When God Gives a Vision

Go ye therefore. Go, Jesus said. Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world. Amen. In acts one eight, Jesus said, but ye shall receive power after that the holy ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Mark sixteen fifteen, Jesus repeated the great commission and he said, go ye. There’s that word go again. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I want to highlight tonight that the reason we are going to Uruguay is not to provide humanitarian relief, although that is a good thing. Because Jesus did not command us in the Great Commission to provide humanitarian relief.

He sent us to go and preach the Gospel. Gospel. Let’s say that word together. Ready? Gospel. The gospel, the story of how you and I have a sin problem and how Jesus is the only solution to that problem. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ sufficiently pays for the sin debt that the whole world, including you my friend, owes. I remember in May 2005, on a Monday night, it was summer, I was at a youth camp, and there was a preacher preaching a message.

He had a padlock similar to this one right here that I’m going to show you. And this padlock he would hold up in his hand, and he would show us that our eternal destination without Jesus Christ is locked. And he’d hold that padlock up and up and he would say, some of you think that by attending church faithfully, you can unlock forgiveness with God and he’d pick up a key and he would attempt to unlock that lock and no matter how he tried to unlock that lock, it would not open.

And so he’d set that key down and he’d pick up another key that looked a little bit different and a little more interesting. It might fit, it might go in, and he’d say some people think that by giving to church faithfully their tithes and offerings or reading their Bible or praying, they can unlock heaven, but this is the wrong key. That’s not the right key either. And so he’d pick up another key and he would attempt to open the lock with that key and it was another good thing, perhaps assisting the poor or perhaps serving in ministries at church or perhaps even being a missionary kid, and that key would not unlock the lock.

You know why? Because heaven, a relationship with God, eternal security, forgiveness for your sin, can only be unlocked with one key. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Jesus is the key. And on that Monday night in May 2005, it finally clicked in my heart that I had all of those other keys. Not bad things, but none of them will unlock a relationship with God. And that night, I decided to place my faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ladies and gentlemen, the church exists to propagate the gospel, to preach the gospel, to spread the gospel, to win people, not to ourselves, not to our programs, not to our ideas, or not to our our our ministries even, but to win people with the gospel, to win them to Jesus Christ. The world doesn’t need a new idea from a man. The world doesn’t need more efforts that are are good. The world needs the radical message of the gospel.

And when Paul is working here in in Acts chapter 16, he is working, moving the gospel out of the church that has already received it, and transporting it to people who need it to be saved and to grow. In verses number nine and ten, we find that a specific gospel mission’s vision is given to Paul. I I I find this interesting because as God has led us to Uruguay, God has given me a specific mission’s vision for this specific country, for this specific place where we’re going. As as I pray and and and speak with Mark, my brother-in-law, we talk about this team effort of planting a church in the capital city. He will be the lead missionary in that endeavor. And I and we talk about the vision that God has given him for reaching that city, and I’m excited about it. God has given a specific missions vision for that place.

Just like Paul has received a specific missions vision for a place called Macedonia. And I believe God gives specific missions visions to specific churches, like Choice Hills Baptist Church, to reach a specific community, like Berea, South Carolina. I don’t know what God’s specific missions vision is for you. I know some things that are clear in the Bible that God has commanded us to do, that all churches should do. I don’t know what God’s specific mission’s vision is for your life, how how he wants you to particularly involve yourself in missions, in propagating the gospel, and evangelization, not just locally, but in Judea, Jerusalem, Samaria, and to the other most part of the world? I can’t tell you because I’m not God, but I know this, that God does have a missions vision for us.

I find though, that before verse nine and ten came where Paul receives this vision, we’ve got to rewind a little bit and realize that number one, the vision was prefaced by obedience. Number one, the vision was prefaced by obedience. Look at verse number four with me, please. The Bible says, and as they went through the cities, this is Paul and his missionary team, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders that were at Jerusalem.

And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. So, from verses four and five, we can clearly see that Paul is already living in obedience to the Great Commission. He’s delivering the word of God to these churches. They’re being established in the faith and increasing in number. This is church planting that’s happening right here. I mean, verse number five, Lord willing, will be a description of our future ministry in Uruguay.

Church planting, why? Because when you lead people to Christ and you begin to disciple them, they’re baptized, they’re saved, and they begin to assemble and congregate on a regular basis. Well, essentially what’s happening is a church is being formed. And so verses number four and five, we see that the vision was prefaced by obedience. Obedience, sometimes we forget that good old fashioned obedience isn’t just for the kids.

