ACTS 15 & 16 (Wherever Whenever However Lord) | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from at church.

We hope this message will light up your tea.

If you have your Bibles. X. Chapter fifteen versus thirty

six is where I'm going to start reading from. I'm

going to read all the way to chapter sixteen, verse fifteen,

and then we'll break it down, and then thereafter you're

going to continue reading the entire passage. But I simply

entitled it wherever whenever, however, Lord, you know, this is

something that I try my best to say to the

Lord God. Wherever you call me to, I pray that

I won't hesitate to go whenever you have called me,

I pray one way, however, it means whatever it takes,

whatever it takes, I hope that I always have what

it takes to answer and be obedient to you. You know,

it's almost a similar promise I me and my wife

made to each other when we got married. Whenever, however,

it doesn't matter, we will mein together. You know, you

make promises on the altar, and if I can keep it, well,

thank god, we are keeping it after seventeen years. The

promise that we made to one another to always be

together in good times in bad times, in sickness, in health.

Regardless of the locality, the geography, it doesn't matter. We

will continue to be together with one another. And I

think the Lord's grace has made upon even our lives

and our marriage as we take those steps of faith

day by day, week by week, man my mind, and

then eventually year by year. It's been seventeen years. I

thank God that his grace is still sufficient for us

to go on. But more importantly, you know, we too

when we become believers. Essentially, we are saying the Lord,

I want to follow you. Didn't Jesus ask us know?

Follow me and I'll make you fishes of men. Essentially,

the Christian journey is a journey of following Jesus. And

when we follow Jesus sometimes we got to go wherever whenever. However,

because if we put in too many conditions as to

how we're going to follow Jesus, then it's going to

be an interesting journey where you may not fully experience

the goodness the bigness of God in our lives. Many

of us have done that, many of us have said, God, someday,

you know, I remember when I was young and when

I became a believer. My sister used to say that

she saw me one day as someone in ministry as

a pastor, which I thought she was drunk, or I

thought she was nuts, or I thought she was just

simply saying it out of spite, because me and my

sister never had a great relationship with one another, but

we were the first two in the family to become believers,

and then I had no choice but to love my

sister and my sister to love me as we Sometimes

it's the hardest right to love your own family members

and sound sleeplings be like, yeah, always taking my stuff,

But really, I mean, she she said, I never quite

taught much about it. Uh. In fact, I thought, okay,

maybe maybe one day. I always thought that maybe when

I retired, or maybe further in life, when my bank

account has got many, many, many zeros behind it, I

will consider serving the Lot in a more full time capacity.

That means, uh, you know, really in a slightly different capacity.

But no, I'm reminded today that when the Lord calls, uh,

it's time. Whenever it calls, it's time. However he calls.

Sometimes know the methods, the manner in which we journey

with the Lot sometimes may not be how we plan,

but I pray that we are willing. That's more important.

The availability to continue to walk in accordance to its

plan and purpose is something that I pray we all

discover and that we never discover it too late in

our lives. Just as in the marriage, right from the

very is done. I believe, even on the first day

of marriage, if the law calls either myself or my

wife to some other place, I wouldn't say you go

and I'll stay here. If the lot there's something to

one of us, I don't know. We could lose health,

we could lose body parts, I don't know. I mean,

there are some things that really the reality is the

vowels are very very clear. You know, in good times,

in bad times, in sickness, in health or richer or poor.

You may lose your possession, you may lose your property,

you may you lose a lot of things. But the

relationship continues because of the promise that you make to

one another. So that's something that we've got to be

really mindful of. It doesn't matter how we feel, it

doesn't matter what we think of each other, it doesn't

matter how we feel about one another. Promise is the promise,

we will continue on with the promise. And if we

understand that in the marital point of view, I pray

that we will understand that also from our own journey

with the law, when we say, Lord, I will follow you.

What does that mean today? And so let's learn some

principles from Paul as we read some portions of scripture

today from X Chapter fifteen. Okay, I'm reading from verse

thirty six. I'm going to read really quickly from the

NLT and imagine as you're reading it, because I will

then move on into chapter sixteen. Remember no chapters, no

verses in the original Bible. All this were put in

place so that it's easier to refer to things. But

let's just read it across and then see what we

can gather from the scriptures. It says the verse thirty six.

After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, let's go back

and visit each city where we previously preached the word

of the Lord to see how the new believers are doing.

Barnabas agreed and wanted to take a long john Mark,

but Paul this agreed strongly since john Mark had deserted

them in Pamphilia and had not continued with them in

their work. Disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabus

took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. Paul

chose Silas, and as he left, the believers entrusted him

to the Lord's gracious care. Then he traveled throughout Syria

and Cecilia, strengthening the churches there. Paul went first to

Derby and then to Lystra, where there was a young

disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but

his father was a Greek. Timothy was well taught off

by the believers in Listra and Iconium, so Paul wanted

him to join them on their journey. In deference to

the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to

be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his

father was a Greek. Then they went from town to town,

instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the

apostles and elders in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened

in their faith and grew larger every day. Next, Paul

and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galicia.

