THE CHURCH | Week 3 | Sermon

I was thinking about it this week and

it kind of reminded me of the story we're going see in Acts 16, but my wife and I, my family and I ended up out here in Arizona through kind of a pretty bizarre kind of series of events. And again, I'm from San Diego, born and raised out there. I started working at the church that I got saved in when I was a knucklehead in college. I was 19. I got saved in the church that I later got baptized in.

During the stand up, say hi to somebody and meet the people around you, That's literally when I turned around and met my wife. And I knew once we locked eyes, I was like, yo, she's the one. It took her a long time to get there, but I knew right away.

And so I met my wife there. I got married in that building. I got ordained in that building. Like, it was just a really special place for us. And seven years into being on staff there, whole long series of events happened,

but we knew that it was time for us to kind of move on. And it was a difficult decision because this was our community and our family and I wanted to be there forever, but God made it clear that it was time to move. And again, I I again, random series of events. I was teaching at a a Christian, like, high school camp and

this church was there from Michigan and the guy had come up to me from the church and said, hey, would you ever consider a job out in Michigan? That's what started the domino. I go and talk to my wife and I said, hey, this church approached me. The job sounds pretty awesome. The problem is is it's in Michigan.

And I know my wife, like, she's not gonna leave San Diego, number one, and her family, number two. So she's like, yeah, it's not happening. She shuts it down. And so we decide to do something that we'll do periodically when we get to a kind of crossroads where we're not necessarily on the same page. There's not really right or wrong and we're just trying to figure out what God's plan is for our family. We'll take a week apart and we'll both separately pray and seek God and not separately like like we don't live together. Like we still just go through our normal life. We just don't talk about whatever the issue is, but we both separately fast and pray and seek God. And then we come back together a week later and we sit down and go, what did God say to you? And what did God to me? And I became very clear on that week that God was either gonna confirm it or deny it through my wife. And so I knew that meant I'm not moving to Michigan. I know my wife, like, she's not leaving. We're not going anywhere. To my surprise, at the end of that week, my wife sits down and says, hey, I feel like God told us it's time for us to move.

And I was like, okay, crazy. So we now start down this process of interviewing with this church in Michigan

and every step of the journey, everything we're asking for for confirmation, God's confirming. Everything is just like open door after open door after door. It was like, man, God is in this. We went through all these interviews and all this process. We sat our families down and told them, hey guys, we're moving to Michigan. We told our kids. We started looking at schools. We literally were like two steps away from pulling the trigger and buying a house sight unseen because we were working with a realtor. We were convinced God was bringing us to Michigan.

The problem was is I had never been to Michigan before.

I should have started with that process. Now in hindsight, if I had just gone to Michigan, I would have realized like I don't think the presence of God exists in Michigan. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I know some of you are from Michigan and I really am not trying to offend you but truthfully,

it was like the end of October, I get off the plane and it's 38 degrees.

Okay? That's the temperature that it is when I go snowboarding in Big Bear. Right? So I'm like putting on my heavy snow gear and people are walking around in shorts and a t shirt talking about how warm it is. And I'm like, warm? Like you realize a couple more degrees lower and like water will freeze outside. Like you people are crazy.

And that should have been my first warning sign. But the other part that was really hard to wrap my head around is it felt like what I had done in the plane ride over there was actually go into a time portal and travel back in time ten years. It was like everything seems like what we're doing just ten years ago. Like it was just such a bizarre experience but the moment we got off the plane,

all the peace of God that we had in the process was just gone. And it was like the moment we were standing where we thought we were supposed to be, it was like God said this isn't it.

And then I had to go through a four day interview process. They make me preach multiple times. One of the services I can look and see my wife is just like gently weeping in her seat and it's not because I'm preaching so good that she's like convicted.

I walk off the stage and go, I'm like, you okay? She's like, I can't live here. Don't make me live here. I can't do it. I'm like, trust me, I don't wanna live here either, right? And the last day we're there, the senior pastor like tries to hard close us on moving there. He's like, are you guys in? We think you're the guy. Here's the offer. Let's do this thing. And we knew we were gonna say no, but we didn't wanna like have the awkward conversation with him in person. So we did the Christian honorable thing. We told him we were gonna pray about it, right? Like,

hey, we're gonna pray about this one, which is code for I'm saying no, I just don't wanna tell you now, I'll send you an email in a couple of days.

