Acts (Part 2) | Jesus Is For Everyone - Acts 16

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Acts 16, 1-15 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there named

Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because

of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance

the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.

So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

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 from 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,

Come over to Macedonia and help us.

And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought 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 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 were 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. Thank you, Sarah.

So I do want to do a little catch up with our time this morning,

just to remind us of where we are in Paul's life and the journey of the church

as we kind of continue in this aspect of Acts.

The chapters that we looked at the last several weeks, chapters 13,

14, and 15, they are the chapters that cover Paul's first missionary journey.

And this took place sometime within sort of the late 40 ADs,

like 48 around that time Paul and Barnabas set out into all of these places.

And we read about how they, even though they faced suffering and hardship and

Paul was stone and all of these things happened.

The gospel spread far and wide on these journeys through these different places, Derby and Lystra.

Now in this chapter, in chapter 16, Paul and Barnabas take Timothy, who is from that area,

and their intention is to return back in the second missionary journey to encourage

the churches that were planted, the believers that heard and responded to the

gospel in this, this sort of area.

So that was their plan is to return back and encourage the believers,

encourage the churches. This took place somewhere in like the 50 area, 50 AD.

So keeping in that mind, if this is somewhere in like 50 AD,

just 20 so years after Jesus crucifixion, what's even crazier to imagine is

that over For the next 250 years, by 300 AD,

many people estimate that nearly half of the Roman Empire had become Christian.

That nearly half of the Roman Empire within 300 AD, within 250 years of this

moment, had responded to the gospel and identified as Christian.

And what's even crazier to imagine is that this movement has spread faster than

any other in human history.

And it started with just 11 uneducated guys who were utterly convinced that Jesus was alive.

And of course, Paul, one very zealous Jew who went around at the beginning killing them.

They were utterly convinced that Jesus was alive, that he rose from the dead,

and that through his spirit who came upon them.

As to be sent ones, to be bearers of this message, that they were empowered.

We remember the beginning, there's that missional statement and that they will

receive power, and then they will be witnesses.

And so they were utterly convinced that Jesus was alive, that His Spirit was

with them, empowering them to do this work.

And as a result, this movement has spread faster than any in human history.

And so we come to this sequence of events in this chapter, and we've only read

a little bit of it to begin with.

And the strange thing that we encounter here, unlike some of the other stories

in the previous 15 chapters, is that Paul and Barnabas continue to try and push

east, but they are blocked time and time again.

And so even though we have these statements that many more were added to their

number and all of this success that's still happening.

And even in the face of hardship and.

Suffering and stoning and all of these things, beatings and imprisonment,

even though the gospel is still spreading and the church is still growing,

the message that they get from God, as they set on this second missionary journey,

it seems to continue to be a no.

We see this in verses 6 and 7. It says, They went through the region of Phrygia

in Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

And then when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia,

but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

So they're blocked time and time again. We don't really know what it is that

they're experiencing that's preventing them from heading east.

Specifically, if it's poor weather or bridges out or sickness or just a firm

no from God, but it seems like God's not giving them a yes in this moment.

From the starting point, so they set out from Antioch, and then we know that

by the time that they actually get a direction from God, they end up in Troas.

That's when God gives Paul a vision of this man in Macedonia.

So from Antioch, where they set out on this second missionary journey to Troas,

and keep in mind, they're mostly walking at this point, and it's across land,

It's not a river traveling.

There's probably, and the numbers, I don't know what numbers you can, will give to this.

I've never walked it, but at least 400 miles have taken place,

but probably more in the area of something like 785, 800 miles,

depending on their trip.

They've crossed hundreds and hundreds of miles, getting a no from God time and

time again, until finally in Troas, they receive a vision. and Paul receives

a vision that gives them direction.

So for 800 miles of wandering, which this takes place in just a few verses,

of course, but this would have taken them months and months of time.

So this is no short amount of time and no short amount of distance,

They are continuing to pursue and be witnesses, but they're also continuing

to be prevented from going east in their journey.

And so aside from the work in the churches that they had established,

encouraging them and returning to them,

what we see kind of, in a sense, is very much a journey that seems to be turning

towards failure because they're not doing what they thought they were going

to be doing. They had wandered far.

