If It Is the Lord’s Will | Trusting God’s Plan

Acts 18:18-23 | Alex Sands

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Kingdom Life Podcast. Have you ever made plans for a trip the next season? Or even just the next step in life? Only to be reminded by the Holy Spirit. If it is the Lord's will. As believers, we can make plans, but we must always hold them with open hands. That God's will is greater than our own. I understood this as he reasoned with the Jews in Acts 18. He reminded them that he would retire if it was God's will. Today after Alex Day. As we look at what it means, follow God's direction. We've been studying the book of Acts, and in the book of Acts, we see the advance of the kingdom in the first 30 some years of the church's history. At this point, we're around year 20. Jesus had said that this gospel of the kingdom would go from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. We are in the part that's the uttermost. We're caught up in the uttermost, but but we see that the apostle Paul, he was the apostle to the Gentiles, he's the one who primarily pushed it outward. It's the one that God had used. And we are, as we look at Acts chapter 18, we're in Paul's second missionary journey, and we will be in verses 18 through 23 this morning. Verses 18 through 23 is where we'll be today, and we're going to cover through the end of his second missionary journey. But before we dive in, I want to ask you guys a quick question. How many of you use Apple Maps or Google Maps or some other app software to get you places that you don't know where to go to? All right, it's a good number of you. Just hands down. How many of you use an app like Google Maps, Apple Maps, or some other map app to get you to a place you already know where to go to just to make sure there's not a traffic jam, an accident, or something? Alright, that's it. Me too. I will open up Google Maps before I go to Costco. I I will open up Google Maps when it's time to go downtown. If I have to go downtown, especially, let me make sure. Do I need to go around bounce secures? What do I need to do? Google lead me in the way that I should go. So it's my regular discipline, my routine to do that, except this week. I had a meeting in Colombia this week. Now let me preface what I'm getting ready to say with this. I don't like driving in Colombia. I don't like driving to Colombia. I don't like driving in Colombia, and I don't like leaving Colombia. I don't know, it's just something about it. That whole interchange with 26 and 20 and everything. It always is always traffic in Colombia. I made it to Columbia, had a meeting, and then it's time to leave. I get ready. I head out. And of course, right when you're in 26, it's right within you know the city, there's a traffic jam. It doesn't matter what time it is. So this is this was in the afternoon before rush hour, but but that ain't no excuse. I mean, it was a lot of traffic, you know, just traffic there. But normally, once you get past Irmo, you're on I-26, going back to to Greenville. Once you get to Irmo, it kind of clears out. Some of you know what I'm talking about, right around that Irmo area, things will clear out. Well, this time though, it didn't. That didn't come to a stop, like a parking lot or anything, but it just kept stopping and starting, slowing down and then picking back up and slowing down and like, man. And you know, got all those heels, and so it's yeah, I'm my head is always on a swivel when I'm on 26. You never know a truck gonna be barreling down on you, doesn't see you. So I'm always kind of looking around, and just I don't like 26. I don't like it. And we would get up to 55, and then like, man, this is so slow. 55 is slow on 26. Because the speed limit is 77. Blake, except for you. You, my son, it's 70. But for the rest of us, it's 77. I mean, because you can go a little, maybe 76. You can go a little bit above, you know, and pray for me if pray for me, but but uh you can generally go with the flow of traffic, but this was 55, 35, stopping and starting. I was so frustrated, and then it hit me. I didn't check Google Maps. Now, so if you tell anybody about this, I I'm gonna, oh, we're recording this, aren't we? Okay. So the phone, what had happened was the phone got in my hand. And and it and it uh maps, Google Maps just was popped open and and and and then the home button was pushed, and it just all happened. And and you know what what what uh she said? She said, You're on such and such road. She gave me the directions, stay on 26, showed all kinds of red bars and yellow, and then after that, she said, traffic congestion ahead, something like that. Traffic is heavy ahead, you're still on the fastest route. I had hopped on too late, and because I had hopped on Google Maps too late, there were no more options. I had to just go with the congestion and everything else than the stop and the starting. I had to do all that before I could get home. Now I never questioned whether or not I would get home. I didn't have any question about that. I knew confidently we I felt like I was I was going to make it. I didn't know when, but I knew I was going to make it. Ended up being about 15 minutes late. Now that's not much, maybe in the grand scheme of things, but it was only supposed to take an hour and 26 minutes. I got it mapped out. That's how long it was supposed to take. Only 15 minutes late. I was fully confident that I was going to make it, but if I had just checked before I left, I could have saved myself a lot of friction and a lot of congestion