AN ENCOUNTER AT THE RIVER - Acts 16:11-15

Well,

this morning we're going to be

continuing in the book of Acts. And

before we get there though, I just want

to say that moments like that, like I've

said a couple weeks ago, kind of make me

as like an introverted person, uh, kind

of want to clam up somewhat somewhat.

Um, but those are also great taste and

see moments because we're going to be

spending eternity with a lot of with

people in here, right? And we want to

know them. We want it to not be a

surprise when we get to heaven and be

like, "Hey, I went to church with you

forever, but I can't remember your

name." But we want we don't want that to

happen. So, let's use these moments and

understand that we're going to be

spending forever with each other. And

so, that's always always such a great

great moment. But anyways, like I said,

we're going to be in Acts chapter 16

Acts 16 · chapter mention

this morning, verses 11 through 15. And

as I was preparing this text this week,

it just it really hit home for me. Uh it

really hit me uh in a deep spot um when

it comes to just the way that the Lord

worked through my life. Just the way

that the Lord did so many tremendous

things in and through uh my testimony

and through my story. And this one

related so well because it was just one

simple act that forever changed

someone's eternity. And you know, I

didn't really grow up consistently going

to church. If you asked me in high

school, uh, if I believed in Jesus, I

would say yes. Nothing else reflected

that. It was words, right? I didn't grow

up in church, consistently attend

church, didn't know really what church

was, didn't really know anything about

the Bible, didn't even really own a

Bible, right? But I had done all the

church milestones, right? I got

baptized. I had, you know, professed

faith. I prayed the prayer. I wrote my

name down on a card. I checked all of

the boxes. But it was never really real

to me. It was just something that

occasionally I would go do. I would

occasionally go to youth group. I would

occasionally go to church on Sunday.

However, it wasn't until that I moved

out of my parents' house um and I ended

up moving into this apartment complex.

And it's crazy how God works through

that moment because I ended up actually

working with this lady's husband. I used

to work out at the racetrack at South

Texas Speedway. Um, and I ended up

working with this lady's husband,

and she knew me a little bit, but she

didn't know me well enough. But she

ended up attending this church down the

road, and she kept inviting me. Like,

she was consistent. Every time I'd go in

there to ask a question, she'd say,

"Hey, why don't you just come to church

with me?" And I'd always kind of turn it

down, and I'd always kind of just come

up with an excuse and come up with a

reason why. And just kind of look in the

different direction. And but then she

just kept being consistent with it, kept

saying, "Hey, just come to church with

me. Give it a chance to see how you like

it." And I mean, she used everything,

right? So I'm a young, you know, man.

I'm in my early 20s, right? I still

looked attractive, right? Like I had a

lot of things working for me in that

moment, right? And she was trying to get

me with everything. Hey, I'll bring you

to lunch afterward. I'll take you

wherever you want to go. Hey, there's a

college group and guess what? There's a

lot of pretty girls in there. like she

was doing anything and everything she

could think of to get me to attend. So

finally one day I just remember walking

in there and going, "Okay, if she asks,

I'm going to take it cuz what do I

really have to lose?" Right? I just go

to church one Sunday and then I ain't

got to do it again. Right? So I went and

when I walked into that church, it

forever changed my outlook, changed my

mindset, changed everything about it

because I walked in and I was not met

with the judgmental thought that I had

always built up in my mind or that I had

to be this super spiritual holy person.

No, I walked in and I was met with

people just like me, dressed like me,

look like me, talk like me. I was met

with smiles, love, felt a sense of

community. I felt like people genuinely

cared about me in that moment. And from

that Sunday on, I never stopped

attending. I never stopped going. And

what's crazy is that I don't think that

she has any idea the impact that that

one simple act of obedience had on my

life.

Like to her, it was probably just

another invitation. Just another moment

to just get someone to come to church.

Just another moment where it's, hey, I

really want this kid to come. I think

he's great. He's funny. He's kind of

cool. I want him to come to church with

me.

But to them, to me, it forever changed.

And to God,

God was writing my story even before I

could even see it. And honestly, I think

this exactly what's going to happen in

Acts 16 as we look at it this morning.