They were acting faithfully the whole time. They weren't just sitting on their

hands and resigning to not be able to complete what they had set out.

They are being faithful, even though in this moment, they haven't received any

sort of God's clarity on their journey.

And so for us this morning, as we consider this opening third of Acts 16.

What we really need to do is have a context for the activity and the direction

of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We need to have a context that God is actively,

intentionally, and strategically working in the world around us,

and he's actively, intentionally, and strategically working in the life of believers.

And even though Paul and Barnabas are getting no's mostly, they have this context

that the Spirit is directing and guiding them.

There's the passage in the Bible that talks about, it's a prayer really,

but that the Spirit would direct their steps and establish their hearts.

And they're walking out in faithfulness to this, believing that direction will

come, though it's over months and though it's over hundreds and hundreds of miles.

They believed that as they acted faithfully and they carried out the mission

that they knew they were to do, to be witnesses, they knew that that direction would come.

I feel like what we hear a lot for us when we seek the will and direction of

the Lord is to sit and wait for the vision.

I remember coming up in my younger years, and especially those of previous generations

who were in the mission field, the message that they would often communicate

to you is, have you had your vision?

Have you had your direction? Have you had your calling?

Wait for your calling. It was kind of the message that the missions of previous generations had.

So we've taken that to the extreme of we sit and we wait for the vision.

We wait for the calling. We wait for the clarity.

But when the visions come in the Bible to those who are acting faithfully in

the witness, what tends to happen is that they come and interrupt what they're already doing.

They come and they intersect where the disciples and the believers are already being faithful.

And then the Lord calls them to another place. Rather than sitting and waiting

for the calling, they are out and being faithful witnesses.

And then the Lord interrupts with clarity.

So we, the disciples, and we are encouraged in this to take steps while seeking God's direction.

Doing doing what we know we're called to do as disciples to make disciples to

be witnesses to tell about the wonderful news that Jesus is alive and that he,

is available in our lives now and for eternity to come to live in his wonderful presence,

And that as, as that is true, what we see the disciples doing along the way,

we see it here as they go and find a place of prayer, what they do within the,

unclarity, that's not a word, as they're waiting for clarity,

what they do is they are investing their time in the places where the Holy Spirit seems to be working.

So until they get clarity, they know one thing, that the Holy Spirit's there,

that the Holy Spirit is working, that He is involved actively and directly in

the lives of them and the lives of those around them. And so they know that

the Holy Spirit's moving.

So what they're doing is investing in places that they see the work of God.

In his book, Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby teaches that the Christian life

is not about making plans and asking God to bless them, but about recognizing

where God is already at work in the world and aligning ourselves with him.

That we would be convinced as they were that Jesus is alive and we would be

convinced that Jesus is the one thing that we all need.

And as a result, that we would go out knowing that God is at work.

Salvation is not ours to create within someone, that God is the one working and moving.

And we also are convinced of another thing that although God is the one moving

and working, bringing hearts towards Him, that the Bible also instructs us to

speak His gospel and His word.

So being convinced of those two things, even when it's not clear,

the direction is unclear, and being faithful, recognizing that God is already

at work and aligning ourselves with that purpose.

And we would discover where He is already at work and join Him.

And that the Christian life is about relationship with God and participation

in His mission. That's what we're here for.

And it's not about our own individual initiative. It's not our own.

It's not really about our own ideas of, of how that should be or how that should work.

But it's about finding God on his mission and in our relationship with him, joining him.

The apostles didn't wait for a complete picture, a complete map of what that would look like.

They obeyed the mission and trusted the spirit to direct them.

In Psalm 37, it says, commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will act.

And so in that, we hold faithful that we believe that the Spirit is actively

working in the world around us, that God is drawing hearts to Himself,

And so we commit all that we do knowing that He is faithful.

And so we step out in that faith and trust.

Lily? One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl

who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future.

She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling four things.

She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the

Most High God. They have came to tell you how to be saved.

This one on day after day, until God and Paul got so exasperated that he turned

and said to the demon with her, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her.

It instantly left her. The master's hopes of wealth were now short.

So Paul grabbed Silas and dragged them to before the offerous authorities of the marketplace.

