The Way | I Wouldn't Do It That Way — Forrest Coleman

Hey, I'm Pastor Forrest, and welcome to the Multiply Church Podcast.

Each week we open God's word together to help you meet God and multiply good in your everyday life.

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Now, let's dive into this week's sermon.

We're in the series The Way.

And we're in our fourth week together as we jump into this new series.

Maybe one of these uh people who say who's in charge here?

You know when somebody says that that's probably not because they're about to give a compliment to somebody.

The next question, they ask, you know, can I speak to the manager?

Have these nobody's ever seen one of these Karen moments out there?

Can I speak to the manager?

Back in 2014, the police in England released a video recording of this woman who called their emergency number because she was unhappy with the sprinkles on her ice cream.

She said they were on one side but not on the other, and that the vendor would not give her a refund.

And she wanted the police involved because of her sprinkles.

That's a serious commitment to ice cream right there.

You know.

Now, before we get too confident about how reasonable people we are, most of us at one time or another, we've used this word or this phrase.

I wouldn't do it that way.

I wouldn't do it that way.

Your kids trying to do something, I wouldn't do it that way.

New co-worker is working on something, I wouldn't do that way.

Nobody in here has ever gone behind somebody, a dishwasher, and moved the dishes around.

I wouldn't do it that way.

And sometimes you do know a better way.

But what happens when that person whose decisions you're questioning is Jesus?

Because we have situations that actually are serious when we're wondering, we're asking, God, God, I really wouldn't do it this way.

You have a relationship that falls apart, or this opportunity that just vanishes that you thought you were gonna have, or somebody that hurts you, or something you've been praying for a long time, and you've been hoping for it, and you're looking at life and thinking, you know what?

Jesus, I wouldn't do it that way.

And now asking God why, that's that's not necessarily wrong.

I've said this many times here.

God is big enough for our questions, God has broad enough shoulders for our whys and for us to ask, He can handle it.

Just ask him.

But my question today for you and for me is can I trust Jesus when I would handle the situation differently?

What can I trust Jesus when I would handle the situation differently?

As we get into the book of Acts, and now we're getting close to chapter five from last week.

As we've looked at Acts, we've seen all kinds of different things happen.

We've seen miracles that have happened, we've seen prison that happen to Jesus' followers today.

We're gonna see beatings and we're gonna see rejoicing.

We're gonna see the first martyr ever who dies for the faith, the church scattering, the people of God, the gospel spreading, and all in the middle of that, we're gonna see that Jesus is reigning.

Now, I'm gonna break some rules in preaching today, because I'm gonna give too much story in one message today.

Now, hopefully I can make this clear, but I think y'all are up for it.

I think y'all can handle it.

So I'm gonna tell and pick up the story where we ended in Acts chapter four, starting in chapter five, and get us to Acts chapter eight.

And so I'm gonna go through a lot of Acts right now.

So gather around the campfire as I tell you what's going on in the story.

Here's where we've gotten to.

The church is growing fast in Jerusalem.

Thousands of people are following Jesus.

People are sharing what they have, they're selling possessions and giving to the poor.

The apostles are now preaching openly, the sick are being healed.

But everything isn't going completely smoothly because in the beginning of Acts chapter 5, we're gonna see this husband and wife named Ananias and Sapphira who sell some property and bring the money to the apostles.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

But the problem is that they're pretending that the gift that they've given is the actually the entire price of what they sold, and they're being deceptive.

And Peter confronts Ananias and he dies on the spot, and then a few hours later, Sapphira comes in and she also lies, and she also dies, and the church is shaken.

It's like this sobering of the fact that while there's this enormous things that are happening publicly, that also the Holy Spirit is actually holy and it's serious, and the church in Jerusalem is learning this is not a game, and still the church is growing.

And then we're gonna see prison and preaching as the apostles they're performing these signs and wonders, and crowds are gathering, and the the high priest and his followers are getting jealous, and so they arrest the apostles.