And so we leave that and we come back to San Diego and I started to have conversations with the senior pastor I was working for there and said, hey, I don't know what it is, man. I just feel like God is stirring us to something that's next. And so now I come home and he's like, it's not Michigan. Are you here? And I'm like, no, I still think God is telling us it's time to go but I just don't know where.

But I was so convinced that it was there. And then I sat there and said, God, what was the point of that? Like that whole process was taxing and exhausting and tiring to just find out that you weren't in it. You ever been there?

You ever been there where you felt like you were doing what God had asked you to do only to find out it wasn't where you were supposed to be? It wasn't the person that you were supposed to get married to? It wasn't the job that you thought was going to be the one that you were at forever?

That business idea that was finally gonna be the one that took off, it just didn't. Sometimes the most frustrating part of following God is when you're doing something that God should be in. That is like a good thing. But somehow it seems like God has forgotten you.

And I'm telling you friends, there are going to be times what we're going to see today in Acts chapter 16 is there are going to be times that God will lead you to somewhere.

And then all of a sudden, it'll seem like he just drops you. And you will look up and go, God, I don't understand what you're doing. But what I wanna try to show us this morning is that in that season, if you can lean in and not just give up and not just redirect and not just move on, but lean into that season when it doesn't make sense, that there is incredible opportunity to learn lessons there if you'll see it.

There is opportunity in confusion

if you lean into it. What I wanna show you, what I believe our human experience is supposed to be on this side of heaven is slowly learning what it means to walk not by sight, not by understanding, not by seeing, not by getting it all, but by learning to walk by the one thing that scripture says, this is what pleases God,

faith. Learning to walk by faith and not by sight is a lot of what our human experience is on this side of eternity. What Paul is going to learn in Acts 16 that I wanna try to show us is the opportunity that's available to us when we find ourselves in seasons when we go, God, I don't get what you're doing.

I wanna show you here's what the opportunity is. Here's the big idea is friends, we don't have to know it all when we trust the one who holds it all. So much of what God is trying to teach us is not how to have all the information to make a logical decision but to learn to trust him in spite of the hesitation.

To trust that when you don't know what's happening, that God is orchestrating a plan that is bigger and better than what we could imagine. How do we try to reconcile what is taking place in Israel right now? People ask me questions and I don't know.

But I do know that God is good and that God has a plan that will work for good eventually and there will be a day where all of this makes sense. And maybe just maybe what God is not after in you and I is to understand

and know it all but to learn to trust him who's holding all of it together. Let me catch you up to where we are in Acts chapter 16. This is an absolutely

amazing chapter that I could probably preach for four weeks. It's where Paul is about to embark on his second missionary journey. Okay? He did his first missionary journey. He went around and planted churches all around the region around Jerusalem

and he started all of these churches with Jews coming to know who Christ is and Gentiles coming to know who Christ is and it was an incredibly difficult journey. It almost cost him his life multiple times but it was fruitful. Multiple churches have started.

Multiple people have come to know who Jesus is and Paul works his way back and now they're in Jerusalem again in Acts chapter 15 because there's a massive theological issue that's addressed for the church. The church is at odds over whether or not the new Gentile converts,

people like you and I who are not direct descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, do those Gentiles need to go through the religious rituals that Orthodox Jews would go through? Specifically, do they need to be circumcised?

This is a massive issue that has potential to divide the church. So they bring all the apostles together, all the heavy hitters come to Jerusalem and they have the council of Jerusalem and they hash it out and they agree that Gentiles, God poured his spirit out on them before they were circumcised.

Therefore God has ushered in a new covenant and it is no longer about the circumcision of flesh and it is now about the circumcision of heart. Gentiles do not have to be circumcised any longer. Then everybody said, Amen.