because Google Maps would have given me a better route. A lot of us, that's our walk with God. I am fully confident if you have professed your faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus is your Lord, you repented of your sins, everything else, you know he died on the cross for your sins, etc. etc. etc. If you have believed the gospel, God will bring you home. Philippians 1, 6. Paul said, I'm confident of this very thing. That he that began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. That means he's gonna keep working, keep working, even when you don't see him, he's working to bring you home because he is the way maker. But our choices will determine how congested and how difficult that road is, and often our unwillingness to listen, our boneheadedness, or just our forgetfulness, if we don't check in with God, we could end up going a route that's longer, congested, more frustrating. We'll get home. But it didn't have to be that hard. How many of you would say, I want the road that's easy? Okay, I'm not saying it from the Matthew 7 perspective. I'm just saying you tell me you, you, you, I I want the way that the Lord has. I want that route and not my way. Today in Acts 18, verses 18 through 23, you're tempted just to read right past these six verses because the next section has to deal with Apollos, and we like Apollos and that story. This portion, though, is just so rich for us and lessons just in dealing with life. There's a couple principles, a couple kingdom truths I'm gonna give you, but by and large, there's some life application here. As we see the Apostle Paul use God's map. There's Google Maps, but then there's God's map. We want God's map. Paul uses God's map, and we get to see the blessing and the benefit of it. So as I said, we are in Acts chapter 18 today. Acts chapter 18. And taking a look there at the beginning, verse 18, uh Luke begins with after this. After this. Well, after what, Paul? When you see something like after this, well, you gotta look back and refresh your mind, your your your memory on what happened before this. The after this was Satan had used Paul's opponents to bring a unified attack against Paul and against the church at large. Jesus had told Paul in a vision, don't go anywhere. Keep on preaching. I have many people in this city. So Paul uncharacteristically stayed in Corinth. He continued to minister and deserve, and there were a great number of people who got saved, including, including the synagogue leader, Crispus. Many came to faith in Christ. He continued to serve, and then came this attack, this unified attack by many of the Jewish leaders who were jealous and wanted to shut this down. There was a new pro-council, governor, if you will, that had been put in place. And in this attack, they thought that they could they could exercise some leverage with him. Tell him this is an unsanctioned religion. I'm paraphrasing, this is unsanctioned religion. You need to do something about it, they are a threat. But he was hip to their game. Before Paul could even launch a defense, he said, Hey, if this was something that had to do with violence or some crime, I would hear the case. But because this is about words concerning your law and traditions and so what, get out. Get out of my courtroom. Wasn't really a courtroom, but he said, get out of my presence. I'm done. I don't even want to hear it. And that decision, because he was a pro-counsel, and this decision as pro-counsel had reverberating effects because of his influence. He set a precedent that this faith, the way Christianity was really just like a subset of Judaism, and therefore, because it was a subset of Judaism, it was uh able to receive the rights and benefits of being a sanctioned official religion. There will be no persecution against it because it's legit. That protected the faith for about ten years. They could go unhindered without fear of the Roman Empire bringing judgment and persecution. But the enemy meant for evil. God worked it for good. Jesus never said the weapon wouldn't be formed. But he did say it wouldn't prosper. That's the after this. After that decision, it says in verse 18, after this, what did Paul do? Read it for me. Paul, what? Many days longer. Many days longer. See, he understood God had opened this door. And Jesus had said, Don't leave, I have many people in the city. So he stayed many more days. This window was open, there was safety, there was opportunity here. In Corinth of all places, the church was established, disciples being made, but there came time to move on. After staying many days longer, he then took leave of the brothers. Took leave of the brothers, and he set sail for Syria. It was time to go, and he took leave of the brothers. But understand, this wasn't like a cold kind of corporate, all right, peace out. This was a warm, heartfelt kind of you know farewell between uh people who genuinely, authentically cared. He led them to faith in Christ, established them in the faith. They loved him. But it was time to move on. He took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria. But he wasn't alone. He also took with him Priscilla and Aquila. Priscilla and Aquila, believers, Jewish, were also leather workers. They worked in leather and and uh and and skins. They Paul occupied a trade, and along with them, they did this together, they were partners together. He went along with Aquila and Priscilla. And then he does something interesting in Sancria. He cut his hair. He cut his hair, for he was under a vow. Sancria was about