Because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the

word in the province of Asia at that time. Then

coming to the borders of Misia or Mysia, however, you

want to pronounce that they hated north for the province

of Bithynia, But again the spirit of Jesus did not

allow them to go there, so instead they went on

through Mesia to the seaport of Troess. That night, Paul

had a vision a man from Macedonia in northern Greece

was standing there, pleading with him come over to Macedonia

and help us. So we decided to leave for Macedonia

at once, having concluded that God was calling us to

preach the good news there. We bordered a boat at

Troes and sailed straight across to the island of Samultrece,

and the next day we landed at near Police. From

there we reached Philippi, a major city of the district

of Macedonia and a Roman colony, and we stayed there

several days. On the Sabbath, we went a little way

outside the city to a riverbank, where we taught people

would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to

speak with some women who had gathered that one of

them was Lydia from Tia Tira, a merchant of expensive

purple cloth who worshiped God. And as she listened to us,

the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul

was saying. She and her household were baptized, and she

asked us to be her guests. If you agree that

I am a true believer in the Lord, she said,

come and stay at my home, and she urged us

until we agree. Amen. The Lord bless the reading of

his word. Okay, when I read about the missionary journeys

of Paul, one can't help but actually be in awe

because he really got the church started. Wherever he went.

He went here, he went there, he planted churches. And

then if he realized that the church was going to

trying times or he was shaky, what happens is he

actually goes back, He rushes back, or sometimes he sends

a letter, or he will send someone else like Timothy

to go and encourage the church. You see Paul doing

that all in the time in which when communication wasn't

as convenient as he was or it is today. Imagine, No,

you're talking about traveling by food to somewhere, really really far,

just to go and encourage a church, or sending a letter,

and not just any short letter. Can you imagine the

letter in which he wrote to the Roman Church. Romans,

it's about seven thousand words there. Some of your tcs

are six six to seven thousand words right your final

year of projects. But this is something that he's writing

out pro and then sending over to the church just

to encourage them. So really, it's amazing what you know

in one place, unless he can even list down the

difficult experiences that he went through, no shipwrecked, stone beating,

all the rest, just in one place. But really, if

you just look at the care he had for the churches,

and he kept them all moving. And that's why until

today we have Paul's letters in scripture teaching us and

telling us how we are to live our lives in

accordance to God's plan and purpose. Amen. So let's pick

up some principles of missions, because sometimes when we think

of missions is so big in our head that we're like, yo,

I need to plan it, I need to go and

study it. I need to really just draw out all

these different truths. No, I need I need to go

through a whole textbook, and I really there's no way

in which you can teach missions from a textbook. Missions

is actually taught by you, going, by you, praying, by

you giving. We've got to be in action. And so

if the truths and the principles that I'm going to

draw out today, I hope you will see it from

an active point of view. Don't look at it from Oh,

I'm just going to draw some of these principles. No,

and I'm gonna, you know, study like as do I'm

studying a textbook. It's not, it's not. It's really something

that is active, something that requires us to be doing. Okay,

So some principles, and I'm going to drop four principles

in missions that I hope we remember as we go along. Firstly,

this is something I call different ones. Have mutual compatibility, Okay,

being mutually compatible. The second thing is to be able

to adapt culturally. The third thing is to be guided

by strategies okay, or strategic guidance or guided strategy, however

you want to look at it. And the fourth one

is this to be sensible in our tactics. Okay, have

these four things in mind, and I will explain why

I'm saying this from the scriptures that we have just read. Okay,

so let's start off with mutual compatibility. And this is

something that's very important. If you are going to reach

out to the world in the name of Jesus Christ,

you will realize that there's going to be arguments with

the people in whom you go out with. In fact,

X Chapter fifteen is actually full of arguments if you

study the scriptures. Some arguments are good, Some arguments can

be praiseworthy because it's really defending the gospel, establishing the truth.

In fact, at the start of it of X chapter fifteen,

I think you see Paul and barnabas they were having

this dispute and this discussion with false teachers. It was

an argument. They were standing their ground, but that was

a right and proper thing to do. But when you

come towards the end of X chapter fifteen, then you

see this argument that maybe might not be so pretty

in terms of why is this in the Bible. Sometimes

we ask ourselves why are arguments like this in the Bible?

But it is there, and I thank God that the

Bible is such an honest book that when we read

the scriptures we see the reality of life, the reality

of the day to day relationships that is ongoing. You know,

the heroes of the Bible are also portrayed as human

beings who can have arguments, who can have differences in opinions,

and they can fall out with one another. That is

the truth. And so Paul and Barnabas work together as missionaries.

We know that when we read the earlier chapters of

the Book of Acts, they were together, they did a

lot of things together, and then now they had an

argument and they decided to split up. That's essentially what

happened is recorded in scripture, and I believe is there

to encourage us in ministry as well, because sometimes in

ministry when things like this happened, we struggle with it.

We go, where's the unity of the church? Why is

it that Jesus prayer that let them be one as

I am one with the Father has never come to

pass until today, There's still so much differences. These are

all the realities and the truth that we are going through.

But I continue to hang on to scripture because even

in scripture we know that there have been arguments, there

have been misunderstandings, And what was this argument about between

Paul and Barnabus well, it was about John Mark. And

if you remember the first missionary journey that Paul ran out,

he actually went out together with John Mark. What we

are reading right now is considered Paul's second missionary journey.