The whole state is not poor because of these Jews, they shouted to the state officials.

They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.

A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the state officials ordered

them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.

They were severely beaten and then thrown into prison.

The jailer was ordered to make sure they did anything. Okay,

so the jailer put them in an inner cell and clamped their feet in the stocks. Thank you, Lily.

Why don't you give Lily a round of applause? Thank you for doing that. Sarah, too.

She had some hard words. Thyatira. So these are some strange little stories in this chapter.

And they are strange, not just because of the content, that's strange as well,

but also because of why they are in one chapter together.

It's just a weird sequence of events for us to kind of encounter.

And why would those who added chapter numbers and verses decide that these were to be grouped together?

And we see Paul and Barnabas returning to this place of prayer day after day,

because in a sense, part of their plan to follow faithfully in the mission of

God before they have clarity,

part of that plan is to return to people who they know are spiritually sensitive,

who are spiritually speaking,

seeking, who are spiritually interested.

And they know that that's at least a good place to start.

They don't have the full plan yet, but they know that's a pretty good spot to

start as people who are spiritually interested.

And that's a good place for us to start as well. But then we have this strange

encounter where Paul becomes greatly annoyed with this girl that's been following

them, this girl that's possessed by a demon.

He's not filled with compassion in this moment.

He's not, in a sense, he's kind of reluctant even to share the gospel or engage with her in any way.

It's just really a frustration of deliverance that comes place and causes this

evil spirit that has been within her, tormenting her to leave her.

And so why this encounter even?

It's not the most shining example of what it means to be an apostle by any means.

But it's interesting. We have these three stories, these three random people,

a wealthy businesswoman who's spiritually interested, who's God-fearing.

We have this demon-possessed slave girl who really has no freedom of her own

to make a choice one way or the other.

And we have this Gentile Roman soldier.

And there was a Jewish prayer of the time, which Jewish men would pray traditionally in the morning.

And there's a caveat because the intent of this prayer was.

Its originality was to acknowledge this covenant responsibility.

The Jewish men had more laws that they had to follow, more responsibility,

more commandments within the law.

And so as a result, there was this prayer that started thanking God for the

responsibility of bearing the full weight of the covenant.

Perhaps I could see in a way that it could be easily taken to begrudge these

extra commands, being a man like, why would you have to follow these extra things?

So as a way to encourage, this prayer perhaps started out, but it started out

as a way of thanking God that they were bearing the full weight of this covenant.

And over time though, as you might imagine, it didn't end up as well as the

intent started and it became sort of dismissive, a little chauvinistic.

And noticeably as a result, it was critiqued very heavily inside and outside

of Judaism, but it went something like this.

Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has not made me a

Gentile, who has not made me a slave and who has not made me a woman.

And again, so the original intent was, thank you that we are bearing the full

weight and intention of this covenant, but obviously that's not how it sounds.

So why these three people in this chapter? Well, you encounter a woman,

you encounter a slave and you encounter a Gentile.

And they all in some way are impacted by Jesus, whether they respond directly

or not, like this little slave girl, did she have the opportunity?

Probably not. But we have these three people that directly communicate one message

and show us something very important about the gospel.

And that is that the gospel is for everybody, including those who are not even

spiritually interested and those who cannot even move towards it in their own

right, that Jesus is for everybody.

That's the overwhelming message that this chapter is trying to communicate.

It's echoed in Paul's words in Galatians, when he says, there's neither Jew

nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

That Jesus is for everybody, that Jesus is for you.

And that your highest identity in this world is found in Christ and not in anything

else. That's what that verse is trying to communicate.

That your highest identity in life is found in Jesus.

And the salvation is not something that you do, but something that's been done

to you, that's been done for you.

And as such, it is freely available to all, to everyone.

And so there's not a type of person to become a Christian.

I feel like we group ourselves up based on our interests.

And then we judge people and look at them and say, oh, they don't look like that kind of person.

They don't look like a goth, but I assume that's pretty easy to tell because

they would probably have black makeup on.

But we look at people and we say, oh, that's not the type of person that I would expect to find there.

But the clearest message of

Christianity is that there is no type of a person to become a Christian.

And Paul's example alone is proof of this in the sense that he was on the other

side, headed in the wrong direction when Jesus met him. And.

