Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and I'd love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this has blessed you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it. So share this podcast.
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[00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy.
[00:00:59] Good morning.
[00:01:01] Hello. Hello, friends.
[00:01:03] Yeah, so we are in a series, and if you've been joining us, this series has been going on for a minute, right? It's been for a minute, yeah. Some of you guys are like, yeah, how long? When's it going to end? Well, the Book of Acts is long, guys, a lot of chapters and we're going through it. If you're a guest here, if you're watching online, we're. We are going kinda books by books, but like a couple of books at a time. And so we're gonna jump into 15 and 16 this morning. But before I do that, I recently upgraded my computer. Don't you guys love when you have to upgrade your systems, right? Your phones? And it always takes a little bit longer than I want it to. It always does. It always does.
[00:01:42] And then it just starts asking me questions that I don't want to answer. You know what I'm saying?
[00:01:47] And then it tells you, do you agree on this and do you agree on that? Because it has all kinds of what, terms and conditions, right? It's like, it's a yes, yes, yes. And I don't know about you guys, friends, like, if I am like, impatient, which, not that I'm always impatient, but yeah, but I just agree to everything. Do you get that?
[00:02:08] Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And so recently when I was doing that, I was in a rush and I was like, come on, what's going on? Why is it taking so long? Is it the WI fi? Is it the battery? Is it not plugged in? Is it because we're in a drought? Like, what is it? Like, what's going on? Why is it not working?
[00:02:25] And then it just finally got it going. And then it was like asking me all these questions and I was like, agree, agree, agree, agree. And then in the middle of that, I had this thought. How many things have I agreed on without reading the terms and conditions?
[00:02:37] Think about it like you signed documents before of all kinds. You said yes to so many things. They could put anything in there.
[00:02:43] Anything in there. I was like, you know what? I just said yes to anything. You shave your eyebrows on Christmas Eve. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. If you just put it with a lot of words, I will say yes to it. Feed an alligator. Yes. Yes. Swim with sharks. Yes. Jump out of a plane. No.
[00:02:59] But I wouldn't read it. I wouldn't read it. Thank you, Lynn. I wouldn't read it. The reason why I wouldn't read it is because there's so many things. It's the fine.
[00:03:08] The fine print. Fine print. So as we jump into these next few chapters, I feel like this chapter kind of starts off with a couple of people, a bunch of people, early followers of Jesus, that all of a sudden get these terms and conditions. They all of a sudden realize, oh, we just signed up for something else. We just signed up. They didn't read the fine print, and they get a rude awakening. So here's what happens if you follow along the journey. The early church is starting. You've got. Now last week we talked about how Paul and Barnabas, they got commissioned to do their first mission trips. So now what they're doing is you got. You kind of have home base going on where the church is being founded. But now Paul and Barnabas are sent out to different parts of that region around Turkey, and they're starting these.
[00:03:58] These churches. They're starting the. They're trying to tell people about Jesus. And so gentile people are coming to know Jesus. And so as these guys are left home base, there are all kinds of other leaders in charge doing and working out this way of Jesus. Now they're all followers of Jesus, but years have passed, and I don't know about you, but when a movement starts off, it's kind of pure. But when it continues on, there's things added to it. Right? There's things added to it. And so what we find here is in this chapter is when you start off, you find a bunch of people realizing that what has happened is that the group of church leaders that first started in the movement of Jesus, they started establishing other things. They started adding certain things to this idea of Jesus.
[00:04:45] Not that we would ever do that. Right. Christianity would Never do that, right? But they start adding all kinds of things. And Paul and Barnabas are gone and they're doing all kinds of things, and they get word that now these new followers of Jesus have these new terms and conditions. And here's what the terms and conditions. Let me read you this, okay? Here. Just imagine this. In the contract, it says, unless you are. What?
[00:05:09] I know it's too early for that word. I get it, I get it. Don't blame me. It's in the Bible, okay? So unless you are circumcised, and if you don't know what that is, God bless you. You don't need to. Okay? Okay.