Because at first glance, this is going

to feel just like a like another travel

narrative. Like Paul is going to another

location. Paul's going to do what Paul

does. He's going to preach, proclaim the

gospel. People are going to come to know

Jesus. Then he's going to move on to the

next stop.

But rather, we see what Paul is sailing

from one city to another except

something extraordinary happens. But

nothing about it initially feels

dramatic or huge until we look at the

history and the spiritual impact of it.

And I think that if we really slow down,

we see how incredible it is when we stop

and pause and see how God has worked

through each and every single one of our

lives.

And I think that this is an important

text too because this in these few

verses we see the gospel now crossing

into Europe for the very first time.

That means it's now crossing into the

western part of the world into western

culture. Which means that every

gospelclroclaiming

church in America can trace its roots

back to this moment right here. And it

all started with one simple act of

obedience that forever changed in

eternity.

So let's think about that for a second.

It wasn't done by someone who's famous.

It wasn't done by someone who's perfect.

It was done by someone who was faithful.

And it's crazy what God can accomplish

through ordinary, surrendered people who

are simply faithful.

And I want you to notice just how much

God is moving through every detail.

Let's really hang on to the words. Let's

really look at the context of this

because there's a lot there that we

miss. There's a lot happening that could

have just seemed like it could have been

every other single moment, but God is

doing something significant in this

moment. And so, let's look at it as

we're reading from Acts chapter 16. And

Acts 16 · chapter mention

we're going to be looking at verses 11-

15. And here's what it says.

So setting sail from Trrowaz, we made a

direct voyage to Samothrace and the

following day to Neopoulos and from

there to Philippi which is a leading

city of the district of Macedonia and a

Roman colony. We remained in this city

some days and on the Sabbath day we went

outside the gate to the riverside where

we supposed there was a place of prayer

and we sat down and spoke to the woman

who had come together. One who heard us

was a woman named Lydia from the city of

Thotyra,

a seller of proper goods who was a

worshshiper of God. The Lord opened her

heart to pay attention to what was said

by Paul. And after she was baptized in

her household as well, she urged us

saying, "If you have judged me to be

faithful to the Lord, come to my house

and stay." And she prevailed upon us.

And so as we're looking back at the

text, as we're kind of coming off of a

huge message last week and a great

opportunity for Paul in this moment and

how God redirected, we begin to see that

there's a lot of things that can happen

throughout this text and a lot of things

that we need to lean a little bit more

in and truths that we need to understand

a little bit more, especially when it

comes to just being obedient in the way

that God has called us to. And the first

thing that we have to ask, the first

thing we have to understand is this is

that God will lead you where you didn't

expect. You made plans. God loves to

frustrate them. You made all these ideas

and thoughts and visions about it. God

loves to just scribble those out and

say, "Start fresh. Here's where we're

going. Here's what we're going to do.

This is what's happening right here."

Because Paul really wanted to go into

Asia. We learned about that last week.

But God redirects him through the vision

of the Macedonian man saying, "Come over

and help us." He saw that in a vision

and in a dream. And that was God

steering and directing him to say,

"You're not going to go to Asia.

Instead, you're going to go here."

But rather than fighting with the Lord,

what does Paul do? It says right here in

verse 11,

"And the and we made a direct voyage to

Samothrace and the following day to

Neopoulos."

That's nautical terminology there where

it says we made a direct voyage because

to us it just sounds kind of like, oh

well, he just got in the boat and just

took off. But when you really begin to

examine it and kind of look a little bit

further beyond the surface and look at

different translations,

you begin to see that this is Luke

communicating that the Lord was with

this voyage in the way that he gave them

favorable favorable winds, favorable

seas, favorable uh conditions. He was

moving through all of it so they could

get there as fast as possible. The hand

of God was over them throughout this

entire journey to the European area. And

honestly, I think that we begin

immediately seeing that God often leads

us where we didn't expect because like I

said, Paul had plans. He had direction.

He had expectations.

But what does God do in this moment?

