Victory Baptist Church, London KY Podcast
Morning Service 12-29-2024
Welcome to Victory Baptist Church. Victory Baptist Church is located at 165 Hammonds Lane in London, Kentucky. Our Sunday morning, Sunday school is at 945 morning worship at 11 Sunday night service at 630 p.m. Awana is on Wednesday night at 630 p.m. You can watch us live online via our Facebook page at Victory Baptist Church of London, Kentucky. Our pastor is Brother Anthony Lovett. Now, let's go into the message. I'm thankful that we serve the master of the storm, amen? No matter what we've got going on in life, whether he calms the storm or calms us, we know that the storm's one day going to cease and we know we're going to come on out to the other side of the storm and everything's going to be alright. It may not always feel that way and sometimes you start examining your life, so I don't know if it's going to be, I promise you. You follow the Lord, you seek Him, you put Him first, you trust in Him as your Savior, I promise you. Eventually, it's going to be alright. It's going to one day be completely okay. James says our life's just like a vapor. You're here for just a little while and gone, but you know what eternity is, just that. There's no time. Can you imagine being in a place of perfection, no sin, no Satan, no old self to deal with forever, no sickness, no sorrows, no dying, no departing? Folks, we can't comprehend that. We can't. But this life here, just a little short season, and so no matter what you're going through today, you may be going through it, but you're not going through it by yourself. And Jesus is there. And when He was with His disciples, you remember what they were? They were on the boat. He was asleep. That's the kind of master I want to serve, the one that can just take a nap in the midst of the storm. You know why? Because He's got it under control. But that's not the sermon today, but let's stand together and I'll dismiss those that are going to go to children's church. You can go at this time, the rest of us, turn your bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 16. Acts, chapter 16, beginning in verse 1. Acts, chapter 16, beginning in verse 1. Scripture says, "Then came He to Darby and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed. But his father was a Greek. Now, which was reported of by the brethren, which weren't Lystra and Iconium, he would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews, which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders, and were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. Now, when they were gone throughout Phrygia and to the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia, after they were come to Myseo, they assailed to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Myseo, came down to Troas, and the vision appeared to Paul at night, and there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, 'Come over into Macedonia and help us.' And after he had seen the vision, immediately, we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord has called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Let's pray. There are many follows we bow before you today. We thank you so much for the time of worship that we've had. I thank you, Lord, that we are able to sing songs together about you and to you. I'm thankful that we could reflect upon the words of those songs that not only give you glory, but give us comfort. And Lord Jesus, I'm thankful today for the song that Lula sang. And Lord, I'm thankful that no matter what we face in this whole life, we're not by ourselves. You made the promise to never leave us nor forsake us. You made the promise that you work all things out for the good of those who love you, and are called according to your purpose. Lord, we know that the trial of our faith is much more precious than that of silver and gold. And that Lord, when you are working on us, sometimes it is tough. But Lord, we know that it will pass, and we know, Lord, we come on the other side. We're going to be more like you. We're going to have more of a desire to see you and be with you, and that we have more of a desire to leave this whole world behind. And Lord, we know you have greater things in store for us. But we also know that while we're here, you have a plan, you have a purpose, you have a perfect will in which we are to seek out, find, and follow. So I pray, Lord, as we look to your Word, you'd find me behind the cross. I ask for your help to preach today with a fresh anointing and the unction of the Holy Spirit to do so. And I pray, Lord, as your Word goes forth, if there's someone here that's lost who does not know you as your own personal Lord and Savior, I pray you draw them unto yourself. Bring conviction upon their heart. Show them their lostness. Show them your love in the cross of Calvary. Show them who you are as the one true and living God, who became a man for them, who died on the cross to pay for their sin debt, but then rose again, overcoming their sin through a bodily physical resurrection from the dead. And that you're the one who's coming back soon and very soon, if they would call on you and trust in you and be saved. For us are saved, I pray for a stirring, a revival right here in our midst, a victory that it would spread here and abroad. For Lord, we need you to do a work for we need it, and the world around us needs it, and we trust in you to do so. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. You know, as we have worked our way through the Christmas season and about to wrap up 2024 and head in to 2025, if the Lord doesn't come in the next few days, you know what we learned over that Christmas season is about the fact that God had a purpose in a plan, started really. It's hard for us to comprehend this, but in eternity past, it's hard for us to comprehend because God is above time. Time is something that He created in the very beginning. When He created the heavens and the earth and the six days of creation, one of the things that He created was time. He said it was the evening and the morning was the first day, but He was outside of time. And so we run into passages of Scripture that tells us things like this. Jesus was as a lamb slain before the foundation of the world, or those whose names were written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. And so we have, you know, verses that give us an understanding that God is above time. God is not constrained by time. Peter says it like this one day with the Lord's like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day with the Lord. So He's above time. He's not constrained by time, but we also understand that He has a purpose and a plan and a will for you as an individual, you as families, us as a church, but for humanity as a whole, and they interlink. And it's actually an amazing thing. I don't you know, quite understand how God can do all that. He's just way, you know, He's perfect, He's powerful, He's all wise, He's all knowing, He's just, He's everything, He's perfect and all that He is. And so He has an ability to do that. He has a will and a perfect plan that includes everybody, that ever was and ever will be. And He has something specific for you as an individual. He has that specific for your family is that specific with the church. And so I want to talk to you about that today because