After the Storm | Moving Forward in God's Purpose | Alex Sands

Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast.

Today, Pastor Alex Sands will be teaching from Acts 21 through 6.

A powerful passage that shows us what unwavering faith looks like in acts.

At the face of intense opposition in Ephesus, Paul doesn't allow us to stop the mission.

Encourages the churches.

Along the way, we also see the importance of faith.

He often accomplishes his greatest work through perseverance and community.

So grab your Bible, prepare your heart, and join Pastor Addic Sands as we study Acts 20, 1 through 6 together.

The itinerary can tell you where you're going to depart, when and where you're going to land.

It can tell all those things.

The itinerary doesn't say what it's like to get there.

The turbulence if you're flying.

That's all itineraries do.

That's their intention, right?

An itinerary.

The route, but not the reality.

Today as we look at Acts chapter 20, we're just gonna do six verses, verses one through six.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

And if you read through them really fast, it sounds like it's just an itinerary of Paul's travels.

He goes up here, gets into Macedonia, gets into Greece, and he talks about who's with him.

That's the route.

That's the itinerary.

But Paul, in his letters, tells us the reality.

That's the wonderful thing of studying Acts.

The book of Acts is its genre is history.

Roughly the first 30 years of the church's existence, the day of Pentecost.

And we end with Peter being in prison.

But about 30 years of the church's first 30 years of their existence, so it's history.

When you read the epistles, like 1 Corinthians in this case, 2 Corinthians, a little bit of Romans, you get to see what happened in between.

You get to see the reality.

Because we have this idea, watch this church.

We have this idea of our heroes, our spiritual heroes, that they were rocks and they were never moved and nothing ever happened.

They just went through and just did it.

And if you look at the itinerary, maybe it would just seem like, well, just traveled from here and there.

What we discover as we dig into the reality of it is that Paul was distressed.

Paul experienced anxiety.

And Paul experienced discouragement.

All of those things we find once we dig into the reality and add it to the itinerary.

So why is it important?

I thought, Alex, we're gonna study the book of Acts.

We are studying the book of Acts, but it's good to have the itinerary, having the route and the reality.

I am so excited about this message because it's gonna be so applicable for us.

I can't wait for us to get this and digest it.

It's not just the itinerary that matters, it's also the reality of what happened.

Because, church, I believe many of us have a fraudulent perspective of what it means to be spiritually mature.

Many people have this fraudulent idea of spiritual maturity, as if I achieve spiritual maturity, then nothing will ever distract me or disturb me or discourage me.

I will reach a place of such maturity that there will never be problems, nothing will shake me.

Church, that's not Christian spiritual maturity.

There may be another religion that says that at the height or zenith of your spiritual attainment, nothing will be able to affect you.

You'll never be at a place where you'll be disturbed, you'll have no emotions.

That's not the objective of becoming a believer.

Jesus wept.

The Holy Spirit can be grieved.

And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, there'll be seasons you grieve too.

Today's objective is to dismantle some of those myths that maybe you came in to uh somebody told you, shared with you, or just formulated in your own mind a myth that you thought what it would happen once I get spiritually mature.

The problem comes in with this, and you're gonna hit this wall because I hit it.

The thing that's gonna happen is you're gonna get a burden, there's gonna be a difficulty, a challenge, and it's going to come on you like a ton of bricks, and you won't be able to shake it, and then you'll have two problems.

You'll have the burden and the shame.

If only I was stronger, maybe I should have fasted more.

Maybe if I'd only done this, I must not.

Maybe God isn't really with me.

Why am I struggling like this?

Why everyone else looks like they're smiling?

I better put a smile on too.

And before you know it, you will bow out.

Bow out, burn out, and never return.

Oh, we're gonna dismantle these myths today.

Amen.

Anyone excited about that?

Thankful for that.

It's time for some myth busting.

All right, last time that we were together, we looked at Acts chapter 19, and we were going through verses 28 through 41.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And what we found throughout the chapter, chapter 19, is it details Paul's ministry in Ephesus.

And Ephesus was one of the most important cities in the first century in the Greco-Roman uh Empire.

It's one of the most important cities.

There was a lot of trap, a lot of travel, commerce, people going here and there.

And and and and God used Paul and other believers to build up a congregation.

This is during Paul's third, what we call his third missionary journey.

God did amazing things through Paul over the course of roughly three years.

God did amazing things, did amazing miracles in the city that was known for its superstition and known for all of its idolatry.

God did some works that could say, I'm stronger than all of your other gods put together.

God did some amazing things through the apostle Paul and he delivered the word.

Now he started in the synagogue as he normally does in, like, you know, what happened as usual is he got evicted.

You know, people, the the leaders, religious leaders became upset about this message of salvation by grace and not by works.

The Gentiles don't need to be circumcised, all of that, they got upset.

Paul didn't stop, he just went right next door.

Paul rented a lecture hall, and daily he taught whoever would come.

Some new believers, they had come by and they would listen during the day, like eleven to four-ish.

He would work in the morning and then have class, dive into the truth day in and day, dive into the truth.

And he did that for years, and you know, that had an effect.

When people are disciples, things change.

