The sermon titled 'Gospel Strategies and God's Overruling Providence' by Trent Moody focuses on Acts 16:1-10, highlighting the missionary journey of Paul and the strategic decisions made along the way. It discusses the introduction of Timothy, a disciple of mixed Jewish and Greek heritage, whom Paul circumcised to remove barriers to the gospel among Jews. The sermon underscores the tension between human planning and divine intervention, illustrating how the Holy Spirit forbade them from preaching in certain regions, redirecting their mission to Macedonia. This redirection resulted in fruitful ministry, demonstrating God's sovereign control over gospel expansion. The preacher emphasizes the importance of flexibility in plans, the necessity of strategic thinking in gospel advancement, and the need to balance evangelism with discipleship. The sermon concludes with a call to recognize God's providence in placing strategic people in our lives and to embrace the divine strategy in ministry, even when it contradicts personal plans.

Acts chapter 16 and we will be looking at the first 10 verses of this chapter. Acts chapter 16 and beginning with verse 1. Then he, Paul, came to Derbe and Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra in Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek.

And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. Now when they had gone through Pergia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Messia, they tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Messia, they came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Now after he had seen the vision immediately, we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we Thank you, O Lord, that you have brought us before your word this morning. We thank you, dear God, that your word is quick and powerful, Lord, sharper than any two-edged sword.

Lord, we pray today that you would truly pierce the hearts and minds of your people that you would reveal us this morning. Lord any areas within our life that need to be corrected, any areas that need to be rebuked or instructed or encouraged, Lord I pray that you would just have free reign among us today. Lord I pray oh God for your people, Lord these precious people who have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, Lord I pray oh God that you would strengthen them today, Lord just as you did these churches that you would strengthen them and that they would be strong in the faith. And Lord, that you would increase the number daily. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated. Gospel strategies and God's overruling providence. Have you ever made plans and strategies and in the process of time they do not come to fruition? Am I the only one that this happens to? You make plans, you set goals, and you pull out your calendar, and you have certain things that you're wanting to accomplish, only to find that in the midst of that week that you have set these schedules that hardly any of it comes to fruition, that certain things just break in upon your schedule and totally change what you had planned to do.

You had good intentions, you had sound plans, but you met with what seemed to be closed door after closed door when you tried to accomplish that plan. I know that there's no homeschooling mother here this morning that has ever experienced that. No father who tries to work, you know, has his own business, that happens to hardly ever, I'm sure. But the question is, how do you respond when your plans do not work out the way you planned? What do you do?

It's easy in the moment like this to get discouraged and possibly quit just to you know throw up your hands and think to yourself you know what I think it might be better if I just go home and wait this one out. There has been a day or two like that in my life when almost before I get going, I think you know what, it might be safer for me to turn around and go home. But by God's grace, He presses us on and helps us and encourages us and I really hope that that's what this does for you this morning, that Even though you may have these great plans, I want you to be flexible enough to know that God has the right and the rule and the reign over your plans to sovereignly overrule them. He can do with you as He wants to do, and we're going to see that this morning in this passage. You know I think it's in times when we kind of want to throw up our hands and quit that when we don't see these plans coming to fruition that we really need to be reminded that the mission, our mission as a Christian is not ultimately ours.

It's really not about your plan, although we are to plan. The Bible is clear about that, that we were to live orderly lives, we were to make plans, we were to have strategies for certain things to accomplish goals, to take dominion of what God has given us. But at the end of the day, we need to really rest upon the sovereignty of God and be open and actually willing for him to step into that plan and do what he wants to do. It's hard to do, especially some of us, I think some of us have a harder time than others with that. We like things to go as planned, but as a Christian your life is his.

You have been bought with a price. And now I want you to consider the Apostle Paul in this mix. So not only your plans of a day-to-day vision or a day-to-day thing that you're wanting to do at work or in the midst of homeschooling or whatever it may be, I want you to think of the Apostle Paul. Here he was striving for gospel advancement and God breaks into his strategy and turns it upside down. And we want to look and see what God did in the life of Paul and even in the life of Timothy and these others who are here with him.

But I want you to remember back last time that we were talking about Paul and Barnabas. You remember they also had a plan. You remember what their plan was? Then after some days, verse 36 in chapter 15, then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, hey here's a plan, let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. But then we know that what took place was that Paul and Barnabas, it seemed like just like a lightning bolt on a clear day, they all of a sudden got into a strong disagreement about John Mark and their plan was floored in a sense.

It was changed and they ended up going their separate ways. You know that's enough to discourage even the most stout-hearted Christian. To have a ministry plan that you're wanting to accomplish some goal for the furtherance of the gospel and it seems like it's a good plan. It's a stout plan. It's wise in what you're wanting to accomplish.

Your motives are good and you want to see people come to the Lord and yet in the midst of that something happens and it seems as if your plans have been thrown on top of their, upside down on their head. But we see here in the life of Barnabas and in Paul that this actually turned out not for the hindrance of the gospel, but for the expansion of the gospel that they actually doubled their efforts as they went in two different ways and so from Paul's perspective plan B was the perspective of not just the plan B was this is that Barnabas went to Cyprus and Paul went to Cilicia and Syria. And then on now, as we see in chapter 16, on to Derbe and into Lystra. So their plan to go back and to visit the brethren in every city where they had preached the gospel, it got altered and changed. But neither of them, listen, neither of them quit the mission.