seven miles away from Corinth. It was on the opposite side of this seacoast. So Corinth was a port city, and and you the little narrow strip of land about three miles, you had the opposite end. That's why so many people would travel through, and even boats would be pulled across logs. It was just a shortcut. And so Sancria was on the other side, and he goes on the other side, and before he hops on a ship to leave from there, he cuts his hair. Why? Because he was under a vow. Now, we're not told specifics about this vow, but most scholars will tell you this is probably a Nazarite vow. And you see the prescriptions for it in Numbers chapter 6. This was a voluntary vow that Jews would undertake in an expression of gratitude to God. It was a time of separation, consecration, so that they could focus on God and again express their gratitude to God or to seek his direction, his protection for something that is coming up ahead. Here's a Nazirite vow, here's uh a specific definition, a Jewish voluntary pledge of separation and intense devotion to the Lord for a set period of time. It was temporary. It was temporary, and it involved uh usually about a month or so, but it involved separation from anything made out of grapes. So wine, grape juice, vinegar made out of grapes. So staying away from that, not touching a corpse. No, don't touch a a uh a body, a corpse. And the third one was let your hair grow long. Do not cut your hair for the duration of the vow. So it was a time again of separation and this focus, concentration on God. Temporary and voluntary. Now, at the end of the vow period, the person who had made the vow would go to the temple, and the priest would shave his hair. And at that time, the offerer would have brought three sacrifices: a male lamb, a female lamb, and and uh another uh another animal, but burnt sacrifice, a fellowship sacrifice, and so three animals along with uh cakes and and and then these offerings, it was i.e. it was expensive. It was a it was a real sacrifice. And at that point, the hair would be burned along with you know everything else, deconsumed, and and that would end the vow. But the vow had to end in the temple in the prescribed way. A time of separation and sacrifice. The question we have to ask ourselves is why would Paul do that? Why would Paul do it? Because it's an expression of gratitude and thanksgiving to God that had been a part of his culture since he was born. He cut his hair, but didn't cut his hair in the prescribed way. The prescribed way was to take it, you know, be uncut till you get to Jerusalem. At that time, what many would do, those who were in the diaspora who weren't close to Jerusalem, but they do, they would get their hair cut at the end of the 30 days, whatever prescribed period it was, and they would bring it with them when they uh whenever it was they did arrive in Jerusalem, and then along with the sacrifices and everything else. So apparently that's what he had in mind, but understand, there's an offering of sacrifices. Well, wasn't Jesus the perfect sacrifice? Didn't all the other sacrifices point to Jesus? Peace uh offerings, burnt offerings? He fulfilled all of it. All of the sacrifices in the law pointed to Jesus. So, Paul, aren't you the great evangelist, apostle to the Gentiles, teaching that it's not by law but by grace and you don't need to keep? Yeah, he was all of that. He didn't give this, make this vow or give this offering because he had to. He did it because he wanted to. And part of his heritage. When you wanted to express gratitude to God for his protection, for his provision, or to petition for his guidance along the way, this is what you did. And Paul's heart was so grateful because the Lord Jesus said, Don't leave, stay. I'm gonna watch over you, I'm gonna protect you. He stayed another year and a half, and God was faithful to everything he promised. So while he was in current, he decided, I'm gonna take a vow because I'm just so thankful to the Lord. Paul, you don't have to do that anymore. It's not part of it, it's not in the law. It's not about legalism to me, it's in my heart. This is just what I do. You know some phrases what I do when I want to get close to you. This is what he did when he wanted to express his gratitude. He didn't have to, and this wasn't a strategic thing to prove to other people I'm still a Jew. It had nothing to do with that because he started it before he left. He had plenty of time. He could have done all of that in Jerusalem where more people would have been watching him. This wasn't a show. This was About him and the Lord. Again, in the first century context, Jewish context, an individual typically undertook this vow either as an expression of profound thankfulness for past blessings or as an earnest petition for future grace and protection. This was in his heart. And he did it. Why? Because grace liberates. Often we don't look at grace from this perspective. We often think of grace as in you don't have to keep that checklist anymore. You don't have to do this, this, this, you don't have to do that. Well, if that thing got you close to God and that was part of your expression of gratitude and love for God, you are free to do it. The key thing is, are you doing it out of gratitude or because of some legalistic tradition? You think this is earning your favor with God. Paul wasn't any more saved because he did this. Kingdom Truth One, legalism is a transactional compliance to rules. That's legalism, checking the box. But the gospel of grace invites us to a personal, intimate, unique, one-of-a-kind relationship with God. Yeah, I put all of them there. Personal, intimate, unique. You should have a language, a vernacular with the Lord that's different from anybody else. Because no one knows you like he does. No one knows you as he does and still loves you. What he's done for you, nobody else can claim credit for. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to. And because Jesus came to him in the day of trouble and delivered him. And he glorified the Lord. Heart-driven. Heart-driven, personal devotion. Because of his living relationship with God. So, Saints, here is my first life application for you. Don't let doing for God become a replacement for being with God. Don't let your service for God become your substitute for being with God because understand He can get done what He desires to get done without you. We are called into a relationship, and it's in the context of that relationship that we're able and empowered to do His will. We're not here because God needs us to do anything. So, so don't substitute activity for presence. Sometimes we can fall into that trap. I know, Lord, I hadn't spent a whole lot of time with you, but I'm doing all these different ministries. I'm ushering, greeting, I'm doing men's ministry, I'm doing this ministry, I'm teaching, I'm preaching, I'm doing this or this, I'm reaching out, I'm going to hospitals and I'm praying over the sick and I'm laying hands on this or that. You know. Jesus said in Matthew 7 that many on that day will say, many will say, we did this, Lord, we did that, you never knew me. Never assume your activity is evidence of a relationship. And we all who are engaged, following the Holy Spirit, engage with striving to do and glorify Him, whatever the capacity is, don't get caught up in it. If you have to pull away from something. But I'm doing it for Jesus. What we do for the glory of God is to be an overflow of our relationship with Him. Otherwise, it's just running in the flesh. And you can't keep doing that. You can the Holy Spirit can bring you back to self and praise God. I've often run too far, but you can end up hitting a whole lot of congestion if you try to do instead of B. Jesus modeled this perfectly. You know, in uh in what we find in Luke chapter 10 is Jesus and the disciples, they go to Caesarea, and there Jesus heals Peter's uh mother-in-law. And then the whole town figures out that he's there, and oh, I'm in the wrong text scripture. I'll get there in a minute. But Luke chapter 10, verses 41 through 42, the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen a good portion which will not be taken away from her. We're familiar with that Mary Martha thing. Sit at Jesus' feet. That's what he desires more than anything else. And he says, I'll partner with you to get everything done. I want you to get done. But there's not everything we're doing, is what he wants to get done. And secondly, this your relationship with God should be alive, vibrant, and physically and distinctively different than anyone else's. If all you think about in terms of your relationship with God is what you can and can't do, you are missing out. Once you discover, really focus on God and who he is and what he's done, loving him is easy. But your relationship should be vibrant. What I'm speaking of is this, there should be a song. That's just something you and the Lord understand. It's just the beat of it. Yeah. Just like you know, somebody you in love with here, you know what we got that special song, and all of a sudden, do, do, do all of a sudden just hits you, and that, and you think about that special someone. There should be a song in your heart of gratitude to God. Once you hear that, it's like all your troubles go away. No one else can get it. Others may not know that song. Others, it won't hit them the way that it hits you. They may look at you like, what is happening? You just don't know what I'm doing. Ooh, he's done for me. Thank you, Jesus. There's gonna be a song like that. Maybe there's something in nature like that. Some people connect with God best in nature. They gotta go outside and go to a park. And there's one particular park when they get by the spring, by the swings at that park. They remember, oh wanna thank you because I was climbing up to you for a jump and when I'm passing by the swings. You bless me. And the kids among the swings now are like, why is she jumping and climbing and everything else? It's because you know what that place means to you. You should have a special place. I told you about my woodpecker's experience. You know, I hear a woodpecker and it just touches me. The Lord just, I have formed you uniquely, my son, like I formed that woodpecker. Like none of throwing up his head against a tree and survives. I'm not throwing up my head against a tree. But what I'm saying is the woodpecker is especially uniquely designed to throw up his head up against a tree and multiple mouth and has shock absorbers in his brain. We would have all kinds of concussions because we weren't designed for that. But God designed the woodpecker with its claws, its beak, what it's made of, a lit screen in its nostrils to keep all the sawdust out. The woodpecker is a product of design. And he, God's, whenever I hear one, just as I made that, he's uniquely, wonderfully made. How much more for you? I have formed you for this, son. I have prepared you for this, my son. I am now no one else may stop when they hear a woodpecker, but everything stops for me when I hear a woodpecker. They're like, come on, Pastor, what