And as such, this particular encounter with this slave girl takes that message

and says, Jesus is for everybody.

And he's waiting to deliver you.

That he's waiting to interrupt our patterns and to shape us to be his.

Two years ago, I was at a conference in Cherokee for work.

I had the fortune to go. and it just so happened that this particular week I'd

come across a song that I was really enjoying and I found myself in that hotel

room in my own spare time,

just kind of worshiping and singing this song,

bowing down and just having a real spiritual moment in this week.

And because it is, I think it took place in October two years ago,

but that same conference just happened this past week.

And as a result, I was reminded of that song. God brought that song to my mind again.

And so I finally was able to find it and listen to it on YouTube once more.

And rather than the same experience this time, what I was able and found this

time was I started reading the comment section.

And there's 10,349 comments when I checked a few days ago, maybe more today.

And this is what the comment section of this song is filled with.

Let me just read a couple of them. A little over a week clean and sober gave

my life to Christ last night at 3 a.m.

Jesus is my savior. I love you, Jesus.

Somebody writes, the testimonies in these comments are absolute fire.

I was a vetted occultist for 15 years and by the grace of God,

I escaped the hellfire I had earned.

God is good even when we aren't.

Another comment reads, I was suicidal, depressed. I hated this world.

I surrendered to Christ this year. He healed me of the depression five years in one moment.

Jesus is real. Jesus is God.

And amongst all of these testimonies, there are others comments that just simply

say, and people say Jesus isn't real.

This comment section proves otherwise.

Jesus is alive. The tube is empty and lives are being transformed daily.

Hallelujah. And thank you. Jesus, for your power and your precious blood." And

those comments are not unique in this section.

10,000 comments and over and over again, testimonies of the faithfulness and

transformational power of the Lord.

And it's amazing to know that not only is Jesus for you, that Jesus is for everybody,

but He meets us in whatever life has for us, wherever we're experiencing, wherever we're at.

And what He offers us is freedom in that. And this little slave girl experienced

freedom in a sense from her tormenting spirit, but all of us in whatever area

of life that we are currently encountering,

currently living in, that spirit of freedom is still available for us today.

That Jesus is for everybody and brings everybody together. And he is there for

you, ready to deliver you.

Like that little slave girl from addiction, from uncertainty,

from doubt, from feelings of rejection, from disappointment, from dissatisfaction.

From whatever voices that we tend to listen to most in this world and whatever

effect those cause in our life.

That Jesus is here speaking a better word. I love that we've been reading through

the book of Hebrews and I think it's found in there, but that's the message of the book of Hebrews.

How much more and how much better is Jesus than the old covenant and then anything

else and how much better is the word that he speaks,

the word of life that he speaks into us than the constant words of death and

disappointment that we get in the world.

We talk about, we talk about who is your one sometimes, And we haven't done

that for a long time, or for a little while.

And while the intent of that is that we would be praying for those who don't know Jesus.

I think what we end up doing sometimes is over fixating on a single person.

And in that forgetting that Jesus really is for everybody.

And that every moment where we encounter somebody might be a moment to speak

that better word into their life, to pray for that encounter and to pray for

that experience and, and to know that God is faithful.

And as we talked about at the beginning, that he is working and directing and

that God says, so every yes, pray for your ones.

In fact, have more than one, one have twos.

I don't know, have multiples, but know that, that, that God can use you to speak

that better word at any moment, and that Jesus is for everybody.

And in those moments, it could be a moment of deliverance for that person.

And in your life, Jesus is for you. And there are opportunities for freedom

and deliverance for you as well.

Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,

and the other prisoners were listening.

Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations.

All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off.

The jailer woke up to see the prison doors were wide open.

He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself.

But Paul shouted to them, Stop. Don't kill yourself. We are all here.

The jailer called for lights, and the men ran and ran down to the dungeon and

fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

Then he brought them out and asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,

along with everyone in your household. and they shared the word of the Lord

with him and with all who lived in his household.

Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds.

Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.

He brought them into his house and set a meal before them.

And he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.

The next morning, the city officials sent the police to tell the jailer, let those men go.

So the jailer told Paul, the city officials have said you and Silas are free to go.