I think Paul all in all did about three main

missionary trips or missions trips out and so in the

first trip he actually went out with this young lad

called John Mark. And if you study the scripture and

you look at it carefully, you realize that somewhere along

the journey it was highly likely that Paul was ill.

He was taken ill, and they were at these crossroads

where they were deciding whether should I move forward or

should I go backwards. Some commentators say it was likely

that Paul had malaria or something like that. They're trying

to draw somethings based on where he was at that

point of time in geography, but suffice to say, he

was not well. He decided to move forward, possibly going

to somewhere a bit higher where the environment is a

little bit better for him to recuperate. But John Mark

actually had COVID. He was actually afraid to move forward,

to go somewhere further where else Paul wanted to do that,

and so John mar make the decision, Hello, hello, you

are not well. I don't think we should move for

I think we should go backwards. But Paul wanted to

move forward. And so Paul decided to go off first,

and john Mark decided to go home. Okay, And from

then on Paul was not having this again. In short, basically,

maybe I believe he was quite frustrated. The other problem

is this John Mark is actually a relative of Barnabas,

so if you study the scripture you'll know that they

are related. And Barnabas wanted to give him a second chance.

Nothing wrong in that, all good, okay, And Paul knew

that a reliable helper was needed. And so this argument

broke out over a Christian brother. Okay, should we take him,

should we not take him? And what to do? What

should we do with a week Christian like John Mark?

At that point? No, should we encourage this person, should

we give them a second chance? Or should we say bye?

By hasta la vista, ain't taking you again? And so

the division of opinion was very apparent that point of time,

and they decided then to divide their ministry. Actually, that's

what happened. Paul and Barnabas, who have been together for

so many journeys, decided to go there separate ways. And

I think this is recorded in a word of God

to actually show us that we really ought to be

realistic as well. If we are to work in a

partnership and it is not going to work out, then

there are days when we have to go different ways.

It happens in any partnerships, okay, except marriage, which I

pray will never happen to us, because that's not how

God intends for marriages to be. But even then, also

we see and we recognize that it can sometimes go

differently any partnership. You've got to be intentional, you've got

to work hard at it. And so sometimes there are

many partnerships that never should have taken place to begin with.

And then there are some other partnerships we should have

been brought to an end much earlier. Okay, that is

the reality of it. And sometimes we get this really

strong guilty feeling about ending partnership that we feel we

must keep pushing and keep pushing and keep pushing to

make it work, and somehow if it doesn't work, it

is a failure in our entire service. If we cannot

get along. Well, if you read what happened, the Church

eventually agreed with the decision that Paul and Barnabas made

to go separate ways. In fact, it says that they

commanded them unto the Lord, commanded them to the grace

of God. That means, if this is what they have decided,

the Church said, Okay, may God's grace be upon you.

And you know what, Praise God. What happened. What happened

is this you actually had two missions teams that will

actually formed from this so called separation in that sense,

and sometimes we just have to recognize the problem and

make other arrangements and spread ourselves more and commend each

other unto the Lord. Compatibility is something that's very important

when we are going out in terms of mission, any

form of missions. Don't think of missions just as something

going far away. Anything that we do, anything that we

are doing intentionally to really connect with someone who is

different from us, is missions. Connecting for the very reason

of wanting to share what we know of who Jesus

is is missions. And so everyone has different personalities and

God has made us different with different backgrounds, and so

really adjustments sometimes have to be made and sometimes it's

really better to say, all right, if we really can't

agree on this, we are brothers in Christ. Will you

go on your mission? I will go on mind, and

may God bless us both. You know no point in

or like wishing the worst for one another. I hope

I don't see you again. I hope your mission, you know, fails.

Don't do that. Don't do that. I mean, just agree

that sometimes we can't, we are not able to keep

it going. And so God actually honored this separation because

we are told, actually, as we read further on in

the scriptures, that Paul eventually sent for John Mark to

come come to Rome in the latter part of scriptures.

And so it's not a breach, it's not a separation

that cannot be repaired. It was just the best thing

to do at that time, a sensible thing to do.

So mutual compatibility is the first principle that I want

us to take note of. It is very important in

working together for the Lord. If you're finding it impossible,

sometimes you've got to be really real about it, and

the Lord will multiply the word. I believe in that,

and we have seen over the years as well. I

really take courage and take heart when I see different ones.

Sometimes they may not agree with the things that we

are doing, and we are saying, go therefore and do

what the Lord is calling you to do. And we

have seen churches planted, even though not all the agreement

may be had when we were together, But that's fine.

The kingdom continues to grow. Amen. And so our part,

our part is to make sure that we continue to

faithfully believe in the Lord Jesus and not hold any grudges.

Don't hold anything against one another, because really, unforgiveness will

be the main hindrance into the advancement of God's work.

And so we got to let the mission continue in

accordance to God's plan and God's purpose. And so remember this, okay,

mutual compatibility, even sometimes it may not be how we

plan it to be, but we trust that the Lord

has got a plan and a purpose. Amen. That's the

first thing. The next thing is this, we must always

be able to adapt culturally. And this is the second principle.