in Christmas time we realize that, right? We realize that even when we think about Mary and Joseph and we think about those shepherds, we think about those wise men who I didn't really preach about during that time, but those wise men are the magi from the east that came as they were led by the store and they showed up. But remember, they showed up because God had a plan that went all the way back to the book of Genesis. In chapter three, in verse 15, where God was making a statement not to Adam and Eve, they were right there, but it was to Satan. You remember that it was Satan that deceived Eve to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was Eve that gave to her husband. It was Adam that took and when Adam took being the head of the human race, he didn't just send himself, but in him we send and sin and death passed upon all of humanity. And because of Satan bringing deception and being one of the main culprits, Adam and Eve are held accountable. You know, plainly, Adam, as you read in Romans chapter five, Adam, because of his disobedience, affected all of us. You know, throughout the years, you hear people say, "Oh, I left that woman wanting to have done that." No, if that man would have been the man and he would have done what he was supposed to do, she wouldn't have took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he sure didn't have to take and eat himself. So he is held accountable, but Satan was the deceiver. He was that old serpent. He's the devil. He is the murder and the father of murder. He's the liar, the father of lies, and God said to him through the seat of this woman, "Well, one come, and when that one comes, you're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to crush your head." That was a promise. There was a plan that through a creation order lower than the angels, humanity, which is lower than the angels, and Lucifer was one of the greatest of all the angels that were ever made, and he, one of the highest ranking of the archangels as Lucifer, decided that he wanted to be as God, and he deceived with her to the angels, and they came with him, and they rebelled, and therefore they lost that rebellion, of course, cast out of heaven, and they're over here waiting for, you know, where their ultimate destination is going to be, a place in the lake of fire for all eternity. That's why God made the lake of fire, for Satan and his angels, not for us, but listen here, folks, when sin entered into the world, there was a promise of a Savior to come. That's Genesis 3.15. At the right time, at the right moment, God's plan of salvation started coming to fruition when God the Son took on human form. That first Adam brought about sin and death. The last Adam, the Lord Jesus, to his obedience to God the Father, took on the sin of humanity, would endure the wrath of the Father, would die in your place, in my place, would raise from the dead overcoming our sin so we could have eternal life. And so that's all part of the plan. Now you and I can have eternal life, you and I can have forgiveness of sin, you and I could be reconciled to our God that folks don't have to spend eternity in hell. See, God doesn't take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. Did you know that? That God has no desire for folks to die in their sin and spend eternity separated from him in a place of torment, the second death, the lake of fire. He has no desire for that. You know, some folks try to teach different, some folks to try to teach you. Well, God made some for heaven and some for hell. No, God takes no death, no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Jesus did not ever create hell for humanity. But listen to me, humanity. You and I are born with a sin nature. You and I are sinners by nature and by action. You and I are separated from God when we come in this world in need of a savior. And so we have a savior. He is in the person of the Lord Jesus. We have a savior because of his sinless life, because of his sacrificial death. We have a savior because of his resurrection from the dead, but you and I need to respond to him. So we talk about the will of God for our lives. The first aspect of the will of God for our life is to be saved. Look over here in Acts chapter 16. In Acts chapter 16, we find the apostle Paul had God's sable earlier. We know him as Saul before he was Paul. And Saul was a Pharisee. He was a religious leader of the Jewish sect. He was a very educated individual. He was a Jew by physical descent, so he was a citizen of Israel. He also was the citizen of Rome. He was a person that had not just a Jewish education, and he was educated in their religious realm. But he was a man who was very educated. He understood the Greek culture. He understood the Roman culture. He is multilingual. I don't know how many languages he spoke. There's some different opinions about that. But we know that he spoke Kornet Greek. I know that he spoke Hebrew. I probably spoke Aramaic. He believed he spoke probably Latin. He was multilingual, very smart individual. One of the smartest individuals that was around of his day respected and revered. And he was a lost man. Saul was a lost man. Saul followed the Old Testament scriptures, but didn't understand and see that Jesus of Nazareth initially is the Christ. He missed that. And so when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, and then there was the proclamation of his resurrection, and there was these group of people who were following after this man named Jesus of Nazareth, these Christians, these that were of the way, he's seen them as an enemy. And he was an individual thought doing the will of God, was bringing persecution to these so-called believers that were there in Jerusalem, and then he would go on, and he would go about to persecute those that were in Damascus. So he was a person that was bringing persecution. But guess what? On his road to Damascus, he met the Lord Jesus and was forever changed. And when I say met, I'm sure he knew Jesus of Nazareth before this situation. I don't think Jesus all of a sudden, it's somebody he just all of a sudden now knew on the road to Damascus. Jesus made waves everywhere he went before his crucifixion. He made waves in a good way, and then made waves in a negative way, because those he didn't want to believe that he was the Messiah, called him a blasphemer, and believe that he was a false prophet, even though everything he said lined up with the Old Testament Scriptures, everything he did was a fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Messiah and his first coming. Everything about the guy from the fact that he was born of a virgin, the fact that he was born in Bethlehem, the fact that the Old Testament, he would become the sub-bring servant of Isaiah 53. I mean, on and on and on, did Jesus fulfill not some but all of the prophecies? So there's no doubt in my mind that Saul Tarsus knew of Jesus of Nazareth, probably had many encounters with him. But on the road to Damascus, he was confronted again by the resurrected Lord. And as he was confronted by the resurrected Lord, he was not down to the ground. His sight was taken from him, and he was confronted by Saul, Saul, why persecute his style? Me, and he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "Is I Jesus whom you persecute?" And then he said, "What do you want me to