I Did Not SHRINK From Ministry S5e128 Acts20:20

Watch as Paul makes decisions amidst the "cooperative sovereignty" of the newly launched Holy Spirit.  He is in a HURRY to get to Jerusalem for Pentecost, which is "Christmas Day for the Holy Spirit". On one hand he is 'constrained by the Holy Spirit' and on the other, he is deciding, acting, and GETTING BUSY with urgency.  If we could jolt the modern church one way or the other, I think it would be more towards boldness and not shrinking.

Then we hear from Paul at his most intimate.  He is giving final words to people he'll never see again til heaven.  They are serious believers so are in the same business as he is.  It is a business of BEING AMONG, HUMILITY, TEARS, and TRIALS.  All of it falls under the heading of serving THE LORD (by serving His people). In all these acts of ministry Paul encourages us to NOT SHRINK from our tasks. Share with your boldest keystroke.  Subscribe into your strong Podcast lineup at Apple, Spotify, or Google.  Type a few requests with confidence to bewithme.us

Transcript

Michael Smith: 0:00

Good morning, our brothers and sisters Welcome to Episode 128. In be with me, Paul has just finished raising somebody from the dead his name was lucky. So he either if he was a believer, he was the unluckiest guy in the world that he had to leave paradise and come back. Or if he was a non believer, which I'm now favoring, which is different than yesterday, he was lucky that now he gets a chance in this world to, to have faith and become a believer. So Paul is intro class, and he has sent a group of seven guys ahead of him. And they're waiting for him. And let me finish the story of the resurrection, if you will, of this guy. This is going to lead into a story which I wanted to get to today about decision making number one. And the second thing I want to talk about that it's touched my heart is a pastoral letter to pastors Paul writes to the elders of the church of, of Ephesus actually doesn't write it, he speaks it because he calls them to be with him. Okay, so here's the end of the story of the raising from the dead. Paul went down bent over him, that's the guy named lucky. And taking him in his arm said Do not be alarmed for his life ism. This is the next chapter 20 Verse 10. And when Paul had gone up, he had broken bread and eaten he conversed with them a long while until daybreak, and so departed, so basically stays up all night, the guy falls out the window at midnight. And now this is Daybreak sunrise. And the rest of the story begins to happen. So he stays up all all night long. And they took the youth away alive. And we're not a little comforted, and others they were comforted a lot. But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for ESOs. So this is at least Luke talking because Luke is the one that's writing. And Paul has made some plans here. So again, it's how do you make decisions in light of the Holy Spirit in dwelling, and here it is intending to take Paul aboard there for so he had arranged intending himself to go buy land. So Paul is going to walk across the peninsula, kind of like kitty corner, and then Luke and maybe some others are going to take a ship around the peninsula, and I'm going to meet you on the other side in a soce. But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for ESOs intending to take Paul aboard there for so he had arranged intending himself to go buy land. And when he met us at ESOs, we took him aboard and we went to and then they're going to give three land cities here Metaline and sailing from there we came the came the following day, opposite Kaos. The next day we touched at Samos, and the day after that we went to Miletus. Now these are either Greek islands or Turkish islands or Macedonia islands. I'm not sure which ones lead them but they're in the north of the Aegean Sea and they're sealing using the kind of island hopping, and they're getting to a city nearby, Ephesus with which is my latest for Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus. So he's making a decision again, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, which is the Roman province of AJ Ephesus is the capital for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem. So get this Paul, St. Paul was in a hurry. Well, what's he in a hurry about? If possible? On the day of Pentecost, he wants to get to Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost. Now what is Pentecost remember, that's the day the Holy Spirit comes down. It's Christmas Day, if you will. They didn't celebrate Christmas at that time. They celebrated Pentecost. It is Christmas Day for the Holy Spirit. That is the coming of the Holy Spirit. Just like Christmas is the coming of Jesus. So Paul, in Jerusalem, which is where this happened with Pentecost happened. Paul wants to get back to Jerusalem for this big day of celebration very clearly. Alright, verse 17. Now Miletus from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him so I'm latest is the port town nearby Ephesus. He calls the elders to him and then gives this amazing pastoral letter here. Gives it in person not by letter. And when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you. The whole time from the first day I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility. With tears, and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, and how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public, and from house to house. Alright, let me stop there. Because there's so much that's in there in this, this pastoral charge to other pastors and non professionals. The first thing, I think that this in general, we see this intimate look into Paul's heart, as far as I can tell, this is one of the most personal sections about Him in His ministry. And he's finishing here, his third missionary journey, by my count, that's actually his ninth missionary journey, he's going to the next one is going to be his 10th, or his fourth missionary journey. Again, it's going to go to Rome, and he's going to end his life is never going to leave there in that it's not you know, I don't know if he can see the end from here. I don't know if he knows that this is the end, but he can kind of see it and sense it, you get the feel of that. And we get the sneak peak of the, of the precious things that he wants to tell his his fellow pastor kind of guys. First, he says, I'm among you, that I fellowship with you. It's the one another's, it's my presence among you uses the word among you. He lived with the Ephesians For for two years. And then he says, I serve the Lord. So the service is yes to the Ephesians. But primarily, it's to the Lord first. And then he characterizes his ministry. And this is how it is by humility, by tears, and by trials. So after you show up, then there's humility and in tears and frustration, and then he does not shrink so there's this boldness, this characteristic of boldness with this as well. So pastors and non pastors and people that are in the church is your life in the church marked by humility in tears and trials and in not shrinking so gold boldly declared to testify whatever your gift is, organization forgiveness, repentance, singing, leading worship, giving, caring, praying one another's, do it, don't shrink from those things. Encourage one of the maybe your gift is encourage him don't shrink from that serve the Lord by not shrinking from the ministry that he's given you. I'm going to continue with this pastoral charge from Paul to the to the elders, because there's so much in here and I just had to stop because it's already so read, rich as we hear the heart of Paul, for serving serving among and not shrinking. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.