Paul's excited. He's about to get to go

into Asia. And God says, "No, actually,

I need you to go do this instead."

And can I be honest for a second? I

think everybody in here would agree that

we don't like it when our plans get

foiled. We don't like it when our plans

don't go according to plan. We don't

like it when things are mishaps.

Especially me. I love My wife gives me

trouble about this all the time. She

says I'm not very spontaneous. Um I am.

I like to spontaneously go where I

planned. Um

we go on vacation and I want to maximize

it. Like if we're going to Six Flags, I

want to make sure that we hit all the

roller coasters in a certain order at a

certain time so that way I can make sure

that we get to do everything that we

want to do before we leave. It's

exhausting, but it makes my It makes it

vacation fun for me. For her, it's like,

well, what if we want to stop and eat or

get a drink or do this? And I'm like, at

the planned time, we will do that. I

promise you, you will be fine. We will

stop for sustenance. I'll get you some

chicken nugies and some coke uh and a

coke and we'll be fine, right? Like

we'll be good, right? like everything

happens. I don't like interruption. I

don't like rerouting. I don't like plans

being changed.

Neither do most of us. We don't like

that feeling of uncertainty, of not

knowing what's going to happen next. We

don't like when life begins to unfold

differently than how we imagined it.

But some of God's greatest works in our

lives begin with that simple divine

interruption where God says, "But no, I

need you to go do this instead. I need

you to hit what you're doing and put it

on pause. And I need you to go and

follow my plans.

And I think some of us need to hear that

because we've interpreted every reroute

is like it's some form of punishment

from God. Like somehow God's trying to

punish us for some act of disobedience

or for some thing that we didn't do. But

in reality, rather what God's trying to

do is he's trying to guide us. God's

offering us guidance in that moment. And

God rarely works according to what we

want.

But he always works according to his

sovereignty.

And what's fascinating is Paul sees a

vision Macedonian man. Yet when they

arrive, the first major convert we

encounter is Lydia.

I think that's interesting, don't you?

How Paul gives him the vision of a

Macedonian man and yet the first person

he meets is a woman named Lydia who's a

seller of purple goods.

Even the way God fulfills the vision is

unexpected

because as we examine the text, we see a

few things that Paul would normally do

and things that Paul normally would have

expected. So Paul is completely just

kind of not necessarily wandering around

without a plan, but Paul is being

calculated and making sure that he's

understanding the culture and the people

and what's going on because we see that

he it says that they remain in the city

for some days

because Paul's normal way of doing

things is immediately going to go to the

synagogue and teach.

But what ends up happening is that

there's no synagogue. There's no

synagogue in Philippi. So what does Paul

do? Instead, he goes to a riverside

prayer meeting.

We also see that there's no immediate

clarity throughout this plan because he

receives a vision. He obeys it, but when

he arrives, there's no immediate obvious

ministry opportunity that just pops out

like, "Hey, let me go get plugged into

this church. Let me go do what they're

doing and just kind of go with the flow

and do as I'm supposed to do." No, Paul

has to start completely from scratch.

And rather we have to understand that

sometimes God gives direction without

giving all the detail. God tells you to

go do something without giving the

details on how to do it.

And we also see that there's a

straightforward ministry launch because

instead of crowds and immediate

momentum, Paul spends several days

observing.

And God often works through the faithful

presence before there's ever a visible

fruit.

Keep plowing the soil. Keep tilling it

up. Keep tending to it. And eventually

God will bring the growth. It's not

going to be immediate. It's not going to

be sudden. It's not going to happen just

because you did it one time.

And then we see too again as we go back

to it, the man appearing in his vision.

God fulfills his purpose even when he

doesn't fulfill our expectations the way

that we imagined. because Paul was

expecting to encounter this person, but

instead he encounters Lydia. And so what

do we see through this? We see that God

works through waiting, through

searching, through conversation. He

worked through a Riverside prayer

gathering. He worked through an affluent

businesswoman named Lydia.