You know, somebody's just a convert, just believes, but that belief hasn't had an effect.

That's that doesn't change the environment.

But when you have a critical mass of believers, all in disciples, there's a change that takes place.

The economy in Ephesus was affected by Paul's ministry.

So many people were getting saved, and understanding that idols were not gods, they stopped buying these little shrines to Artemis.

She was the goddess of Ephesus, and Ephesus was known for being the caretaker of the temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the world.

And they were, their identity had been wrapped up in the worship of Diana.

And you know what?

All of the trade folks, this dude named Demetrius, who was a silversmith, he got upset.

All of his suppliers got upset because folks weren't buying their trinkets anymore.

You mess with people's money, you challenge their identity, you're gonna have problems.

And Paul was doing both.

A riot ensues.

This dude, Demetrius, he starts up a riot, a mob, and there are uh uh thousands of people who begin shouting.

Some of them don't even know why they are all upset.

See, a crowd draws a crowd.

In some cases, people are upset and mad and don't even know why.

They were running out in the streets.

Great as Artemis! Great as Artemis of the Ephesians, and they file into a theater that sat over 20,000 people.

Couldn't find Paul, and they just got two disciples, Gaius and Aristarchus.

They were in danger.

Some wanted them killed.

For two hours, a crowd of 20 to 25,000 people, great as Artemis, great as Artemis, great as Artemis.

And Aristarchus and Gaius, they're representatives of Yahweh, the one true God.

Couldn't find Paul, Paul, the other disciples held Paul back and he's in anguish.

But God worked it out.

He gave a masterpiece of a message that dispersed the crowd.

And that's where we left off.

Crowd is dispersed, the imminent danger has been removed, and now we can carry on.

Paul had a plan.

We saw it in Acts 19, verse 21.

Acts 19:21

He had a plan.

He had a plan because he said the Holy Spirit has led him to leave and go through Macedonia and Achaia to collect an offering and go to Jerusalem.

And he sent Timothy and Erastus ahead of himself, and he said, This was what's coming up next.

It's time to go.

So, you know, now that the plan, you know, we're going to go continue with the plan.

Maybe the timing is off because of this riot.

But now it's time to resume ministry.

Looking at verses one through three.

After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples.

Kind of let you know that he was somewhere else off, you know, they sequestered him.

Because really, there's still people who want to take his life.

And after what?

Incouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.

So that's again, that's itinerary.

But there is a significant trip.

We'll dig into that a little bit more, but he is encouraging them.

He said farewell, departed from Macedonia.

And when he had gone through those regions and had given them much what?

Encouragement, he came to Greece.

And there in Greece he spent three months.

All right, let's pause right there.

Paul sends for the disciples and he spends time encouraging them.

And that word, just encouraging, it's it's uh uh pericaleo.

That's the verb to call someone, to call uh someone alongside in order to strengthen, comfort, urge, or to help, to come alongside, to urge, and to encourage to help.

Do you recognize that that verb?

Some of you get what's the Holy Spirit in John?

What's the Holy Spirit called?

The paracless.

The Holy Spirit comes alongside to encourage and to keep you going.

Rivers of living water rushing up on the inside, refreshment.

That's the Holy Spirit.

He's the comforter.

And Paul is providing encouragement, providing comfort.

And then when he gets into the regions of Macedonia, he's in that region, which included in that region, you got the churches of Philippi, Berea, Thessalonica, the believers all in there.

What he brings them encouragement.

Same.

But see, that word is given that says given them much.

It's really, if you look at the Greek, it's much word.

Many words.

You know, when we find word, when when Luke uses word, nine times out of ten, it's pointed to scripture, God's revealed word.

He's, i.e., he's giving them encouragement, but the source of encouragement is God's word.

No pep talk is going to encourage you when 20,000 some people have been shouting and they're looking for believers.

No, there's no pep talk that's going to get you going.

You need the word.

It's the word that encourages God's people.

The word nourishes and it strengthens and it edifies.

The word he gave, the many words he gave.

The word of the Lord.

Here is the Old Testament says this.

And this Jesus is the fulfillment of that.

He gave many words of encouragement.

This is how Paul operated in the churches.

He understood it wasn't enough just to lead some folks to Christ, form a church, and then leave and never come back.

He kept going back to these churches to encourage and build up.

That was the itinerary.

But what you don't read here and see in the itinerary, what you know is that Paul encouraged others as he was struggling himself.

We turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

And that's where we see the reality.

Luke has given us the route.

Paul gives us the reality of what was going on inside of his heart.

He writes to the Corinthians and says, We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.

Asia is where Ephesus was located.

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

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.

That's how Paul speaks of the reality of what he and the others were experiencing, what was going on inside.

Now, let's not uh try to soften Paul's language.

I want us to look at these terms.

Affliction, to compress, to crush, to squeeze.

Anyone ever feel like the walls are closing in on you?

To be compressed, to be squeezed, that's affliction.

Burdened means to be oppressed, burdened, weighed down with affliction or calamity.

To despair of life, that means to be at a loss, wholly without resource, to be utterly in despair.

And when he said that they thought that they would receive the sentence of death, what that means is they believe they were barred from life.