do, Lord?" And I think it was a proclamation of his faith. I think he was changed that day, and that's evident by his life to come. Saul went to who we know is Paul, an apostle born out of due time, one who wrote 13 or 14 books in the New Testament, one in whom we sinned, lived the rest of his life, and gave his life for the gospel's sake. God had a plan for Paul, and it started with what, with him being saved. Today's we talk about the plan of God for your own individual life. I always go back to that first aspect because you can't bypass that. So many times people want the blessings of God, they want the direction of God. I say that kind of in quotes because I don't know how much we really want his guidance other than we want him to do things on our behalf. But we want his blessing, we want his guidance, we want his favor, but in order for you to give those things, you have to be a child of God first and foremost. Now I'm not saying that God doesn't bless or it doesn't rain so to speak on the just and the unjust, meaning that there's plenty of people out here in the world that are breathing, that are eating, that are functioning, that are making it so to speak in this life only by the grace of God who are not saved. Don't you understand that? God, there's a, there's, you know, kind of a general sense of God's grace that's bestowed upon humanity as a whole. But in order for you and I to receive what God intends for us to have in fullness, you've got to be born again. You've got to become part of the family. You've got to be saved. And Saul of Tarsus met Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9 and was forever changed. And he went from that point to, from persecuting the church to preach in the gospel. He would spend a little bit of time there in Arabia learning from the Lord himself in his own little teaching and training time to eventually there from Antioch, Syria being commissioned from the church there to go out to the mission field. And so he went on the first missionary journey and he went with a man by the name of Barnabas. And Barnabas wanted to bring his nephew with John Mark who we know later wrote the gospel of Mark. Mark in the midst of the journey decided to leave. He said, I got to go. I can't handle this mission stuff no more. And he went back home to mama and I don't know if he really went back home to mama. But that's what I kind of seemed like, you know. I am little, you know, fellas that goes back to mama and couldn't handle it. So he left and when he left, you know, Paul was mad about that upset about that. So when it's time for the second missionary journey to go, he was going to go and Paul and Barnabas are ready to go. And Barnabas says, I think we need to take John Mark with us. And Paul says, no, we're not taking John Mark with us. I am not dealing with that no more. I can't handle all that crybaby on the road and I sure ain't going to have him leaving when we're right in the middle of it. And Barnabas like we need to take him with us. And Paul's like, I'm not taking him. And so they split. And Barnabas says, fine, I'm going to take John Mark. We're going to go on to Cyprus. You go on about your business. And so there was a split. And as they split, we find that Paul's going to take some folks with him. We're going to take Luke with him. We know that as we read this passage, he says, we, the author of the book of Acts is Luke. So when he says, we, he's including himself. So he's there with him. We know that. We know Silas went with him. And we know that this man, this young man named Timothy is going to go. And once they look here, I want us to see that God has a plan and a purpose. And we've got to trust his guidance. Now, I'm not telling you that Paul's response to Barnabas is appropriate. I don't know. I'm not sure that I agree with Paul here. I know that sounds tough. And sometimes it's tough for me to say that because we look at somebody like Paul, he wrote 13 or 14 books in the New Testament. He was an apostle. He was a man that lived his life for Christ. He died for Christ. It was hard to find anything that's a fault with him. But there's a couple of things. I think this is probably one thing that he was probably not right about. But we see that God used it. And God's going to use that. And guess what? The gospel's going to go on to Cyprus with Barnabas. John Mark's going to grow into faith. Later on, Paul's going to say Mark is profitable for the ministry. And we know that he wrote the gospel of Mark. So things worked out for Barnabas and John Mark, right? We see that God was able to do that. And we don't know a whole lot about their ministry. But I'm going to say it was successful when you follow after the Lord, you do what God wants. I think Barnabas was that type of individual. I think God blessed them and they were successful in their ministry. Then God also used that situation to bring them home some others. Here come Silas, here come Luke, here come Timothy. And they're now going to go on a missionary journey. When you and I are seeking the will of God, we've got to trust him not only initially with our souls, but also who we're serving with. You know, over the years of ministry, I'm pastored for 22 plus years, three different churches. And as I pastor three different churches, I didn't hunt for the first church. And then I look around to be the pastor of any church. I saw God's will. I knew God called me to preach. I went on to Bible college to learn the scripture, not to become a preacher. I was already called to preach. But I went there to learn the scriptures more because I wasn't raised in church, didn't have any background in the scriptures. And so I felt it was important on the leadership of the Lord to get some formal education concerning the scriptures. So that's what I did. And when I was doing that, I didn't just pick any college you go to. Lord led me to Clear Creek Baptist Bible College in Bell County. And that's how I end up in southeastern Kentucky. People ask me, I'll tell, how in the world do you get to southeastern Kentucky from Ohio? And then they said, well, how did you get to clay can? And then how did you get over here? And so God brought me down to southeastern Kentucky from Ohio to prepare me to be able to share the word of God correctly, I think. And so he brought me down here. And before he brought me down here, he put me to this low country place called South Lebanon, Ohio. That's what it was. And it's north and it's north and we're out, but it's south Lebanon. It's south part of Lebanon, Ohio. And it was a little place. It was even a city as a village is what they called it up there of a bunch of country folk. Guess where they're from? South Eastern Kentucky. You think God has a purpose? He does. You think God has a plan? He does. He put me in those city boy raps, raise an asphalt in apartments right among some old country folk in South Lebanon, Ohio that were transplants from southeast or Kentucky. Why? Because that's where he was sending me. It's how he's working. You got to trust that God's going to put you where you're supposed to be as you follow after him. Listen, I think it's important for us to understand that. Not just for preachers, but for everybody. If you name the name of Christ today, you've been saved. You've been part of the first part of God's plan. You've been born again. You go back to