And honestly, I think we miss how

important that is because we look at

some of these stories and go, "Okay,

well, we got to see God in work." But

it's a little bit different when you're

in the midst of God doing the work and

you're still trying to kind of wonder

through what God is doing. He's

providing guidance. He's providing

direction. He's telling us where to go,

what to do. But there's still that sense

of uncertainty of what's going to happen

now.

Because sometimes we think that God, if

God is really moving, then it looks big.

It looks impressive. It's dramatic and

it's a platform worthy moment.

But then we see the ordinary way that

God works even in the smallest of

aspects.

God worked in a powerful way through a

riverbank, through a simple

conversation, at a simple prayer

gathering. And only one woman gets saved

from that moment. One person.

Yet that one person

then turns into one of the most

important gospel footholds in church

history.

Think of that spiritual impact. Think of

just that simple act of obedience. Think

of just that simple conversation that

happened where the gospel was

proclaimed, where someone genuinely

understood, gave their life to Christ,

and forever the church was changed

because of it. Ordinary obedience

changes eternities.

And how do we know this? Because we look

at the text and we see this consistently

and constantly where lives are being

transformed and changed. And we're going

to see it even more throughout the book

of Acts.

They stayed, they waited, they observed,

they remained faithful. And I think that

confronts our culture more than we

realize because we're so rushed in our

culture. We're very distracted. We're

all over the place sometimes in our

commitments

and spiritually sometimes we become numb

to the people around us. We want a quick

impact. We want a quick fruit. We want

quick results. We want an instantaneous

moment. We live in this instant

gratification culture where if the Wi-Fi

goes out longer than 10 seconds, I'm

turning my phone off, turning it back

on, and hoping that the Wi-Fi turns on

because the website didn't load as often

instantly as I wanted it to. We

literally have shorter attention spans.

Matter of fact, here's a fun thing that

I share with our our students on

Wednesday night. Used to the average

attention span was around 30 to 25 to 30

seconds. Facebook actually sent out a

thing to all their influencers to

basically say, "Hey, make your video

shorter because the average attention

span now is about 15 seconds."

Statistically speaking, if I didn't hook

you within the first 3 minutes of my

sermon, you've already tuned me out.

That's crazy.

The gospel is being proclaimed. The word

is being lifted up before us. But

instead, we look at it in a way of we

want God to instantly solve our

problems, instantly fix our pro, our

issue, instantly change our results. We

want God to do something right here,

right now, in this moment. We want to be

comfortable. We want to just be, we just

want to exist without having to do.

But we see it rather different because

the gospel moves through a faithful

presence.

And I think many of us miss

opportunities from God, not because we

want to be disobedient to God, but

because we're so distracted from the

things of God that we miss out on the

moments when God can truly move the

greatest.

We're distracted by schedules,

distracted by comfort, distracted by

life moving so fast that we never hit

the pause button to make church a

priority. To make our relationship with

God the first priority, not just the

first check box, but the first box that

we want to make sure that we check so it

can stay central to everything else on

our checkbox list.

And I think that this is important

because then we see Paul even placing

this importance within the text because

there's no synagogue. There's no active

place for them to go and worship.

There's no active place for them to go

and proclaim the gospel. But Paul

understands the importance of this

because in verse 13 it says, "And on the

Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to

the riverside where we supposed there

was a place of prayer." Now, some of us

would hear that word supposed and go,

"Okay, well, Paul's just randomly

searching. He's just kind of wandering

around aimlessly just hoping to stumble

across something." No, Paul wasn't

randomly guessing at all. Rather, that

word supposed, the language there

carries an intentional expectation.

Paul understood where spiritually

ciring, searching people would be.

He was looking intentionally. And so,

what does Paul do? He goes right to him.

and says, "That's the people I need to

go talk to. They're searching. Let me go

give them the results of that search."

And I think that's a challenge there for

us because are we spiritually awake

enough to notice when where God may

already be working around us?

Because surrendered people remain

available to the leading of God. And

after all the movement, after the

voyage, after the waiting, after the

searching,

we see that Paul arrives at a simple

moment at a prayerside river gathering.

Luke reminds us who is truly responsible

for all the work, for all the point of

salvation, for all the saving, and all

the power that comes behind it. And

here's a truth that I think we need to

lean a lot into.