And that night an angel appears in the prison and then tells them to go back to the temple and to continue preaching Jesus and continuing to teach, and that's what they do.

This is Acts chapter 5, verse 17.

Acts 5:17

The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.

They arrested the apostles and put them in public jail.

But an angel of the Lord came that night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out.

Then he told them, Go to the temple and give the people this message of life.

Now imagine being those guards that next morning.

The officials arise to arrive to get the prisoners, and they look in the jail cell and nobody's there.

And not only is nobody there, they're actually back in the temple preaching the Jesus that you just threw them in prison for doing.

And they're out there, and the doors of the jail have been opened up, and God's made this way, and they're back preaching about Jesus, and the apostle has just happened.

Now that's that's a great story.

That's how I will, that's what I would do.

I would want it that way.

But then you got to keep reading.

Because then the apostles, they're brought back, they're apprehended, they're brought back before the council, and then the leaders demand for them to stop teaching about Jesus, and Peter and the apostles tell them, no, they're not gonna stop, and they're not going to listen to them, they're gonna be obedient to God, and the council is furious, and then a teacher named Gameliel stands up and intervenes and warns them that this move of God, this council, it may find itself opposing God rather than just the apostles.

This is verse 38.

So uh he says this so my advice leave these men alone, let them go.

If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.

But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

You may even find yourselves fighting against God.

The others accept his advice, they call the apostles and have them flogged.

Then they ordered them to never speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go.

And the apostles left the high council, rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.

He stands up and says, Hey, if this thing is is not of God, well, it's it's gonna stop.

But if it is of God, then it's gonna be unstoppable.

And this council, they they release them, but before they do, they beat them, and then they're rejoicing because of their allegiance to Jesus that they've been counted worthy to suffer as they're teaching and preaching about Jesus.

Now, Jesus just opened the prison and let them out, but then why is he not preventing them from being beaten?

What's the formula here?

Because this would have been a great opportunity for a heavenly rescue, just like a SWAT team of angels to come in, get them out in a heavenly helicopter, rescue them.

Now, why would they just got the busted out of prison?

But now they're suffering and now they're being beaten for the witness that they have of Christ.

And the the church is then continuing to grow.

And there are more problems that arise.

There's problems that arise in Acts chapter 6, as we see problems that are happening in the kingdom, and Philip, who's the name you should remember.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

In Acts 6, the Greek-speaking believers, they're starting to complain that their widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

And so they choose seven men who are filled with wisdom and the spirit, and two of those names that are important that you should remember are Stephen and Philip.

Now, Stephen continues to serve God, and is there's signs that are happening, and he's witnessing for Jesus.

And the council gets word of this, and they start putting out false accusations about Stephen.

They bring him before the council.

And pretty soon you're gonna see Stephen verse Saul.

They accuse Stephen of speaking against Moses in the temple and the high priest there.

What they're accusing of him, it's not true.

And Stephen stands before them and he gives an account, and he speaks and tells them about the story of Israel about Abraham and Joseph and Moses in the wilderness in the temple, and he talks about God's faithfulness and those who have been faithful to God, and that these leaders have repeatedly rejected Jesus, and they're furious.

Look at verse 45, uh 54.

The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusations, they shook their fists at him in rage.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand.

And he told them, Look, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand.

Then they put their hands over their ears and began to shout.

They rushed him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

And he fell to his knees, shouting, Lord, don't charge them with this sin.

And with that, he died.

Stephen, the first martyr of the faith.

He's having lies spoken about him.

He sees the heavens open up and he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God, this fulfillment, the Son of Man from Daniel chapter 7, this reigning ruler of the kingdom.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

And Jesus is standing there as Stephen is surrounded by this opposition, and Jesus is watching and standing for him as he's literally being stoned to death.

And standing there, watching it all, is a man named Saul.

Approving.

Now, if you know your Bible, you know that that Saul will become the Apostle Paul.