that place. Paul goes back to the road to Damascus where he got saved. I go back to first Baptist Church out of Lebanon where I got saved. You should be able to go back to the place where you got saved. You may not have every single detail. I'll give you a little more details because somebody told me exactly when those dates were. In all the world's worst of writing down some things for sentimental value. And really knowing when you got saved should be more than sentimental value. But with that being said, I just know where because I was there. I know that date because my pastor then told me September 20, 1998, January 3 of 1999 is when God called me to preach. I remember the Sunday morning when I got saved. I remember on Sunday night when I was called to preach. I remember I came forward about my salvation experience on a Thursday night during revival that was being preached by an evangelist named Earl Taylor. I remember that. About my salvation experience. I remember that about God's calling along my life. And I also can begin to tell you how God began to open up past and doorways for me in preaching. When I came down to Southeast or Kentucky, I knew nobody. I didn't know I had roots here. I didn't know when I got down to Bell County that I would have a great-great-grandfather buried in the Palmville Cemetery until I got down there. I didn't know that I had a great-great-grandfather and grandmother buried in law or Harlan County. I didn't know I had roots there. I didn't know my great-great-grandfather was the mayor of law for 30-plus years. I didn't know that until I came down here. I didn't know that. Tell me that God don't have a plan. He tell me that God don't have a purpose. He tell me that God doesn't start even before you ever existent. God has a plan. He told Jeremiah before you is in your womb. Before you is in the womb, I got a plan for you. Folks, God has a plan for you. And so as God started opening up doors, I came down here. I had no clue what I was going to do and how to get opportunities to preach. And God put some people in my life. He put a fellow by the name of Moses Mivedor who was back in Africa. He was from Africa. He came over here, ends up in Oneida Baptist Institute in Clay County. And then he entered Clear Creek Baptist Bible College. He was a student with me at Clear Creek at that time. And I became friends with him. And he got an opportunity to preach because he was from Africa. And everybody asked him, "Come over and tell us your story." And he'd go tell a story. And he always said, "Hey, you want to go preach?" I said, "Yeah, everywhere we went." I didn't learn until later. We'd hijack classrooms. So what do you mean? He went to Alice Lloyd College. He's supposed to tell people about his culture in Africa. He spent about two minutes talking about his African culture and turned it over to me. And I preached a gospel and I didn't know until after the fact that what we weren't even there for that. We went all kinds of places. God put my mother-in-law before she was my mother-in-law in my path, but my father-in-law before my mother-in-law in my path, said, "God, work some things out." And before I knew he had an older daughter, I sat down. I worked about finding a wife. I worried about if I was going to be able to make it through college, money-wise. And he's a financial aid director. And so God put him in my path, my mother-in-law in my mother-in-law went after I started talking with Julie. And we started kind of dating around her where she'd go. She'd say, "My future son-in-law, he's preacher." And Lord use her to open up doors. I'd go preach here and I'd go preach there and different things all over the place. And then God started putting some past together. I'd say that to say that you've got to trust that God will guide your steps. If you're here at Victory Baptist Church, if you're a member here, it's an intention. If you've been visiting your regular visitor, maybe it's your first time here, you know what? You need to be seeking God. Is this where God wants me to be? Because God puts the body together as he sees fit. And he gives us gifts. He gives us talents. He gives us blessings. He also, we need to grow spiritually. So he puts us in places where we can add to the church and where the church can help add to us. And therefore, we puts us together as he sees fit. This isn't about, and this is the problem with the church today and individuals that make up the church. We just go around here just like, "Well, how does this appeal to me? Does this fit with my likes or my dislikes? Is this something that's going to be best for my kids or not? We let our kids make a whole lot of decisions. I don't think they should be making folks to be honest with you. That may turn you off right now. But the last that I recall and I remember is that God entrusts children to parents. And parents have responsibility to teach their children the ways of Christ. And therefore, you and I need to be in the book. You and I need to be in places where the preacher's in the book, where the Sunday school teacher's in the book, where the ministry lines up with the book, and there we need to get our families involved in that environment so we can be a part of furthering the gospel as well as us growing spiritually. It's not about, well, this, I like this, or I don't like that, or this and that, you know, it needs to be about, does the Lord bring in me here? And if the Lord's bringing me here, it's going to be according to the Word. It's not going to take you somewhere where the Word's not going to be preached. It's not going to take you somewhere where Jesus isn't glorified. It's not going to do that. But we need to make sure that we are trusting Him to guide our steps. And so in chapter 16 and verse 1, it says, "Then came He to Derabi and Lystra, and behold, there was a certain disciple that was named Timothy, a son of a certain woman who was a Jewish and believed." So there was a Jewish lady who was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was married to a Gentile, a Greek, and had a son named Timothy. And Paul meets this individual named Timothy. He got to understand the culture back then. Timothy's a grown man. Timothy would then be more identified with the faith of his mother. She was a Jew. But his dad being a Gentile, Timothy wasn't circumcised. But winning trust Christ when he starts following the Lord and goes with Paul on a missionary trip, this guy does whatever it takes and goes get circumcised because he is a Jew. And guess what? He didn't want to be a hindrance while sharing the gospel. And so as he was going and sharing the gospel with some Jews and he was a Jew, he needed to be circumcised. So even though he should already took place when he was just a young baby, it hadn't. But for the further it's of the gospel without any type of being a roadblock or hindrance, he went through and did that. Now did everybody that had to do that? No. You go from Timothy, you notice another guy named Titus. Titus was a Gentile. He was in the ministry, but Paul didn't talk to him about getting circumcised because he was a Gentile. Those Jews who they would be reaching would not expect him, but they did for Timothy. So he did whatever was necessary. Was it necessary for Timothy to be saved? No. We spend plenty of time in the Scriptures understanding that God is concerned