I.e.

what he's saying is we expected to die.

I thought it was over.

Didn't think we were going to make it out of this one.

You got 20 some thousand people chanting for two hours.

He's been preaching for there for about three years.

He's made enemies.

Paul could make an enemy in three weeks.

He got run out of Thessalonica after three weeks after three Sabbaths.

Imagine who's after him here.

You mess with folks' money and their identity, who they are as people.

So those terms, it's afflictioned.

Burdened beyond our strength.

He doesn't say we we we were inconvenienced.

He doesn't say we have just like a difficult afternoon or just kind of a difficult season.

He uses those terms, afflictions, burdened beyond our strength.

Thought we had the sentence of death.

And we're talking about Paul.

At this time, he's been doing ministry about 20 years, maybe.

Or shortly, a little bit uh uh less.

He's been he's been planting churches.

This dude has been stoned, he's been flogged, he's been imprisoned, everything else, you would think he's indestructible.

Just because he's an apostle doesn't mean he's not a man.

Here is myth number one.

Myth number one is that strong believers never feel overwhelmed, discouraged, or doubtful of the future.

Never feel like there is some situation that's too a burden that is too heavy for them.

Paul said that they are overwhelmed, burdened beyond their strength.

A lot of times this mythology comes from a misunderstanding of 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13, amongst others.

1 Corinthians 10:13

But that says, No temptation has taken you.

That is not common to man.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

Now, temptation, try what the promise there is true.

There is no temptation that's going to be a temptation to sin that will be more than you can uh uh bear.

And there's no trouble trial that is more than you can bear with the Holy Spirit.

There are situations where it will bring burdens and weights that are too heavy for you.

And then when that burden hits and you're like you start quoting the scripture, but it doesn't move.

In fact, you can feel like that burden's getting heavier, you can begin to question your faith.

That shame comes in because you believe nothing would ever hit you.

That would be Heavy too heavy.

The promise is that through his Holy Spirit you can carry it.

Not in your strength, but in his strength.

Oh, we will uh if I become spiritually mature, I'll never despair, I'll never be discouraged.

You know, one of the things I love about the Bible is that the Bible doesn't airbrush our heroes.

It tells them like it.

David said, How long, O Lord?

Read through the Psalms, how long, O Lord.

Elijah, after the contest against the prophets of Baal and God showed up with fire and all of that.

One woman, Jezebel, said, Kill him.

He ran for his life, got under a tree, and said, I want to die.

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, he grieved over Jerusalem.

He said things like, You deceived me, talking to the Lord.

You deceived me, and I was deceived.

I would have been better off never having been born.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you are growing in Christ, there are going to be burdens, challenges you face.

You cannot do in your power.

You can't.

It's too much for you.

Here is the truth.

Deep distress, even despair, cannot automatically be equated with spiritual weakness or failure.

This anguish, this despair doesn't automatically mean that you're weak.

You can't interpret it in that way.

If you love people, you will have seasons of anguish.

Now, people who never ever experience any anguish, it means they're indifferent.

And that's not what God creates.

He doesn't create people who are indifferent to others or indifferent to situations.

Paul is in anguish and he's in despair because he had a plan.

He wanted to take this offering through Macedonia and everything else and get to Jerusalem.

He had desires.

He had plans and he could see these things falling away.

It wasn't for him, it was for God's glory.

And despairing folks could break your heart.

If you care about mission, opposition can trouble you.

Now understand this.

These are, again, your your feelings.

God created you with them.

Again, Jesus, he wept over.

But understand this, don't hear what I'm not saying.

Feelings can't be trusted.

Don't make them your God.

Don't ever believe you should always be feeling a certain way or that a feeling is pointing to a spiritual reality.

It might just be what you ate last night.

Do not come to church to achieve a feeling.

Don't go into your devotion Bible study to achieve a feeling.

Don't wake up six in the morning and say, I'm gonna get my spiritual disciplines and have my devotion time every day and think that every time when it's over, you're gonna feel like shouting.

It doesn't work like that.

You've got to let the word work over you.

You read the word, and the word reads you.

That's how this thing works.

And sometimes it's good, it feels great, and sometimes it's ouch.

But it should always be thank you, Lord.

So feelings can always be true.

Feelings have to be brought and submitted to God.

Because the thought of it, it might be wrong.

We're gonna bring everything at the feet of Jesus.

But what we read, we're not done with 2 Corinthians 1.

I just share with you the first part of verse 9.

The second part says this.

But this was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

Oh, all of that situation, everything, the burden that was overwhelming, we couldn't handle, and everything that happened, it was to teach us.

It was to instruct us.

Paul had to learn a little something about Paul.

Paul had a little bit of self-reliance that still hadn't been worked out yet.

Reality check, we all do.

And the way God works that self-reliance out is he allows burdens you can't carry in your own power.

And then you might think you have willpower.

I'm just going to, in my in the force of my will.

Well, you have to carry it longer than your willpower can hold out.

Some of you are amazingly disciplined.

But you know, when you enroll in God's strength training program, when he becomes your fitness trainer, he knows how many weights, he knows how many plates to put on that rack.

And this, Paul says, was for him to learn, for them to learn, not to rely on your on themselves.