So now Paul is embarking on a second journey to go to these churches and tell them what the council of Jerusalem has agreed on. They're going to tell them the good news that Gentiles don't have to become Orthodox Jews to follow Jesus.

But Paul and Barnabas have a massive falling out at the end of Acts 15. The guy who has been Paul's pastor and mentor, him and Paul split. We talked about that last week and Paul is going to recruit a new team. He gets a guy named Silas. We're gonna see in the beginning of Acts 16. He gets this young guy named Timothy and then the guy writing the book of Acts, Luke, will be a part of this second missionary journey and they're about to embark and go on a journey that is going to absolutely

dumbfound Paul in multiple ways. Here's how Acts 16 starts in verse one.

It says, Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra

where there was a young disciple named Timothy. Again, Timothy is 16 or 17 years old here. He's the guy who will be the protege of Paul who he will write first and second Timothy to. This is where he enters the scene. His mother was a Jewish believer but his father was a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra 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. I thought Acts 15 said you don't have to be circumcised.

Yet here's Paul telling Timothy he needs to be circumcised before they leave for everyone knew that his father was a Greek. Then he 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.

Talk about a verse that makes no sense. Acts 15 ends with a decision for the church. Gentiles do not have to be circumcised to follow Jesus. Yet Paul, as he starts his second missionary journey, is going to take a Gentile with him who has who is held in high regards, this young man named Timothy.

And before he starts a 300 mile hike, he makes Timothy get circumcised. Talk about the most impractical way to start a long hike. If I was gonna go on a long hike, the last thing I would wanna do right before I started it was get circumcised. You're like walking around like, this is terrible. Right? And yet,

why would Paul argue in Acts 15 that Gentiles don't need to be circumcised yet in just a couple verses later, tell Timothy, you need to be circumcised before we start. This is again something I wish I had a bit of time to preach to us because this is a message that we need as American Christians. Paul understood

that for Timothy, it was going to be a barrier to enter and have conversations with Orthodox Jews. He wouldn't he would have never get a seat at the table. They wouldn't even let him in the door to talk about the Jesus that he's so excited about if he didn't go through the ritual of circumcision. Therefore,

what Paul was telling him to do was to understand that there are times that you're gonna have to lay down your freedoms. There are times you're have to lay down your rights,

your liberties, your, yes, you are correct that you don't have to do this but there are moments where God will ask you to do it even though it's difficult, even though your freedom technically says you don't have to because if you don't, it will be a barrier to people hearing the message of the gospel.

Friends, as American Christians today,

as people who herald our liberties and freedoms that I am a fan and proponent for, there are moments where our freedoms, our liberties, our rights will be barriers to the message of the gospel being advanced. And are you willing to lay down your rights so the cause of Christ can be reigned king?

My fear is that sometimes as Americans, we are so adamant that our rights not be infringed upon that we will be hindrances to the advancement of the kingdom of God. Paul said, if this is what it takes, if this is the cost of what we have to do to reach these Jews, we're willing to do it.

And their journey begins with the new team. Paul now has his team to go on the mission with. He says every church they go to, they're strengthened, they grow in numbers, they're telling them the hope that can be found in Jesus. Here's where the story kind of takes a turn and gets a bit perplexing.

It says in verse six, next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia. If you don't know, that's the lady from the black eyed peas. Okay? Some of you will get that later. And Galatia

because the holy spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at the time. Then coming to the borders of Mygia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia. But again, don't miss this, the spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.

So instead they went through Mysia to the seaport of Troas. 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 having concluded that God was calling us to preach the good news there.

It's so subtle you can miss it. But two times the apostle Paul, not the young Padawan Timothy, the Yoda Paul, the Jedi Paul, the one who knows what he's doing, who has done the first missionary journey, who understands the God of the old testament better than anybody else around,

who has followed Jesus himself for a period of time now, who understands the voice of the holy spirit, he is convinced the cities that he names that they're about to go to are in Asia. Paul is convinced that the second missionary journey is going to be best done through Asia.

And the scriptures don't tell us this but Paul must have gathered his young Padawans and just said, guys, look, here's what we're gonna do. God did some amazing things on this first missionary journey, but I'm believing that God's gonna do even greater things. And here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go through Asia. We're gonna reach these major cities. And then from there, God's gonna spread the message of the gospel to the rest of the world. And then they go to their first city in Asia.

