Advancing the Purposes of God Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Advancing the Purposes of God Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 8:1-8.

It’s easy to follow God when everything’s wonderful in your life. But how many of us will live for God, demonstrate His power when we’re out of our comfort zone? More than anything that helps us to be enduring and sustaining in our faith is the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You are listening to Hope Worth Having radio program today and my name is Mike Sanders and I serve as the senior pastor of the Open Door Church. We’re delighted to have you with us. Thank you for tuning in.

Today we’re going to be back in the book of Acts. We’re going to continue our studies on advancing the purposes of God. We have to be focused on as believers and followers of Christ of advancing the cause of Christ.

So I want you to join me as we pick up our study again and learning about how to advance the purposes of God. Why would God allow such a valiant man to die? Why wouldn’t God keep him in the army on the earth and why wouldn’t God say, I need this Stephen so that the gospel can go far and wide because God has a plan and a purpose.

His wisdom supersedes our wisdom. And though we may not understand our sufferings and we may not always like our struggles, we must hold on to this truth that the Apostle has taught us in Romans 5 .3, knowing that tribulation works endurance.

It works that determination within our heart that God is shaping us to be stronger, deeper, and more determined through our trials. That’s what happened to the believers. That’s why when they were scattered, they didn’t just give up, but they went everywhere preaching the Word because God uses believers.

and he uses the lips of believers to tell his message. Did you see what the Bible said? It said the apostles stayed back. They stayed at home base to keep the Jerusalem church focus. But God wanted the other people to leave and he scattered them.

And it wasn’t that the leaders of the church were scattered, but it was the people that were scattered. And God is always working and he is working in your heart and many times he scatters us to different locations, different places so that we might tell his message.

I know so many of us, we see that ministry is in the context of maybe somebody who is in the staff or somebody who is leading the church or somebody who has a role in the church, but ministry is every day for us as believers.

You don’t have to have a title. You don’t need a position. You don’t need any of that. All you need to do is that wherever God has planted you, that you tell others about Christ, that you strive to win others to Christ, that even if you find yourself like the Apostle did later in house arrest, in chains where you are limited in your freedom, that if you cannot go out and tell others that everyone that comes into your path,

like those guards, those palace guards that came in and out to watch over the Apostle, he kept telling them about Christ, he kept teaching Christ, answering their questions about the Messiah. And I’m telling you that we would learn later that some of them would come to Christ and some of them would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Because the Apostle didn’t pout. I’m having a tough time. I’m going through some opposition and resistance. There’s a little pushback in my life. And so I’m just going to quit telling people about Jesus.

That’s not what the early believers did. Everywhere they went, persecution leads to missionary work in your life. I want you to remember the words of our Savior. Jesus said, blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you.

There’s a lot here wrapped up in these set of verses, but let me just say this. Don’t get the Elijah syndrome. I’m the only one left, God. I’m the only one trying to stand up for you, God. I’m the only one that’s out here making a difference for you, God.

Everybody else has left me. Everybody else has abandoned me. And God had to remind him, hey, I got 20 ,000 prophets over here. And Elijah, you need to… come out of this self -pity stupor that you’re in and you need to focus on what God’s purposes are.

That even in persecution, God has a plan. You can identify with other prophets. You can identify with other believers. You can identify we’re not the only ones, church, that are suffering and struggling.

Some of you are upset at the government. You’re upset at maybe this or that. And I want you to know, friends, that there isn’t anything in this world, there isn’t any government that’s going to stop the advancement of God’s purposes and His kingdom on this earth.

You say, well, if I hand out a tract, they might throw me into prison. They might cancel me, whatever they might do. Let it be because they also did that to the prophets and that you’re not alone. But rejoice.

and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward.” God honors, and He rewards believers who are courageous and strong and willing to stand up. We’re not called to be obnoxious. We’re not called to be hateful.

We’re not called to be rude. We’re not even called to be political, or we’re not called to defy the government. What we are called to do is to advance the purposes of God, even if the circumstances are not ideal.

We’re to be finding ways that we can spread the message of Jesus Christ and what we’ve recently seen in all that we’ve experienced as a nation and even the world. The question is, how should Christians respond?

Christians should respond with the gospel, just like we should respond with the gospel in every situation and every circumstance. Why is that so difficult? Why is it so hard for Christians to process that?

Because we like to make everything about us, rather than God and His kingdom. Rather than saying, Lord, what are You teaching me? Lord, what are You calling me to? Lord, what are You asking me to change?

Are You asking me to leave this comfort zone and to jump into something that gets me out there communicating and sharing Christ with others? All Christians are to share their faith. We’re to share with every person in every way that we can with the gifts and the abilities.

You don’t have to do it like Mike Sanders, and you don’t have to do it like so -and -so person, but you just do how God gifted you, how He equipped you. You have skill sets, you have a giftedness, you have abilities, and God wants you to use every gift and ability and talent that you might advance His purpose, even in trial.

Even in persecution, Jesus told us in Mark 16, 15, that we’re to go into the world. We are to preach the gospel to every creature, every person. We are to be passionate about this. Someone asked me the other day, they said, what is your philosophy on missions?

I have to be honest with you, I don’t have a great dissertation or I don’t have a long set of paperwork that explains my philosophy. Here’s my philosophy, get the gospel to every person on the planet.