And that truth is this. God will open

hearts that we cannot

because what does it say in verse 14?

She heard Paul speak and it says the

Lord opened her heart to pay attention.

Honestly, I think that's the

gravitational center of everything that

we're talking about. It wasn't about

Paul's charisma. It wasn't about Paul's

intelligence. It wasn't about Paul's

words. It wasn't about Paul's looks.

It was all about the Lord who opened her

heart.

That is where we lean into.

And for some of us, that should bring us

a tremendous sense of relief because one

of the biggest things that we carry is

this crushing weight that we are somehow

responsible for bringing the change to

people, for changing people that somehow

we have to play the role of the savior

and the Messiah in that moment. And so

we begin to put pressures on ourselves

like, well, I would go and and share my

faith. I would go and be active in

trying to to push the gospel and to go

and to tell, but the problem is is I

don't know enough. I'm not smart enough.

I'm scared I'll say the wrong thing. I'm

awkward or I don't know how to really

have a conversation in those moments. Or

I'm not gifted like you, Eric. Or I'm

not gifted like you, whoever. Right? But

church, listen to me carefully in this.

Each one of you has been given a gift by

the Lord. And each one of you has been

entrusted with a gift from the Lord,

which is that of salvation.

You are not responsible for the

transforming of a heart. Only God can do

that. Rather, what we are called to do

is just to go be a faithful witness.

Every single person in this room has a

story like I had this morning, like I

had it at the beginning.

Every single us, whether we attended

church our whole life or whether God did

a work in our life later on, every

single one of us has a story and we have

just been called to go be faithful

witnesses to it, not functional saviors.

Paul spoke, God opened. That's the

pattern that we have to lean into. And

honestly, this is why the sovereignty of

God's fuels the mission instead of

killing it.

Because if salvation dependently

entirely on our ability, we would either

feel terrified and live terrified of it

or spend our lives trying to manipulate

people emotionally so that they would

then follow through with it.

But rather, God opens hearts that

God opens hearts and we can faithfully

love people, speak to them, invite them,

remain available, and trust him with the

outcome. Because some of us need to stop

carrying a weight that God never asked

us to carry.

You cannot save your coworker. You

cannot save your child. You cannot save

your spouse. You cannot save your

friend.

But you can remain faithful to the

gospel that you have been entrusted with

and remain faithful to telling them

about it and remain faithful to pray for

them and remain faithful to continually

invite them and remain faithful to

continue to speak and to talk with them

because honestly the woman that kept

inviting me to church understood

something powerful even if she didn't

fully realize it at the time.

And it's the same truth that I've been

sharing throughout. that ordinary

obedience forever changes eternities.

She wasn't responsible for transforming

my heart, but she arranged the meeting

where I got to engage the God who did.

She arranged that moment by simply

inviting and being faithful to it. And

maybe some of us need to stop waiting

until we feel powerful enough and start

trusting the God who already is.

And what's interesting is Lydia was

already spiritually interested. She was

searching. She was looking. She was a

worshshiper of God. That does not mean

that she was a believer, but rather she

was looking for God. She heard about

him. She knew about him, but she never

knew how to get to know him. She was

around spiritual things. She was

participating in prayer gatherings. But

there's a difference between knowing

about God and having your heart awakened

by God.

And I know that personally because that

was exactly my story.

I knew about God long before God made it

real in my heart.

Maybe there are some people in this room

today like that. You know the language.

You know the church culture. You know

the milestones. And you've probably

followed through with a few of them. You

know how to blend in around church

people.

But your heart has never truly been

transformed by the gospel.

Because salvation is more than just

attaining information.

It's a divine awakening.

It says again in verse 14, "The Lord

opened her heart to pay attention to

what was said by Paul."

Even her attentiveness

is connected to the work of God.

And I want to be careful here too

because this can easily fall into a

behavioral modification or a try harder

or a perform better type thing.

This isn't just about a mere

intellectual agreement either. This is

about a divine awakening.

And when God truly opens a heart, he

never leaves that life unchanged.