about the circumcision of the heart, not the flesh. But Paul made it plain also that he would do whatever it took that he might wimp you with a Jesus. And so Timothy said, I'll do the same thing. And Timothy did that. And so as he's getting ready as Lord's surrounding Paul with those who do ministry with, Timothy's one of them individuals, and Timothy's being prepared, and he goes about get circumcised, and everybody about knew about Timothy. So it was important for that. And then they went about their business. It says in verse four that as they went through the cities and delivered the crease for them, the keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders, which were at Jerusalem. So then it says, so where are the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily? So Paul and Timothy and Luke and Silas were out doing the work of the ministry, strengthened the churches while Barnumus and John Mark went about somewhere else. And then God begins to guide them and direct them. Not only do you need to know Christ as your Savior, not only do you need to understand that God's going to put you with who he wants you with for whatever time for the ministry, and you need to be sensitive to that, but you also need to understand that God has a specific place to do ministry. God is omnipresent. That means he can be everywhere at one time. But you know what? You and I can't be everywhere at one time, can we? You can't be everywhere one time. You're here right here, but you can't be somewhere else while you're here, right? Now when you leave here, you might be able to get somewhere else. But once you get somewhere else, guess where you're not. You're not here anymore, because you can't be everywhere at one time. God can be. But you know where you can be, where God wants you at the right time. That's where you've got to be. That's important for us to do that. It's important. I've been preaching for a long time. I can't be everywhere at one time preaching the gospel, but you know where I can be? I could be at the right place at the right time preaching the gospel because God has a purpose and God has a plan. You know where you can be as a Christian? You can be at the right place at the right time during the work of God. So you could be at the right local church, being able to do the work of the ministry at the right time at this point in your life. It's important for you to be at the right place at the right time. You know? And I know some preachers don't think like that. In fact, I won't name his name. I respect the preacher, and I haven't followed him in a long time. I haven't really heard him preaching in a long time, to be honest. But he was out of Memphis. Adrian Rogers, pastor, Bellevue Baptist, one of the largest churches around there. One of my favorite preachers, another fellow preached also in Memphis, another large church. Of course, she had a high populated area, so you can have some bigger churches. But he was a good preacher. I used to listen to him, and I said, "I'm not going to name his name." But he even had a very faulty attitude and mentality concerning. He said, "There's always places to preach. Just go preach wherever you want to preach and where you can take care of your family. You know what you need to do and what I need to do? We need to be exactly where God wants us to be and God will take care of you and your family." That's what happened. You don't follow a dollar. You don't go about what's most appealing to you and to your flesh or what's appealing to your family or your kids. Like I said already, you need to make sure you're at the right place at the right time doing the will of God. So if you're here this morning, maybe you've been a visitor, but you're not a member, but you've been visiting for some time. You know Jesus has your own personal Lord and Savior and so and so forth. He's like, "Well, I'm not a member, but I come." You know what? If God's bringing you here, you need to make that decision, and you need to make that move. You need to be committed to the local church. You need to be committed because for your own accountability, you need to be committed for the edification of the church. You need to be committed for you to do work in the ministry. You're not going to be committed. Over the years of pastoring, like I said, I never hunted any church, never hunted. I'm not saying that you can't put a resume out. I'm not saying that that's necessarily wrong. You could pray, seek the Lord and so and so forth. But I've never been as some preachers do every Monday because Sundays seems to be okay and sometimes not so good. Monday is like blue Monday for most preachers. And so they start writing letters of resignation and they start trying to get their resumes together and they start looking for the greener pastor somewhere, not the greener pastor, the greener pastor. But then you look over somewhere else to go to sometimes. I've never really operated that way. I didn't operate that looking for the first church that I've pastored and operate that way, the second church. I didn't operate that way coming here and so and so forth. But what I think is important for us to do is to make sure that we're seeking the will of God where he wants us to be to do his work. He said, how do I do that? Why don't you follow with me for just a moment. Verse six says, "And when they had gone through frigia and to the region of Galatia, they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia." Now look at that. Paul, you know, Paul went, he went to where he knew. He just came off a missionary journey and when he started the next journey, guess what he decided to do? Go back to where he just came from. And some people say, well, why would you do that? He just went from there. Well, he don't travel like we travel. He didn't get in the car and we know driving in the car sometimes takes forever, right? They didn't travel in the car. Now they had a boat from time to time. They might get on, but he didn't have a boat like we got a boat. He didn't have a plane like we got a plane. He was walking or riding an animal or something like that, maybe in a chariot of some sort, or like I said, he's on a boat from one place to the other. But he didn't have travels like we saw. By the time you get to one place to another place, you're talking months, if not years, depending on how long he was at different places. By the time he gets back and ready to start a missionary journey, guess what? Communication wasn't the same way either. You couldn't just pick up your cell phone and call over there and say, "How's one check out the church going on over there at Ephesus?" It didn't work that way. Now you might send a letter, but they had a mail system, but it was slower than our mail system. And so when you're thinking about that, by the time he starts, he's like, "I need to get back and check on these folks." And so Paul starts his missionary journey back. And as he's going back on his missionary journey, it says that the Holy Spirit prevented him from preaching the Word in Asia. Now that sounds weird. Most folks would attribute not being able to preach the gospel somewhere to being hindered by Satan. But that's not what was the case. God said, "Not here." You know that you and I need to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit when we're doing the work of ministry? You