[00:05:23] And then, Amen.
[00:05:27] And then you have to be circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses. You help me out. You cannot be. What? You cannot be saved. Have you ever been to a church and all of a sudden you're like, jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And then all of a sudden they're like, yeah, but.
[00:05:42] Yeah, but, but, but, but, but. I realized this coming from Muslim background, so Christianity, I found a church and they're like, yeah, this is great. This is great. I was like, what about that church over there? Like, they're not saved, though.
[00:05:53] They're not saved because they speak in tongues. I was like, oh, what is that? I like languages.
[00:05:59] So I go to that, and I started attending that. Guess what? That crew was like, oh, yeah, those people.
[00:06:04] They're not saved either. They're not. Not either, but they're not saved. Why? Because if you're. If you're saved, you do certain things, you add on instead. There were certain. So many terms and conditions what the early church found as they were trying to navigate how to follow Jesus without Jesus there, how to lean into the Holy Spirit. The early church people, they were so passionate, they were so committed, they were so sincere. But sincere people can do something sincerely wrong.
[00:06:31] They can start adding on all kinds of things. And you and I, we've lived through some of those. We have experience where our church was not just about Jesus. It was Jesus and terms and conditions.
[00:06:42] And, hey, now, Christianity is not just pure. It's. No, no, no. If you're a Christian, you vote like this. If you're a Christian, you act like this. If you're a Christian, you have this kind of theology, this kind of ideology, all kinds of biology. Like, you gotta have all kinds of things attached to the message of Jesus. And so Paul and Barnabas are going, what? What? What? We just left. And you guys are, what, adding on some things. Yeah, they were Adding on all kinds of things. The Gospel, which means. Anybody know what it means? It means the good was no longer good enough.
[00:07:19] It was no longer good enough. It's like, oh, yeah, Jesus died for us. Yeah. But then what? Let's add some more stuff. So good news is no longer presented as good news. The Gospel, it was now presented as a warning.
[00:07:32] If you don't repent, you're going to hell.
[00:07:35] And so you realize this, even the message of Jesus, even now in certain parts of the world, is not the good news declaring and inviting. No, it's good news threatening and intimidating and maybe even warning from, you know, from impending doom. And because there. Why? Because there are things added to this. And so as you read this chapter, you find where Paul and Barnabas have to weigh into this. They have to. They got to go back and they got to go, hey, hey, hold on, hold on. What are you guys doing? And so here, verse eight, they write, he says, luke records this and it says, God knows people's hearts, and he confirmed that he accept Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit. So they're reminding them, you know, what's going on here? Why are you calling them? Why are you calling those people not saved? Because the Holy Spirit has been given to them. And he did that just as he did to us. He made no distinction between who, us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through not circumcision, through faith.
[00:08:42] So why. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?
[00:08:57] Like, why are you putting this weight?
[00:09:01] This weight?
[00:09:02] He says, we believe that we are all saved the same way.
[00:09:07] By what?
[00:09:09] By the undeserved, what grace of the Lord Jesus? The first thing I think that we have to realize here and what God would be saying to us is that we have to. This is my first point, is that we have to let go of. Of the weight of righteousness.
[00:09:26] We have to let go of the weight of righteousness. The longer you stay as a follower of Jesus, all of a sudden your righteousness becomes something that you have to carry with you. And it's connected to your performance.
[00:09:37] Like, somehow we just realized that it's not just the grace of God and the goodness of God that carries us. No, we have to put some more things on there. And if you follow a certain kind of Christianity or you get involved in certain kind of church, they're good people, but they're just adding a lot more weight to righteousness. And now Righteousness is not right standing with God because of the grace of God. It is right standing with God because you are making yourself right.
[00:10:09] You have to act a certain way. You gotta be good enough.