They continued on even in the face of difficulty and adversity even among brethren. They didn't stop because something difficult happened, but Paul and Barnabas both went back to the work that they had intended to do. And our narrative this morning picks up with Paul and we will follow Paul throughout the rest of the book of Acts and not hear a whole lot about Barnabas after this. But we'll see that Paul is the one we follow and it was not as if he was haphazardly thinking about what to do but he was very orderly and he was intentional in his ministry goals that he had in advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ. He wanted to accomplish something very specific and he set out to do that.

He wanted to go and to see how the gospel had taken root and to see what fruit had been born by those efforts. Good plan, good motive, diligence in its application. But this is not without instruction for us in whatever ministry we have and really in all of our life. We should not only look ahead to where we want to go, but I believe that it's important that we also look back to those who have been instructed in the faith, and we see how they are doing. This faithful and fruitful gospel ministry should not only have a mindset of what's next, but also the strengthening of what has been.

Does that make sense? So Paul had this desire to go forward in the gospel. He wanted to know where he was going to preach the gospel next, but he did that not by neglecting what had already come before, the ministries that he had started and the churches that he had started. He wanted to go back and check upon these dear believers that he loved and cared for, and he did this throughout his ministry. And so he had this two-fold mindset of pressing forward and looking forward in what God would have him to do and not leaving those who were behind but bringing them along and strengthening them in the Lord.

If you will, this was the kind of the balance here of going forward with evangelistic efforts and also discipleship efforts that we hold these two things together that we want to do both of them well. It's not just about the next convert but it's also about the one that was converted two years ago and that needs to mature and grow and be strengthened in the faith. It's both and. And so in our passage this morning, I really hope that we'll be instructed on how strategy is essential but not sovereign. God is sovereign.

Our plans can change. They can turn and morph. But God is the one who is working all things according to the purpose of His will. We do best to embrace what God has ordained. We do best to embrace what God has ordained.

So in His plan, I want you to realize, and we're going to see this in our text, that God has placed certain people and unexpected roadblocks, but His plan is perfect, and it will accomplish His will. So let's see how this works out. In verses 1 through 3 we see this on your outline there as strategic people that God places in your life for gospel advancement. If you've been a Christian very long you can look back in your life and you can see certain people that God has placed in your life that were there strategically placed by God to encourage you to rebuke you to help instruct you to strengthen you or someone in your life that you were supposed to strengthen and help along and that's what we find here in this young man named Timothy. Look with me, then he came to Derby and Lystra and behold a certain disciple, that's kind of a key word there for us, a certain disciple.

We're going to hear more about him and obviously we know about Timothy And our brother Scott's going to be preaching through 1st and 2nd Timothy here in a few months. And we're going to learn a whole lot about this relationship between Paul and Timothy that we see here in its very early moments in the life of Timothy. He was a certain disciple was there and his name was Timothy the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed but his father was Greek. This certain disciple. We're given this great advantage to already know a lot about the life of Timothy and again we're gonna learn so much more in the in the months ahead in first and second Timothy.

But we know this certain disciple will also one day become a pastor at the church at Ephesus and he will have to deal with a lot of the difficulties that arise there. And so I believe it's important and instructive for us to see how Paul is dealing with and relating with this young man Timothy, this certain disciple, to bring him along and that he wanted him to come along with him, not to leave him there because he was a convert at this time but to bring him with him so that he would grow in his faith and be mature in his Christianity. We see this lie in the life of Timothy and we know throughout other parts of Scripture that he was brought up in faithfulness by his mother and grandmother. He was raised in a godly family, at least to some extent. His father was a Greek.

We don't know really much more about that other than it lends itself to believe that he was not a believer, but his mother and grandmother most certainly were. Matthew Henry says his mother was a Jewish originally but believed in Christ. Her name was Eunice and his grandmother's name was Lois, and Paul speaks of them both with great respect as women of imminent virtue and piety, and commended them both, especially for their genuine faith and their sincerity embracing and adhering to the doctrines of Christ. This is seen in 2 Timothy 1. But we know this also that though he had a Greek father and because he had a godly mother and a godly grandmother this had taken effect in the life of Timothy.

Look at what verse 2 says. Verse 2 says he was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. He had a good testimony. He was a young man who had a good testimony among the brethren. Lystra, we remember, is where Paul healed the man who was crippled from his mother's womb.

He had never walked and Paul said with a loud voice, stand up straight on your feet, And he leaped and he walked. So remember that the first time that Paul spoke in this area, it was in the presence or at least in the same place in where Timothy was. Was this the point of his conversion? Had he heard about the healing of the lame man? Did he see it?

We don't know exactly, but we do know it's the same place in which this took place. It was also the same place where Paul and Barnabas were thought to be gods and then in short order were warning they were stoned and run out of the city. And then Iconium is where the multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed at the preaching of Paul and Barnabas. And Paul stayed there a long time speaking boldly and the Lord said there was a length of time in which Paul was in this area where Timothy was. He was well spoken of in both of these places and he was there for a long time most likely if not directly under but hearing of the preaching of the Apostle Paul.