know, Jesus said to the church of Philadelphia in the book of Revelation chapter 3, he said, "I am the one who opens the doors that no man shuts, and I'm the one that shuts the doors that no man opens. And behold, I have an open door for you." One of my favorite preacher, James Irwin McGee, passed a non-enominational church, the church of the open door. And so, but he got it from there. I'm sure, it's where the name comes from. But what we find here is that God was the one leading Paul. And Paul gets over there to Asia because he just does what he knows to do. Do you know there's not a thing wrong doing what you know to do? You and I are to do what the scripture already says. Do you know that you and I are already supposed to gather together, to gather corporal in worship? We're already supposed to serve others. We're already supposed to share the gospel to our own personal testimony. We're already supposed to give financially. We're already supposed to give of ourselves as a living sacrifice. All of these things we know the scripture already tells us we're to do with seeking God's specific direction on where we're to be while we do them. It's like in between last church I was at in here. I didn't know exactly where the Lord was going to take us. I just knew that he wasn't finished and that he was going to do work. And so, in the meantime, I preached wherever I had opportunity to preach. And when I didn't have an opportunity to preach, guess what? I didn't stay at home. I went to the church to hear the word preached and I went to worship. Wednesday night I didn't stay home. I found a Bible study. That's how I ended up here. I went to where God led and God listened. I asked somebody else about going to a Bible study on Wednesday night before I came here. And when I asked about it, they said, "Well, we normally have a Bible study, but right now we're not." And this is what's going on. I said, "Okay." So, I looked up Paul Brackett. We worked for the same people, not the same company. I said, "Your church got Bible study tonight." He said, "Yeah, they're not a whole lot to go to Bible study, but yeah." I said, "Then for them it may be there." And I did, and I came. And then from there, just here we are today, seven years later. But the Holy Spirit stops and the Holy Spirit lets you go, where He wants you to go. And we need to be guided by the Holy Spirit of God. We can't be a people that are running the show. There's nobody in here that's God. There's nobody in here that made theirself. There's nobody in here that sustains theirself. There's nobody in here that can save themselves. There's nobody in here that went to prepare a place for themselves to one day go spin eternity. There's nobody that got saved by themselves and dwelled themselves. No, the Spirit of God comes inside of us when we get saved, and He guides us according to the Word of God that is inspired, it's infallible, it is inerrant, and it is forever. The world's going to pass away, but the Word is going to be forever. And we need to follow the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, to where we are to minister, where to follow Him. And so when they got to Asia, they said, "Not here." And I don't know exactly how He closed the door. But you know what? I've been in situations where God didn't give me opportunity to share the gospel like you would think. And so you should tell everybody, you should, but you know what? There's times when God shuts that door. And I don't know why it does. That made me the person that you thought you were talking to God said no more. I gave you opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. And because of that, you said no, you said no, you said no, you said no, you're not going to hear no more. Maybe that's why I don't know. Maybe it's for another reason. Maybe somebody else is supposed to come and share. I don't know, but I know it's not our responsibility to have to know everything about everything, but we are supposed to be led by the Spirit of God. And so when Paul was an Asia minor, can somebody say, "Well, it would have been sin of God." I mean sin against God to preach the gospel in Asia. It wouldn't have been sin unless he said, "You know what? God, I'm going to stay here no matter what. You know what preachers do that sometimes." Church members do that too sometimes. God says to come, they say, "No, I ain't doing that." God says to go, "I ain't going to do that." That's when it becomes sin. If God said to go and I said no, I'm not going, I got a wife, I've got children, I can't just uproot them and go somewhere else. I'm going to stay right here. What's the difference in me preaching here, preaching over there? You know what? All of a sudden I find myself in sin being disobedient. You know what? That just don't affect me. That affects my family, that affects the church. Why? Because if I'm supposed to be somewhere else, that means somebody else supposed to be here. That's how things work, right? And so my point is, and no, I don't think God's moving me anywhere. Okay? So that's, you know, for some okay and some maybe not, but either which way I'm just using that as an example. What that being said, if he would have said I'm going to Asia, I'm going to the churches of Asia minor because they need me, then they got to realize, Paul realized that God's bigger than him. I've moved from my home place, and I've been gone for almost 25 years. And guess what? For some of the time that I left, I was always concerned on who's going to share the gospel with my family. And you know what? God's big enough to take care of that. And he does. And I shared with you before, I had the opportunity to see my grandpa get saved, but when I went to the funeral and somebody walked up me saying, "Are you Jerry's grandson who's a preacher?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "I want you to know that I talk to your grandpa all the time." We did him and his son talk to your grandpa all the time down at the bowling alley about Jesus. I said, "You know what? That is awesome that you told me that. I wish God would have let me in on it before." But it was like he told me after the fact that, "Hey, I told you that I'm bigger than you, and you can't be everywhere, but I am everywhere." So you go where I tell you to go, "I'll take care of the things you can't take care of." And God just brought me that affirmation and confirmation in my life that, "Hey, go and do what you're supposed to. I'll take care of those other things." And so they couldn't go to Asia. So then it says there that after they were come to my saya, they assayed to go to Bithynia. They decided to go to Bithynia and the Spirit suffered them not. They said, "No, you're not going there either." You got to trust the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Could you imagine? Here's Paul. He's got Silas. He's got Timothy. He's got Luke with them. He's like, "Hey, we're going to go on this mission trip. You guys ready to go? Timothy, tell your mom and your dad and you grab them all. Now then we're going to go here. We're going to go there. We might need a little resource. I don't know how long we'll be gone, but this is where we're going to go. They don't have life 360 like my kids. Everybody got on their phone tracking them. You're telling them where they're going? And all of a sudden they get going