jesus Christ and his church and to your family.

Don't act as your intro as as if you're some kind of exception. Get out the manual while you're waiting. Try studying. Try meditating. Why your back is against the wall, is your Bible open third?

Look around for the wise. This allows you to view it through the lens of godly counsel. They will help you interpret circumstances and frustrations. Solomon said that in a multitude of godly counselors implied there is safety. So make sure that when you're seeking counsel, you're not getting it from the guy down the hallway. His life is already shattered. Who probably has an answer for you? Make sure that it isn't some relatives.

Did you go seeking counsel from. And their life is in total disarray.

But they certainly have the answer to your situation. Seek it from godly counsel. And then remember that before the Lord can turn us around, sometimes he has to completely stop us and those potholes and the race track and those obstacles that caused you to swerve and sweat. They're all part of the process. And the process is as critical as the destination, whether it is Europe or Asia minor, whether it is this door or that door, it is the process of going through the door that is just as important as walking through it. So now that God has your attention to fully give it to him, better yet, fully give yourself to him. So that you will be prepared to act whenever the answer is given.

You've been listening to Wisdom for the Heart.

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