This is the same place where many signs and wonders were done and that those who opposed Paul and Barnabas in their preaching had made a plan together. They had a strategy as well. They had the strategy of abusing and stoning Paul and Barnabas, but they by God's grace found out about it and fled the area. Timothy, he was a young man with strong character. 1st Timothy 412, Paul encourages him, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, and impurity.

And yet he was also a young man who needed encouragement. We find this in 2 Timothy. I'm just going to read a couple of verses here for you in 2 Timothy that shows you how Paul encouraged this young man. Remember, what we're talking about here is strategic people in your life that God has placed there. You may be the one in need of encouragement and strengthening like Timothy.

You may be the one who is like Paul who is doing the strengthening and encouraging. So This goes right along with Titus chapter 2 where Scott's preaching and will continue to preach about this encouragement. He's encouraging young men be sober-minded. He's encouraging old men to be sober, to be sound in their doctrine. And now we have an example of this very thing right here.

Paul encourages Timothy in 2 Timothy 1.6, Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. In verse 8, therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God." These things were written to Timothy as encouragements, no doubt because Paul had seen in this young man some areas in which he needed to be strengthened. Perhaps some areas where he saw some weaknesses. Guess what? We all have weaknesses in certain areas.

And it's right and appropriate for us who are more mature in the faith to come to those who are young in the faith and to encourage them in those things. He says, I want to remind you to stir up the gift of God that's in you. Don't let that lay dormant. Also, I want to encourage you, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Hey, guess what?

We're going to rejoice in the sufferings of Christ. What an encouragement for a young man who was now the pastor at this time of the church at Ephesus. Also in 2nd Timothy 1.13 he says this, hold fast the pattern of sound words. Don't swerve and waver from the sound words of the gospel. Don't turn aside to other things.

He said, you heard them from me in faith and love which are in Jesus Christ. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. Preach the Word as I preach the Word. Stay true to the Gospel as I've stayed true to the Gospel, is what he's telling him. And then also in chapter 2 of 2 Timothy, You therefore my son, what words of endearment, You therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Can I just take a moment and encourage us older men that we take this very seriously? The encouragement that Paul gave to younger men. This was convicting to me as I was studying this and thinking about this, how much more I need to invest in young men and to speak into young men's lives, to encourage them and to exhort them. You see, Paul had a plan for this young man's life. You ever had somebody who had a plan for your life?

Got a wonderful plan for your life. Well, Paul had a plan for his life. He met this certain disciple named Timothy, and then what does it say in verse 3? Paul wanted him to go on with him. My plan for your life Timothy is you come with me.

And so you think about this he had this plan for him, he had this young disciple who he saw usefulness in and great potential and I believe here that this would be a double encouragement. It would be an encouragement for Timothy and encouragement for Paul as well. You'll find out that some of the greatest encouragements and times of encouragement in your life is when you're actually pouring yourself out into somebody else. You will be encouraged by that and that person will also be encouraged. But you know, we learned that Timothy was a young man, much like is exhorted in Titus chapter 2.

He was sober-minded. He was showing himself to have a pattern of good works. Remember, he had a good testimony. He was spoken well of. He was sound in doctrine.

He was showing integrity. He was showing reverence and incorruptibility. He was sound in speech and blameless in character. So I want to highly encourage not only the older men here to to invest into the lives of the young but young men listen This is the type of young man that you need to be Scott's going to get into this in chapter 2 of Titus He's going to encourage you in these things the very things I've spoken to you, that you be sober-minded, that you show yourself to have a pattern of good works. And I want to highly encourage you, don't waste your life and your time on frivolous things.

I want you to set serious goals for yourself and to get busy for the Lord as soon as possible. Young men, I want you to go today and I want you to ask certain men, older men in this church, and ask them what their regrets are. I can tell you what they are. Their regrets are all the time that they wasted on frivolous living. Every one of us has this this past that we're thinking about and we think of how many days and weeks and months and years we have wasted in living for ourselves or living worldly lives.

But I promise you this, not one of them will say, man, I really regret serving the Lord. Not one of them will say, I really regret spending more time in prayer and more time in the world. I really regret being a man of character. None of them will say this. These older men are only regretting the things that they wasted when they could have been using their time for the Lord.

So young men and older men, let's be encouraged in these things. And let us understand that God places people in your life for a purpose. And it is to encourage you and to draw you closer to Him. Because here we have not only Timothy, but we have Paul who was a man with an eye for usefulness and a man who saw the potential of a person's life. Paul did not pass over the young, but invested in them.

He had no time really for lackadaisical young men. He had no time, we just saw, for John Mark who turned back, but he wanted to invest in a young man named Timothy who showed himself to be diligent and was well-spoken of. Be that kind of young man who is diligent in the things of the Lord, and you will find yourself the type of young man that older men are desiring to invest in. You will see them give of their time and their efforts and energies to help you to become the man that God wants you to be. But in this next verse we see in the context of chapter 15, what seems to be some hypocritical actions at first glance anyway.