It's important when we are doing any kind of work

in ministry. And Paul actually likes to work in trees.

He liked to be there with Usually you see the

teams in which he goes out with there are two

more matured men and then one like an apprentice or

an understudy. And John Mark was meant to be the apprentice,

but it didn't happen in this case, and so Paul

decided to set off with Silence. Okay, and Silence in

this case was actually more suitable to accompany Paul on

this journey big cause Barnabas was not a Jewish citizen,

but Silas was a Jewish citizen. He is a Jewish citizen, sorry,

a Roman citizen, Okay. Paul and Silas were both Roman citizens,

and you read further in the scriptures that eventually they

had to use that and that actually helped them in

terms of their mission work and their ministries because they

the fact that they were Roman citizens gave them certain

rights that a non Roman citizen would not have had.

And so we saw how this worked out well. And

Paul was looking for a young person to come alongside,

some understudy together to come along with him and also Silas,

and you know, he met this young chi little boy

by the name of Timothy, who had a Jewish mother.

He was really a mummy's boy because it was his

mummy and grandma that actually taught him the scriptures. He

had a father who was greet, a pagan father, and

the I think I believe if you read the scriptures,

Paul met him in his first missionary journey and he

was converted in this place called Listra. And then years

later met Timothy again, and this time Timothy has grown,

he's matured as a Christian, and then Paul chose Timothy

as an apprentice. It's really something that is quite interesting

to take note of because he subjected Timothy to an

act which sometimes I wonder why did he do it?

Have you ever wondered, because if you read the scriptures,

you realize that Paul's told, basically instructor Timothy to get circumcised.

So he circumcised Timothy in chapter sixteen of the Book

of Acts. In chapter fifteen in the Council of Jerusalem,

he was fighting in a way against circumcision because they

were going on and on about being circumcised to be believer,

to be safe. Remember that that story. Just a few,

not a few, just one chapter before that, and Paul says, okay, uh, Timothy,

you need to be circumcised. And then it happened But

this circumcision was not to save Timothy. It was in

a way so that Timothy could save other people. Why

do I say that, because it enabled Timothy to enter

into a culture in which otherwise he would not be

able to. It would have been closed to him. And

Timothy being he's half jewe Okay, so he's in a

way like a Samaritan. However you want to look at it, Uh,

half great half Jew, and they would not have accepted him.

But because he was circumcised, it allowed him to break

through culturally. Uh. And wherever they went, Timothy could go

into those homes as well without being embarrassed of who

he is. And so Timothy was actually willing to undergo

that so that he might become a better missionary. And

here is the principle of cultural adaptation. Paul did it

for social reasons, not for spiritual reasons, to save others,

not to save Timothy. We wi got to take not

of that that circumstans did not save him one bit,

but it was so that he could be effective in

ministering to others. And so, to put it in other terms,

that every Christian has to learn this. Where did we

get this principle? Of cultural adaptation from why do we

emphasize so much or it's because that is precisely the

principle in which the Son of God became Men cried

like a little baby, new temptations, suffered death, and now

we know him. Do you see that he became one

of us. The Son of God is also the son

of man. And that is why we feel we can

go to Jesus. Why do you think that we relate

to Jesus Is because Jesus came to our level as well,

and he understands and he sympathizes with our problems. It

is because God the Son became like one of us.

That is why we when we go out in his name,

we also have to be able to adapt culturally. We

need to be able to do that. And Paul and

Silence and Timothy so that wherever they went churches was

strengthened in their faith and they grew in numbers daily. Essentially,

what they were doing is they were saying, we want

to become like you, because we would like you to

become as we are in Christ. It's a reciprocal thing

to a certain extent, and that is something that's very

very powerful. And you know, as Malaysians. I thank god,

we we adapt culture, We adapt to different cultures quite easily.

You'll know that that for me is a blessing living

in this land. And that's why I always believe that

Malaysians make the greatest or some of the best missionaries. Really,

food is one of the best ways to adapt to

a different culture. Really, and I I shed this this morning.

No wherever I go, food is one of the best

ways to bond and to engage different communities. No, if

you eat what they cook, they will love it, and

they will welcome you into their homes. And this is

the first thing that they will do. They will, they will,

they will feed you. Almost any culture does that, whether

it's I don't think it's just an Asian culture thing.

Of course, I've been overseas and you go into someone's house,

they will poll you a cup of tea. Okay, maybe

a little bit different, not not like what we have

your biscuits and cookies, et cetera. But it's still something,

you know, we that's how we usually uh engage one another,

and so never look down on this part to be

able to adapt culturally. You know, I used to tell

my kids, there's the reason why I train you or

to eat anything and everything. Uh, And I recognize not

all of us got some things in which we don't

like to eat one it doesn't matter. The training is

not for you to like eating what you don't like.

The training is for you to be able to put

the food into your mouth and swallow it without gagging,

without one thing to throw up, without showing like, oh man,

this is the worst thing that I've ever eaten. Not really,

because wherever we go, and I've been to places where

because I know how to do my best to adapt culturally.