But we've got Acts chapter 5, we've got the prison doors open, we got the apostles that are walking out.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Now we're in Acts chapter 7, and now Stephen is seeing heaven open, and he's not escaping, he's not getting out, there's not a rescue, there's not an angel shows up, there's not a stopping of the attack.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Stephen is stoned to death.

I wouldn't do it that way.

That's not how I would have written the story.

Stephen sees Jesus reigning over his circumstances.

But standing right there is Saul, who one day will become the most prolific missionary of Jesus and the Apostle Paul.

Some people take Stephen's body and they mourn over him and they bury him.

And that same day, there's a scattering of the church.

But as it scatters, the word of God also spreads.

There's persecution that comes against the church.

And Saul is going from house to house, dragging believers out of their homes, men and women, and throwing them into prison.

And people are leaving Jerusalem.

The believers, they're scattering, the apostles are staying there in Jerusalem.

They're scattering through Judea and Samaria.

This is what happens at the beginning of Acts 8.

Verse 1, Saul was one of the witnesses.

He agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.

A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.

Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.

But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church.

He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.

But the believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus wherever they went.

The church is beginning to get persecuted.

Saul is going house to house, pulling people out, sending them to jail.

And all of that is not silencing these believers.

They're continuing to speak about the name of Jesus.

And suddenly, where we started in this whole series in Acts chapter 8, that Jesus looked at his followers and said, You will be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And we're literally watching that happen.

They're now scattered.

And one of those seven men, Philip, goes into Samaria.

And we've talked about this area of Samaria.

That there's a lot of history there, that this northern kingdom that hundreds of years ago, that Israel had had divided the north and the south, and that Assyria had conquered Samaria.

And because of that, there was uh there was a mixing of religion and there was a mixing of ethnicity, and there was all this animosity among the Jews that were in Judea around this area of Samaria, that they were no longer following God in a pure way, and the Samaritans had their own way of they worshiped at Mount Gerizim and not at Jerusalem, which you hear about when Jesus is with the woman at the well, who's the Samaritan, because Jesus he went into this area and broke those barriers.

And here's Philip following in the footsteps of Jesus, going into this area where there's all these old wounds and suspicion, and it's not just one side of the track and the other side.

This is like deep wounds.

And see what happens in verse 5.

Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people about the Messiah.

Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear this message, his message, and see the miraculous signs he did.

Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims.

And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed.

So there was great joy in that city.

Philip goes into Samaria.

He begins to proclaim Christ.

People are listening, people are getting delivered from demons.

There's healings that are going on, there's great joy that's happening.

And where there's all this grief back in Jerusalem, now there's great joy happening in Samaria as people are hearing about Jesus.

And as Philip is ministering in Samaria, the story zooms in on, because we're zooming in and out.

Zooms in on one guy.

Things are about to get strange.

Are you ready for the strange?

It's about to get weird.

It's gonna get weirder.

The scripture zooms in on one guy named Simon the Sorcerer.

Verse 9.

A man named Simon, who had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria, claimed to be someone great.

Everyone from the least of the greatest often spoke of him, the great one, the power of God.

They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic.

Now the people believed Philip's message of good news concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ.

And as a result, many men and women were baptized.

Then Simon himself believed and was baptized.

He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed.

Here we zoom in on one guy, Simon the Sorcerer.

Who is practicing magic?

That's what this Greek word sorcerer means, practicing magic.

Now, him practicing magic was not something that was a part of the Samaritan religion.

He was doing something totally out, he was doing witchcraft, and he we don't know exactly what he was doing.

We don't know if he was doing spells or divination or if he was invoking spirits.

We don't know what he was doing, but all we know is that people were once amazed with him, but now all of a sudden he's amazed with what Philip is doing and what God is doing through this man Philip.

And you have Simon versus Philip.

You got Simon, who he's doing great works, or so to be said, and he's promoting himself.