Let me put it in my words.

God brought Paul to the end of Paul so that Paul would rely on the God who raises the dead.

I thought I was as good as dead.

It was over.

But we got a God that raises the dead.

We got a God who resurrects, can cause the dry bones to live.

That's the God that we serve.

There was some self-reliance that was still in there.

Maybe a little bit of Paul's still, uh, my intelligence, my my my wits, whatever.

And see, there's also a danger if you've been walking with God for a while, you begin to just coast.

You can begin to get comfortable.

And and and then just kind of, well, this situation will be like others, and I'll handle it for you.

And before you know it, it becomes a storm.

And it's like, whoa, it overwhelms when you know earlier we might have prayed right away.

Story in Joshua.

After the victory of Jericho, they came to another city, and there God was small.

Yeah, go ahead and take it.

And they got whooped.

Joshua starts crying out, Lord, why did you allow us to die?

How did that little city, how did they beat us?

God's like, get up on your feet.

They never sought him, never prayed, never asked for his guidance or wisdom or battle strategy.

They just went on in their own power.

It can happen.

And that's why sometimes it's good for God just to smack us upside the head.

And it's good for us.

It's good for us.

Here's the kingdom truth.

Throughout time, you know, we see this.

God breaks self-reliance to build God reliance.

So we can stop trusting in our ability or our security.

Security could be uh retirement funds, our security can be how healthy we are, or how healthy we we think we'll kind of be indestructible.

God has to allow some of these so we can learn to depend upon Him.

You remember Gideon?

The book of Judges had an army of 30,000 against about 120,000.

It was nervous, but God said, That's too many, you got too many.

He reduced the troops down to 300 and said, now that's about right.

Why did you do all that?

Because otherwise, Israel will think they got the victory.

They'll take the credit for it and won't realize that it was me.

God sometimes will take resources away to the point where we are burdened beyond our strength, so that we will realize He is our strength for everything.

And here is the benefit.

Here is the benefit, the fruit.

Go back first to verses 3 through 4 in 2 Corinthians 1, 3 through 4.

Blessed be the God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, the God, the Father of mercies, and the God of all, God of all, who comforts us in all of our, so that we may be able to honor those who are in any with the which we ourselves are by God.

We were afflicted, thought we were going to die, but God delivered us, he set us free.

A town clerk dispersed everyone, and we were free, we were free.

And he realized that God had brought him to this place so they could realize that they wouldn't rely on themselves, but on God.

And then he says, Well, we have received comfort so that we can comfort others.

And what was he doing in verses one and two of Acts 20?

After being liberated from all of the trouble, he gathers the disciples and he encourages them.

He comes alongside, he strengthens them.

Oh, he's always had a word for people, but he's got some experience too.

It's not just the itinerary, it's not just that, it's the reality of what he's been through, the experience he has this joy of recent delivery.

There's something about a brand new testimony.

There's something about a testimony.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You got the testimony from 15 years ago, but when you got a five-minute fresh mana testimony, you just got delivered, you just got set free.

The squeezing, the affliction had happened, and then there's a release.

Woo! And then you want to run on and you, and you know what?

Paul called the disciples.

Y'all gotta come on here.

We need to celebrate about this.

And then he breaks down the word, much word.

He breaks it down with the encouragement that he had received.

They got affliction, but they were delivered.

So they would understand that the comfort they received, they had they could pass it on to others.

Sometimes the reason why we are burdened is because God is going to use us as a conduit to pass along his comfort to somebody else.

Okay?

Give me 90 seconds, okay?

Many of you know I have a mental health challenge.

I have I am diagnosed with bipolar two.

I've been taking medication for about 12 years.

It was hard, humbling to do it, and it's still humbling to pick up medication.

It's still I always think, what if somebody across the desk knows who I am and they think I'm dependent on this so on?

But it was God's will.

And he led me to tell Kingdom Life in December of 2013.

I couldn't keep it.

Then he started taking me places.

And I had a date on the calendar to do chapel at North Greenville University.

About 2014 or 2015.

I just, it was, I had been on the calendar for six months.

I walk in and they they they say this whole week is dedicated to the health of our students.

What is like in October?

And your day today is mental health day.

The whole sermon I had prepared got scrapped.

And God said, tell that story being clay on the wheel and tell your testimony.

In front of 2,000 students?

I fought it.

You know, sometimes you try to fight and you know, okay, this is the Lord.

The best thing for me is surrender.

I shared the testimony.

I did all of that, and I told him, Yeah, you read all of my accolades, but let me tell you what you're working with here.

I'm somebody with a mental health condition, and God is using me, and He can use you too.

Kids going into ministry and everything else, and after it's over, people started, the kids started coming down, some of them weeping, and some, you know, this, and some of them have told me stories about how their parents are missionaries on the field, and both of them are schizophrenic.

And others told me that was so encouraging, and so but I got a message from a mother She had a son, a freshman at North Greenville named Alex.

And she was scared because her last conversation with him, he said he was going to take his life.

And she said, I don't know you.

I know you had the same name as my son, but I thank God that you came that day.

Because he said, if that Alex can do it, I can do it too.