And that's the thing that we have to

lean into even more

because God's work in your heart will

show up in your hands

because we see immediately after this in

verse 15 that Lydia was baptized

immediately.

right after she met Christ, right after

she gave her life to Christ, immediately

after she was baptized, because the

biblical response to salvation is

obedience, not delayed obedience, not a

sense of maybe I'll do it later once I

know a little bit more, once I attend a

new believer's class and I kind of

understand a little bit. No, it is an

immediate response to the gospel. It's

not once you get your life together or

once you feel like. It is an immediate

response. Her landing place immediately

became her launching pad.

And honestly, I think that quietly

dismantles much of what we would call

consumer Christianity again

because we've a lot of the big C church

has fallen into this trap of this aspect

of consumer Christianity

because what it does is it treats

salvation like a moment of where I made

it. I checked the box. I attended the

church. I consumed the religious

content.

I did all the things that I was supposed

to do. And I get to now just sit and be

comfortable and consume it. And if the

church ever goes against what I believe

or what I like or well if the church

goes against what you believe, you

should leave that church. But sorry that

was a funny um

anyways. But the thing about that is is

we've gotten into this trap where now we

lean into it where now it's if the

church doesn't make me feel comfortable,

if the AC is too cold, if the lights are

too bright, if the music's not what I

like, if the preaching style of the

preacher isn't what I like, then I'll

just go find a church that fits

everything that I like because that's

what I want. I want to feel com I want

to feel comfortable. I don't want to get

out of the chair and serve. I don't want

to be faithful. I don't want to just go,

"Do you believe the Bible? Do you preach

it faithfully? and is Jesus the risen

savior? Those are the three cursors to a

good church.

No. Rather, instead we want to make sure

that we get our ears massaged. We want

to make sure that we go and we feel

comfortable and that the the chairs are

nice and soft and the climate in the

building is nice and comfortable and

that we get to enjoy all the luxuries of

church because if the church doesn't

make us feel comfortable, then uh we

don't really want to attend that church.

But that's not biblical Christianity.

That's nowhere near what the church was

in Acts. That's nowhere near what the

church is doing. Biblical Christianity

doesn't say, "How can the church serve

me?" Biblical Christianity says, "How

can I serve the church?"

It takes everything that God has done in

our life, the transformational work, the

working of the Holy Spirit, the

indwelling of the spirit. It takes all

that God has poured into us and say,

"Lord, it is me. Now send me out.

The gospel was never meant to stop at

you because we look at Lydia's response.

Immediately she gets baptized and then

what does she do? She goes straight back

to her household and we see that her

household hears. We see that her home

begins to open. We see that her

hospitality trait and generous giving

begins to step in. She begins to partner

in the ministry of Christ and in the

ministry of Paul. The gospel keeps

moving outward. It is an instantaneous

moment.

Do you see the progression here? The

gospel continues to move all through the

faithful actions of Paul relaying the

message to one faithful woman who then

takes the gospel, moves it into Europe,

into Philippi,

and then outward through her home.

Everything keeps advancing outward. And

honestly, I think that's one of the

biggest dangers that we face. Again,

we've treated salvation like a finish

line instead of a starting line.

But in scripture, salvation launches us

into participation in the mission of

God. Because Lydia immediately begins

leveraging everything she has for the

work of the gospel. Her home, her

influence, her resources, her

relationships, everything she has is for

the glory of God, for the kingdom of

God. Not because she's trying to earn

her salvation or because she's trying to

earn favor,

but because transformed hearts produce

transformed lives and a transformed

heart then creates open hands.

And I think that's the thing that we

lean into as well, especially when it

comes, and I don't mean to get off on

this bit of consumer Christianity, but

the church has gotten to the point to

where it's like a football game. It's

30,000 people watching 22 people

perform.

If you want my honest thoughts and

you can take it as you will. Churches

shouldn't be struggling to find

volunteers, especially if we've been

truly transformed by the gospel.