We will see in here in verse 3, look at what it says, Paul wanted to have him go on with him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Think about chapter 15 with me just for a moment. We talked about this at men's meeting. What did chapter 15 teach us? What did the Council of Jerusalem teach us?

You remember what the Judaizers were saying? You must be circumcised to be saved and keep the Law of Moses. And Paul withstood that. He fought against it. He was all about standing against this thing.

But I want you to notice this. He had a strategic action that he understood would expand Timothy's audience for the gospel. A strategic action that would expand his audience for the gospel. Is this hypocrisy or strategy here? The man was just arguing against circumcision for the faith and now he is taking a young man who is new in the faith and making sure that he was circumcised.

At first glance this seems like hypocrisy. But this very Paul who had spent such energies to fight the Judaizers in Antioch and then also in Jerusalem at the Council, he now has the gall to take the young man and have him circumcised. Was Paul a flippy floppy man? Was he back and forth on his doctrine and understanding of what it meant? Or was he being strategic in what he understood as advantages to proclaiming the gospel?

You see, I don't believe that he had a change of mind, but I do believe he had a possible change of motive. You see, what sometimes makes an action either sinful or not is not what you do, but why you do it. Now, not with everything, but some things. Take this case of circumcision. The Judaizers came preaching this unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved.

Key word cannot. This is a sinful action based upon a sinful message. To think and command that an outward sign was necessary in order to be saved was to diminish the finished work of Christ on the cross. However, to see this same outward sign as a strategy or a strategic action to expand ministry opportunity was not sinful. Paul did not want Timothy, he didn't want his Greekness to hinder his ministry to the Jews.

Remember his father was a Greek and that was typically how a person was seen was by who their father was and what they believed and how they lived. Even though he had a godly mother and a godly grandmother who taught him the scriptures from the time he was a baby, it would still hinder him. So Paul wanted Timothy to have full access and audience with the Jews so that some of them would be saved. And so he was strategic in his thinking. Barnes says this was evidently done to avoid the opposition and reproaches of the Jews.

It was a measure not binding in itself, but the neglect of which would expose to contention and opposition among the Jews. And greatly retard and destroy his usefulness in gospel ministry. So Paul understood this. He understood the principle behind it. He lived by this principle that we see in 1st Corinthians chapter 9.

He says, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more. And to the Jews I became a Jew, that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without law, as without law, not being without the law, law towards God, but under the law towards Christ, that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without law as without law, not being without the law towards God, but under the law towards Christ, that I might win those who are without law.

To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some now this I do for the gospel's sake that I may be partakers of it with you see we must use wisdom in our gospel ministries. Like one of our men noted at men's meeting, they said this, Timothy was circumcised not to be saved, but to be heard. Do you see the difference there? And so this is not a contradiction in the life of Paul.

It's not hypocrisy in the life of Paul. But I believe that this is wisdom. It was a wisdom action that helped to overcome prejudice. You see it says, for they all knew this, they all knew that his father was a Greek. And so Paul, a Jew, had no qualms about being in ministry with Timothy, but he also knew that the Jews would have a problem with it.

Paul didn't consider him to be unclean, but gladly laid hands upon him for the blessedness and the giving of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. But he knew that the Jews would be very prejudiced and unwilling to listen to a son of a Greek man, no matter what message he brought. You know, I liken this to if I was to go back to the mountains and ask to preach at a church that was a King James only church. I can tell you this, I wouldn't show up with my ESV. I would gladly go and I would take a King James version and I would preach the gospel.

It was not wrong to preach out of the ESV. It's not wrong to preach out of the King James. So what I would want to do is I would want to come in such a way that it gave a receptive hearing of the Word of God because that would be the point. I was removing a stumbling block if you will And that's what Paul was doing here. He was removing an offense that was not necessary.

It wasn't necessary for his salvation. It wasn't necessary for his sanctification. But if he could remove that stumbling block, the gospel opportunities open to this young man would be much broader. And so he was strategic in what he was thinking. Do you see these strategies taking place?

There's a strategy of God bringing certain people into your life. Paul now uses his strategy to remove barriers so that Timothy can preach the gospel to the Jews. And then we see thirdly in verses 4 and 5 a strategic message to strengthen the churches, strategies that were working. And as they went through the cities they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily." You know this continues somewhat of the irony of Paul having Timothy circumcised.

So think about this for a moment. Paul worked very diligently against the Judaizers in Antioch and then in Jerusalem. And then he goes and he has Timothy circumcised and then they go around teaching and preaching the very things that the elders and the apostles said at the Jerusalem Council that it was not necessary. And so you see all of this messaging is coming forth and is surrounded by this subject line. He's wanting to correct the Jewish view of circumcision, and he's also wanting to correct the wrong teaching that the Gentiles were getting from the Judaizers.

And so he was doing two things with one message to correct both. He was correcting one and strengthening the other. Not only does he want to correct them, but he wants to instruct them and bring them along in the faith. You see, the message matched the people and the occasion. One of the things that we need to learn in Gospel ministry is that we need to be strategic in the message in which we're preaching.