Thank you, Lord.

Sometimes God just won't remove that thing.

He won't take it out.

You can pray for it, but he's not gonna remove that thorn, that citrus.

He won't move it because he knows that's gonna be the source of your greatest ministry.

It's gonna be what he uses to provide comfort.

That was not in my manuscript for today.

But it's the Holy Spirit before we go further.

Here's our first application.

And hear this, and please let it get into your spirit.

Don't interpret every season of discouragement as a referendum on your spiritual maturity.

Admit the burden so you can receive God's comfort and then pass it on.

Man, early in my walk with God, it's almost like every day I was judging whether or not I was still a Christian.

Every bad day, pass fail.

There was no kind of in between.

Don't let yourself have that spirit.

That's part of that myth, that fallacy, that you know, maturity, you never struggle, you'll never have this or that.

No.

Let that go, and you have to admit that you're weak.

You have to admit your weakness.

The longer you hold on to it and say, I should be stronger than this, I'm going to be stronger than this, the more you do that, the tighter the stronghold on you it becomes.

Admit your weakness.

Make it honest, pure, make it before God.

And then you have a responsibility when he brings you that comfort.

Paul recorded that for the Corinthians.

I don't want you guys to be unaware of what we've been through.

The context of it is this.

The folks in Corinth, the the atmosphere, the culture in Corinth was if you're really called of God, you're strong, you carry yourself a certain way, and you're articulate and everything else.

You don't look like a failure or weakness.

And part of the theme in 2 Corinthians is that's backwards.

It's our weakness that shows God's strength.

And you will stay in spiritual immaturity until you realize you are weak.

And you need his strength.

Ah, now let's continue.

Remember, so here we are, Paul's departed and he's gone to Macedonia.

Still the itinerary, Luke's giving us the itinerary.

He's gone through all those regions, Berea, Thessalonica, and all of that.

But what Luke leaves out are these cities, and he leaves out one of the cities that they went through in order to get to Macedonia.

And so after leaving Ephesus, you know, scholars, some scholars say they went by water, some by land.

Either way, they get to Troaz.

And he gets to Troaz, and he has an intention of sharing the good news, preaching the gospel.

He's been to Troaz before, but now he's back and he has a plan to preach the gospel.

That was only one of the things he had hoped to do and expected in Troaz.

He expected to encounter his partner Titus.

He was expecting Titus because that's where they said they were going to rendezvous to meet up.

And he was anxious to see him.

Why was that?

Well, Titus was the courier of a letter from Paul to the church at Corinth.

It's a letter that we don't have.

We know of four letters, but we only have two of them.

One letter that Paul wrote, it was a correction against sexual immorality and things of that nature.

He wrote one letter there, and then he got word back that they didn't understand it.

And then not only that, through different channels, he found out that there was rivalry and factions amongst them.

And people taking each other to court.

So then he wrote what we call 1 Corinthians.

To straighten these things out, get their understanding of the importance of the body, and so on.

So he writes that to them.

And then he makes a trip himself to Corinth.

Some emergency, some reason he makes a trip from Ephesus to Corinth.

And he has what's called a painful visit.

There are some people who rose up against him and a whole kind of faction.

And the thing was the church didn't defend him.

Now he could have thrown his weight around as an apostle and all of that, but he thought it best just to leave.

He left and returned to Ephesus.

And in tears he penned what we call the painful letter.

The third letter that we don't have possession of.

But he he grieved writing it because he he he he he had to call out their sin.

And it it was hard, but it was truth.

And he he penned it, like I said, in tears and wrote it and then gave it to Titus and said, Take it.

But even as he had been writing it, he questioned whether or not he should give it.

Should I send this?

Then he's as as Titus is gone.

He's anxious about it.

How is it going to be received?

Will they love me?

Will they still love me?

And are they going to repent?

How are they going to receive Titus?

Because they were expecting to see Paul.

But Titus is the one who showed up.

So Paul gets up to Troaz with the intention of preaching and catching up with Titus.

Because that's where they said they'd meet up, and there he could get the what happened.

Tell me the results.

What happened as a result?

Da-da-da-da.

But Titus wasn't there in Troaz.

So when we read 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, when I came to Troaz to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.

2 Corinthians 2:12

So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.

Wow.

Wait.

Don't miss the contrast, right?

Don't miss the contrast.

An open door.

That speaks of as God has opened a door for him to preach the word and not be hindered and things, and there are people receiving it.

An open door to share the good news of Jesus.

So all of that is on the outside.

There's an open door on the outside, but he has no rest on the inside.

Because he's so distracted about what happened to Titus.

What happened in the church?

Why isn't he here?

Did they do something to him?

Was he robbed along the way?

What's happened?

I thought he'd be here by now.

I can picture in my mind he can't sleep.

I can picture in my mind he's he's still even what happened to Gaius and Aristarchus.

I'm sure that that disturbed him too, because he would rather die than them.

But I sent Titus with that message, and I don't know what happened, what's happening with them.

And even with the open door and people ready to receive the gospel, he couldn't stay.

So distraught in spirit, he couldn't do ministry.

Oh saints, this is this will this.

You're talking about a man who was stoned and thought dead, revived, and the next day preached the gospel to the next city.