you doing? I'm gonna pause right here. I'm just gonna listen to that because there's just something about the woodpecker. Yes, Jesus. Hallelujah. I'm not playing y'all. I've been in my office sometimes. I'm diligently working and I'm here. I'm running outside. I want to hear it. I want to be next to it. Then I look for it. Where is it? Sometimes God allows me to see it and it just look at him go. Doing what God created him to do. Lord, I just want to do what you created me to do. Help me to stay in my lane. Help me not to get off course and get in congestion and traffic that I have no business me and in because you made me uniquely. Man, you got to protect that relationship. You you've got to walk in that. If you don't enjoy that, I want to encourage you just to say, Lord, I want that. He'll give it to you. You you just come and seek and you just reflect. He'll give that to you. He will love you. Oh, just trust me. You want that intimacy. You want that intimacy with him. You don't want your relationship with God to wither. Wither away. But anything without attention, it will wither. Feed that relationship with God. So Paul has that connection with God, that relationship with him. That's not about just doing, he's not like a tool. He is has a relationship. He knows he's his son and he's grateful. He's not a tool, he's a child of God. That's the reason why he takes his vow, vow of gratitude for what the Lord has done in intimacy and relationship with him. So now we'll see how that develops in his life in these next steps. Verse 19, they came to Ephesus. Now we're not going to dive too much into Ephesus this morning. We got plenty of time to dig into Ephesus and the significance of that city. But um what I just want to draw attention to here about Ephesus is that it was the capital of Asia. It was a huge metropolis, big city, about uh 200,000 to a quarter of a million people. It was known for the Temple of Artemis and all that went along with that, one of the seven wonders of the world. It was known for that and known for its worship of Artemis. It was busy, a lot of it was cosmopolitan, it was right there on the coast and like everywhere else, steeped with immorality and idolatry. Perfect place to establish a church. Okay, he left Scylla and Aquila there in Ephesus. Okay. Left them there. But he himself went into the synagogue and he did what? Reasoned with the Gentiles. I'll just testing y'all. He reasoned with the Jews, and that means dialogue, going back and forth. He goes into the synagogue. This was his practice. This is what he would do. He would go into the synagogue and he would reason, and that's dialogue to go back and forth. This isn't a monologue, this is a dialogue. He would answer questions, answer the hard questions, be there and just say, Jesus is the Messiah, he's the long-awaited Messiah, he is the deliverer. What? A crucified carpenter? Yes, that Jesus, he is the Messiah. He would go back and forth. He reasoned with them, pulling out scriptures from the Old Testament, prophecies, and so forth. He's fulfilled them all. That's reasoning. And then an unusual result happens. They asked him to stay for a longer period. That is unexpected. What normally happens when he goes to a synagogue and he begins to reason with folks about what normally happens? He gets beat down. That's what I heard. Fast forwarding a couple of steps, but there would be some grief and people getting upset about it, and then the leaders getting jealous, and then he'd be harassed, and it happened so many times, so many times. That's nothing like uh you see uh you see uh Philippi. You see, all these different times, all of this persecution would erupt, but he didn't hear. They asked him to stay. But what did he do? He declined. Wow. No, can't do it. This decline means no, and absolutely no, I can't. No, no, no, no, try, no, no, don't try to twist my arm. This is a no. This is a firm no. This passage that we're reading, maybe you know the letter to the Ephesians. We that's the book of Ephesians in our New Testament. He didn't establish the church at Ephesus here. This wasn't a time he establishes the church and does all these other things with the church and stays an extended period of time. That's this isn't it. He does do something brilliant, though. He sets up Priscilla and Aquila. They're setting up camp, getting their business together and everything else. Why build relationships, show folks how to live the gospel, live out the gospel. Remember how he did and how he operated in Corinth? He was working with Priscilla and Aquila, and people would see how they behaved and they conducted themselves. And that went along with telling people about Jesus, but he would he lived it out before him. You can see him doing that through Priscilla and Aquila. Live amongst the people, show them and tell them. Don't just tell them about Jesus, show them the change that Jesus can make. So that's brilliant. But Paul, this is Ephesus. This is Ephesus. This is an evangelist dream. The diversity, people traveling through. You could plant a church here and then everything would, you know, the people would share the gospel from here forward and get on the ports, get on boats, and this is this is what you wanted. When you started this trip, Ephesus was the capital of the region called Asia. And where did Paul and his team want to go first? When they got there, just a couple years before this, where was his first intention that he wanted to go? He wanted to go to Asia. And there was this east-west, you know, highway like