I remember as a child, my dad telling all of me and my siblings, obey right away the first time you’re told with a happy heart. But obedience isn’t just for the children, it’s for us too, the adults. Hudson Taylor, missionary to China in the mid-1800s, his quote was in the video, but he said, The Great Commission isn’t an option to be considered, it’s a command to be obeyed.

Jesus didn’t It’s not the great suggestion, it’s the Great Commission. It’s a command from our Lord and Savior. And by the way, what a joy, What a privilege. What an honor that Jesus would not only save a wretched soul like me, but also allow me to partake in the great plan that he has to lead other people to Christ, to propagate the gospel around the world. What a privilege that that Jesus would have mercy on us enough to allow us to partake in this great wonderful ministry.

Jesus said, blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. He said in John nine four, I must work the works of him that sent me. You see, Jesus isn’t asking us to obey and do something that he has not already set an example for. Jesus came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

So vision is prefaced by obedience. But not only that, the vision was predicated on a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. It was predicated on a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. Look at verses six and seven. It says, now when they had gone throughout Phrygia in the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. Wait a minute, didn’t we just spend all this time talking about how the Great Commission is not an option to be considered, it’s a command to be obeyed, and it’s not the great suggestion, it’s the great commission, and this is a command from our Lord and Savior, we ought to obey?

Why is the Holy Spirit forbidding them from doing it now? Is God playing games with Paul? Look at verse number seven. After they were come to Mysia, they assayed, that means they tried, they endeavored, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the spirit suffered them not. So twice now, the Holy Spirit has put a stop to Paul’s plans to do a good thing, to preach the Gospel. How many of you would agree that’s a good thing, preaching the Gospel?

He tries to go into Asia, he tries to go into Bethany, God closes the doors. Now, I don’t know specifically how God did that. I know plenty of ways that God has closed doors in my own personal life, and some of them, I’m thankfully closed those doors because they weren’t good things that I was going to do. But here, Paul is going to do a good thing, a wonderful thing.

We can see here there’s a lesson to be learned about the sovereignty of God. As God leads and guides us, he has the right to tug at the rain to the right or tug at the rains to the left. And our responsibility as followers, as disciples of Jesus Christ is sensitivity to that tugging, is sensitivity to his Holy Spirit. A. W. Tozer said, the spirit filled life is not a special deluxe edition of Christianity.

It’s not like that’s just for the really ultra spiritual people. Or you see somebody really godly in church and you’re like, oh, they got the deluxe Holy Spirit. The deluxe version. No, no. We’re all recipients. If you’re saved here tonight, you have the deluxe edition. And there is only one edition. It is the deluxe edition of the Holy Spirit. It’s the full package. He’s the seal of our inheritance. He’s the earnest of our inheritance. He is the Holy Spirit of promise. He’s the comforter.

And and and if you’re saved, you have the Holy Spirit. So, what are we talking about that we ought to have a spirit filled life? What we’re talking about is not that you need more of Him, but that the Holy Spirit ought to have more control over us, over our will. If you remember Elijah back in the Old Testament, God calls him forty days into the wilderness. He finds this cave, and then there’s an earthquake, there’s a fire, there’s a great wind that rent the mountains, the Bible says, but God was not in the wind, and God was not in the fire, and God was not in the earthquake. Where was God?

That still small voice. You know sometimes, maybe the reason John Briley doesn’t have a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is not because the Holy Spirit isn’t talking. But it’s because I have so many other voices going on in my life. So many other loud things happening in my life and I never take initiative in calming everything down so that I can listen to the still small voice.

That means maybe you need to take a hike. Maybe you need to get in a prayer closet. Maybe you need to just go sit in the car and close the doors by yourself. We have got to have a personal relationship with God. Over and over again, I find my Christian life, my success as a Christian, anybody’s success as a Christian is totally dependent on your relationship with God because that is what Christianity is, a relationship with God.

And if you don’t have a relationship with God tonight because you’ve never initiated one, your sin has never been atoned for because you’ve never received the gift of eternal life by faith, then my friend, your eternal destination is still locked for hell.