You're talking about a man who was beaten with rods and sang in prison, and that night told the jailer about Jesus.

You're talking about a man who experienced just so much persecution, and none of that shut him down.

But a wayward church and his partner can't be found, that shut him down.

Oh, oh, oh, saints, don't ever believe there's not a kryptonite with your name on it.

I just think to myself, as I as I read this and think about this, there's been a change in Paul.

I wonder if this humbled him, because maybe 10, 15 years earlier, he told his buddy Barnabas, no, we ain't taking John Mark.

He abandoned the ministry, he abandoned the open door.

No, no, uh-uh.

Life has a way of humbling you.

Just live a little while.

You think you're strong.

Don't ever think there's something beneath you that you won't do.

Oh, life will come.

I can it just the art, something caused him to leave an open door.

The distress of what was happening with the church and what was happening to Titus.

Here's the myth.

Myth number two: spiritual mature Christians never let the ups and downs of relationships distract them from serving the Lord.

Because this is what we heard, is what I heard.

As for me in my house, we're gonna serve the Lord.

You serve whoever you want to, but as for me in my house, that's that's Joshua, nothing's gonna stop.

But then, you know what?

The more you grow and you love and you serve, the more vulnerable you become.

Paul, earlier in ministry, before he got into all knowing all these other churches, he said, John Mark can't come because he abandoned the work.

No, no, no, no.

Now he's doing it himself.

But understand, he he was inspired and he what he recorded was inspired, but he wasn't invulnerable.

He's still human, he could hurt deeply.

And remember, as I said, the goal is not to feel nothing.

Everything we want to bring, everything to the authority of Jesus.

Here is the truth.

People are the ministry.

If you care about the ministry, there will be times of grief because people can't be controlled and they aren't perfect.

So there's not a false choice between people and ministry.

People are the ministry.

So to think that, listen, I'm gonna keep on doing the work of the Lord and the relationships won't bring me up or down.

And understand, you don't have to be a pastor, preacher, teacher, uh, uh, uh, an evangelist, apostle, whatever.

You don't have to be any of that to have a ministry.

You have a ministry maybe at your workplace, ministry in your neighborhood, but ministry is people, because people is what it's all about.

Seeking and saving those who are lost and making disciples.

And folks, discipleship is messy.

But the more you're engaged in the mission matters to you, the greater the wounds.

And if you're not bleeding, you're not leading.

It's a sacrifice.

Parents, there's gonna be times you're going to the cross.

But you're trying to lead your family, you're trying to show them the way.

Don't hear that.

I'm just saying he was human and that it's real, and that God recorded it or made sure that he recorded this so we would know when it happens to us, we can understand this is really part of the journey.

Who would say Paul wasn't spiritually mature?

He was spiritually mature, and but something weighing so heavy on him, he could not minister anymore.

And he leaves and he goes on a search into Macedonia for Titus.

There's a difference between having emotions and being mastered by emotions.

And watch this there's a difference between being wounded and allowing that wound to define you.

You will be wounded.

The ups and downs are going to happen.

And if you're not anticipating them, you might think to yourself, well, maybe you know what, I should be stronger, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Or you may go the other way.

I experienced church hurt, and I'm never going to try Jesus again.

That's the direction many go.

And not realize you're talking about people who are still struggling with sin and everything else.

And if it wounds God, it's gonna wound you.

If the Holy Spirit is grieved, then we're gonna be grieved by sin too.

You're gonna pour into people, and then all of a sudden, they act crazy.

That's the church of Corinth.

You you can make the case he didn't pour into any other church more than he did them, and they were his problem children.

But you know, that's part of love is being wounded.

You have the ups and downs, you have that, and in this case, it was heavy, and Paul left.

He couldn't take it, he had to try to go further and to find him.

But here's the beautiful thing: God brought them together in chapter 7, verses 5 and 6 of 2 Corinthians.

For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest.

You still feel that?

He's still anxious.

When they got across the sea and made it into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest.

But we were afflicted.

What does that say?

Afflicted at every turn, fighting without on the outside, and fear within, internal in the spirit.

But God, I just love the butts in scripture.

I love the butt gods.

But God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus.

Titus showed up right on time.

It's like God directed Titus and directed Paul and the team, so they met up.

I don't know how it happened.

Maybe they were just bouncing around.

Is it Titus?

Is that Paul?

Is that Titus for real?

And a big hug and everything else, dapped each other, hug everything else.

First, Paul's excited to see him.

And then he's like, Well, what's happening?

What's going on?

What's happening in Corinth?

And Titus says, Oh, I got good news to tell you.

I got some great news for you.

Some folk they can some still in process, but the majority of them, they are all in, they love you, they can't wait to see you, and everything is cool and everything.

And you know what he did?

He got his shout on.

I know it's not in the text, but I'm just saying, his rejoicing, he's experiencing the comfort of seeing his friend in the Lord, and that the Lord is working in the church at Corinth.

My labor was not in vain.

God is still working through me.

I can run on.

And so they're in Macedonia.

See in verse 2, those in those regions, he came to him and he gave them much encouragement.

Part of that was he had just seen Titus.