[00:10:13] You know what's surprising to me, surprising to me is that people who come to follow her, who become followers of Jesus and they, they're like, they don't want to get baptized. Like we were in, actually in a small group and we lead a small group, Ash and I, for college age kids. And, and they're like, there are some of them, they're like, ah, I don't know if I can get baptized. Like, oh, how long have you been following Jesus? Or do you know about Jesus? Oh, man. One person was like, oh yeah, like, like a lot of years, maybe 10, 12 years. And I'm like, just, just, just trying to ask why, why, why do you not want to get baptized? And the reason why I like that question is because I didn't want to get baptized when I came to Jesus. And the reason why I didn't want to get baptized, it's not because I felt like I wasn't good enough. It's just that for baptism, for me, coming from a Muslim, different background, once I did that, it was like, no going back, you know what I'm saying?
[00:11:01] Like, you know, following Jesus, I'm like, I'm about this Jesus life and then I can change my tune, you know, change my mind.
[00:11:09] But when you get baptized, you're like, oh, I committed. It's like in front of people doing all this stuff. And so this person was like, you know what? I don't want to get baptized because I just, I don't think I'm consistent enough.
[00:11:20] And I was like, what? I'm not consistent enough as a Christian?
[00:11:25] I'll tell you what, I've heard that before.
[00:11:29] People don't want to get baptized because you're not consistent enough as a Christian. Like, once I get a little bit more consistent, I'll get baptized when I'm good enough, when I'm. Check this out. When I'm Christian enough, I'll get baptized.
[00:11:44] And I get, I understand the thought process, but let me just tell you, that's not really the way of Jesus, right? That's not the gospel. The gospel is not your. Now life is based on performance.
[00:11:57] Like, God will like you because if you do such and such and such and such. Let me just tell you something. When you read the gospels, Jesus died for you before you ever believed.
[00:12:07] It was not connected to you believing it was connected to his love for God. So what loved the world that he gave his son, not that for God. So saw the faith of humanity, and so he sent his son. Look, they believe in you. No, Jesus is like, dad, they don't believe in anything.
[00:12:28] But he did it.
[00:12:30] So what are we adding on to this?
[00:12:33] And while this is happening, James, the brother of Jesus, he's still alive, right? And he's trying to navigate because he's the early church leaders as well, one of the members there, and he jumps in. He's like, hey, let me just jump into this. Let me just jump into this. And he says this. He says this. He says.
[00:12:48] He says a couple things, and then he says this. See? He says, listen, this is my judgment, okay? My judgment is this, that we should not make it, what?
[00:12:56] Difficult for Gentiles who are turning to God.
[00:13:02] Like, why are we making it difficult? Because they believe that if you're gonna become this person of Jesus, and Jesus was Jewish then, the people who have now coming to Christ have to become Jewish as well, or act like Jews or do the things Jews do.
[00:13:23] What they didn't realize is that this movement was bigger than a Jewish thing. It was a global thing. It had nothing to do with customs. You honored your customs. You don't give up.
[00:13:35] I don't give up being a Pakistani. I don't give up my food. I mean, who wants to give that up?
[00:13:41] I don't give up my culture. I don't give up my music. I don't give up my clothing. I don't give up all that. You don't all of a sudden become this. This Christian Western person. Because a lot of Eastern people taught that. My parents thought that too. They're like, oh, you're a Christian, you're an American now? I'm like, not the same thing.
[00:13:58] And they're like, no, it's the same thing. I'm like, no, it's not the same thing. It's not the same thing, Mom. Not the same thing. It's not. It's not. I love what Jesus said. What the message says. This is Jesus word, but the message is a paraphrase. Translation says this. It says, are you tired, worn out, burnt out on religion?
[00:14:19] You're like, yes, amen. And he says, come to me, get away with me, and I'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.
[00:14:31] Walk with me and work with me.
[00:14:34] Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
[00:14:40] Have you felt the unforced rhythms of grace growing your spirituality or inn? Is it a hurried, pressure filled performance that gets you to feel like you're a follower of Jesus? He's saying, no, no, you have to learn the unforced rhythms of grace in your life. He says, I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live what freely and lightly? Is your righteousness heavy or is it light?