A relationship with God can only be unlocked through forgiveness by the blood of Jesus Christ, faith in Him. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. There’s a Holy Spirit sensitivity in Paul’s life. I don’t see Paul shoving against the door like sometimes we do. Breaking through the door even when God closes it. No, there’s a sensitivity. He diverts from Asia. Now, he’s a preacher of the gospel. He knows God has called him to do that, and he’s obedient. We already established that.

And so, he simply just changes direction and heads toward Bethenia. But then God closes the door there, and so Paul goes down to Troas for a period of waiting. Now, I don’t like periods of waiting. I don’t know about you. Verse number eight says, they passing by Mizia came down to Troas. So, we see here Paul has an obedience, but he also has a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit of God. And listen to me church, if we want fresh vision from God, it doesn’t matter what, in the missions of your church, in the marriage that you have, in your personal life, if you want fresh vision from God on your future, God will not give you a fresh vision for the future if there are areas that you have not started obeying that He already revealed to you. Does that make sense?

God’s not gonna show you steps three and four until you obey steps one and two first. And if there’s no sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, that directly means there’s no relationship between you and God. There’s no line of communication. We’ve got to have a sensitivity to his Holy Spirit. When you read God’s Word, do you you kind of just do it to check it off, or or does the does the Word jump out into your heart? And and the Lord speaks to you through the the passage of scripture that you’re reading, and you not just have a logos that you’re that you’re putting in your mind, but there’s a rhema going into your heart, the very spoken word of God coming into your life. And and and is there that sensitivity to the Holy Spirit?

God can speak to us not just through his word, but it can be as we’re going. I mean, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us. The Lord can prompt you. The Lord can speak to you through preaching and through through a song service even. The Lord can speak to people through a donkey if he really wants to, and we know that’s happened. But do you have a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit?

Do you know his voice? I love my wife. I I have her picture on my my tablet here, I was I turned it on, showed one of my sons, I was like, man, boy, look at your mama. And why? Because I love my wife. But when I first met my wife, we’d be in a crowd and I couldn’t tell if she was there or not if I didn’t see her because I didn’t know her voice.

But now, after ten years of marriage, I don’t need to see her. If I walk in the room and I hear her voice, I know that voice. I know she’s there. Why? Because we’ve been growing in our relationship. We talk. And if we don’t talk, I get in trouble. So we talk, all right. We need a relationship with God, y’all. We need to be able to hear the voice of God.

The vision was predicated on a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. Finally, want you to see this in verses nine and ten. The vision is followed up with action. The vision is followed up with action. Not only does Paul show a pattern of obedience, just good old fashioned regular obedience in his life, not only is there a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, but then when God does come along and say, hey buddy, I got something for you to do.

Paul says, yes, sir, and he springs into action. Look at verse number 10. The Bible says, and after he had seen the vision, what’s the next word? Immediately. Sometimes we don’t like that word, right? Immediately. Again, my dad would say obey right away the first time you’re told. Listen to me, God expects us to spring into action and show obedience, a pattern of obedience when we obey. Because delayed obedience is what?

Disobedience. There’s immediate action. Not only is it immediate action, but it is collaborative action. It says immediately we endeavor to go. Now remember, who received the vision? Was it everybody on the team? No, one guy, the leader, Paul. God gave Paul a vision. Verse number nine, a vision appeared to Paul in the night. But Paul wasn’t the only one that endeavored to go to Macedonia, was he? No. Immediately we endeavored to go to Macedonia.

So, not only is this external, okay, we’re gonna help you, Paul, but there’s also, look at verse number 10, there’s an internal receiving of the call of God upon themselves. The Bible says assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us. You know, it could have said immediately we all endeavored to help Paul because God called Paul. But no, it says, immediately we all endeavored to help Paul, assuredly gathering the Lord had called us because the vision God gave Paul. Listen to me, Choice Hills Baptist Church. Beth and I have traveled The United States, and praise the Lord for the ministries that we’ve been in, the churches that we visited. Some of those churches though, don’t have pastors.

And they’ve been looking for a while. There’s a great dearth of laborers. I think there was in Jesus’ day, that’s why I said pray for laborers. But God has blessed you with a pastor. Praise the Lord for that. And when Pastor Wood gets up and says, all right, church, God’s given me a fresh vision for how we can reach the world for Christ, our missions program, and a fresh vision for how we can reach our community for Christ, let’s not sit back and say, well, I didn’t get any vision from God.