And God says, no. Paul, you didn't hear me right. And Paul is clearly confused because he tries it a second time. The apostle Paul, the guy who wrote 13 books in the New Testament, a second time tries it again. Goes, God, I thought this is what you said. I thought this is where you told me to go. God says, no.

And then Paul falls asleep and in a dream, God brings a man in a vision and says, you're supposed to go to Macedonia. Come help us in Macedonia. And Paul realizes it's not Asia, it's Europe. Why does this matter for us?

It tells me that God will use these seasons that make no sense where it seems like we were trying to listen to God. We thought God was in this. And then you sit there and you go, God, what is happening? Did I mishear you? What's going on? It tells me that there's purpose in confusion.

There's things that God will do in your seasons that make no sense if you lean into them. The first one that I see here, the first one that I want you to take note of, God uses confusion for Paul for navigation. What do I mean? Paul uses God uses a season in Paul's life that absolutely leaves him dumbfounded.

I would argue borderline embarrassed where these young guys were like, dude, you said it was Asia. Are you like scared or something? Like you're just nervous that you're going to get beat up again and go to jail? Like what's happening? He's like, I don't know. But God uses it to redirect him to where he's supposed to be.

Oftentimes what God will do is he will take you through a season. In the middle of your confusion, he'll use it to redirect you and get you to where you're supposed to be. The end goal for Paul, it wasn't Asia. We're going to see at the end of the story, it was kind of Asia eventually, but it wasn't now

and it wasn't how Paul thought it was going to look. So here's what happens. He says, we're supposed to go to Europe. Look at the very next verse. It says in verse 11, we boarded a boat at Troas and we sailed across to the island of Samothrace

and the next day we landed at Neapolis. From there we reached Philippi, a major city of the district of Macedonia in a Roman colony

and we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath, we went a little ways outside the city to a riverbank where we thought people would be meeting for prayer and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there. One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth who worshiped God.

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'm a true believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my home and she urged us until we agree. So Paul realizes it's not Asia, it's Europe.

And so they make the journey to Macedonia. They get to the city Philippi which is eventually where the church of Philippians that Paul will write the letter to is established. And so when Paul gets to Philippi, he does the same thing that he does on his first missionary journey at every new city.

Again, the message of the hope of Jesus was first for the Jews and then to the Gentiles. So Paul would always start by going to the Jews. He would especially on Sabbath go to the temple but in Philip Philippi, there is no temple yet. There's not enough Jews to necessitate it. And so he goes to the second place that he knows the Jews will be. If you remember, while the Jews were living under Babylonian

conquest, while they had been taken captive in Babylon, the Jews would gather by the riverbeds because they didn't have a temple to worship in. And so they know, Paul knows, this is where they'll be. So he goes to the riverbed, he finds a group of women praying and he hears them talking about the God of the old testament.

Paul begins to go, maybe this is why God brought us here. And he goes and he shares the message of Jesus with them. And there's one lady in particular that the Bible names here. Her name is Lydia. And Lydia is from a city

that is actually in Asia. And the Bible tells us a couple things about her. It says that she's like the original, like, purveyor or whatever of

Louis Vuitton material. Right? Like, this lady has the market cornered on purple cloth and it's like, what? Like, what does this matter for us? Today, somebody wears all purple. We would, like, make fun of them unless they're, a Vikings fan or something. Right?

This time, purple cloth would have been incredibly difficult to produce. Purple dye was almost impossible to create. It was incredibly expensive yet Lydia,

this woman had the market cornered on it. She is from another city but she's vacationing in Europe. She's here for some reason. She has a house in Europe that's so big that all the apostles can stay there. Jesus, when he was trying to tell his disciples a story

about a man who was incredibly rich, he said there was a man that was dressed in all purple to which the disciples would have been like, yo, dang, that dude's a gangster. Right? Like, for them, a woman that was in the selling of purple garments, it's painting a picture of a lady that's incredibly wealthy.