[00:15:15] Is it light? Because what will happen is that it's like sometimes like the religion of Christianity, it'll add so many things and the reason why it does that, it just makes you more manageable.
[00:15:30] Like religion of any kind makes people manageable.
[00:15:37] There's terms and what terms and conditions. This is what you do. This is the standard, this is the behavior. This is this. It's like a job. You're like, this is what I agree to. This is what I'm doing.
[00:15:48] But that's the difference between religion, because religion makes us manageable.
[00:15:55] But Jesus came to set us free.
[00:15:58] It's a different kind of life.
[00:16:00] And these early church believers are realizing that. So that's the first thing. Then we move on and we continue on the chapter and we realize something that's really interesting here. What's really interesting is Paul and Barnabas, they do all these amazing things and we read about them and then something happens that you would think would never happen as the followers of Jesus, as Christians. Right? They have an argument.
[00:16:29] Yes. Can you believe it?
[00:16:31] And they recorded this stuff in there they are now.
[00:16:37] So the idea was that they had an idea of like going back and visiting all the churches they had started.
[00:16:43] And so Paul and Barnabas are like, okay, we've done this. This is great. Okay, let's go back and visit them. And they're like, yeah, let's go do that. Barnabas is like, all for it. He's like, also Barnabas was like, hey, I want to take this guy with me. Who? Which guy? This guy named John Mark. Paul's like, john Mark? John Mark. He's like, yeah, John Mark, John Mark.
[00:17:01] That John Mark. John Mark. Yeah, that John Mark. I don't want to take him. Aw, let's pray about it. No, I don't want to pray about it.
[00:17:08] We're not doing it. We're not doing it. Now I'm making this stuff up. But this is what happened. Okay. This is like, they're like, no, no, no. They start arguing about taking one person with them on a trip.
[00:17:19] Have you ever argued about a trip?
[00:17:22] No one has ever argued about a trip.
[00:17:26] Who are we? Who have you ever pulled off an event and you're like. And you're. Now you're fighting over the invite list?
[00:17:34] Who are we? We have to invite her. No, we don't have to invite her. She's gonna find out. She finds out everything.
[00:17:42] We can't do it. We gotta do it. We gotta do it. No, if you do this, we have to play this. Ah, we gotta do it. So all that to say these guys are not arguing about it. And here is what the scriptures record.
[00:17:55] They record this. It says, Paul and Barnabas had such a. What serious argument about this that they, what, separated and went their different ways? You know what? I agreed to disagree. We agreed to disagree. We're going to go our separate ways.
[00:18:12] Why would you break up the team, bro, over this John Mark guy? And John Mark is on the corner going, I don't really want to go. I don't have to go.
[00:18:23] But now it's becoming more.
[00:18:25] Just imagine. Could you imagine living through amazing experiences with people or with a person and then all of a sudden, about one argument, they want to separate?
[00:18:37] Have you ever had that kind of like, that happen to you where you're like, how can you throw all of this away because of one thing?
[00:18:45] Because of one thing.
[00:18:47] And here, the best of us, it seems like Paul and Barnabas, the guys, the guys who started this whole thing, they're merely just human.
[00:18:56] They separated and went their different ways. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, and Paul chose Silas. He's like, I like Silas better.
[00:19:07] And then what? And left.
[00:19:09] And here we see something really take place that you're like, can these guys not get it together?
[00:19:16] This is the beginning of the Church.
[00:19:19] No, no. It just happens. Just happens. So as I was reading this, I was reminded of a book I read, which I highly recommend, but I did not like at all.
[00:19:30] And I don't like it. I didn't like it at all. Okay. It's by a guy named Dr. Henry Cloud. Now he is a clinical psychologist. New York Times, bestseller, all the stuff, blah, blah, blah, whatever, okay? But he wrote a book called Necessary Endings.
[00:19:48] Necessary Endings, which, again, I would highly recommend it. But after I read it, I was like, I don't like you. I don't like this book.
[00:19:58] I don't like anything about this book.