I believe it was Martin Luther that said something to this effect that basically if we're fighting on all the battle lines except where the battle is the hottest, we are not being faithful to our calling. We actually need to recognize the areas in which the enemy is attacking and we need to fight those areas. And sometimes it will surprise you the areas that we need to fight. And when I look at our day and age and when I see the battles that have needed to be faced by the church, I'm really astounded sometimes that the things that come up, I thought, man, didn't we deal with that like 2, 000 years ago? And here it is again.

We're dealing with it again or some other oddity that comes along and we have to have to deal with that. But I want us to understand that experience teaches us that our pre-conversion lives often carry over into our converted lives. And what I mean by that is this, that Gentiles though converted will have tendencies towards what was happening in their life and in their upbringing and in their culture. They're going to have difficulties overcoming those types of sinful patterns, if you will. And the same thing is true for the Jews.

Though they were believers, they were going to have tendencies in which they would kind of fall back into that mindset and that type of thing. This is what happened to the Judaizers I think to to a sinful and what I would say is a unbelieving degree. It proved that they were not believers if they were adding to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But there were these tendencies there. Let's just call them not only patterns, these patterns in their lives did not instantly disappear.

Both the Gentiles and the Jews, both you and me, have certain prejudice that we are still trying to overcome. Certain things that we look at and immediately we have this feeling about it because of something in our life. And it's a difficulty that must be overcome. Our prejudice do not always vanish immediately. There's still a great need of the hour that we need to address these things in our lives.

The message of Jerusalem Council was not only for the church at Antioch. In fact, The letter was written and addressed to the brethren who are Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. This was a letter that was to be spread abroad. It was an instruction and a doctrine and a teaching of the church that was to be gone throughout multiple churches in different areas. However, the instruction from the letter that was that was specifically sent to the Gentiles was not limited to the Gentiles.

You see, I can preach a certain subject message here this morning and you say well that doesn't really apply to me but I stand by the authority of God that it absolutely applies to you. I don't have to know every circumstance of every person here. We have a very diverse group of people here this morning. There's no way I could somehow preach a gospel or preach a message and know exactly all the details of every one of your lives. But God does.

God's Word is quick and powerful. It can cut you right to the heart. It's amazing to me sometimes after a sermon people will come up to me and this person will tell me one thing, man that really meant something. And then another one comes up and said, man that really meant something. And then it's just so interesting how God's Word pricks the hearts of people in different ways and at different times and about different things.

That's the power of the Word of God. So this instruction here for the Jews and for the Gentiles, notice what he says, that it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, this is in chapter 15 of the letter that was written, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit to lay upon the Gentiles no other burden than these necessary things. And then it stands to reason that it would seem good to the Holy Spirit that the Jews also require no more than what was in the letter. The Holy Spirit said it's good that the Gentiles do not be circumcised and only do these necessary things. I believe we can by sound reasoning say it's good for the Jews not to require more than what the Holy Spirit says was good.

So it was for both of them. The message did not need to change for the Jew and then for the Gentile, but the application most certainly did. You see an application for a text is what takes a universal biblical truth and it gives the individual some custom-fit gloves to help them grip the truth of the text. That's what an application does. It helps you to have this contextual understanding and it applies it.

It's almost like God is fitting you with specialty gloves so that you can grab a hold of that truth and then live it. That's what an application is meant to do, is to help you to grip the truth of the text and to work it out in your own life. The result of this pointed preaching was that the churches were strengthened. So think about this here. We have Paul, he meets Timothy, he takes Timothy to have him circumcised and then they go around and they're they went through the cities they deliver to them to the in verse 4 the decrees to keep which were determined by the Apostles and elders at Jerusalem and what is the result of this?

All of these strategies coming together not in the way in which he thought they would come together but they were faithful to the word of God, they were faithful to the ministry of the gospel and the result of this is verse 5, so the churches were strengthened in faith and increased in number daily. We should not be surprised when doctrinal Preaching produces strong churches. This is the purpose of preaching. It's the purpose of the pastorate. Ephesians 4 tells us this, that He gave some, and I'm going to summarize this, He gave some to be pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith.

Don't be surprised that doctrinal churches will be strong churches. That it is the Word of God that instructs. Also in 2 Timothy we've read this numerous times. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

But neither should we be surprised not only were the churches strengthened, but the churches grew. So what he says in verse 5, an increase in number daily. Faithful, strategic, God-blessed preaching and teaching causes growth in the body both in quality and quantity. In strength and in size. But listen, a caveat.

Ultimately it is God who gives the increase it is only God who can increase numerically the size of this church or the quality of the believers within it, the strengthening and the edifying of the body of Christ. The churches were not strengthened, listen, the churches were not strengthened through thoughtless passivity but through purposeful engagement. This is the duty of gospel ministers. They must be purposeful and they must engage the issues of the day. The growth came because of their engagement with the issues.

This is exactly so. Think about this. Here's this letter written from the church at Jerusalem and they engaged the churches with this very thing. They took this teaching. They took this letter from the Jerusalem Council, and they brought it and they preached it and they explained it to the churches so that they would be strengthened and that they would increase.

