“God Will Lead Us”
Acts 16:6-15
Have you ever had the experience where you have gotten to a certain point in your faith journey and been able to look back and see God was leading all along the way?
If you have had this experience, perhaps you have been able to recall times when you tried to go in one direction, but the doors were closed to you.
And these “closed doors” ended up leading you down certain paths to the place where you finally heard God’s call and found yourself involved in what you were convinced was God’s good will?
Now, at the time you came across these closed doors or obstacles which denied you access to where you had originally wanted to go—you may have been frustrated or even heartbroken, shattered or at the end of your rope.
But later, as you look back on these “closed doors” you see God’s Spirit was at work, guiding you into the right direction, keeping you from harm, wasted time or a wasted life—and you give thanks!
I think that is one thing that was going on in our Scripture Lesson for this morning.
Paul and his friends were on a missionary journey and they started hitting roadblocks.
They wanted to go to the province of Asia, but the doors were closed, and the same thing kept happening again and again—until Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
That was all the clue they needed.
We are told that they “got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called [them] to preach the Gospel” there.
The Holy Spirit had prevented them from carrying out their previous plans—the plans they had their hearts set on.
Instead, the Spirit sent them on a detour, God’s detour.
You may feel like you are experiencing something like that right now.
Perhaps you had a plan.
You had your heart set on how your life should be at this moment.
But it didn’t turn out that way.
Maybe your health is not what you would like it to be.
Perhaps you are yearning for a relationship in your life, because one ended too soon or it never happened the way you wanted it to happen.
Maybe you wanted children so badly, but you haven’t been able to have kids—and now you feel grief and pain.
Or you might be struggling to find work.
You may feel disappointed with the struggle each day brings.
Or, perhaps, you thought your life would have turned out much differently than it is today.
It can be frustrating and confusing, can’t it?
But one thing our Scripture passage for this morning is telling us is that God cares for us more than we can know.
God cares very deeply about our lives.
He’s not ignoring you.
He didn’t forget about you.
His Word shows us over and over again that He is faithful to His promises.
As a matter of fact, God is so faithful, so caring, so involved that God often puts up obstacles to our plans because those plans would ultimately ruin our lives.
I have a friend who, as a young man, had two interests.
One was rock music and wanting to be a “rock star.”
The other was God and a calling to be totally committed to God in life and ministry.
My friend picked rock and roll and becoming a rock star.
And so, off he went.
He was attracted to rock by his love for the music and the promise of a life of debauchery.
Eventually, he came to the conclusion that the rock star track was not going to work out for him.
Doors were closed.
There were barriers at every turn.
And so, he walked away from it—with his tail between his legs, his heart broken and his pride shattered.
But, at the same time, something else had been happening.
He’d been having these late-night conversations with a friend—and these conversations were all centered around God.
And as he had these conversations, new revelations and visions of God’s call became clear to him in ways he’d never experienced before.
So, by the time he walked away from his rock and roll dreams, he was prepared to walk right into God’s detour—God’s plan for his life.
He gave his life to Christ and never looked back.
Things like that happen all the time.
We think we want one thing, and, perhaps—in our flesh we really do—but God knows what is best for us.
And if we are open to His Holy Spirit working in our lives, we will receive God’s vision, God’s direction and God will lead us to where we are supposed to go—the key is, will we follow?
What if my friend had experienced God’s call, but had not given his life to Jesus?
What if he had continued with the rock and roll lifestyle—just minus the rock star status?
What would have happened to him?
What would his life look like now?
Would he even still be alive?
One thing is for sure: he wouldn’t be happy; he wouldn’t be healthy; he wouldn’t be fulfilled.
There is only one-way to be truly satisfied and at peace in this life.
It is to listen to God’s calling, never give up even when you go in the wrong direction or have aborted attempts at achieving your goals.
And that is, again, because God never gives up on you.
God has a plan for your life.
The Bible tells us it’s a good plan.
It’s a plan to give you a hope and a future.