Leave. Go in peace. But Paul replied, they have publicly beaten us without a

trial and put us in prison. And we are Roman citizens.

So how? So now they want us to leave secretly.

Certainly not. Let them come themselves to release us. When the police reported

this, the city officials were alarmed to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

So they came to the jail and apologized to them.

Then they brought them out and begged them to leave the city.

When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia.

There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more.

Then they left town. yeah I give Kanan applause too thank you Kanan.

So this final section in this chapter, it contains my absolute favorite verse in this whole chapter.

And so much so, it's a weird verse to memorize in the Bible.

But so much so that the last time I read through Acts, just several weeks ago,

maybe a month or two ago, this verse stood out so much that I committed it to

memory, although it is, again, kind of a weird verse to memorize.

And all of the wealth that the Bible has to offer.

This one's not sort of the bright and shining one that stands out,

but I'm going to read it rather than recite it for you again, just so we get context.

But it's Acts 16, 33, and then adding the verse 34.

Actually, 34 is the verse, but he took them the same hour of the night and washed

their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them.

And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God."

And that's the verse that I chose to commit to memory the last time I read it,

because it's such an interesting thing that for some reason,

at least for me, our lived experience is that we at some point stop rejoicing

that we have believed in God.

It becomes old hat. It becomes what we've all always known and always done,

but we should never stop rejoicing in our salvation.

And we should never stop rejoicing that God, that we have believed in God and

that God has freed us, that God has chosen us and that God loves us.

That that is such a powerful message for us to hold on to.

That your salvation, no matter how long you've lived on this earth,

no matter how long you've been a Christian, no matter how many times you've

done this, that your salvation is a miracle.

That your right standing with God as a result of Jesus is to be rejoiced over.

That baptism is not the finish line. And so if baptism is the finish line,

we're baptized and then we've in some ways believe that therefore we've made it.

But when we realize that the endurance that is required over a lifetime,

then we can better understand what it means to rejoice that God has saved us

and that we have believed.

And the truth of this last section, more than any other thing,

is that we need to know how to endure hardship. We need to know how to endure

opposition. We need to know how to endure seasons of discouragement.

That we need to press in to God until we need to run after God in these moments.

In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul writes these words about his experience.

And some of that might have been what we've just been reading about in these last chapters.

He said, For we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia.

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our own strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to

make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raised the dead.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him.

We have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

That whatever discouragement life offers, whatever suffering,

whatever hardship, whatever opposition, that God is there to be relied on and

to be trusted in. and then we can rely on him and we can trust him and he is faithful.

And no matter how much the world brings something into our lives to which we

have the potential to despair over, Paul faced seasons of discouragement.

I don't think we realize that very much in reading the very short accounts of

his life, that Paul despaired.

In fact, he says that he faced what he calls a messenger from Satan.

This messenger that was sent to buffet him day and night through religious people

and through hardships that he experienced this discouragement in his journeys

and that we should expect that we will be discouraged,

that we will face hardships, but that God is trustworthy and that our response should not be despair,

but it should be as we see these gentlemen in this prison.

Worship, singing, and praise.

Later on in that same book, in chapter 12, he speaks of this messenger of Satan.

He says, To keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness

of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan

to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Three times I've fleeted with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

He is begging that God would take it away from him.

But God said to him, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power

of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ,

that I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions,

and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong.",

rejoice in his weakness because he knew the closeness of Jesus.

He knew the presence of God in it. I know some of you have read Tyler,

Tyler Statton's work a number of years ago, fairly recently, he had stomach cancer.

And if you hear him speak about his experience, because people will ask him

as people are prone to ask, if you

could go back and there was more of an instantaneous sort of cure for it.

Would you rather have that? Essentially, right?

It may not have been the same question, but something along the lines of,

if you had had the opportunity to avoid it, looking back now,

that suffering, that hardship, because it was really, it was very difficult for him.

And he speaks about it in tears, but he also speaks about the fact that in that suffering.

He experienced such a nearness of God.

And if you've read his books on prayer, you know that he speaks a lot about,

living in God's presence.

And so this is not a man unaccustomed to seeking the presence of the Lord and living in his presence.

But for him to say that that experience with stomach cancer was some of the.