And there's something about God coming through, that fresh breakthrough.

And he encourages them through his arrival and what God was doing through the word.

He can give them much word because he knows he can see he can just again refreshed about how it works and that it is a truth.

So, kingdom truth, guys, quickly, love makes us vulnerable, but the body heals the body.

So, love makes us vulnerable to people.

That means, in particular, love makes us vulnerable to one another.

If you're not willing to make yourself vulnerable, you're not going to love.

You have to be willing to be hurt, and you'll have some scars.

But the body heals the body, and God uses the body to heal the body.

Titus showed up and it brought refreshment.

The church at Corinth grew, went through this season and grew.

And Paul said, okay, you gotta restore the brother, this one, and all this.

They grew.

The body heals the body.

So you can't run away from the body and be healed.

You can't separate yourself and isolate yourself from everyone else and want God's healing because God speaks through the body.

Ever get an email just randomly?

But it'd be right on time and exactly what you needed?

And maybe it came yesterday, but you didn't see it yesterday, but you saw it today, but you really needed it today?

You didn't really need it, you didn't know how much you would need it yesterday.

How God works.

Oh, and what about Troas?

That open door.

Paul wasn't there, so did the door close?

Oh, church, you know the mission of God is not dependent on one person.

God's work is not dependent on an individual.

He's going to get to Troas.

He's going to get back there, and they're going to be believers there.

You're going to find out about it next week.

There are believers there.

And he meets with them.

The door didn't close.

God still was doing work.

So maybe, yeah, you missed.

Sometimes it's the opportunities you didn't take, and you always think back, I should have said this, should have done that.

Don't think the work of God hinged on you.

You better believe God had a plan.

And that included you walking away.

He used it for you, and he's going to use it for others.

God will bring somebody else.

I just need to take a sip of water on that one.

Sometimes that gets me.

I'll think back at night about people I should have shared with, somebody I might have poured into more, and it's no longer here.

And God has to remind me I love them more than you.

And if they would have been here one more day and that one day would have made the difference, I would have let them stay one more day.

Be at peace.

Quickly, life application.

Don't let hurt become hiding.

Don't turn one painful season into a permanent identity.

Don't define yourself by your wounds.

By his stripes we are healed.

He took it all upon himself.

We can move forward.

God doesn't have to define us.

Alright, let's look at the last piece here, the continue of more of this itinerary.

There he spent three months.

Where?

In Greece.

Greece?

That's Achaia, that included Corinth.

So he's in Corinth.

And there he spent three months.

He spent three months.

He spent the winter there ministering to believers.

All of that.

Do you want to know something else he did while he was in Corinth?

He wrote this letter you might have heard of before.

It's called Romans.

Pascal, that's your favorite book.

He wrote Romans.

He pinned Romans, which many will say was his, I don't know, magna Rome, whatever.

It was the big one.

It's the one that that summary of all of that theology, all of that.

And listen, he wrote it at this point.

After years.

See, if you read Romans, it's a masterpiece.

But it's a masterpiece because Paul has been teaching it for years.

There's something about teaching.

The more you teach on a subject, the more refined you get, the better you get, the more able you are to answer questions before they're even asked.

And so when you read Romans, the terminology, everything is tight and specific.

And then he says, but there will be some of you who say, and there'll be some.

How does he know that?

Because he was in a lecture hall for years, waiting every day for people.

And God sent people with questions that needed to be answered, and he recorded all of it in Romans to send it on to them.

God is perfecting you, and you don't even know that he is perfecting you for something.

You're always in God's training program.

When he's your strength coach, you're always working out.

Three months.

The plan was be at Corinth and then hop a boat and go off to Jerusalem.

Again, Ephesus, go up north, hit Troaz, go across into Macedonia, come down south, Corinth, go across.

Collect all this off this offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem and head on home.

That was the plan.

But you know what?

That was just one plan.

He had another plan.

He had told the Corinthians about it, maybe around that time that that painful letter.

He said, Look, I'm gonna leave Ephesus and come to y'all, come across the sea, then go up through Macedonia, up to the north, and then I'm gonna come back down and see y'all again.

And then go across to Jerusalem.

That was another plan.

But then after that painful visit, he said, I'm not doing that because I don't want to make another painful visit, so he changed it again.

And some of the people in Corinth, it made them mad.

We were supposed to have four visits.

The first time he came, and then these three.

Supposed to have four visits.

You only gave us three.

Like they were entitled, you know, to that extra visit.

Titus showed up instead of Paul and they got mad.

But you know there's that myth out there that spiritually mature Christians with a strong prayer life hear everything perfectly from God and never need to revise any of their plans.

There you laughing.

Seriously, I carried that.

If I had really heard from the Lord, I would have gotten it all right perfectly and never have to make adjustments.

Saints, here's the reality.

Often God speaks, God directs, he leads.

But so often we fill in blanks that he didn't.

God doesn't give us the full scope of things.

Usually he just says, get started here.

And then he's gonna do the rest.

But we'll get started here, and then we got a big old plan after that.

That God didn't have, he never spoke.

Anybody else that do you do that before?

Anybody else do that?

If someone believes I'll always get it right, they don't know about us and we by themselves.