It is a plan that, if followed, will cause your life to make a positive difference in this world and lead you to a peace which transcends all understanding.
And isn’t that what we are all searching for?
But again, we can’t find our way to peace, to joy, to fulfillment, to our life’s calling without God’s leading.
I love how Paul puts it in Ephesians Chapter 2: “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from [yourself], it is the gift of God—not by works, [so that you can’t boast about it].
For [you] are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to live the kind of [life] God has created you to live.”
More than anything, I want to live the kind of life God has created me to live—how about you?
I think otherwise, we will always feel like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.
Perhaps that is one reason there is so much anxiety, depression and unhappiness in our world.
People aren’t living the lives God created them to live.
They aren’t doing what they have been called to do.
They aren’t following the leading of the only One Who knows the Way!
As a result, they are bouncing around in the dark—grasping for this and that—and only finding that “this and that” do not ultimately satisfy.
Can you relate?
You know, I don’t think that this discerning, this calling, this listening for the Spirit’s lead ends at any time in our lives.
It’s a daily thing; a minute by minute thing.
For instance, there have been many times, over the years, as a pastor that the church I have served has discerned God’s will correctly and been involved in ministries that God led us to.
But then, something happens.
Perhaps the situation changes and there is no longer a need for that type of ministry in that setting.
And so, we have had to reset.
We have, again, gone about the task of discerning God’s call.
And this discernment process often involves trying a number of things that just don’t work out.
Barriers are put up.
Doors close.
But, God is faithful and eventually the vision becomes more clear.
And God leads us in a new direction where lives are changed and great ministry takes place.
And that is what happens in our Scripture Lesson from Acts.
Paul and his companions try a number of different directions, but none of them pan out.
Then, after God calls Paul to Macedonia—they listen and follow.
When they arrive, they spend several days there.
Then, on the Sabbath, they seek a place to worship God.
They know or are told that there is a place where people congregate to pray—outside the city gate, by the river.
So they head that way, and come upon a small group of women who had gathered.
They begin speaking to them about Jesus Christ, and one of the person’s listening is a woman named Lydia.
We are told that “the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message” and Lydia’s faith becomes immediately active.
She is baptized along with her entire household, and then she opens her home to Paul and his crew.
Social and cultural barriers begin to crumble, and that corner of the Roman Empire begins to be changed by God’s grace as her house becomes the first Church in Europe—the place to which Paul eventually writes his Letter to the Philippians.
God is doing the same thing today as God did back then.
He calls us.
He gives us visions.
And if we are willing to follow, He will lead us to places that offer a different way of life, a different story, a different promise than what we would come up with on our own.
And God’s ways always prosper, as we are promised in Psalm 1.
This COVID-19 thing is not what we had planned for, is it?
We had no idea we would be cut off from our normal routines, our original plans by something such as this.
Perhaps there is no better time to open ourselves to where the Holy Spirit of God is calling us individually and collectively as a church.
Acts 16 reminds us that God is always in charge of the mission of the Church.
What doors are being shut and what doors are opening up?
What vision is God giving us as we seek the future mission of this Church?
And a Church must have a mission.
A church without a mission or a church which thwart’s God’s mission will surely die.
But God is alive.
The Holy Spirit is active.
And God has a plan for those who are willing to do what God has called us to do.
Think about it.
When Paul had the vision of the man of Macedonia, he had every excuse in the world not to obey God.
“Go to Europe?”
“It’s too long of a trip.”
“It’s not in the plans.”
“The people are different that we are.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“I’m not up to it.”
There can be no doubt that it wasn’t easy for Paul and his companions to live out God’s call on their lives—it wasn’t their first or even second choice.
But they did it.
Now, it’s tempting to say, “That’s all well and good for Paul, but I’m not Paul.”
That’s true.
But Paul was a human being.
He wasn’t Superman.
He had the same weaknesses as the rest of us.
The only thing he had going for him is that he was open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit—and did what God called him to do.
And that’s all we need do as well.
And what an adventure God has in store when we follow and allow God to lead.
Praise God.
Amen.