[00:20:00] It doesn't have a Bible verse, so it's not godly, you know, things like that.
[00:20:06] And the book was basically talking about how there are people in your life that you will meet that will not like you.
[00:20:13] And I was like, heresy.
[00:20:20] If you Knew me, you would like me. What are you talking about?
[00:20:24] And then the book said, if you think you are a person, that if people just got to know you, they would like you, you are a fool.
[00:20:33] Is that a nice way?
[00:20:35] Simple minded, not intelligent, whatever.
[00:20:40] And I'm like, you don't know, bro. You might know a lot of psychology stuff, but you don't know me.
[00:20:48] I can win anybody over.
[00:20:50] Everybody will like me.
[00:20:52] It's not true.
[00:20:54] And then the idea is like, not everybody wants to stay with you forever either.
[00:20:59] I was like, I hate you even more.
[00:21:02] Like, what are you talking about? And so the book talks about this idea that there's fruit. It's a good thing when certain relationships end.
[00:21:12] Relationships are. Some of them are supposed to be seasonal, not forever.
[00:21:16] And the more you hold onto something, it's holding onto something that is rotting.
[00:21:22] And then God does that. God prunes us. If you know any of the scriptures, he uses the term in gardening term where God prunes certain parts and sometimes pruning looks like relationships and people that are no longer in our lives and because they're no longer our lives, we in fact grow.
[00:21:40] See, for some of us, you've gone through something and you're like, I'm not going. I don't know what's going on. Here's what I want you to know. Second point this. I want you to trust God with what necessary endings. See, some of us, you're gonna have to go and look in the mirror or stop and just consider, maybe sit in the car for a second today even and go, you know what?
[00:22:00] It needed to end.
[00:22:03] It needed to end. And it's tough because there's so many emotions connected to it.
[00:22:08] But here we see that when Paul and Barnabas split up, now they did this for whatever reason, right? I'm not gonna say it's great reasons, but because they split up, all of a sudden, the work, the missionary work, the church actually expanded even more because now they like, they kind of divided up and they were going different places and things were happening and Barnabas could become his own person, not have to live in the shadow of Paul, or Paul didn't have to live in the shadow of Barnabas. And in fact, because of this, if, you know, if you ever read the scriptures, you find this character that shows up, this guy named Timothy. Anybody remember Timothy?
[00:22:51] Timothy is a result of now Paul not having, you know, buddy, buddy with Barnabas. But now he's open to what God wants. And so he finds Timothy. And now he starts pouring at Timothy and we Know, you know, because of the scriptures that Timothy just started actually growing. And that was those connected to this separation. So it was a good thing to have a necessary ending.
[00:23:17] So here are a couple things about the necessary ending, because you're probably thinking of one. First of all, it's no one's fault. You're like, no, no, I know whose fault it is, actually. I know. Thank you, Naeem. But that was cute. But no, I know.
[00:23:31] I know exactly who to blame here.
[00:23:34] Sometimes there's no one to blame.
[00:23:37] Sometimes there's just no one to blame. Yeah, but someone's got to take the blame.
[00:23:43] Blame it on the rain also.
[00:23:49] It doesn't take away from what was.
[00:23:54] It doesn't take away from that.
[00:23:57] They're ruining this whole thing. They're throwing everything out. They're just discarding me and other and all experiences and all the years.
[00:24:06] Not necessarily.
[00:24:08] It doesn't take away from what was. It was very real and very true and very cool and very satisfying. And it was all very pure. All those things was. It was a thing. It was. It was. It does not take away.
[00:24:23] It does not take away.
[00:24:25] But once you realize those two things that it's not. It's not always someone's fault. And it was still real. It was still real. But, Naeem, I just can't. It was still real.
[00:24:36] If you understand that, you can allow yourself to actually move into the next season, you can have a necessary ending that begins a new thing in your life. New relationships, new opportunities, new things.
[00:24:49] And so here's what I hear of what I see from this chapter, that the best people can disagree. And if they disagree, well, it turns into so much more fruit.