I-26 that would go from west to east, that would take them from, you know, where they had visited the early churches, and then would travel across about 1,500 miles. So it's more like I-40. Take them across, and that would lead to it, uh, it would end in Ephesus. I believe his plan was to go across Asia, get to Ephesus. Everything there is at Ephesus. But what did the Lord do? Tell him the Lord blocked it. Then he tried Bithynia. The Lord blocked it. They ended up in Troaz, and then a Macedonian man said, Come over and help us. Okay, it wasn't God's plan a couple years ago, but now here appears to be an open door. They want me. In the synagogue, they want me. Isn't that a sign that this is the right way to go? Remember one of the lessons we had a few weeks ago? Just because the door is open, that doesn't mean you're called to go through it. When God had opened the doors in Philippian jail, the jails had opened up, and Paul and Silas did not leave, and then the jailer got saved. Not every door that opens means you're the one to go through it. This was a great, wonderful opportunity, but he declined. Now he was under a time constraint, and we find this in uh in like the King James and New King James. We find this, this is shown in other uh some of the older uh or some other manuscripts. It says in verses 21-20, when they asked him to stay longer with them, he did not consent, but took leave of them, saying, I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you, God willing, and he sailed from Ephesus. You can say that that he he had a date with the temple. I need to get to the temple, and I got to go, I've made a vow. Or in some other way, the Lord has said, You have to go. I must go now. I can't wait any longer, or I'll miss the window. I checked with God's map, and God said, Don't turn and deviate and go this route, even though it sounds like it's the best route. It looks like the best route. It's what you even wanted. Now is not the time. Continue on the original path. This isn't a sign for you to get started, it's laying a groundwork for the future. If he had delayed, he would have missed the window. But he doesn't leave without making a promise. He took his leave of them. On taking his leave of them, he said, I will return to you. Say it. If God wills. If God wills. I desire to be back. I will be back if the Lord wills. Paul has submitted himself to God's agenda. He has entrusted his safety, traveling safety, all of his plans, ministry plans, everything else. He has submitted it to the Lord's will, and he held his desires in open hands. He had a calendar, but it was written in pencil. Lord, you can erase all of my plans and take in your plans. So it's if the Lord wills, not my will, but Lord, your will be done. Now, human pragmatism, human wisdom would say, hey, strike it, you know, while it's hot. You gotta go in and you gotta take the most advantage, but pragmatism isn't always God's plan. What seems to be the most effective doesn't mean that's what God wants. Genuine faith is not based on what seems to be to us the best route. We want the Lord's route. We want to check in Him with Him before we make any decisions. Acts 16, 6. This is where we see Paul's desire to get through Asia. They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. But here's the familiar passage, Proverbs 19, 21. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. True submission says we submit to God's overriding purpose, whatever that might be. And looking at James chapter 4, verses 14 and 15, yet you don't know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist, like a vapor, like a morning fog that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. Don't fall for the illusion of human autonomy. The Lord is the one who's in control. We should always say, if the Lord wills. Even people who don't say, if it's the Lord's will, they are also in submission to God's will because He is sovereign. And we should seek first what His will is. What is the will you desire for me? Now I know I couldn't, I'm gonna make it, but what's your plan? I'm not planning on going into sin, Lord, but I want to do what's the decision between these two good paths? That's what I want to get there, though. Kingdom Life point three. Learn how to say no to the crowd so you can keep your yes to the Lord. Learn to say no. So you can say yes. Following the Lord means you're gonna hurt some folks' feelings. I tell you what, you're not gonna stand before man. When this is all over, you're gonna stand before the Lord. And and so you don't it's it's it's it's like you don't want to make other people an idol. Like I'm trying to get something from them that I can't get from God. Whatever affirmation, anything like that we want to get, it is through our relationship with God, not through man. Don't make people your God. You lead to burnout, exhaustion, mission drift. You go that way that route of just choosing your way, or maybe even not seeking Him at all, congestion, things getting being harder than they have to be, being burnt out because you're doing it in your strength. There's something about not listening. You can get into a habit of not listening to God. You can get into the habit of just doing things in what is pragmatic, what seems to be the best option. I'm not saying that's not always what God does. God sometimes does say, do it this way. It's the most, it's the most logical choice. It's with wisdom. But you always want to check with them first. Do you still want to submit yourself? Jesus modeled this perfectly. This