And then you've got Philip who's there, who he's proclaiming Jesus.

And Simon is seeing that all these people are being drawn to Philip and that they're believing his message.

And then he starts falling and he gets saved.

Simon the sorcerer gets saved, he gets baptized.

And then Peter and John show up in verse 14.

When the apostles of Jerusalem heard the people of Samaria accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there.

As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and they received the Holy Spirit.

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given, when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power.

Let me have this power too, he exclaimed.

You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God.

Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord.

Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts, for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and have let have held been held captive by sin.

Pray to the Lord for me, Simon exclaimed.

That these terrible things you've said won't happen to me.

Simon is watching as the apostles show up.

They're praying for believers who've been baptized in Jesus' name prior to the resurrection and not by with the Holy Spirit.

And as he's watching them, what he's beginning to do is Beginning to see what they're doing, and he's thinking about this in the old way that he used to do things.

Man, they got a power.

I mean, I've got some tricks.

I'll pay for this.

I need some of this.

Any of y'all have uh on your phone where you haven't updated your operating system?

Some of y'all have right now, you know where it says you need to update your operating system.

And if you let that go long enough, stuff on your phone stops working.

New things that come out, new features, new apps.

Say can't you know can't use this on this operating system.

And in the same way, in our relationship with God, if we try to do things our old way, our before Christ's days, if we try to do things our old way, we're gonna miss out on the new things that God is trying to do in our lives.

The new thing that God has for you may be blocked because you're still holding on to your old way.

You're still coming to sorcery saying, I mean, I need some of this my old way.

I'm gonna go back.

I'm just I'm just giving them some money.

And Peter looks at him and says, Repent.

Change your ways, change your thought, you're saved, you're baptized, do away with this old way in your life.

Get off of your old operating system and get into what God is wanting to do new in your life.

Some of us are holding on so tightly to the sin that we had before Christ that it's keeping us from the life that Jesus wants for us and the blessing right now.

Let it go.

Repent.

Ask for forgiveness.

Confess to somebody, change what you're doing, not in your own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Release your old ways so you can follow the way of Jesus.

Release it.

You know, you don't have to understand the whole story in order to take your next step of obedience with God.

That looks like on Monday when you go into the office, you can't control everything that your supervisor is gonna do, but what you can control is whether or not you're gonna lie, whether you're gonna keep your word, whether you're gonna notice somebody who's overlooked, whether you're gonna speak about Jesus to somebody with love and not treat them like a project.

Trust that Jesus has his best for you.

If you don't walk in faithfulness, you can't control everything.

But don't try to live your old way and want Jesus to bless it.

A few months ago, after service, a very brave woman came to me.

And she asked me, she said, I I've I'm following Jesus, um, but I have all these crystals and things in my house uh and different things that I've used.

Do I do I need to get rid of those now?

And um I just took it very serious with her.

And I said, um, you know, those things there's there's legitimate power there, but that power is gonna lead to destruction in your life.

Holding on to these things of witchcraft.

And she looked back at me and she said, totally serious, she said, that's happened to me over and over and over again.

And I said, You need to get rid of it.

And she said, I will, and we we prayed together.

She was trying to bring old ways along with her and a new thing that Jesus wanted to do in her.

And instead of you trying to follow your own ways and make God do things on your own terms.

You know, this week as I was looking at these passages and I was sitting there and I was reading about Stephen, and um I was just overcome with emotion and just started crying, uh tearing up, thinking about Stephen as he's being killed, and um and he sees Jesus standing up, honoring him, and the heaven opening up and welcoming him in home.

A king who's reigning on the throne, Stephen, he didn't get the whole story, he didn't know that Saul, who was standing right there, was literally being about to be transformed and impacted by his witness.

And I wondered for for us and for myself, can we trust a king?

And this time of walking out our life with Jesus.

Yeah, we may not know why in all the stories, why things turn up like it is, but we can trust the fact that Jesus is why writing this grand story through our lives, our faithfulness.