It was faithfulness to the doctrinal need of the day. The growth came because of that engagement. However, I never want us to understand growth, numerical growth as always being from God. I only want healthy growth. You see, growth is not a sure sign of health.

Cancer grows rapidly, but brings death. So brothers and sisters, my desire, and Scott's desire, is that we would feed you the faithful preaching of the Word of God, the faithful doctrinal teaching that you are getting. It is for the purpose of strengthening your soul and by God's grace growing a healthy church. That's our desire because that brings glory to God. That's our desire.

This is what happened when Paul preached the gospel, but it did not come without opposition. We can read through the whole book of Acts and other books of the New Testament and we see that you will find that most of the time of the greatest growth of the church came at the same time of the church's greatest times of persecution and difficulty. People believed and Paul was stoned. Many people came to the Lord and there was great opposition and they ran them out of the city this happened over and over again so don't be surprised when that happens in our life as time at other times this this time of great growth and persecution go hand in hand. So brothers and sisters, be ready.

Be ready for it. Go ahead and be strategic in your thinking about these things. Next, in verses 6 and 7, we see strategic ministry intentions. We see that strategic ministry intentions are sometimes overruled by God. This passage is really amazing to me.

Let's read it, verses 6 and 7. Now, when they had gone through Pergia and the regions of Galatia they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach. Can I just stop right there? Does that statement not shock you? These men were called by the Holy Spirit to preach.

And now we have a passage saying that they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach. What are we going to make of this? They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia. This is Asia Minor. After they had come to Missia, they tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.

Two times in two verses, the Spirit of God forbid and did not permit them to preach the gospel. I thought we were to go everywhere and preach the gospel. Well guess what we are. This was probably one of the most shocking passages to me as a young believer. What do you make of this?

Well see, Paul had a plan. He had this strategy, this key word obviously of the sermon is strategy. He had this plan or this strategy that he was wanting to accomplish. It's clear from the passage, and even back with Barnabas, that they had this plan to go back and visit the churches, and then the broadening of that plan is that Paul was gonna then turn right, he was gonna turn towards the east, and take the gospel further to new places. It was a good and reasonable plan.

It was a plan with a desire to preach the gospel and see the salvation of souls. It was a desire to see the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God on earth. When we consider gospel ministry, it should be like this, strategic and purposeful, much like what we are doing even on our evangelism Sundays. Our brother Paul here he gives us a list of places to go. We have addresses, we have streets that we're gonna go down by the grace of God.

We have this little app and we can put notes in there and names of people and we can click on it. We know we've been there. This is strategy, okay? We're going with a strategic plan to evangelize our neighbors. It's much like what Paul was doing.

When men go out from this church and to other areas and when a certain event comes to town and they say hey I want to go there and preach the gospel there's gonna be a lot of people there that need to hear it and they make a plan and they send it out on a group chat and they meet and they go and they preach these are great things I praise God for them Praise God for you men who are faithful to do it. You are the type of men that you don't have to be wound up. You wind yourselves up and then you go. It's just wonderful. There's, I don't know of hardly any pastor who has men and women, but men that want to go out and preach like these men want to go out and preach.

It's glorious. It's an encouragement to your pastors. These are good things with a good purpose. However, this passage shows us plainly that the Lord is also strategic and purposeful in Gospel advancement. They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach.

Again, a most unusual statement. Why would the Holy Spirit forbid preaching? One of the main ministries of the Holy Spirit is to enliven the soul of man to receive the word of God. But here we have a forbidding of the preaching of the word and the word forbidden here may be a little bit strong but I don't know it means to prevent it means to hinder maybe forbidden is a good one It's this hindering of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit did this, and no doubt Paul had to be kind of shocked at this.

He's going on, he's got a plan, he's got people with him, they're going to go accomplish gospel ministry and preach to people. No. How did this happen? I don't know how he hindered him. I don't know if it was a vision to hinder him.

I don't know what it was, but he was hindered by the Holy Spirit or forbidden by the Holy Spirit to do this thing. That he was hindered is clear. How he was hindered is not clear. Was it some challenging circumstance that needed to be overcome? I don't think so.

Paul was all about challenging circumstances to overcome. I think it was rather God Himself, it was God Himself in some form hindering the direction, not the purpose, but the direction of the gospel ministry for reasons unknown to us. God had a strategic plan in the ministry. Matthew Henry says we find an Old Testament minister forbidden to preach in Ezekiel 3 26. Thou shall be dumb.

In other words, not able to speak this message. But these New Testament ministers are the only forbidden, only ones forbidden to preach in this place or in a particular place, while they are directed to another that will have more need. So I want you to get an overall picture of what God is doing in this world. God is sovereign over all things. He's sovereign over salvation.

He has strategies and plans by which he's moving his people to preach the gospel and to take the gospel to certain areas. And sometimes men go to an area and they strive for years and years and years with no advancement, which does not mean that God was hindering them, it just means that He was delaying the timing of the fruit of that gospel ministry. Sometimes He shuts the door altogether. He'll close the country and all the missionaries have got to leave. That's a pretty clear sign that God does not want the Gospel there, at least at that time.