And then also, God doesn't give us more than what we're ready for.

If God told you everything you were going to go through, you wouldn't have started.

It's facts.

It gives you what you need when you need it to take the next step.

We can revise plans and we should, because the guiding principle is not keeping the itinerary the way you established it at first.

Guiding principle is love.

Revising a plan humbly when love requires it can be maturity.

That is what guided Paul.

His love for Corinth, his love for the people.

What would be the best thing for them to grow?

The best thing is that I don't go again.

The best thing is that that doesn't happen.

And then when he's in Corinth, the plan was, okay, now everything is good, they're growing.

I'm gonna go right across to Jerusalem.

But what happened there in verse 3?

A plot had been made against him by the Jews.

As he was about to set sail, about to head out, go to Jerusalem, finds out about a plot.

Ship.

If it's around springtime, folks going to Passover, making trips over there to be ready for Passover, the ship might have been filled with Jews, and many of them still had an axe to grind against Christian because that Galilee, I mean, against uh Paul because of that whole thing with Galileo, and then all they just had some issues.

There was a plan to take him out.

So he decided to send the money and his partners ahead of him to Troaz, and he said, I'm gonna go up through Macedonia again.

I'm gonna walk up this way, go back through those churches I just had.

He made a change to the plan.

Some people would have said, God told me to go right to Jerusalem and I'm not changing.

That wouldn't have been prudent.

God still causes to walk by wisdom.

And Paul was a lightning rod, it wasn't just About Paul.

The loving thing was not to put his partners in danger.

All of these men here.

You got um uh Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, uh Tychicus, and Trophemus.

You got seven men.

He doesn't want them in danger either.

And so he sends them off.

I'll go the other way.

And he had some partners, and guess what happened?

How God blessed and how God worked.

He goes through these regions, he gets these partners, right?

He gets these partners, and so these men, there's a group of men he sends, he gets into these men here, and they are able to authenticate and say, the church gave this amount of money, the church gave this, the church gave that.

He was doing this for accountability.

We're sending this money, but you have a representative.

Everyone had a representative they sent along with this uh offering.

They went on ahead and waiting for us in Troaz, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread.

In five days we came to them at Troaz, we stayed there seven days.

Made adjustments, made the changes that were necessary.

Persecution came and adjustments needed to be made, but the adjustments were made out of love.

Write your plans.

Make plans.

There's nothing wrong with making plans, but always be ready to make adjustments in love.

Man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes his steps.

James 4:15, instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

James 4:15

The reality is Paul had told them in Corinth that if the Lord wills, I'll come back, I'll be able to do X, Y, and Z.

And sometimes we hold on to an original plan because we've said, God told me this.

And then realize that God didn't say all of that, but we hold on to it because of pride.

And we don't want anybody to know we missed it.

Or we added to what God had said.

So we don't have enough humility to say, well, wait a minute, I might have gone ahead of God.

This is what you need to have humility to say, if the Lord wills, and I believe I've heard God on this, or be able just to clearly say, I know God has said this, but I can't tell you the rest.

Because sometimes folks want more than what God gave them.

Don't fall in the trap of giving them more than God said, and have enough humility to say, I'm I may be off on this.

And through this, partners were added, and so forth.

And oh wait, there's something else that's beautiful, and we'll move on.

We're wrapped up.

These went on, verse five, these went on ahead and were waiting for us.

Look who has returned.

Instead of them, they us.

You know who that is?

That's Luke.

We hadn't seen him since he was back in Philippi.

But now Paul's going back up through Philippi, and guess who will guess who's joined the gang?

Luke, the physician, the one who authored Acts, the one who wrote the gospel of Luke.

He'll remain with Paul through the rest of Acts.

All of this happened because in love he went a different route.

And was able to spend um Pentecost.

Able to spend Passover with uh Philippians.

The route may change without the mission changing.

The main thing to do is keep the mission central.

So plan carefully, pray humbly, address, adjust willingly.

Pray and plan.

But don't be afraid to say, hey, there's a change.

Oh, there's a lot here.

My prayer is something spoke to you.

My prayer is that this is something that God brings into your spirit in season.

Because this has really blessed me.

Initially, you can look at this, and it's just like an itinerary.

But the Lord has seen fit for us to be able to not just see the route, but to know the reality of what was going on in the man of God and in his heart, so that we could be encouraged.

Be encouraged, saints.

We know the itinerary.

What do you mean?

Jesus is coming back.

We know we're gonna be with him.

We know where we're originating, we know the destination.

What's in between?

We don't know all of that, but we don't need to know all of that.

We don't know what all the turbulence is gonna be on the way, but we know where the plane is going.

And we need to rest in that.

So don't fall into all the myths, because all of those myths are not centered in humility, they are centered in pride.

Let's remain humble.

Let God direct and let God transform our hearts and be willing to be transparent so we can comfort others who are going through similar affliction.

Thank you, Lord, for this word, this uh this encouragement that we've had, and I pray God it has hit home.

I pray God that we can all be encouraged by it, refresh ourselves with it, and and God be better servants for you.

We love you and adore you in Jesus' name.

Saints, let us say amen and amen.