So, you go, Pastor, that’s great for you, but the Lord hasn’t spoken to me. No. There is a humble participation and collaboration happening on Paul’s team here. Not only did it happen with them, but then when they got to Philippi, they lead this lady named Lydia to Christ. And the first thing Lydia wants to do is she says, come into my house. And the Bible says she constrained them. It’s like she wouldn’t let them go. She’s like, you’re gonna let me participate whether you like it or not. And then you read the book of Philippians, okay, which is a letter Paul later wrote to that church that got planted once they got in Macedonia.

And the Bible says that that church communicated with Paul concerning giving and receiving. They supported Paul when nobody else was. Something happened. There was a spirit of collaboration that infiltrate, I was gonna say infected, but that has a negative connotation. It infiltrated that church. And I think part of it has to do with the spirit of collaboration that is built into the gospel. Jesus said, I’ve come to seek and save that which was lost, and then he says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Those of you that were lost and now you’re found, you go.

Go ye, it’s a collaboration that we’re supposed to have. It was a immediate endeavoring. It was a collaborative endeavoring. And then I wanna highlight that word endeavor, because this was a deliberate action, number three. It was a deliberate action. The word endeavor means more than just going. The Bible could have said they went to Macedonia. And that would have sufficed to tell us they went over there.

But the word endeavor means something a little bit more about how they went over there. The word endeavor in English means to devote serious and sustained effort. It comes from the Greek word zetio, which means to seek out a way. It implies that you are so in on the goal.

You are sold out to the vision. You are a partaker of this thing to the degree that you are willing to get through when there’s an obstacle. Find a way when there’s a challenge, you are going to devote serious and sustained effort to this thing. You know who devoted serious and sustained effort? Jesus Christ. I’m so thankful. He could have called 10,000 angels, but he stayed there. Why? Because you and I were worth it to him. I don’t understand it, But you and I, for the joy that was set before him, he devoted serious and sustained effort. The least that I can do is devote some serious and sustained effort to helping other people be recipients of that unconditional love of God. They didn’t just go, they endeavored to go to Macedonia.

Fourthly, I want you to see that they faithfully took action. They took faith filled action toward the vision. We’re gonna finish with this. Look at verse number 10. It says, immediately we endeavored to go to Macedonia, assuredly gathering. That’s the word. That’s the phrase. Those two words, assuredly gathering. When I was reading this and I was saying, God, do you want us in Uruguay? I have this desire, I have this heavy burden. We took a trip in 2022 to Uruguay.

We came back from that ministry trip. We got to preach in camp. We got to do some couples ministry. And the Lord just We had a burden. And when we came back, we felt like if we stayed, we were gonna be in disobedience to God. That’s how strongly we felt about it. But I wanted the Lord to confirm through through his word. And so I began searching the scriptures, and this is one of the passages where God said, John, look, you don’t have to be afraid to take a step. You can assuredly gather that I am calling you.

Because I kind of expected the passage to say that Moses knew beyond the shadow of a doubt God had called him to Macedonia. Moses was 100% sure God had called him to Macedonia. He didn’t have handwriting on the wall. He didn’t have a burning bush talking to him. He didn’t have the donkey like Balaam. I mean, there wasn’t something miraculous that God did to very clearly show that this was God speaking to him.

But he was able to, in the spirit, assuredly gather the will of God moving forward. This is how this works. The word gathering is you take different pieces and you put them together. Like you’d gather eggs into a basket or the way that you would put puzzle pieces together in a puzzle. Let’s use that illustration. As you put puzzle pieces together, eventually there comes a point that even though you don’t have all the puzzle pieces in place, you can make out what the picture is. You guys know what I’m talking about?

And if you’re like me, you hate it when there’s a piece missing. But God doesn’t always give us all the puzzle pieces right away. And here, God doesn’t tell Paul all the horrible things that await him in Macedonia, all the affliction and suffering and persecution that he would experience. God doesn’t show him all of the wonderful blessings that he would have in Macedonia. God simply lets him have this vision of a man from Macedonia saying, come over and help us. And what Paul does is he takes the evidence that he has, the hints, the clues of God’s will that he has in his life already established. Number one, you remember the Damascus Road, Jesus appeared to him. Paul is converted. So first of all, he’s a disciple. He’s a follower of Christ. And by the way, if you’re saved here tonight, you’re a disciple like Paul was. That inherently sets you apart, amen?