Is there is everything? Do I like everything that I

put into my mouth? No, La, definitely not. There are

some things. I think I'm a bit more flexible. I

eat almost anything. I'm Chinese, and for most Chinese people,

we eat anything that moves. As long as it moves

it walks, we eat it. And that's the case for

me and anything the whole thing we will eat. Yeah. So,

but there are some things I have encountered with really

I don't like, but I don't show it, La, You

just swallow it because I train myself to just swallow

it with a smile. And really it really bridges a

lot of gaps, so learn how to adapt culturally. Sometimes

the things that we do is beyond what you can imagine.

Imagine Timothy having to be circumcised. When I say circumcision,

this money passed. John's scream, yeah can you? But of

course you know how many of you are really to like, Okay,

I'll go through circumcision just so that I can engage

and really be a blessing to others. It takes quite

a lot. Okay. So that's the second principle. Everyone say, okay,

let's continue. The third one is this, I call it

guided strategy. And there is a great difference between where

Paul wanted to go and where God wanted Paul to go. Okay,

big difference. And so this is the strategy. Okay, guided

strategies simply this, Lord, where do you want me to be?

It's not rocket science or sometimes we think or give

me a whole textbook of principles as to what I

need to do to do missions or to go and

to be an effective missionary. No, it's as simple as this, God,

where do you want me to go? Because Paul said this, No,

let's go and have a mission in Bethenia. And then

God slammed the door shut. And then Paul said, let's go.

I appreciate Asia, Let's try to go further north. And

then God slammed the door shut. And then I want

you to notice that, not take note. This is the

principle of guidance that came to Paul. Number one is this.

It's called the guidance of the shut door. We just

need to learn it, okay, because many have had the

disappointment of a door being slammed on their face. All

of us have. And somebody want to say no, but please,

don't be so busy looking at the shut door that

you don't even notice other doors opening up. Sometimes that

is what can happen. And so when Bethenia closed, Asia closed,

and God was driving Paul further down this corridor as

he kept going and kept going to the other and

then this is a second thing that you'll need to notice.

Guidance come to those who are on the move. Why

do I say that? Do you realize it's actually easier

to change directions when you're on the move? Try and

ask I asked the congregation this money. How many of

y'all have driven a car with no power steering before? Okay,

very few, all of your old people like me, because

those young people already now power steering when stationary so

well can turn with one finger. But back then we

had no such thing called power steering. If you are

stationary and you try turning the wheel when it's stationary,

it takes a lot of effort to turn, But when

you're on the move, it's easier. And so that is it.

The guidance must come to those who are on the move.

Don't be static. Paul was never static. Those who are

being slammed and shut in his face. But what did

he do? He kept going. And I do not believe

that we should just sit down and do nothing and say, Lord,

I'm gonna stay right here until you tell me where

I should go. Paul will just keep moving forward, moving forward,

and let God close the doors that need to be closed.

So this is basically an active view of guidance as

opposed to a passif on a passif one is just

if the door is shut, I would just sit outside

the door and wait until that door is open. That's

not how it's supposed to be done. Paul just kept moving,

and the result was that as God shut the doors,

Paul moved further and further and further to a different place.

And eventually he came to this place called Troas, which

is on the extreme western end of what is now Turkey.

And that night he went to bath. He was lying

down and then he had a vision and he realized

the man was saying from over the water ahead of him,

come come and help us. And sometimes people have a

vision of God calling and saying, go to that place.

Sometimes they have a vision of people from different countries,

same place, we need help. Basically, that is a call.

And God speaks in a variety of ways. And Paul,

because he was constantly on the move and being very

very in tune and a line to God, he heard

the Spirit of Jesus guides us every step of the way.

That is actually what the scripture says, the Spirit of Jesus.

It's also the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we some of us,

when we talk about Holy Spirit, we find it had

to relate so hard to relate to the Holy Spirit,

the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, same one and

the same. Okay, So the Spirit of Jesus was guiding him,

guiding us every step of the way. We just need

to be in motion, keep going don't wait to go

for missions. A lot of times we are like a

wait later, await until I retire, all wait until I

have more money in my bank account. I wait until

I finish my exams. You see, missions is praying, Missions

is going, Missions is giving. These are all three things

that you can actively do if you want to be

a part of missions. Work for the Lord, Pray, go, give,

I would even if you can't go immediately. You can

pray every day. You can pray for our missionaries who

are out in the field, our church plank coordinators who

are there laboring in the field, in the marketplace. There

are different ones who are doing different things. You know,

every time I meet our missionaries overseas, they will always say,

thank you so much for praying for us. I know

you are praying. I know the church back home is

praying for us. It's been so challenging, but just the

thought of someone remembering us is enough to keep them going. Really,

so don't be stingy with our prayers. Let's do that.

We can exercise that first. If you think that there's

no way I can be involved in missions, then I

would say no, you can be involving emissions right from

the very get go. Any one of us can pray,

we don't have to. I'm not asking us to pray publicly.

Prayer is actually a very private thing. You can go

into a room and just pray for different ones. Let's

continue to do that. Pray go give immen. So moving

on the thought principle is this tactics, okay, and we've

got to be sensible with our tactics because God tells

us where to go. But more often than not, you

realize that he's also asking us to use our common

sense as to how to go about doing the job.