is the passage I was going to get to. Uh I was I was alluding to earlier. Uh Jesus being in Caesarea, he had uh healed Peter's son, uh mother-in-law, and then everybody started bringing sick folks to him, and he healed all throughout the day. And then he went away. Verse 42 of Luke 4. When it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. Mark tells us he went away to a desolate place to pray. And he prayed throughout the evening. Then the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. Develop the courage to say, I'd love to do that. However, it's not what the Lord has for me in this season. If he wills, I'll be able to do it. He may say no permanently, but when you say if it's the Lord's will, hey, that's it. When it's the Lord's will, he'll make it known. Don't you know the Lord wants you to know his will more than you want to know his will? Don't you know God isn't playing hide and seek from us? He desires, he desires us to walk in his will more than we do. He has called us. So listening, doing that, Paul again saying he he declined. He didn't go on the difficult path because he had that relationship with God and he knew I must get. I must get to Jerusalem. I have to get there. And he had a timeline, a time frame. So he he leaves. He sets sail from Ephesus, verse 22 and 23. When he landed at Caesarea, he went up. He went up, and that means uh, you know, he goes up in elevation, and he goes up and he greets the church. What church is that? That's the church in Jerusalem. Going up was always going up in elevation because Jerusalem sat up on a hill. You know, he had to go up, and then you would go down to go other places. So he goes up to the church in Jerusalem and he greets them. Now, mind you, he's going to go back to Antioch, his sending church. But before doing that, he goes up to Jerusalem, to the mothership, where the whole thing got started. He goes there and he greets them. Now that may sit not seem like a whole lot to us, but that was powerful for Paul to do because as he's gone through this mission trip, he's been gone for a couple years on this mission, hundreds of Gentiles, uncircumcised Gentiles, have come to faith in Jesus Christ and are now part of the family of God. And they are all part of the family of God, and he gets to report that to them. If they didn't know about this, then there might have been a pervasive myth that there was two separate churches, that there was a schism, that there's the Gentile group and then the Jewish group. But no, he came in to say we're still one body. We're one. And let me tell you what God has done. We had that Jerusalem Council a couple years ago where we all decided what we asked the judge. Let me tell you about what God has done. Listen, what he has done here is he's done something that everyone who is in church leadership, ministry leadership needs to do. Be accountable. Let me tell you what God has done. You you sent me, you released me. Let me tell you what God has done. Let me testify. He greets the leaders there. Riley. He shares what God has done, he submits it and says, Look what God has done through this. You released it. We made this decision. Now look, hundreds, maybe thousands, have come to faith in Jesus. So he went up. And that ends up that protects the unity of the church. And then he went down to Antioch. He goes back to the sending church, the church that had launched him out. At the end of chapter 15 of Acts, they had sent him out. Paul and Silas, along the way, that got connected with Luke and got connected with Timothy, all these other things. He returns back. Again, that accountability. This completes the second missionary journey because that's where he left. He goes home back to his sending church. We went down to them and spends some time there as well. But then after spending some time there, then he went from one place to the next. He doesn't stay there long because the Holy Spirit is the one driving him, directing him. He went from one place to the next, which means passing through in successive order, a systematic, intentional journey from town to town. He goes from one place to the other through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples. All the churches that he established earlier in Galatia, he goes back again. Throughout that region, he goes back, and this these were some of he had a lot of issues with these churches, but he went back to strengthen them, which means to build up. He builds them up and it has this uh uh to steadfast, to set fast and to fix and to establish permanently uh to fix it in place. That's what his purpose, that's what he did. And it and we end up after we're gonna take a little detour from Paul as we start chapter 19, but we will pick back up and he shows up in Ephesus a good 1,500 miles, which would have taken nine weeks to travel if he was walking by foot six days a week. He ends up in Ephesus, but before he goes to Ephesus, he goes back through the mountains, all these difficult places, even places where he had been persecuted before. He goes back there because the disciples needed to be strengthened. He chose all the dust and all the fatigue because that's what it takes to build up disciples. It is not easy. Galatians 4.19, this is what he talks about, my little children for whom I am again in anguish, in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. This is the very people he's talking about. Our last kingdom truth is this kingdom true, kingdom impact requires accountability and commitment to discipleship. Commitment to discipleship