And so God works in mysterious ways when it comes to the advancement of the Gospel. Later in the epistle that Peter wrote, we see that this is the very people that he writes to. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ's grace to you and peace be multiplied. Same area.

At one moment forbidden, at a later date, they are called the elect of God. The interesting thing is, now just a point of clarification you may have picked up on, these are those of the dispersion. There was a great persecution that pushed them out. So my interpretation of this is that it seems to me that in God's providence that he had planned to use not Paul's preaching but to use believers' persecution and the scattering of his people to bring the gospel to those regions. God determines the ways in which the gospel goes.

It may go with a missionary taking, it may go with just believers faithfully submitting under a difficult persecution that will bring the gospel to an area. God works in His own ways and in His own timing for His own purposes, for His own glory. The question is, are you willing to enter that? Are you willing to submit your life to God's plans and God's strategy even when it contradicts your own? Because many are the plans of man but God directs his steps.

You see Paul was planning to go one way and then another but the Lord hindered both. The important thing I think that I gleaned from this is that even though he was hindered here and he was hindered here he just kept looking for another opportunity to go in some way. Can't go here? Okay, I'm going to go here. No, can't go there?

Okay, I'm going to go here. And he just continued to make his way, and he continued to preach the gospel wherever he went, no matter if he was hindered by the Lord or not God would have given him a God would give him another way one of the interesting things about this passage is that in verse 6 The Bible says Paul is hindered by the Holy Spirit and then in verse 7 hindered by the Spirit. Some of the older copies of the text reads hindered by the Spirit of Jesus. By the Holy Spirit, by the Spirit of Jesus, either way God was standing in Paul's way to the point that he wanted to turn him to another area. And so the ministry of Christ, the minister of Christ should be in subjection to the Spirit of Christ.

And that's not only the pastor. Please hear me. This is all of us who go with the gospel in our mouth. We need to be willing to submit to what Christ is leading us to do. And so one of the important truths I think that we glean from this is that the gospel goes no further than the Spirit of Christ directs.

You will not take the gospel further than what Christ desires. He will hinder that. Here we are allowed to see his restraining force. But this is the only time this type of language is ever used in the New Testament. This does not mean that he does not direct gospel ministry in our day.

He does. He still directs it. He certainly directs it. We just do not get a running commentary on how he directs it like we get right here in this passage. What I find encouraging in this is that Paul was not the type of person who quit easily.

Again, when hindered in one way, he humbly went another way. So often is the case that we make our way in ministry by faith and not by sight. We go where the Lord permits. He can turn us any way He wants to turn us. Have you ever prayed that Lord just wherever you want me to be, whatever you want me to do?

I am your servant and that's what I want to do. I just want to follow where you lead. I want to go with the gospel wherever you take me. We go where He permits. We turn where He wants us to turn.

What we do know is that when the Lord changes our direction, that the fields are ready for harvest. This is what I want you to see in this last verses 8-10. The fruitful results of yielding to God's strategy. To the saving of the lost. It never fails.

It never fails. God, because God is working behind the scenes, God is working in the hearts of those people. He knows when the crop is ready to burst forth with fruit. And we don't. He says in verse 8, So passing by Messia they came to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with them saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Here in this passage we see that God gives Paul an undeniably clear message to go to a specific place and to a specific people. You know this is one of those times that we see in a text something that we wish we had. Something that we would love to see in our day, but I want to tell you, you better not expect to see it in your day because this is the only time we see it.

Don't go around looking for burning bushes. And don't wait to preach the gospel until you've had a Macedonian call. Just go and preach the gospel. You see, don't wait for a vision of a man begging you to come. The clear command of the gospel is go into all the world and preach the gospel.

You don't need a vision. You've had a revelation. The Word of God tells you to go do it. Therefore, go do it. But here Paul gets This man of Macedonia.

I don't know who this man was. I don't know if it was a real man or if it was an angel. We do not know. All I know is the first person he meets is Lydia. He meets a woman and she comes to Christ.

Matthew Henry says Christ would have Paul directed to Macedonia not as the apostles were at other times by a messenger from heaven to send him thither, but by a messenger thence to call him thither. Sorry, all these thithers and hithers. Because in this way he would afterward ordinarily direct the motions of ministers by inclining the hearts of those who needed them to invite them. So in other words he's saying in older times you would have an angel telling the man go to this area at later time and then this time you have a man saying please come to me and so often is the case now you get requests from people that live in certain areas would you please come preach the gospel here and so so don't look for visions listen for the call Listen for people who are desiring of the gospel, but also go into the places where they're not calling you to preach the gospel. Because God is big enough to take you right into the midst of a place where no one wants it and can save some.

The man here begs for help. He stands as if in urgency. He pleads in desperation. Help! Come and help!

God had prepared a people and their hearts to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in that preparation, their hearts would readily receive the word. We see this in chapter 16 verse 4. It says, I'm sorry, not 16, 16, 14. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us.

She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. If she was the only one as a result of that Macedonian call, it would have been worth it. Her heart... What words?