[00:24:58] So that's where we can learn from there. So let's jump into the next chapter, chapter 16. And chapter 16, I. I want to give you two thoughts over there as well. Chapter 16 is kind of interesting because now what we see is, is that we see Paul trying to navigate where he's gonna go next. Obviously Barnabas is gone and now he's navigating. And have you ever been in a. In a. In. In a situation where like, you used to have someone and that's partly connected to a relationship that might ended. You had someone who could. You could bounce off things with, you know, and that person is no longer there. Now you're trying to figure out what to do, what to do, what to do. And some of us, we never had that person. Some of us, we find ourselves like, I'm not quite sure what to do. And especially when it Comes to Christianity or like, like, not Christianity, but, like, your spirituality or your relationship with God, you find yourself going, I'm not sure, should I do this? Should I not do this?
[00:25:50] I don't know. And see, so let me tell you my philosophy. My philosophy, like, some people, it's not good or bad or some people, like, they go, okay, I'm gonna pray about this, pray about this, pray about this. And then I'm gonna go. Then I'm gonna do this. And what I do is I go till I hear no.
[00:26:10] Like, I'm like, I just believe that God's leading me, and I'm just gonna go. And if that's a no, then I'm not gonna go there. And that's it. So I'm not gonna wait. I'm just gonna go for it, and I'm just gonna keep on going till I hear no. And what we find here, this is exactly what happened to Paul and Silas. So let me read this to you. Paul and Silas says here in verse six, he says, next, Paul and Silas traveled through the area, which is kind of like I mentioned, it's Turkey, Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time.
[00:26:55] All of a sudden, they wanted to go to those places, but the Holy Spirit did what it. What it prevented them. Now, it doesn't say how, but it was like doors just were shut on them, not quite sure.
[00:27:09] Then Luke writes that then coming to the border of Mysa, they headed north for the province of Bithynia. And again, the spirit of Jesus did what?
[00:27:26] Did not allow them to go there. Now, what we find here is people who are, like, you know, filled with the Holy Spirit, people. This is Paul. This is all these Jewish giants of the faith trying to go somewhere. And the Holy Spirit's like, nah, no, not happening. Close doors, close doors, closed doors. And so I don't know about you, but, like, when the door closes on you of an opportunity of relationship, I don't know, I feel something. Maybe you guys don't feel this, but I feel this thing called, let's see, what is it? Rejection.
[00:28:00] Okay?
[00:28:02] It's rejection. All of a sudden. It wasn't even personal, but it's personal.
[00:28:07] It's personal. It's personal. And any kind of rejection, you know what I'm saying? You could be waiting in line to get rung out and all that. And they close. I'm like, that's a personal rejection.
[00:28:17] Everything is personal.
[00:28:18] Do you know? It's just.
[00:28:20] It Makes. Because if people don't respond to you a certain way, rejection seems to hit a nerve or, I don't know, begins to think. Begins me to think things about myself that they're just not true. Not good.
[00:28:37] Like, I can feel rejected from, like, the people who love me the most.
[00:28:41] I mean, I don't know why I feel like, ah, this is rejection. Ah, this is rejection. This is rejection.
[00:28:47] And when God shuts doors on you, you're like, that's rejection.
[00:28:51] It's not necessarily rejection.
[00:28:55] Closed doors are not rejection. In fact, here's the point I want to make. A rejection may be just a. What?
[00:29:03] It's a redirection. I know it rhymes. It's cute, but it's true.
[00:29:09] It's true.
[00:29:10] Sometimes a rejection is just a redirection. It's just like, oh, I didn't. I thought I was gonna go this way. I thought this was gonna work out like that. Oh, it's not. Oh, it's not. It's not. God, what are you doing?
[00:29:22] What do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do? I mean, we find this at Mosaic even as we are. As we are securing funding, which we pretty much have, but we started, and we were getting rejected, and even we've sent out all kinds of, you know, applications for banks to buy the space. If you don't know, we've been doing that. And so we. With the bank that we thought. Our bank, the bank that we bank with, we're like, oh, they're gonna be loving us, and they did not love us. And we're like, what? What are you doing here? What's wrong? We've been with you for so long. And they're like, ah, no. And we're like, well, what?
