This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day three of week four of our look together through the
book of Acts, chapter 16 today. And remember, Paul is on his second missionary
journey, while Barnabas, we saw at the end of last week, is ministering with
John Mark. Acts, the book of Acts, follows the course of Paul.

And this is a chapter, Acts, chapter 16, that is filled with practical lessons
about the real life of ministry. As you see Paul going different places, serving
people in different ways, there are just practical real lessons that I need to
hear, you need to hear, about serving God and what it's really like. What does
it mean to serve Jesus?

And how has that lived out in my life? There are five specific lessons, in fact
six if we have time, that I want us to look at together today, that we learned
from Paul in this chapter. Lesson number one is the danger of doing the right
thing.

If you're going to serve God, you've got to know the danger of doing the right
thing. Verse 16, one to three, "Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a
disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, and
whose father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.

Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of
the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
For the sake of the Jews, Paul asked Timothy to be circumcised, and he said yes.
In that moment, it seemed to be it was likely the right thing to do.

His mother was a Jew, so he was half Jewish, half Greek in his family. If he'd
been all Gentile, Paul probably would not have asked that this be done, but
because his mother was a Jewess, he said, "Okay, this may be the right thing to
do. " Yes, it seems like the right thing to do.

I think it will help people to not have a barrier when they hear the message.
Seemed like the right thing to do probably was the right thing to do in the
moment, but later in ministry, Paul suffered over this one. Many used it to say
that Paul believed that we should still follow the Old Testament laws.

Well, you had Timothy circumcised. Why shouldn't everybody be circumcised? It's
a reminder that you will get criticized, you will get attacked for doing the
right thing.

So what do you do? You do the right thing. In the moment, you pray about it, and
you say, "Lord, what's the right thing to do?

" And you do the right thing. You can't figure out the future, and you certainly
can't silence the critics, so you do the right thing. And you realize there is
danger in doing the right thing.

If you're looking for a life where there's no danger of criticism or attack,
you're not looking for the life of faith. In fact, there's no such life on this
earth. The only way to get there is to live no life at all.

Lesson one, the danger of doing the right thing. Lesson two, one of the most
important choices in ministry is what you choose not to do. Lesson two, one of
the most important choices in ministry is what you choose not to do.

Verses six to ten. Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of
Fergie and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word
in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mycia, they tried to
enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

So they passed by Mycia and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a
vision of a man in Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia
and help us. " After Paul had seen the vision, he got ready at once to leave for
Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Now notice first of all at the end of verse ten, God had called us. Why does it
say us there? Because Luke is along with Paul on this journey.

He doesn't mention his name much, but he's there. When he says us, when he says
we, that means he's along with him. So he's seeing, he's an eyewitness of these
events.

And in these events, God says no. God says no to going to Asia. The Holy Spirit
kept them from preaching there.

The Spirit of Jesus wouldn't allow them to enter into Bithynia. Why? Because God
wanted them in Macedonia.

One of the most important choices in ministry is what you choose not to do.
Because when you choose not to do something, that means you have time, there's
an open door to do something else. In fact, even what I'm doing right now is an
example of that, teaching drive time devotions.

Years ago we had a Wednesday night study at Saddleback and I taught through the
Bible on Wednesday nights. Because of wanting to emphasize our small groups, we
decided to not do Wednesday night any longer and to have small groups throughout
the week. But I still wanted to teach the Bible.

Our church still needed to hear the Bible. So what did I do? I began to teach it
in a podcast.

I wouldn't be doing this right now if I was still teaching on Wednesday nights.
What you choose not to do opens the door to something else that God might have
for you to do. Lesson two, one of the most important choices, what you choose
not to do.

Lesson one, the danger of doing the right thing. Lesson number three, God works
in places we do not expect. It doesn't always happen like you think it's going
to.

Listen to what happens in verse 13 in Philippi. On the Sabbath day, we went
outside the city gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer.
We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.

One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from
the city of Thyatira who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to
respond to Paul's message. Here they are in Philippi and there's not a synagogue
there apparently.

And when there's not a synagogue, they would have a place of prayer outside of
the city. In that day, if you had 10 Jewish men, you could have a synagogue. But
otherwise, you could gather outside of the city as many women as wanted and
maybe a few men and they would have a place of prayer.