somewhere and they're going to go preach in Asia and the Holy Spirit's like, "You ain't preaching here?" Not today, not here. Paul looks over at them and says, "I guess we ain't preaching here." Could you imagine another guy? Was this guy lost his mind? I'm sure they didn't question like that, but they're going to go to Bithynia? Not there. Can't preach here. What are you going to do? So then they're just passing by. Bithynia, they got your Troas. They're just going. You know what? When you're seeking God's will, you don't just stop. That's one thing I appreciate with Paul and his fellas. They didn't stop. They just went about the business. If God shut the door here, okay, we'll go over here. Lord, did you tell me what to do next? I'm just going to keep doing what I know to do. I'm going to go over here and I'm going to preach and I'm going to teach and I'm going to pray and I'm going to do what I can. And God shut the door here, okay. If it ain't here, we'll go somewhere else. Whatever it is, Lord, we got to seek his direction. And so they got down to Troas and they didn't give up. It says, "A vision appeared to Paul in the night and there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, 'Come over into Macedonia and help us.'" So it's nighttime. They're all in there resting and God gives Paul a vision of a man of Macedonia saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." He had not been to Macedonia. Headed over from Asia Minor in that area to go over towards to further to the West and go towards Europe. He's like, "But he gets a vision. Come to Macedonia." You know what? I'm sure it doesn't say it all here. But I'm sure that as Paul was traveling, they were praying together. He said, "Y'all, we need to be praying about this on where God's going to lease." And God gave some clear direction at the appropriate time. Now, I'm not here to stand before you. I think the completion of the Word of God is in front of us. We have that completed from Genesis to Revelation. I'm not telling you to every time you have a dream or you have some type of experience that is necessarily God this or God that. As I've heard people talk, but I do think that God will speak to you by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God primarily, through other people, through circumstances, but those people and those circumstances got to line up with the Bible. Okay? So you may have a dream or you may have some type of vision. You may have somebody shared with you something that God is allowing or calls in your life to get you in the right direction. When God was getting ready to call me to preach, he had a fellow that came and talked to me. He's dead and gone and went to be with the Lord. His name is Larry Brandenburg. I've shared with this before, mostly prior to the story. But I remember plainly, I would come to Sunday school class, before Sunday school class, they would always ask if anybody wanted to share what God did in their life this week. And every week I had something to talk about on how I had an opportunity to share the gospel with this person or that person or God did this or God did that. And after several weeks of that, Larry called me one day and he said, "When are you going to announce your call to preach?" I said, "Well, God never calls me to preach. I'll preach." But God didn't call me to preach. When God hadn't called me to preach yet, but God used Larry to get my spiritual ears opened up for that possibility because I never thought that that would be a possibility. I wouldn't say very long as 18 years old was it raised in church? How am I going to know what God's saying to me? But what I didn't know when God was speaking about my sin and the conviction, I didn't know after I got saved. Every time the preacher preached, nearly he had something to say to me through the word. And so when January 3rd came along on that Sunday night and the preacher was preaching and all I could hear was preach my word, I knew it. I knew it. And I stepped out. I was sitting like right here. I stepped out. I came forward. I grabbed my preacher by the hand. I said, "Brother Mike, I want you to know that God's called me to preach." He wants me to preach his word. I don't know what all that means. I don't know what all that's going to entail, but I just want you to know that. And I want the church to know that. Then I'm willing to do whatever God tells me to do. And I've been telling God up to that point. If you'll tell me what you want me to do, show me what you want me to do, I'll do it. In the meantime, I was going to church. I didn't stay home, went to church. I went to Sunday school. I gave my ties to my offerings. I did whatever it's supposed to do. It's just trying to learn to grow. And he finally was able to say, "I want you to preach." I said, "Yes." That was to start the journey after I got saved just a few months before that. But he began to to God the steps. Well, here's the vision of the man of Macedonia saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." And it says, "After he had seen the vision, verse 10, it says, "Immediately we endeavored." So Luke includes himself here. So this is another thing that I think we need to understand. Not only do we need to be a people that are seeking God whom we're serving with, where we're to serve, but when he gives, plain instruction, you need to do it. You don't drag your feet. You go immediately when God speaks. If you have children or grandchildren, maybe you ain't like me. But I'm going to tell you something. Something gets on my nerves more than anything. It's when I tell them to do something. And they say, "Hold on. What'd you say? Hold on. I told you to get down here. Hold on." And the bell got, "You know how long I told you this more?" I said, "Girl don't know how to tell time." She said, "Well, probably my fault." I said, "You got five minutes, five minutes an hour long. You know that? Five minutes equals 60 minutes." And that's not common core math. That's not algebra. That's not, it's just that way because I'll be down in a minute. A minute turns into 30 minutes, turns into an hour. Like get out of the shower. You've been in it for 30 minutes. Does that stuff get on you? It gets on my nerves when I tell them to do something. You know what I like about this passage? He says, "When God showed them where to go, they immediately went. They didn't drag their feet. They didn't say, "Well, give me 10 minutes, Lord." They said, "Well, let me hang out here for a little while. We just got the Troas. We just got here, Lord. I mean, there's so much stuff we want to see while we're here. You know? No, get to Macedonia. Get to Macedonia. Go to where I called you to go to. Immediately they left. We endeavored." I like that word. How many understand that living for the Lord you got to endeavor? It's going to be a big endeavor. They endeavored to go to Macedonia. Look what it says. "Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." How many understand something today that God is not the author of confusion? Now, he didn't let them preach in Asia, but he didn't tell them in Asia that they were going to Macedonia. They went to go to Bithynia. He stopped them, but they didn't tell them in Bithynia that they were going to Macedonia. It wasn't until Troas. Why did he wait to Troas? Why didn't he tell them at the beginning? I don't know. His