[00:30:02] Why?
[00:30:04] What do we do?
[00:30:06] And then it turned into us looking around and going, okay, well, maybe that's a no. There doesn't mean a no forever.
[00:30:13] And let's keep on going. And then we started getting rejection after rejection after rejection. And Pastor Mike will know how many times we got rejected, because I was like, stop texting me.
[00:30:23] I don't. My heart can't take it. He's like, another bank? No, no. But we finally got a couple of banks that are like, yes. And now we're gonna make them fight for us, but we're gonna do it.
[00:30:38] So what, has God said no to you that you're like, ah, it's not personal.
[00:30:46] There's more that's going on there. All right, let me give you the last point. Last Point is really interesting because what happens after that is, is that you read the chapter and then you have all these moments that take place, right, with Paul and Silas. They go to these regions and they're noticing something. So the first thing is like, couple of stories. The first. The first one is this, that they meet this woman. And it says here her name was Lydia, and she was from Thyatri, and she was a merchant of expensive, what, purple cloth who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul was saying. She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guests. So I want to let you know that what was happening there is all of a sudden God's opening doors and using Paul and Silas to reach people in a very different way. This person, she was pretty significant. Why? Because she was a woman, successful, highly successful businesswoman.
[00:31:53] That's why, like, even now, to this day, purple, the color purple is considered royalty, because that started there. It's like the way they made that purple cloth. Purple was very expensive, and only wealthy people could afford purple clothing. So that's why royalty is connected to the world, to the color purple. And so in the midst of her prosperity, in the midst of her high in business, all of a sudden, God speaks to her, she opens her heart, and then she comes to faith in Jesus. In fact, her home. Some scholars believe that her house was the first house, like the first meeting of the Church of Philippians, like that. Her house did that, and she started funding that and made that church happen.
[00:32:42] So. Okay, that's interesting. Well, then when you keep on going, they run into another lady. And this lady is not wealthy. This person is, like, kind of the opposite. She's, in fact, a slave to. To some owners. And this woman is not a successful business person. She has a talent, but she is into sorcery, and she's able to tell fortunes.
[00:33:06] And so her owners, which is so sad, they exploited her, used her to make money fortune telling. And so she sees Paul and Silas and she kind of knows that these people are filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't know. I can't explain how. And she begins telling the town. And in fact, she gets so obnoxious about it, I think she did it on purpose, okay, that she just started telling everybody, hey, these people are here in town, and these people are gonna tell people about Jesus. And so she's just on them, in fact, what happens here, it says here that she kept this up, telling everybody, being loud about it for many days. Finally, Paul Became so what?
[00:33:52] Annoyed. We gotta talk about Paul and his issues, right?
[00:33:56] A lot of issues.
[00:33:57] Okay. He got annoyed and he turned around and said to the spirit, he said, in the name of Jesus, I command you to come out of her. But you should try this next time if someone annoys you. In the name of Jesus.
[00:34:10] Granny, come on. No, no, no, no.
[00:34:14] And what happens? And at that moment the spirit left her. As you follow the story, she in fact becomes a follower of Jesus. No longer wants to do sorcery. Stops that. The owners get all mad about it because they've made so much money off of her. She's done. She can't do any of those things. They get so mad, they arrest them, have them beaten and threw Paul and Silas in jail. So now Paul and Silas is in jail. I'm sorry. Yeah. And I'm sure Silas is looking at Paul going, really? You're annoyed we're in jail now just because you turned around and did this.
[00:34:51] So he is. Now they're all in jail. What's happening? And they're trying to figure out, because the owners want that, want it to be reversed. They're like, we lost so much money. Like we need to stop whatever you did. Like un. Jesus her. See, I'm saying, like do something.
[00:35:09] And they're like, what?