and accountability. It's not enough just to lead people to Jesus. It's not enough just to say, Oh, I got some hands up. Somebody said a prayer, and now we're gonna forget about them. No, it doesn't. It takes that, it takes uh uh discipleship, but also accountability across all levels. Accountability across all levels, and and that's how we grow. We don't grow in isolation, we don't grow separate from each other. Colossians 1.28, we know this one. Oops. Colossians 1.28, we proclaim him warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. Paul says that. This is our goal. We want to warn and teach. That means hold people accountable and encourage them. You have to be involved in people's lives to be able to do that. To be able to warn, you've got to know where somebody is going and know that it's off and speak to them in love about it. Watch out, don't fall for that trap. And it's not just the responsibility of leaders. Looking at chapter 3, verse 16 in Colossians, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God. That's all of our responsibilities. Accountability, discipleship requires accountability. Paul going back again is part of accountability on his part because he wanted to be back, but also I want to see how y'all are doing. T Mobile wasn't around to give them a call. Hey, I'm right around the corner. You know what happens when a family does that? Hey, we're coming, and they're not, you know, unannounced. But you know what happens? They give you like 30 minutes. So you got the time to move everything out of the living room and put it in the bedroom or in a closet, trying to get everything straight. Paul just shows up. Hey, bros, what's happening? Tell me what you're thinking, tell me what you're going through. Who are you looking at? Who are you turning away from? What do you believe God says about X, Y, and Z? He wants to make sure they're firm in the faith. Last life application principle. Don't let past church hurt become your justification for sinful, unaccountable isolation. Some people are watching from home because their last church hurt them. And not justifying what they did. But I'm saying if you decide I'm just going to watch at home, I had somebody say you're my seventh favorite preacher. I didn't quite know how to take it. This was like, I mean, I've got to watch you every Sunday. You're my seventh favorite one. You've gone through seven. When do you have time to go to church? I don't have a church. I just now I'm I'm just taking a break from church. You know, once you start saying I'm taking a break from church, don't you know it's easy to get into that habit? And if you're away from the body, who's going to tell you that you're wrong? Who are you sharing your spiritual gift with and whose are you receiving from? When we are interdependent, don't allow church hurt to be your justification for unaccountable isolation. I'm just not coming. They hurt me. Guess what? You in relationship with other human beings, sinful folk, they hurt you and you hurt them. I promise you, you hurt somebody else's feelings. I promise you, you said something that got received the wrong way. I guarantee you you offended somebody. But we hurt and we repent and we forgive and we grow and we continue throughout because we're family. You're not gonna go grow isolated from God's family. Don't use what your previous church did to justify staying away from the body. If you look at what Paul did, wrapping up here, 1 Thessalonians 2.8. He says about this time that he was with them, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you were very dear to us. Willing to share my very life, resources, and everything else with you, because you have become dear to us. Paul travels thousands of miles, but it's all under the direction of the Holy Spirit. So let me conclude here with this. Maybe you feel like your spiritual life, you're just everything is just filled with congestion cars are backed up, and and you're just why is it so hard? Is it possible is it remotely possible that maybe you've taken a road that the Lord said not to go? And and you're experiencing the result of that. Is it is it is it possible that you consulted God's map. But God's map said you need to listen to brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes he speaks through the body and not just you in your quiet time. But because you didn't want to humble yourself to anyone else, you took a path that is congested and not what God had intended, but he will go with you through it. Maybe just some reflection. Maybe you chose a way just because you wanted to go. And sometimes it's hard just because the journey is difficult. And the Lord says, I'm gonna get glory through you as you travel through and these other folks see you. It's just real, it's good room for for investigation and communication with God, but whatever it is, church, it starts with an authentic relationship with God. Have that song, have that place. That special place, just you and him, that special song, just you and him. That's what he created us for. And that only that creates us. It's only then that we thrive when we go in that direction and listen to him and let him guide us. Lord, thank you so much for this time, this word. Thank you for his challenge, thank you for his promise. Thank you, Lord, for walking with us. We know you're working everything in our lives together for good, and the best, the good, is being transformed and being like Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. We love you, Lord. In the name of Jesus, amen.