I mean, we ought to know that we are set apart as we’re peculiar people. We’re not supposed to be living like everyone else. We we’re supposed to be witnesses on this earth. So that’s number one in Paul’s life. Then then God specifically calls him to the Gentiles. And then he is sent out by the church at Antioch with Barnabas. Okay? And then he’s got these menace These churches that he’s establishing.

And then in verse number In chapter number 16, he sent out once again to go back through and deliver the decrees from the apostles at Jerusalem to these churches. And God is blessing his obedience and his ministry. We see that in verse number five. There’s churches being established in the faith and increasing in number daily. Then there’s a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. God, Paul has a wherewithal, a spiritual wherewithal to understand that the Lord closed the door in Asia. The Lord closed the door in Bithynia, so those are more puzzle pieces to his puzzle that he’s putting together. And then he gets this vision.

Now, I’m not saying that you’re gonna get a dream of somebody telling you what to do with your life. Probably not. But that is how God spoke to Paul, and that was like the final puzzle piece that once Paul put that in place in his life, he was like, oh, okay, Macedonia. That’s what God’s telling me to do. So he gets up and he goes to his friends, you know, and he says, I think this is what happened. I think God’s calling to Macedonia. And they’re all like, all right, let’s do it, Paul. We’re with you because you’re our leader. We’re gonna collaborate. Remember we talked about collaborative action. And so they get up and then they go and they’re not just hapsadaisically doing this thing, they’re endeavoring, right? They’re serious about this ministry.

And then comes moving day, right? I’m thinking about looking forward to moving day and we still don’t have it on the calendar. We have our plane tickets bought for our survey trip, but pray with us because I’m praying that this container can be shipped before that date. Otherwise, we gotta move our ticket. But anyways, there comes a moving day, in verse number 11, the Bible says, therefore, in other words, because they assuredly gathered that the Lord had called them.

Therefore, in verse number 11, loosing from Troas. That’s the step of obedience. That’s the work that put feet to their faith. That’s the proof that they were living by faith because they left. You know, later in the book of Corinthians, you can read it, but Paul says that at this point in his ministry, in his heart, he had no rest in his spirit when this great door was opened into him. And the Bible says because he couldn’t find Titus. You see, was supposed to rendezvous with Titus. Titus was gonna bring back a report of how the Corinthian church had received the first letter that was pretty harsh. Paul was ripping their face for some sin in the church. And Paul’s waiting to hear back from Titus how it went, did they did they, you know, write me off, or did they listen, did they receive it well? And he couldn’t find Titus. Back then, it wasn’t like he could text Titus and be like, bro, where you at, you know, let’s meet here.

You had to spend a few days in a city and find each other, and so But the Lord gave him this vision of a man from Macedonia, and now he has a fork in the road he has to choose to stay in Troas because he has no And wait for all the loose ends to be tightened up, wait for all of the puzzle pieces to be in place, wait until he feels complete 100% peace before he steps out by faith, but he chooses to step out by faith instead.

It reminds me of when the children of Israel are at the Jordan River, right? And God has given Joshua specific marching orders to cross the Jordan River. And if you read that passage, you’ll see the Bible says, if you know the story, you know that there’s a miracle Jesus, or the Lord stops the water of the Jordan River, and and it and the water flows, and and they’re able to pass over on dry ground.

But that did not happen until the priest, the Bible says, stepped with the sole, the brim of the sole of their feet, stepped foot in the brim of the water of the river. At that point is when God stopped the water and made a way forward. What does that tell us? That tells me that before God reveals how it’s going to work, he expects us to obey by faith.

Remember Jericho? They had to March 1. They had to do what, by human perspective is a silly thing, but were God’s instructions. And then they saw the miracle. And Paul didn’t know what was waiting in Macedonia, but there was an open door, and he confidently concluded, he assuredly gathered, I’m pretty sure this is what God’s leading me to do. And so you know what he decided to do? He took a step of faith in that direction. Therefore, loosing from Troas.

Listen to me. If the Lord is leading you, if the Lord is prompting you, you’re not a 100% sure, but you feel like God’s pushing you in a certain direction, can I challenge you? Get counsel, read your work, read the Bible, pray. I mean, consider the divine circumstances in your life. I mean, we we did those things. But there comes a point where you’ve gotta decide to pull the trigger.

Are you going to step forward by faith? And so far, the Lord has not let us down. Step by step, God confirms that he is leading in a certain direction. I’m so thankful. I’m so thankful. Let’s pray.