Here's what's really interesting to me. A woman who externally, financially, she has all of the things that you and I think that we want because we think it's what's going to ultimately satisfy our soul. She has a thriving business. She has multiple homes.

She has all of the external stuff. Yet where does she find herself on the Sabbath? Sitting with a bunch of Jews going, I wonder if this will be the thing that finally fills the void that I fill in my heart.

I wonder if this is the answer of what I've been searching for. I've built all of this and I still feel parts of my soul that are just empty. Friends, I'm telling you, outside of knowing who you are in Christ, there is nothing in this world that will fully satisfy who you are.

And the first person reached with the gospel in Europe is a woman named Lydia. A woman who has everything together, has all her business figured out, a woman who has opulence

and God uses her, which is what he does often with people that have resource. The reason that God takes people that are good with business, people that have influence in finances because somebody has to pay for the church. Right? And God uses Lydia and her big home to start the church in Philippians.

But look at where the story goes next. This is where it kind of takes another bizarre term. It says in verse sixteen, one day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future. She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes.

She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, these men are servants of the most high god and they've come to tell you how to be saved. This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated

that he turned and said to the demon within her, I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of her. And instantly, he left her. This is the only time in scripture where you will see frustration, anger, annoyance leads to a miracle. Leads through a breakthrough, right? That God will use you even in your frustration.

This slave girl who's possessed by a demon, a spirit that is able to tell the future that her masters are using to make money on, She's following these guys around telling them, hey, they know how to get to heaven. They'll tell you how to have eternal life and they get so annoyed by her, not out of like the goodness of their heart for this poor girl to be set free, out of their frustration. They look at the demons, they come out of her, she comes out of her. Here's what the Bible is doing. It's showing us the first person to be reached with the gospel is a wealthy lady named Lydia.

The second person is a poor slave girl that has absolutely nothing. It is telling us that the hope for humanity, no matter what your background is, no matter what your current circumstances is, no matter what your socioeconomic upbringing was, the hope for all humanity is in the person of Jesus.

And this poor girl has this demon removed from her. And I think at this point, Paul started to understand, here's why God brought us to Europe.

Because there was people here that needed to hear the message of Jesus. Here's what this tells me about what God will do for you and I too. God will use our seasons that make no sense to get us to the places, the jobs, the cities, the communities, the sports teams, the classrooms that we are supposed to be in.

But why are we supposed to be there? Because we've been asked to steward the greatest message the world has ever heard. That Jesus is not dead, that he is alive, and today he is offering life to people who are stuck in bondage. What does God use Paul for? What does he use his confusion for? He uses his confusion

to bring salvation.

This is I think the opportunity that's available to us in our seasons that don't make sense too. If we don't give up, if we can lean into and not just get our heads so buried in the sand because we're our hearts are heavy and we don't understand what's happening, I promise you God will still give you opportunities to share the message of the hope of Jesus with people.

I I was reading an article this week where this guy was, interviewing Bill Gates and it's hard to keep up with all the people we're supposed to hate as Christians. I think Bill Gates is on that list now but I I'm not sure. But the guy invented computers so we can take some things from him. Alright?

Bill Gates said if you were to go back and ask yourself as a 20 year old one thing, like what was your superpower that you would repeat? And he said, the thing that I've realized that I'm good at, I'm almost better than anybody else at, is I don't give up at confusion.

And the interviewer said like, do you mean? He said most people when they come against a problem that they don't understand, that's typically where they will course correct or they will completely give up.

And he said, but I've come to understand that when I get to something, when I get to a place that I just don't understand, I'm completely confused and perplexed,

that's where I need to lean in. And he said, I'll get 10 books on the subject. I'll bring in 10 experts on the subject and I will push past the confusion to get to what I know is on the other side of it, which is always breakthrough.

This is how I've been able to help bring all these vaccinations to Africa, help build computers is because I don't give up at confusion.