If we will trust.

I am.

I'm terrible side seat driving.

I my wife, she can attest.

I I like to drive everywhere we go.

I like for my wife Emily to be a passenger princess.

And for every once in a while, Emily will drive, and I'm like, you need to slow down.

You need to watch out.

Break, break, break.

None of y'all do that.

Yeah, some of us treat God just that same way.

We say, God, we I I want you, I want you to drive my life.

I want you to lead my life.

I want you to I want you to walk me into our purpose and the blessings in our life.

But you know what, I I I'm still gonna tell you how to do it.

I'm still gonna tell you what I think you need to do.

You know, we don't get to choose our battles in life.

And um this week somebody in our church uh just encouraged me a lot by saying this or sending this to me.

It's said, remember in the valley what you learned on the mountaintop.

This week, over the last few days, I prayed with a grieving widow whose husband of 46 years just passed, somebody who was baptized in our church.

I'll tell that story a different time.

I I prayed this last week with people who were in life all going into life-altering surgery.

And I also prayed for God to help me with the shaky table at a restaurant that I was at.

I'm like, Lord, get this figured out, please.

And he did.

I took a little piece of paper and put it under there.

You've done it before.

Those are not remotely equal.

But what we see in Acts is that these people who are committed to Jesus and they didn't get every answer about what was happening, they didn't get their preferred timeline or all their preferences on what was gonna happen.

But as Stephen looked up, he saw the heavens opened up, and Jesus welcoming him home.

Jesus, ready to receive him for eternity.

God's life is so short compared to eternity.

And here we have Stephen, and he's singing Jesus as the heavens are opened up, and Jesus has opened up the heavens for us.

We can trust the king because he gave himself to us in the fact that he died on the cross in our place and walked into and was put into a borrowed tomb and walked out victorious, risen, and ascended to the Father in heaven, and now is seated on the throne.

And there's times where we're gonna worship together as a church, and we're worshiping, and in my mind, I'm just thinking about Jesus, and I have this vision in my mind of it just standing up at the right hand of the Father as we're worshiping and as we're giving him praise.

We can trust the King who gave himself to us, and our eternity won't start one day, it can start today when we are in Christ, when we've given our life to him.

And here's Stephen, who's being received by Jesus, and the heavens are opened up, and Jesus will receive you as well.

Will you trust the King?

I wouldn't do it that way.

Would you trust the King?

Would you stand to your feet?

As I pray for us, Father, all across the room right now, God, I thank you, Lord.

For the fact that you don't abandon us.

Lord, when we're in the valley, God, that you are with us and teach us while we're on the mountaintop.

And right now, God, I pray for our church right now that our faith would strengthen and be strong.

That we would have strong faith, Lord, in what you did for us, Jesus, on the cross.

And God, I pray for every person in this place right now that claims to be a follower of you, that claims to be a Christian, that claims to be somebody who follows you, that God, right now, Lord, you would bring to their mind, God, ways where they are telling you that I wouldn't do it that way, God, but that today they're going to say, God, I want you to do it in your way.

Jesus, thank you that you are the way, you are the truth, you are the life.

And right now, God, I pray, right now, there's anybody in this room who has not received you as Savior, who's not been saved, who's not trusted in your death, bear, and resurrection, has not repented of their sins and been forgiven, that today would be the day of their salvation, that today would be the day that they pray in their mind and heart, Jesus, save me.

If that's you, pray in your mind and heart, Jesus, save me.

I believe that you died on the cross for my sin, that you walked out of the grave alive, and that you're the Son of God.

Forgive me, cleanse me so I can be in heaven with you one day.

I repent, I give you my life as you gave yours for mine.

Thank you for saving me.

We're so grateful you joined us for this week's message.

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If today you made the decision to follow Jesus, we'd be honored to walk with you on this journey.

Visit multiplyky.com to let us know.

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