Closest intimate times that he had with Jesus in his entire life.

And therefore he wouldn't change a thing about it.

That in our hardships, we want to run away. We want to escape.

We want relief. Paul begged for relief. We want that too.

But it's also some of the times that Jesus is most close and most apparent in our lives.

So let's not miss that intimacy.

And the way that God instructed Paul to deal with these hardships wasn't through reasoning.

It wasn't through the power of positive thinking, but it was through the grace of God.

And God's through his supernatural ability and strength that he manifests for us.

And he manifested for Paul that we can rely on him and we can rely on the strength

of Jesus and the work of the spirit, not our own natural innate abilities.

We hear verses taken out of context And one of those verses we've probably all

heard spoken in that same way is that God will not give you something greater than you can take.

But our lived experience tells us otherwise, because the truth of that verse

and the truth of the context that it's written in and the truth that we see

in the book in Corinthians is that.

Wants us to rely on him. And so he will give us situations that break us,

knowing that it is on him and through him that we can stand up and endure and

not on our own natural ability and our own strength.

So I just want to end our time with a couple, a couple of ways that Paul endured

and was able to stand, was able to worship and sing even the face of hardship.

And especially here in the case of this chapter in prison, That Paul had a reliance on God's grace.

That he understood his power came not from himself, but from God's grace.

And what he learned along the way was that God's power was made perfect in his weakness.

God's power wasn't on the highest display when Paul was strong and at his best.

It was when he was suffering hardship and had God to rely on and God alone.

So we must rely on God's grace at all times, and especially in times of hardship

that Paul had a focus on God's presence, despite all of his suffering,

despite all of the things that he went through and all of the events that he

encountered in his life,

Paul was comforted by the knowledge that God was with him,

that he would never leave him, that he would never forsake him, that he was for him.

And even though we encounter what we maybe not always see, but that Paul at

times discouraged and despaired, and perhaps even felt that God was far off,

he rested assured in a promise,

promise that God was with him and would never leave him.

That God provided him with supernatural, with divine reassurance at times.

That Paul was directly encouraged in his relationship with God through these

visions and through other things.

But God didn't leave him out there to hang.

I don't know what the expression is. God didn't leave him hanging out there

to dry. That's probably it. But God just showed up.

And I think God showed up because Paul was looking for him.

And what I mean is sometimes we might feel like God doesn't show up.

But I wonder if it's the fact that perhaps we aren't really looking for him

to show up, or maybe we're looking for him to show up in a very specific way and we miss it.

And what I mean is that God always shows up. And I think Paul had eyes to see that.

Paul had a hope in eternity. He had a hope in the eternal presence that the Lord provided.

And what that gave him was perspective.

It helped him to see that all of his afflictions, all of his hardships,

all of the things that he suffered in this life were temporary and light compared to the future joy.

We've spoken before about how one of the best metaphors for heaven is like a

reunion that we have this hope of expectation of something that will happen

and we are so yearning and excited to see it,

that even the thought of it brings us joy,

let alone the event itself.

We think about kids, parents coming home from military service and their families

and those reactions that have gone viral time and time again,

that there is an anticipation and excitement and a joy that happens before that event.

That's what our hope for eternity is like. And also, as we've spoken about a few weeks ago,

Paul persevered and stood and sang because he had support from his fellow believers,

that he was encouraged and supported from Titus and Silas and Timothy and Barnabas

and all of these people that he speaks of and encourages himself,

helped him persevere, that we need each other to persevere.

There's this great verse, and I can't think of where it is at the moment,

but Paul's talking about all the success that he is having, preaching the word

and people responding and the church growing, all the things that Paul,

that is his purpose in life. And that's what he tells us our purpose in life are, right?

This is Paul writing these words, like this is what he's about.

And what he says in that moment is, but Timothy wasn't with me.

So I left and joined Timothy.

That's so great is the encouragement of other believers that even in the success

of ministry, it is more desirable being with people and being encouraged and

encouraging one another.

So Paul runs to God when things get difficult, he presses into him,

he presses into other believers who will affirm and encourage him and he responds in worship.

And that's my encouragement for us this morning, that we would run to God and

that we would respond and worship.

Music.