And as I read that this week, I said, man, it's the same thing for us in our spiritual journeys as well. I would argue that God will use us to the extent that we're willing to push into and lean into our seasons that don't make sense. The enemy is gonna try to convince you to give up when your world around you is seemingly crumbling and falling apart but I would encourage you to go, look, our job isn't necessarily to understand exactly what God is doing at all times,

but it's to learn to be still and know that He is God. It's interesting that it doesn't say to be still and know all the plans of God, all the steps, all the processes of God. It just says know that he is God and you're not.

And I promise you, God will use you to impact people in your life if you will be present enough in your season that doesn't make sense. Look how the story continues. This is where it kinda gets messy for us because we like the story of God using, like, the confusion redirecting

him and then all the breakthrough happening. And then he's supposed to ride off into the sunset and the credits roll. But it seems like the moment Paul gets clarity, the cycle of confusion starts over again. This little girl is set free and then it says in verse 19,

her master's hopes of wealth were now shattered. So they grabbed Paul and Silas and they dragged them before the authorities to the marketplace. The whole city was in uproar because of these Jews. They shouted to the city officials, they're teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.

A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape. So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

Like what? Talk about a God that makes no sense. Paul and Silas helped a little girl find freedom And yet their reward is to be stripped naked and beaten in the city and then taken into prison, put into an inner dungeon, which is essentially underneath the prison is basically the sewer system.

And to have their legs put in shackles that are so uncomfortable they're essentially being tortured. Like this is the part of following God where this whole thing goes from like, oh, this is cute. We can tie a bow on it and make sense of it to begin to go, maybe just maybe what what Paul was learning in here,

maybe the reason that Paul doesn't, like I would have done if I was him. Do you know why Paul and Silas were chosen for this mission and this mission specifically? Because they were the only two that were Roman citizens. You know what they can't do to Roman citizens?

Take them for no reason, flog them, beat them, and throw them in prison without a trial. Yet here the very thing that's not supposed to happen to them happens to them. And Paul doesn't yell out, I'm a Roman citizen. You can't do this until he gets out of prison at the end of the chapter. Why?

Because I think Paul was understanding that God is doing something with my life that I don't completely understand. But maybe my job isn't to understand it all. But it's to trust that in the moments where God is doing something where I sit and I go, this hurts. This is difficult. This doesn't make sense.

That this is where I can lean in and learn to trust God in the deepest of ways. This is not an assignment that I would go, oh, this sounds fun. Who wants to sign up to get beaten and thrown in prison? But friends, you and I have to understand what we've signed up for.

We've signed up to say that our life, it is no longer ours.

Our life has now been crucified with Christ, the scriptures say. In the life that we now live, we live through the power of the resurrection of Christ. And Jesus said, if you don't like hate your own mother and father compared to loving me and following me, you don't get it.

Following me is going to cost you. It's going to be difficult. It's going to not be easy, but I promise you there will be purpose in your suffering if you let me. And here's the truth. Following Jesus, not following Jesus. Life is going to happen to us. You are going to have moments where you are brought to your knees

and you're going to look up and wonder, how do you go through this? And I sit and have conversations with people. I sat with a family this week where a brother out of the blue, no, no, nothing. Just took his own life. How do we sit and bring purpose and meaning to that? Outside of Jesus, we can't.

But somehow God is working and orchestrating all of this stuff together for our good. And I promise you, there will be a day where all of this makes sense. But until then,

hold on and let God use you because there's purpose in your pain if you will let him. Look at what God does in the prison. Look at why God takes him through this difficult season. Verse 25, around midnight

Paul and Silas in the prison just begun praying and singing hymns to God. The other prisoners were listening.

Suddenly there was a massive earthquake and the prison was shaken to its foundations and all the doors immediately flew open and the chains of every prisoner fell off. The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped so he drew his sword to kill himself.

The prison guard knew, if these guys get out, I have to serve their sentence. So to save himself to shame, he's gonna commit suicide. But Paul shouted to him, verse 28, don't kill yourself. We're all here. Not just Paul, not just Silas, all the prisoners in the jail, nobody's moved.

So the jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And they brought him out and asked, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

They replied, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved along with everyone in your household. And they shared the word of the Lord with him and all who lived in his household. Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.

He brought them into the house and set a meal before them. And he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God. Why would God bring Paul to a prison?

