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Tune in to God's Will for Your Life
The Book of Acts - Part 75
Acts 21:1-14
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - Feb. 22, 2015
*If you are my age or older, you probably watched a TV with rabbit ears on top.
That was the shiny metal, indoor antenna that looked like two short fishing poles stuck together in a V shape.
This was long before the days of Cable TV or DISH, and you had to position those rabbit ears just right to get a half-way decent picture on the three channels we had.
Some people put aluminum foil on the rabbit ears to help them pick up the signal better.
But we weren't that high-tech in my family.
*Back then, people were trying their best to tune in to the TV show they wanted to watch.
But tonight in God's Word, we can tune in to something a whole lot more important.
Here we can actually tune in to God's will for our lives.
1.
First we see that it's God's will to work through our limitations.
*In other words: God has chosen to do His extraordinary work through ordinary people like us.
Verses 1-3 remind us of this important truth, so please listen again to Luke's report:
1.
Now it came to pass, that when we had departed from them and set sail, running a straight course we came to Cos, the following day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.
2. And finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.
3. When we had sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload her cargo.
*I am a little surprised that God bothered to put these verses in His Word.
They almost read like a bus schedule.
Listen to vs. 1-3 again from the NLT:
1.
After saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to the island of Cos.
The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Patara.
2. There we boarded a ship sailing for the Syrian province of Phoenicia.
3. We sighted the island of Cyprus, passed it on our left, and landed at the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where the ship was to unload.
*Nothing could be more routine than Luke's list of their hops and skips toward Jerusalem.
But God's work has always been a mixture of the mundane and the miraculous.
In our church, we want to see souls saved, but we also want to save money on the electric bill.
We want to see hearts cleansed, but we also want clean bathrooms.
*God's work has always been a mixture of the mundane and the miraculous.
This is important for us to see, because we have a tendency to turn our Bible heroes into super men and women.
And that can be intimidating, because we think we can't possibly serve the Lord like they did.
*But these verses remind us that they were men and women just like us.
They lived in the real world and had to take care of basic needs just like us.
God worked through their limitations and He can do the same thing in our lives.
*This was His careful plan all along, so that all the glory will go where it belongs: To God! Paul talked about this truth in 2 Corinthians 4:5-7, where he said:
5. . .
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
6.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
*God wants to work through our limitations.
One of the great Christian leaders of the last 30 years is Chuck Swindoll.
Listen to Dr. Swindoll's testimony about some of the limitations he and his wife faced at the very beginning of their ministry:
*"When my wife, Cynthia, and I were first led by God to change careers and enter seminary and to begin ministry, which was something I had resisted for the longest time, we changed our whole life.
In fact, we sold our house on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, and moved to Dallas.
And we knew, really, no one.
*We set up housekeeping in a little, tiny apartment.
It was really a dump.
I mean, it was one of those places with hot and cold running rats, you know, those places they finally just condemned."
Chuck also said he heard a friend say: "'When we lived there, there wasn't a single roach in the place.
They were all married and had a litter of roaches.'
I mean, there were roaches everywhere.
I'm glad to say it's all been torn down.
*But we didn't know anybody.
We didn't have any money.
In fact, we had a little debt we had to deal with."
But God worked through all of those limitations in a marvelous way.
(1)
2. And it is God's will to work through our limitations.
It is also His will for us to link-up with other Christians.
*God wants us to link our lives together with other believers, just as Paul's mission team did here.
In vs. 3-6, Luke tells us:
3. When we had sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload her cargo.
4.
And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days.
They told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem.
5. When we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way; and they all accompanied us, with wives and children, till we were out of the city.
And we knelt down on the shore and prayed.
6.
When we had taken our leave of one another, we boarded the ship, and they returned home.
*When the team got to Tyre, they were less than 100 miles from Jerusalem.
John Phillips tells us that there was a church in this city.
It was probably established during the great persecution that followed the death of Stephen.
The missionaries knew about the church and hunted it up.
*The word for "finding disciples" in vs. 4 occurs one other time in the New Testament.
Luke also used it in his Gospel when the shepherds 'came with haste and FOUND Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.'
So here, Paul and the mission team went out searching for these fellow believers."
(2)
*And the lesson for us is that we ought to be, we need to be seeking godly influence and support in our lives.
The Christian life was never designed to be lived in isolation from other believers.
We need godly people in our lives to encourage us and challenge us to live for Jesus.
*Thank God we already have a built-in relationship with every believer we will ever meet in this world!
Godly Christian strangers won't be strangers for long.
And just like Paul, we will find Christian hospitality wherever we find other Christians.
*John Phillips explained: "Such is the fellowship of the church.
Paul was not personally known to many at Tyre, and his companions were complete strangers.
But by the end of the week, links of Christian love had been forged.
And the believers felt as though they had known one another for years.
The world knows nothing like it.
No club or fraternity offers anything to compare with the fellowship of the saints.
A child of God is a member of a family, a real family, and one in which the ties are often more binding than those in one's human family."
(2)
*Listen to the rest of Chuck Swindoll's testimony: "We didn't know anybody.
We didn't have any money.
In fact, we had a little debt we had to deal with.
But unknown to us when we came, there was a man in our home church who took an interest in our lives, and he's one of the great heroes of my past.
*You wouldn't know him if I called his name.
He'd be embarrassed if I named him publicly, and so I won't.
But year after year, he paid our tuition, not only ours, but 12 or 14 other fellas who were there from the same church.
In fact, one year he bought us all new sports coats for Christmas.
Never once did I have to write him and ask for help.
He saw the need and filled it."
(1)
*All of those couples were blessed beyond measure by another believer.
They were helped, taught, inspired and encouraged.
We need to seek that kind of godly influence in our lives.
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