Because what the church is trying to do,

if it is that true bibleelving church,

it is trying to then go and share that

gospel. And here's how we can do that

too. Because I understand too that

sometimes there's obligations that you

have that you need to fulfill that make

it to where maybe serving in kids or

student ministry or serving on a team is

very difficult. I understand that. But

here's how you can then go out and do as

God has called you to do. Not treat it

like the doors, the mission of the

gospel stop at those doors. That's where

the mission begins is the moment you

walk through those doors. The moment you

walk out those doors is now you are

entrusted with what you have heard and

what the Lord has laid on your heart to

then go and tell somebody and to do so

even do something as simple as an

invitation to church.

That's what you've been entrusted with.

Christianity is not a spectator sport.

It's a direct confrontation

with the Lord of the world who then

calls us to participate who then calls

us to get off the bench and get in the

game because we see this Paul has an

interaction with the Lord and he begins

to participate in the work of the

gospel. Lydia hears from Paul and begins

to participate in the in the gospel. The

household begins to participate in the

moving of the gospel and the church

begins forming.

Meanwhile, we normally get stuck in this

aspect of sit, consume, observe,

critique and spectate.

But the advance of the gospel has always

moved through ordinary surrendered

people. Not perfect people, not famous

people, faithful people.

And for some of us, we have hearts open

to the gospel while our hands continue

to remain closed to the works of the

gospel.

We keep waiting until we know more. We

keep waiting until we feel qualified. We

keep waiting until life slows down. We

keep waiting until we feel ready.

Meanwhile, there are people all around

us every single day that we encounter

that God may already be preparing.

And honestly, maybe your Lydia is closer

than you think.

Maybe it's a co-orker. Maybe it's

somebody you see every morning getting

coffee. Maybe it's a neighbor. Maybe

it's somebody sitting in your break room

every single day at work.

That woman who invited me to church had

no idea that God would do what God would

do through one simple invitation.

She wasn't famous. She wasn't

extraordinary.

She was just faithful.

And honestly, I wonder how many people

are on the other side of your obedience

when you've been faithful to the mission

where you begin to be faithful to those

moments.

Can you think of the spiritual impact of

people who like were Billy Graham's

Sunday school teacher or the person who

led Billy Graham to faith or the person

who led some of these biblical giants to

faith?

Think of the spiritual impact. And it

all started because of one simple act.

that people are waiting on the other

side of. It could be that one

invitation, that one conversation, that

one act of surrender, that one moment of

faithfulness, that one act of kindness.

You may never fully know what God does

through your obedience. But don't let

the gospel stop with you.

And maybe today, some of you may be like

Lydia. You know about God.

You've been around spiritual things. You

know the language and the culture,

but your heart has never truly been

awakened by the gospel. The same God who

opened Lydia's heart is still opening

hearts today. And for the believer in

this room, the gospel was never meant to

be terminated at you

because ordinary obedience forever

changes eternities.

Let's pray.

Father God, we just thank you for this

morning, Lord. And I just thank you,

Lord, just for how you continue to write

each and every one of our individual

stories, Lord. We just thank you for

that person that was faithful to

continue to to love on us, Lord, to just

continue to tell us about you, to pray

over us, Lord.

Lord, so that we can come to know that

relationship and know that faith that

you have entrusted with us. But Lord, I

also pray that you'd continue to equip

us, Lord. To go out and to share your

word, to go out and to tell others about

you, Lord, to be faithful to the

mission, Lord, and above all to be

faithful to you.

Lord, I pray that we continue to just

lean into you in those moments, Lord.

That we don't let excuses or fear or

rejection

hold us back. But Lord, that you give us

a sense of boldness, Lord, that you give

us a sense of of courage. And Lord, that

in that m in that moment, Lord, that

your spirit just fill us and it give us

the words to say.

Lord, I'm just praying over this church.

And Lord, I'm grateful for everyone that

is here this morning, Lord. I'm just

praying that we continue to just go out

and just tell someone about you, Lord.

To share of your peace, of your hope,

and of only the joy that you can bring,

Lord, so that they can experience only

the forever lifealtering love that you

have for them.

Lord, I love you. It's your name we pray

this morning. Amen.