Because there was a jailer and a family and a bunch of prisoners who needed to hear the message of Jesus and God couldn't bring them to Paul so he brought Paul to them. It's not a fun assignment, but it's an incredibly worthwhile assignment.

And I promise you what Paul is doing is he's doing what the scriptures teach us to do, to not store our treasure here on heaven where moths and all of this stuff just destroy it, but build our treasure in heaven to truly believe that eternity is real and that we're gonna spend somewhere, somewhere forever

and live a life while we're here in this blinking eye in the few years you have, the few decades you have on this earth, not building your kingdom but building his.

Not building your empire but expanding the kingdom of God. Doing everything that you can even when it's difficult, even when it doesn't make sense to bring what I believe God wants us to do. The reason that he takes us through seasons of confusion. I promise you what is on the other side of it for you and for the people that God is trying to reach through you is the same thing that happens in Acts 16 to every prisoner that's here. Their shackles are taken off and they are truly for the first time set

free. God will use confusion friends if you will allow him, if you will lean in to let him redirect you to bring salvation to people, the end goal of it is always for freedom.

This is why Jesus has come so that the captives can be set free. The people who are bound in their chains will be liberated and set free. What would take a prison full of prisoners who've been released from their chains? What would stop them from running out the door the moment they had the opportunity to?

Maybe it was their hearts had begun to realize that even if I get out of this mess, even if I get out of this thing, I'm still actually enslaved. I'm still bound

by my sin. And these guys are talking about how to find freedom and breakthrough from all of the sin that so easily entangles me. So they stopped and they listened and revival breaks out in this prison. The amazing part to me when Paul is writing a letter to the Philippian church,

it's a church that started by a wealthy lady who sells purple clothes. Her assistant was probably the little girl who'd been released by a demon. The the elders of the church, the launch team were a bunch of prisoners who had recently been set free.

Like, talk about the motley crew of God, yet that is who God wants to reach. It is for all people. Here's the reason that I say all of this. I wanna try to make this thing really practical for you and I because I promise you if you're not here today currently looking around going, I don't understand what God is doing,

I promise you give yourself a few weeks because you will be there eventually.

What do we do when it seems like God doesn't make any sense? There's a couple practical things I wanna try to encourage you with that I see in this story. The first thing we have to remember when we live in a season where God doesn't make sense is we can't take it personally. What do I mean?

God is writing a story that is playing out over generations, that is taking place over decades and unfolding over multiple countries. And we live in the self absorbed world thinking that it's all about us. But sometimes,

again, if you've ever played chess, there are times you have to leave certain pieces alone while you make other strategic moves to set up where you're trying to bring these pieces to. But don't think for the moment that your piece isn't moving that God has forgotten you.

I promise you it is not personal. God is doing something for you. The second thing that I think Paul does incredibly well that we have to learn to do is when you're in a season that makes no sense, don't lose sleep over it. What do I mean? Do you realize that our country,

the most advanced country in the history of the world, we are also simultaneously the most anxious culture in the history of the world? We are prescribed more anti anxiety medication than any other people in any part of the world,

it's because oftentimes what happens when we don't understand, we begin to panic and freak out because we've been conditioned to believe that our path towards peace is by understanding it all. And maybe, just maybe, it isn't that way. But it's trusting the one who holds it all.

Paul, when he feels like God says no to Asia, what does he do? He goes to bed. And in a vision, while he's sleeping, God brings him clarity. Friends, you and I have to learn to rest when life makes no sense because I promise you, it is in your resting, it is in your slowing down and being still

that you'll be able to remember who God is. Here's the third thing that I would encourage us to do. Don't give up.

There are some of you who your life is kind of confusing because of circumstances outside of your control. But I also know there's others of us who our life is chaotic because of the decisions that we've made. And you can become convinced in those moments when you are living in the mess of your own decisions

to just completely give up. And you will be convinced that people's life will be better without you, and I promise you all of that is a lie from the pit of hell. The hope of the gospel, the good news of Jesus is it doesn't matter what today looks like for you, your best days are still

ahead of you. And if it doesn't make sense today, friend, hold on. There will be a day where this will make sense and it will get better because God is not done. Do not give up. Here's the fourth thing I would encourage you to do when God doesn't make sense. Don't keep it to yourself. Don't keep what to yourself.