He wants us to think it through. He wants us

to look where people are. He wants us to figure

out ways in which we get through to them and

how we're going to gather them together. And so what

did Paul and Silence do. Let's look, it's very interesting

that they took two very normal, sensible steps and we

don't have the this is what the Holy Spirit told

them to do. They were just looking around the situation.

They landed on the other side after selling for about

two days. Basically, this was their first step into Europe.

Small steps for Paul and Silence, but a huge step

for Christianity because it essentially brought Christianity into Europe. Macedonia

is actually a province, Roman province somewhere in Greece, if

I'm not mistaken, in Philippi. Philippi kind of area, okay.

And so Europe was to be the center of Christianity

for almost two centuries after that, not two centuries, actually

two thousand years until today. Come to thing of the

two centuries, it's just two hundred years. So when Paul

landed on the shore at this place called Samutrace, he

did not stay there. He moved on to near place.

He didn't stay there, He moved on to Philippi. Why

Philippi is the question that we have to ask, because

Philippi was actually a central town in that area. And

isn't that the most sensible thing to do. If you

want to go to a place to share something and

get that thing to splait, you go to an area

where it's the main town, the main city. And that's

why a lot of the missions work of the early

missionaries are always in port cities, because that's where people

are coming from all sorts of different directions, coming in,

going out, coming in, going out. It's a city center

is buzzing with life, and so that was a sensible

thing to do, and Paul went to the central town.

What he would usually do is he would then try

to establish a church there. And to establish a church,

he has to start somewhere. And usually what he does

is he has to look for people to start and

you realize that he will always go and look for

those who are interested. Sometimes you hear us saying we

when we go and do missions, what we look for

the man of peace basically, not the one who will

take stones that through it you are, is those who

would be ready to at least hear you out. And

I do that a lot with community development work as

a community developer. When I go into marginalized and underprivileged communities,

a lot of them won't accept you going in, even

though if you want to help them. But I have

to find ways to breach the gap because they are suspicious,

they don't know what you are up to. They were also,

but we've got to engage them. And how we engage

them is really we got to meet different ones, and

then you gauge who is for you and who is

against you, and then you work with those who are

for you I've been into communities where all I need

is one person to be open, and that one person

is the one that I can build a friendship and

then eventually a relationship, and then that person will connect

us with others. That is how it's always been done.

It's not rocket science. Again, it's the sensible thing to do.

And so Paul and Silas where did they decided to

go and meet them? They decided to go to the riverside? Okay,

somehow that area. Usually you see Paul going to the

synagogues first, because those that's where the Jews meet. Even

though he is called to save the gentiles, he will

still go and meet those that he knows he can

share the scripture to without outright resistance because they share

the same scriptures to a certain extent. So you will

usually look for synagoguess. In this case, PHILIPPI didn't probably

didn't have a synagogue, and I don't know why came.

One day. We can go and ask God why it's

in there synagogue. Apparently there are some Jews there, But

you need a quorum to start a synagogue. If you

study some of these things, you will realize. I think

it's a quorum of ten or a korum of twelve

to actually start a place of worship for the Jews. Okay,

but maybe there weren't a lot of them. There were

a few of them. They were washing their clothes. It's

just the very place that they go to on the

Sabbath to pray. I don't know riverside. I don't know

why they're praying at the riverside, but apparently Paul found out.

He went there and he met different ones, and so

there was a sensible thing to do, going to the

place where there was the most hope of finding people

who are interested in God. And they didn't find a

man as per the vision. They actually found a woman

who was a trader of expensive cloth. Okay, that's how

they met Lydia. But that doesn't mean that they will

not meet the men in the vision, because if you

read on in the scriptures, eventually, I believe the men

in the vision in whom they met is the jailer

when Paul and Silas eventually went to jail four, which

is what will happen after this. And so this is

the principle of sensible strategy. Go to the place where

influence can spread. It's it's not rocket science. When you

get there, look for the people most interested in God

and begin with them, and the church will be built.

Seek out the Man of peace. Amen. And so Paul

stayed there for a while, and then we move on.

If you read on chapter sixteen, sorry, verses sixteen to

verse forteen. Hey, I'm going to summarize it only in

the interests of time, But go back and read the

whole chapter sixteen because I'm going to be sharing from there.