So no synagogue, usually Paul and his team, his evangelistic team went to the
synagogue and preached there. They were able to go there so they go outside the
city and God works there. Not the usual place, not how they'd done it before,
but there they meet Lydia and there she is brought to know Jesus Christ.

There her life has changed. God often works in places we just do not expect. Now
there's a fourth lesson as we walk through this chapter.

The fourth lesson comes out of some of the difficulty that was had by those who
heard the message and wanted to reject the message. Fourth lesson is we often
give noble excuses for our selfish desires. In this chapter, we hear the story
of Paul healing a slave girl who was possessed by a demon and somehow this demon
enabled her to try to tell the future and it was so impressive the show of this
demon that the ones who owned this slave girl, they actually made people pay to
hear these fortunes told.

They were making a good money at it. It was a good business. Then Paul heals
this girl.

They're using her as a circus sideshow and God all of a sudden brings her into
new life. So what are they going to do? Listen to what happens in verses 19 to
21.

When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was
gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face
the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men
are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful
for us Romans to accept or practice. " That's it.

That's what they said. Nothing about we lost our business, nothing about what
really happened, nothing about we want to continue to use this woman to make
money. No, they said these men are Jews.

We've already noticed there weren't a lot of Jews in this city, so it was a good
charge to bring and they're not advocating customs that are for us who are
Romans. And in Philippi, it was a Roman city. In Philippi, it was saying these
men need to be punished, a very noble sounding group.

But the truth is they were just plain selfish. We often give noble excuses for
our selfish desires. Now if you're thinking of somebody else right now, and I
am, I mean it's easy to think of somebody else, somebody who's maybe not yet a
believer and they're keeping Jesus at arm's length but they're saying it's
because they have better philosophy than you do or they can't trust what
Christians have done through history and yet the truth of the matter is they
don't want to give up their drinking habit.

The truth of the matter is they're immoral with women and they don't want to
give that up and you know it and they know it deep down. Isn't it easy to think
about them? What about me?

What about you? What noble excuse am I giving for keeping some selfish desire in
my life? Sometimes we selfishly want to be alone and so nobly we say well I just
need a time away with the Lord.

The truth of the matter is you just want to escape from your family for a while,
you need some peace and quiet. Why not just say that? Giving noble excuses for
selfish desires is a deep form of hypocrisy and you see it all through the book
of Acts.

I've seen it in my life, you see it in your life. Jesus help us, help us as we
grow in you to let go of that. Lesson number five is the same as lesson number
three and that is God works in places we do not expect.

In verses 25 to 33 we see Paul and Barnabas because of what happens they're
thrown into prison and in that prison you'd expect they're going to suffer but
they don't. In that prison, well verse 25 listen to what happens, about midnight
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners
were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the
foundations of the prison were shaken.

At once all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. The
jailer woke up and when he saw the prison doors open he drew his sword and was
about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul
shouted, "Don't harm yourself, we're all here!

" The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and
Silas. Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved? "
They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved and all your
household.

" And that's exactly what happened, that jailer was saved, all his household was
saved. God works in places we do not expect and I'm impressed by the miracle
that happens here, the earthquake that happens and they're set free from the
prison. But more than anything I am impressed by the attitude of Paul and Silas
because even before God worked in ways that they did not expect, you can tell
they expected God to show up.

They may have stayed in that prison for a long time. In fact Paul does later in
his ministry and while he's there he writes letters that become the New
Testament. He expected God to work even if he had to stay in the prison.

How do I know they expected God to work? Look at their attitude in verse 25,
"Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners
were listening to them. " They were spiritual leaders of the other prisoners
even while they're in prison.

That's what I want in my life, that's what I hope for in your life, that we
would expect God to work in places that we do not expect, that we wouldn't stop
giving noble excuses for our selfish desires, that we would see in our lives
that even in the midst of problems God is still at work in many marvelous ways.
And that there are times when the things that I say no to, those are the most
important choices in ministry. I pray as we walk through this today that we
would see the danger of doing the right thing but that we'd still keep doing the
right thing.

Jesus we just give all this to you. As we pray we ask, help us to do the right
thing even though it may be dangerous, is dangerous. Help us to say no to those
things that you're saying no to in our lives, the good things that you're saying
no to so that we can do the best that you have for us.

Help us to let go of the hypocrisy of giving noble spiritual excuses for our
selfish desires. And God help us to see you at work in places that we do not
expect, to expect you to work in places we do not expect. We ask this in your
name, Amen.