Don't keep the message that we have been entrusted with as humans. As ambassadors from heaven, do not keep the message of salvation that can be found in Jesus and Jesus alone to yourself.

God will use you if you allow him. He will use your lowest moments to bring other people into their highest moment, their greatest moment. God will use your pit to bring other people to their paradise. It's what he does through Paul. It's how we begin to see purpose in our pain. Here's the last thing that I think Paul and Silas do that we have to learn to do is probably the most difficult thing to do when life doesn't make sense and our hearts are hurting and heavy. Paul and Silas,

they refuse to stop singing. They realize in the middle of their prison, in the middle of their shackles, in the middle of their season that makes no sense, sometimes the greatest thing that we can do is to stop trying, stop striving, stop trying to make it all make sense and to just stop, sit down,

and worship God for who he is. And I wish the scriptures told us what that conversation with Paul and Silas looked like, but it's not in there. It just says at midnight, after hours of dealing with the pain of their physical wounds, of dealing with the disappointment of where they thought they were gonna be,

they finally stopped and they said, you know what? And worship is our weapon.

Because what worship is the reason that we gather and we sing, most people are like, well, that's the warm up for the sermon. Right? Like, no. Friends, it's not. What worship is, the reason that we gather, what happens when we do this corporately and we come together as the ecclesia, the the body of Christ,

is I promise you if we could pull back the the realm and see the world in the supernatural, What is happening over all of our lives is warfare. There's a battle over your life and when we sing worship,

there's a reason that the Israelites before they would go to go to battle, what they would do is they would send the worship leaders in front. They would send the musicians first understanding that that's where the real battle is. The the Bible says that we don't wage war with flesh and bones, but with spirits and principalities.

And oftentimes, the greatest weapon we have in a world that makes no sense, in seasons where God makes no sense, is to just stop and to sing and to declare that God you are good even when everything around me would tempt me to say that you are not.

And God, I don't see it yet, but I know breakthrough's coming. I trust you even when my heart says I should freak out. I'm gonna stand here and say, God, I know you're the same yesterday that you are today, that you will be tomorrow. And I will not allow my fickle heart to lead me to something other than you are good.

And friends, I'm telling you, you will be tempted to only want to worship God when you feel like it. But I tell you this morning, the greatest opportunities, the purest worship is often when you don't feel like it.

And as you begin to worship, I promise you, your your heart will begin to be filled again with joy and hope and to believe that you can do it again. So I want all of us, what I'm gonna do right now is I'm gonna pray for us. The worship team is gonna lead us in this song that declares God we trust you. God, we believe that you are who you say that you are. And I promise you right now, if you have a heart that is heavy, if you will lift up a song of praise, God will minister to your heart in this place. Amen?

So Father God, I thank you for every person that's here in this room. God, I know that there are really big circumstances and situations that are here today. And God, I'm not trying to lob, simple answers at what I know to be really complicated situations.

But God, you know every single thing that's happening. You hold it all in perfect balance. And God, you are working it together. So right now, we together, we collectively make a decision to choose to worship you as king, as messiah,

as savior, and as lord knowing that you have all of this in the palm of your hand and you are working it out and god we trust you. It is in your name all god's people said, amen and amen. Hey, would you guys stand with us?

Father, God, right now in this place, God, we choose to trust you. We make a choice to trust you when our hearts are heavy. God, I pray that you would use all the circumstances of difficulty and sorrow and heartbreak and let down to teach us what it means to trust you, to walk by faith and not by sight.

God, you are a good God, and we refuse to let our circumstances say other than that. So, God, we walk in triumphant victory knowing that there will be a day where all the tears are wiped away. We get to stand in eternity and see you face to face. We look forward to that day we live in light of that day.

All of this is perishing. All of this is falling away. God, let us live from that perspective forward. It is in your holy, precious, and saving name that all God's people said. Amen and amen.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.