So if you read verse sixteen to forty, is basically

an account of Paul, I think and silas they went

to They might have gone to the market or something

like that. And then there there was this girl who

was screaming on top of her lungs that what did

she say? Can someone tell me what she said? This

is servant of the Most High or something that. Okay,

so she was she wasn't saying something bad. No, she

was essentially saying that this Paul and Silence they served

the Most High God. But she was doing it in

a manner in which was really not very edifying. Because

she was screaming, she was shrinking. You could think that

this is on free publicity for Paul. He should have

actually liked Taylor, but he rebuked her. Actually he rebuked her,

and I'll explain why he rebuked her, but sufficed to

say when he did that, this girl lost the ability

to know things. And we know actually the ability for

her to know things was not a divine ability. It

was something that she drew, not from God's holy power,

but from evil. Actually, so the manner in which she

was doing it was not right. The sauce where she

got this some people call it premonitions, okay, you have foresight,

was not of God as well. And so when Paul

and Silence rebuiked her, basically the evil spirit left and

then she lost the ability. And then of course there

were people who were actually using her to make money,

because she was probably part of some syndicate I can imagine,

and they used this girl to make money. And so

now that she doesn't have this ability to see the

future or say things anymore, basically they had no ability

to make money. They were angry. They basically send Paul

and Silence to jail, and that's how they ended up

in jail. Okay, so that is what happened at this

and then after that in jail we read of that

all the time, they were singing hymns in the jail,

and then there came an earthquake and the shackles came loose,

and the security, God, the chief security, was about to

kill himself. Why because as the chief security, what happens

when you lose one prisoner, you got to pay back

whatever the punishment for the prisoner is what you have

to pay back. So if the prisoner is actually being

jailed there for I don't know, two years, and the

prisoner escapes, the jailer has to go into prison for

two years. And we know that most likely these flirts

were all in the death row prison, and so the

only thing for him to do was to kill himself.

He was actually ready to kill himself. That's the account

in which we read. Okay, so two very profound things

that I want us to just draw from this first,

and then I will wrap it up. Okay, some insights

from this passage which I didn't manage to read with

your but I give you a quick summary. Firstly, I

want you all to take note of this. In God's thinking,

the supernatural and the natural are to be kept together. Okay,

I will explain why I say this. Whereas in the

world's thinking, it's forever separated. Okay. The second thing is this,

In God's thinking, good and evil are to be kept apart.

But the world's thinking is this, we put them together. Okay,

why do I say that? Okay, let's start with the

first point. The world in which we live in actually

finds it very difficult to relate to the supernatural reality

as opposed to natural reality normal. I don't blame anyone.

So things beyond this world against the things of this

world very hard to put it together. And we all

have been through the scientific age, and the scientific age

is this. No people are removing the supernatural all together.

They say, unless you can prove this and prove that,

unless you can prove that God exists with scientific proof,

I'm not going to believe it. Unless I can see,

I can touch, I can taste, I can smell, then

only will I believe. That is how the world is operating.

The only reality is the natural reality and signs whatever

science discovers. And so when they read the Bible and

you come to say a miraculous act, usually a lot

of people try to explain it away. Oh, Nola, Nola,

cannot can happen? On one is like suddenly the Bible

becomes a sob fable, it becomes fairy tale. So some

parts of the Bible is factual, other parts that cannot

be explained is fairy tale that cannot be right. But

that cannot also happen because you realize that men, we

are also supernatural beings who long for supernatural things of

this world. Every Why do you think religion is such

a big thing, Because there is a part of earth

that longs for what is beyond what we can see

in what touch because we are made that way. That

is the reality of it. If you just want to

survive on material things, living in a material world, it

will not happen because if you look at it across

the board. I believe this world more people who believe

in the supernatural, who believe in a god. If you

believe in gods, that for me, it's a supernatural act

in itself. Ready, and you know that there are many

people who at some point of their life we will

believe that there is a higher power. Usually when life

is flashing right before them and they have no control

over it. Then suddenly they realize there is something beyond it,

and that is the reality. You get this sharp division

between the supernatural and the natural, and sometace you find

people wondering which world to live in. Do I live

in the scientific world? Do I live in the natural world?

Which one is it? But the Bible actually puts the

supernatural and the natural together. It teaches you to live

in this natural world, but to expect miracles if you

read the scripture. That's why it says, expect science and

wonders to follow the preaching of the world. Live down here,

but expect God to break through. Expect the supernatural to

affect the natural. When you read your scriptures, you will

know that expect a miracle. When you pray? What are

you doing when you pray? You are actually linking the

supernatural and the natural? If you think about it. If

you don't believe in the supernatural, then you don't believe

in prayer because you are praying towards supernatural God. What

are you doing when you worship? What do you think

we're doing when we're worshiping God. We are seeking to

bring these two worlds together, the supernatural and the natural.

And here we are no natural people, flesh and blood

subject to the law of gravity, or we'll be floating

up in the ceiling. See, we are subjected to what

is natural as well, and that's why my feet is

on the ground. But we are right here in this

material world, living down here. But we are to seek

the supernatural. God puts it together. But you see the

second insight is this, the good and evil part must

also be a part. The world keeps trying to bring

it together. And once again that is very, very dangerous,

because that's why in today's world there is no more

line between what is right and what is wrong. Everything

becomes a matter of pure personal opinion. You are what

you are, you are what you want to be, you

are what you think you should be. It's dangerous. No,

we think that we are all immoral beings, and there

is no such thing as morality and immorality. Everything is

amorl That's not what scripture tells us. And God has

been trying to keep good and evil apart all these bottle,

but humans are always trying to merge them together. So

bring together the natural and the supernatural, but keep apart

the good and the evil. That is God's way of

thinking of the world. That is a principle. There is

a profound truth in which we need together when we

are reading scriptures and understanding even this whole thing about missions,

because remember this, all the things that we are reading

about this girl who had this supernatural ability to do

certain things, and then eventually she had to be stopped,

she had to be rebuilt, and then what happened Paul

and Silence gets thrown into prison. How many of y'all

think that what happened in prison was a Was it

a supernatural thing or was it a natural thing? Was

the earthquake a natural thing or supernatural thing? I think

the earthquake is natural, happens everywhere, It's a force of

nature that for me is quite natural. But for the

earthquake to not break the whole prison, to break only

the chains in which they are shackled in, Okay, that

one supernatural. I mean, that's that's that's the truth, and

that is why we read No what else is supernatural? Well,

for for the prison cells to be broken and for

no one running away as greatly supernatural. Because I don't

think there's one prison in this world where suddenly the

doors flings open and then everyone is like, all right,

let's stay on in here and meet and serve out

our centers. No, one's going to do that right. And

so really both the supernatural and the natural keep it together.