ways are way above my ways and your ways. His thoughts are way above my thoughts and your thoughts. His purpose is way bigger than ours. I don't know why he didn't give all the information at the start of the journey that they then could just not worry about going to Asia. They could have went straight to Macedonia, but you know what? God knew how long it was going to take them to get from where they're at to Macedonia, and he also knew where he was going to be working, because when you get over there to Philippi, you're going to see he's doing a work. Verse 14, "There is a certain woman named Lydia, seller purple in the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, and she attended unto the things that were spoken upon, that she was baptized, and her household, and she besought us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, abide here, and she constrained us." This lady was going to be a vital role in the ministry of Paul there in Macedonia in Philadelphia, or Philippi, rather, and guess what? She can't be everywhere at one time, either. Paul and him can't be everywhere at one time, either, but God can. So what God do, God orchestrated some things, get people where they need to be at the right time, at the right place, to do his work. Tell me he don't care about details. He cares about details. Now I told you this before, and I think it's a neat part of my own testimony, so I'll share it more than, you know, you probably say, "Well, I'm sick of hearing that, but I'm going to tell it anyway, because I have the opportunity." But I told you that before I even got saved, that my senior year, because I was a heathen in school, I thought I need to get away from my principal. He probably thought he'd need to get rid of me, and I need to get away from him, but I decided on my own that I'm going to go to vocational school. So where I lived in Ohio, we had a, it's called Butler County Joint Vocational School. So it was one vocational school that covered the whole county, and they a lot bigger counties in Ohio than they do in Kentucky. And so there was several big school districts that shared the same vocational school. So I decided I'm going to go to vocational school, and I decided I want to do HVAC system, and I want to learn how to do HVAC person. And so I signed up for that, but they said you had to sign up for two in case, for some reason they had too many in that class, you couldn't get in or whatever. So I put that down, then I put carpentry, and the group right before me just messed up all the HVAC equipment, tore it up, and then have money to replace all of it. And so instead of, you know, trying to replace everything, and that HVAC program went away, and they put me in a carpentry class. So I go to carpentry class. I did pretty good in carpentry class. My senior year, I got a job. My fellow named Roy Crother, Roy Crothers was not a believer, but he had a business that he owned, carpentry business, and they came down to the B school, and they kind of said, hey, there's some opportunities, you want summer job? So I put in for the summer job, I got the summer job, it was right towards the end of my senior year. I left from school, I started my new job. That's how I ran into two guys that shared a gossip with me. You think God had any dealings with the HVAC program? Not being available for me? I think so. You said, well, you think God cared that much. I know God cared that much. I tell you right now, God leave glory. God went to that cross if it was just for you, just for you. And so, whether it's that or I can again go to obtain different things, to talk about, you know, my stepdad's named John Beck. He was an alcoholic and a drug addict and caused havoc in my house. For all of my growing up, never did a thing for me. You know, my mother-in-law sings it all over the place? Somebody else got to introduce some guy, Mr. Beck. I don't remember his first name. If I remember his name, Mr. Beck, and they get talking to Sam and to Massa, they're getting to know him. This guy, he's got money. My stepdad broke in a joke. This other Mr. Beck's got money. You know what this Mr. Beck ended up doing? He ended up hearing about a little bit of my testimony. And Mr. Beck started giving money up, take care of my school. One Mr. Beck caused me all kind of mess. Another Mr. Beck helped take care of my school, all through college. I had not had a clue how and where I was going to take me to take care of. But you know what? God took care of it. I go on and on and on to talk to you about how God's guided and directed and provided over the years of just following him. And let me tell you something. Let me let you in on a secret. I ain't nobody special. Okay. That's what he wants to do for all people. But we got to be a person that's saying, I'm going to follow him. And that goes for you as an individual today. That goes for you as a family. You know, as a parent, you worry about your kids. You're at what's going next. I got one that's in college, you know, and trying to figure out, you know, all the things and what's next for his life. I got other ones going right on his heels, you know, and what's going to be happening next, you know, and you get concerned about that and you worry about that and you wonder about that and you pray about that. But you know what God's going to do? God's going to take care of that. God's going to take care of every aspect. So you as an individual, you as your family, us as a church, going forward on what God's called to do. We ought to be going to take the steps, but God's going to take care of things, you know. And so what about you today? Do you know Jesus has your own personal Lord and Savior? If not, I promise you, today is not an accident. Today is the day of salvation for you. Today is a day for you to recognize that you're born and sin, you're on your way to a devil's hell. But Jesus, who is God, became a man, died on the cross for you because he loves you and he rose from the dead overcoming your sin. And he is dealing with you today to come and trust in him. And after you're saved, you know, following his steps and being the person in the place to do the will of God. What about you today? How's God speaking to you and how are you going to respond to him? You know what I've learned over the years of ministry? I don't have to have to. I don't have to know everything that God's saying, as I remember sitting in him seat plenty of times and know that God was right on me a lot of times, a preacher and have a clue. The conviction, the guidance, the direction. But you know what? Now it's your responsibility. What are you going to do with it? You know what Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke said? We assuredly knew he called us the Macedonia to preach. So we endeavor to go. When God making itself clear to you, you need to respond to him. Quit wasting time and respond to him. Thanks for listening to the podcast of Victory Baptist Church. Victory Baptist Church is located at 165 Hammonds Lane in London, Kentucky. Sunday morning, Sunday school is at 945 morning worship at 11 and Sunday evening service at 6.30 p.m. Awana is on Wednesday night at 6.30 p.m. You can watch us online via our Facebook page at Victory Baptist Church of London, Kentucky. Victory Baptist Church, where there's joy and belonging. Thanks for listening.
Acts 16: 1-10