Do you deny the sovereignty of God in salvation? Who opened her heart? Well, it says the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. That's why Paul didn't go into Asia Minor and he went towards Macedonia. Because God had a woman there who had been preparing herself and others.

We read in verse 13, on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Brothers and sisters I want you to realize that God will move into the hearts of people, even people who are not fully believers in Jesus Christ to even pray things like what Lydia was doing here and these other women praying they were praying to God for something they needed an understanding of the greater or a greater understanding of the gospel and God preparing their hearts brought the preparation of Paul and turned him from Asia Minor and turned him to Macedonia to bring the gospel to them. And God opened her heart and she received the things that were spoken. God is orchestrating and doing glorious things around. I could stand up here and we could share with you all the things that God is doing around this globe today in Gospel ministry.

God's ways are past finding out. In ways that you've never dreamed of, God is taking the Gospel into countries that are even closed. It's a glorious thing to be a part of. Another encouragement that I see here is Paul's immediate obedience to the calling of God in verse 10. Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go.

Immediately. It's almost like Mark wrote this part. In the Gospel of Mark, it's so obvious. Immediately he did this and immediately he did that. And here Paul immediately did it.

Immediately he went. You know, I always chuckle over a statement like what we find here. Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel there. That's a pretty good conclusion. You know, if you had a vision telling you to go somewhere, you could conclude that I'm supposed to go.

That God had given the vision and but with all joking aside, Paul reminds me of a well-trained dog just waiting on his master to give the command, go get him! Have you ever seen a well-trained dog and he's shaking almost? I picture Paul, sorry about that. Paul is like this. He's ready to preach the gospel.

He just needs to hear the command from his master go. And he immediately goes and he wants to go where the Lord wants him to go and he knows that where the Lord sins the Lord prepares and the fruit of yielding to God's plan will be seen throughout the rest of this chapter and throughout the rest of the book of Acts that God blessed and made fruitful all of their labors. The fruit that it was yielded from this obedience to God's plan, we see as I mentioned before already, Lydia and her whole household, the Philippian jailer and his own household, the people of Thyatira were brought to the Lord. God was doing a great and glorious thing in Thessalonica where a great multitude of devout Greeks and not a few leading women were saved. My encouragement and exhortation for us this morning is that we will with great care continue to plan for the advancement of the gospel but be happy and willing to yield to any correction of direction that God may bring because where God leads God blesses and He will open up the fields ready for harvest.

We need to be ready with eager obedience to the will of the Lord. That's what we need to do. So in closing, five considerations that go along with the five things listed there on your outline. Number one, I want us to carefully consider the people God puts in your life for your good and their good for the advancement of the gospel. Paul had no idea what Timothy was going to become at this moment, but yet because he invested in him, young Timothy became a pastor and he became a young man who was to be imitated.

He became a young man who was above reproach. He let no one despise his youth. Be a youth like that, young men and young women. Be a young person who will not be despised. Number two, consider carefully that you should take these advantages for the gospel.

And What I mean by that is remember when Paul, he was taking Timothy and getting him circumcised, examine the areas in which you should take advantage of for the sake of the gospel. Now with this caveat and with wisdom You need to understand I don't want to compromise conviction. I don't want to compromise Scripture to supposedly advance the gospel. I'm willing to change things like Paul said to the to the Jew. I became Jew to him without the law became without law but not without the law of Christ.

He was careful in considering what he was willing to change in his life for the advancement of the gospel. So don't run away with that one. This is a calculated, careful understanding of the areas in which we can remove prejudice of a people group to take the gospel so that they would hear us. Does that make sense? Be careful and calculated in that.

Number three, consider carefully the message for the occasion and consider the hearers for the advancement of the gospel. Again, this takes forethought. It takes strategy. It takes thinking through. That's one of the reasons we've had our brother Paul and brother Ash come up and teach us about Islam and about Hinduism so that we can more calculated and strategically take the gospel to these people groups.

We don't want to go in totally ignorant of what they believe in the worldview. We want to be calculated in these things. So that's part of the reason why we had them do that. And then number four, consider carefully any areas that you need to yield to the will of God for the advancement of the gospel. Consider carefully any areas that you need to yield to the will of God for the advancement of the gospel.

What's holding you back? Is there anything in your life that you're not willing to let go of? This is my plan or this is my... No, it's God's plan and it's God's way and we need to yield to God's way. And then finally, number five, do not underestimate the blessed fruit of a God-blessed gospel opportunity.

Those are big words, sorry. Do not underestimate the blessed fruit of a God-blessed gospel opportunity. The fruit will be sweet as we see throughout the rest of the book of Acts, but yet not without opposition, persecution, tribulations, and difficulties. For all those who shall live God they shall suffer persecution. Well brothers and sisters I hope that this has been an encouragement for you that we would be strategic in our planning of the gospel and also be flexible to yield to the sovereign plan of God in all of our gospel endeavors.

Let's pray. Our Father, we want to thank you and praise you for your goodness and mercy in our lives. We Thank you, O God, that you guide us. Lord, I'm so thankful we are not left to our own strategies and our own ways. Lord, we desire to yield to you in every area of our life.

So Lord, please use us however you design and we will be thankful for what you do and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.