And Paul really lived this out. He lived it out,

and this is something that we got to continue to remember.

These are the things in which sometimes we try to

separate the way the world separates. But the world is

not whom we live after. We live for Christ, and

we live for Jesus. And he has asked us, and

he has reminded us remember the person of Christ. This

is who Paul continues to introduce us to. We must trust,

we must believe, we must commit our life to Jesus,

and that's how you can be safe. And that's what

he explained to the jailor because the jailer asked this

so important question, what can I do to be saved?

When he witnessed the supernatural and the natural taking place.

That was the first question. I think that was such

an important question to ask, what can I do to

be saved? It's a question that all of us sitd here.

I believe at some point of our lives did ask

that question. If not, we won't be here. And I

believe you have got your answers because it is Jesus

who saves us, and he says, all you need to

do is repent and believe, and you and your household

will be saved. The supernatural and the natural got together,

and lives will change. And that's why until today, if

someone asked me, no, does miracles actually still take place

in church? I would tell them Salvation in itself is

a miracle. For me. It is a miracle if you

think about it. If you think about it, the supernatural

and the natural God together and lives will change. That

isn't what happens at salvation when we are saying that Lord,

I am sorry for being who I am. I'm sorry

for doing all the wrong things that I have done.

And now I choose to repent and turn my life

around so that I can live for you. And thereafter

now I want to believe in you. Amen, the band

can come up. I'm almost done. You know, this is

all a result of God stepping in. This is a

result of the supernatural and the natural interacting. And basically

all this when it happens, new people are being made

by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one

that makes us new. And so remember this scripture from Romans.

In Paul's own words, No, he actually says this, In

my mind, I really want to obey God's law, but

because of my sinful nature, I'm a slave to sin.

In my mind, I really want to obey God's law,

but because of my sinful nature, I am a slave

to sin. You know, you know, Paul, when you read Romans,

I think Romans one, two, three, four, or five, six,

seven all the way to eight. Especially in seven and eight,

it's like a paradox or all. He's like, the things

I want to do, I don't do. The things I

don't want to do I do is that constant struggle.

All of us go to death that struggle and that

challenge in life. But I want you all to remember this.

You see, a Christian is the only position. It's the

only person in this world who is in a position

to serve one of two masters. As Christians, as believers,

we can choose to serve one of two masters. If

we are not believers, we are only led by one master,

which is our flesh. And that's the truth. We all

know it. We are all led by our flesh before

we became believed. We're all led by flesh, and we

move in accordance to how we feel, how we think, no,

what we want, what we think we need. Why is

it that when I pray with people, I always tell

them that now you have the freedom to choose as believers,

because as Christians we have this ability to choose between

one or two masters. We have that choice, a choice

that was not accorded to anyone, but a Christian is

free to choose either. You can either choose to follow

your flesh, or you can choose to follow the spirit.

If you choose to live in the spirit, then you

will discover that this tension eventually goes. That's what Paul

is trying to explain in Romans. There is always going

to be this tension. What I want to do, I

don't do. What I don't want to do, I do.

And so Paul is saying, look, if we are still

stuck in the flesh, then we need to realize as

believers we have a freedom to choose to do what

is right. You see, that was a freedom, and there

was a choice that was never afforded to those who

do not believe. But because we believe today, and that

is why until now we say that we are free

to choose life. When there is freedom in our lives,

we are alive. When there is no freedom, we are

dead day to our flesh. In our flesh, we are there.

And so when we go out and do missions, what

are we essentially doing. We are telling people about this

freedom that they have because all of us are bound bound.

But if you are still sitated here and you still

feel bound, I want to tell you this. You have

a choice today, and I pray that we will continue

because it is a choice which means that we have

to intentionally just like you've got to intentionally love your

wife every single day. You know, if I tell people,

the minute you get married, it's going to be the

smoothest journey for the rest of your life. Everything is

going to be okay, everything is going to be great.

You're gonna laugh your way through and smile your way

through a marriage. You're thinking sea this morning, someone says, no,

it's thing. I think joy very loud, very loud, she said.

But it's intentional. There miss daily you're making that choice.

But what we have now is the choice to do

what is right. And I pray we know and we

realize this freedom that we have with us, because if

you realize this freedom that you have in your hands

right now, you won't keep it to yourself because there

are many others out there who do not have this

same freedom and who still continue to serve one master

in their life, and that is the flesh of their

bodies and their hearts, and their minds and their souls.

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