[00:35:12] So then. And they're now in jail. And then another incident takes place. But this doesn't involve a woman. This involves a jailer. And he's got a different situation going on because he is stressed out because the people that he in his jail, like Paul and Silas, they're high profile people. So he had a lot of guards. But also, as you can tell if you read some of the historical things this guy, this guy put. I mean he was in charge of a lot of stuff and he's, he's been in the system in a sense like working this for a long time. And I don't know what's going on with him. But here's what happens. What happens is, is that Paul and Silas are there one night and they begin to pray and they start singing songs. And there's an earthquake that takes place. Place. And it kind of destroys the structure of the church where the jail doors have now been opened up.
[00:36:16] So this jailer is asleep in the middle of the night. And it's so devastating that most of the jails are now opened up. All these people are prisoners of some kind and they're now open.
[00:36:29] So here's what happens. We read the story, it says the jailer, that guy, he Woke up and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and does something that's so interesting and was about to what, kill himself.
[00:36:44] Because he knew, because he thought that the prisoners had escaped. Now, I don't know if they escaped because now he would be punished for them. Did they escape? Because now they're out and they're going to come after him. Not quite sure.
[00:36:59] But then in the middle of that, while he was gonna do that, Paul obviously could see him, shouted, don't harm yourself.
[00:37:08] We're all here. He's like, I kept them all here. And the jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
[00:37:18] He then brought them out and asked, sir, sir, what must I do to be saved?
[00:37:25] It's interesting, isn't it? It's interesting. Like a one person, God meets them in the midst of the height of their prosperity. This wealthy woman. And one person is in the middle of their bondage, in the middle of their oppression. And then this guy in the middle of his anxiety and fear, God meets him in different places and does.
[00:37:45] Knows exactly how to reach them.
[00:37:48] So the point I wanna make here before we end this morning is that God doesn't make.
[00:37:55] He doesn't make copies.
[00:37:57] Does that make sense?
[00:37:59] He doesn't. Like you're an original, you're never meant to be a copy of someone else.
[00:38:07] And sometimes Christianity can do that. Sometimes guys like me, pastors can try to make you a copy. Because if I can make you a copy, I can manage you.
[00:38:17] If everybody just acts the same, it'd be so nice.
[00:38:20] But having a mosaic of people, having different people is just hard. Cause like, there's some, you know, it's just, it's just tough.
[00:38:25] And for God. God never wants you and I to be a copy of someone else. And so what this tells me as we end here is this.
[00:38:37] If you find yourself looking around going, you know what? I wish I had so and so's experience with God. I wish I came to God like that. I wish this, this I just want you to know, stop wishing you were someone else.
[00:38:50] Stop wishing you were someone else. Yeah, yeah, but name that other person is a lot more successful.
[00:38:56] But stop wishing you were someone else. Stop copying and trying to become.
[00:39:04] Stop believing that you're not enough, good enough, that God has to reach you just like he did. And stop expecting God to move in your friends, in your kids lives, in the people around you. Stop trying to think that he should work this way in your kids and this way in your family.
[00:39:30] God always makes loves originality. That's why he's made you unique.
[00:39:37] And so live your life. You have a unique journey with God, and so you need to do that.
[00:39:42] So today I want to close with this.
[00:39:44] I want to just pray. I want to pray that one of these points would really resonate with you and you would go, you know what? I think this is what God wants me to know and to live out this week. Let me pray for us. Lord God, I thank you so much for your love for us. Thank you for your grace and mercy in our lives. God, I pray, I pray in Jesus name, God, that you would have your way, that you would come and you would restore and you would remind us, God, how you work.
[00:40:18] God, for some of us, we're consumed with a rejection. Some of us, we are so burdened by this and devastated by this ending.
[00:40:28] Some of us are just caught up trying to be someone else.
[00:40:33] So, God, would you restore us? Help us, guide us this morning as we respond either as we receive communion or go to the cross or as we sing. Today, God speak to us.
[00:40:47] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:40:52] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