That’s it. I know that’s not deep and I know it’s not profound, but I just feel like that’s what Jesus wants us to do and that’s our philosophy and some are going to do it one way, others are going to do it another way, but I’m all in.

I just want to make sure that every person on the planet hears the gospel of Jesus Christ. The second thing that I want you to realize this morning is that persecution leads to God’s power being demonstrated not just in our life, but before others who are watching to see the power of the gospel, to see the difference of the gospel.

We come down to verse five of Acts chapter eight and we are now honing in, having made a thesis statement, if you will, of verse four, the result of this persecution led to the people scattering everywhere, preaching the word.

We’re now diving into an example. And here is the example, verse five. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heated the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

For unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed and the lame were healed. What I want you to see is the power of God being demonstrated. Does God somehow quit working because there’s persecution?

Does God say, well, you know what? They got me this time. I can’t overcome that. Absolutely not. I want you to know that God is always at work and that even if there is a persecution, even if there is a virus, even if there is oppression from the government, even if there is disunity in the family, even if your own workplace does not want you to be a person who is shining the light of Jesus Christ that God is always at work in your heart.

He is always at work around you and he is working through you that his power may be demonstrated to the world and to every watching eye that they may see that God is real. I want you to understand something here.

We back up into verse 6. We’re told in verse 4 that they were preaching the Word. We’re told that Philip, he did the same thing. He went to the city of Samaria and he preached Christ to them. But not only does he preach, and the Bible says in verse 6, that they heard Philip.

They heeded or they listened to what he had to say, but they saw. They heard, they saw. That’s the key to your evangelism, is that you are not only communicating the gospel, but you are living the gospel.

that you are not only communicating the power of God and what He can do and what His word promises us, but that you are living the power of God every day in your life, that you are demonstrating before your family, before those that you work with and those in your community, that you are demonstrating this great power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God allows persecution to motivate His church to a powerful demonstration of God in their life. Let me help you connect the dots here. The apostle in 2 Corinthians, he taught the believers that our God is a God of comfort.

He would go on to talk about His affliction and that in the midst of this affliction, he said that the reason God allowed this affliction in my life is that unbelievers would believe and believers would be encouraged.

How is it that believers would believe and how is it that believers would be encouraged? Well, they’d already heard the message, but they would see the message lived out in the life of the apostle. That is what really brings home the life of the gospel to every heart is that when you and I live the power of God is that when we proclaim this message that we trust God, we believe God’s in control, we believe He’s sovereign,

that He’s in charge of all things, but then if our life demonstrates something different than that, people say, see, they don’t walk the talk why should I believe what they don’t even live? But when people see that even in your hurts, even in your struggles, even against opposition and persecution that you are still claiming and holding on and living out the promises and the power of God in your life.

This is transformational in the life of others. That’s why Philip is such a powerful example here is that he was living out the gospel. God was validating the gospel message through the life of Philip, for Philip not only preached a message, but he demonstrated the message and we see that in verse seven as unclean spirits came out of people that were possessed with the demons and that the paralyzed and the lame were healed as they were seeing that this message and this messenger truly was from God and that God was showing the gospel message of what he can do in the life of a person.

If God can heal the lame. And if God can call out demons, if he has authority over disease and he has authority over demons, and we know that he has authority over death, how much more could he save my soul?

How much more could he transform my life? How much more could he help me walk away from the addictions of this world? How much more could he turn my heart away from the flesh and desires of the world to a heart that loves God, pursues God and is passionate for the Lord Jesus Christ?

That’s the power of the gospel. That’s the power you and I must live every day. You say, I wanna influence my kids for God. I wanna impact my children and grandchildren to live for Christ. Let me tell you how you do that.

Every day, you let the power of the gospel be manifested in your life. Doesn’t have to always be as demonstrative as casting out demons. And I’m sure there are times you wonder if there aren’t demons in your children.

Amen. But I’m talking about being faithful, being available to God, being in a person of prayer, being committed to the gospel, that when you find yourself where you have to make a choice that you don’t compromise, but you choose truth, that you live a godly life before your family.

When I think about my Sunday school teacher, she was a wonderful lady, and she’s the first person to teach me the books of the Bible, and she told me, Mike, if you memorize the Old Testament books of the Bible, I’ll buy you a Bible.

So she handed me my first Bible, my first Bible, and she had a profound impact upon me. as a believer and I have to be honest with you I don’t remember one Sunday school lesson and I feel bad about that but I tell you this I remember her life I remember her life I remember that she would pray over us and I remember she would invite my brother and sister and I over to have hot dogs and hamburgers after church I remember her checking in on us calling us making sure we’re okay if we ever missed a Sunday school class she was calling and making sure we were okay she had to because basically my brother and sister and I were the only people in the Sunday school class if we didn’t show up it was all or nothing right and you say well just three just three you might think you’re a failure just three But all me,

my brother and sister, all believe in Christ, all living for the Lord, all connected to churches, all married to Christian spouses, all raising children in Christian homes because of one Sunday school teacher who lived a godly life.

And though she didn’t have a lot of kids, she had three, and she poured everything she had in those kids. And she was a rather large woman, and she would give us the most smothering bear hugs ever. I not only remember her life, but I remember those hugs.

But that’s okay, because that’s what we needed. And I just want you to know that the persecution, the things that God may allow in your life can lead to God’s power being demonstrated. God will not allow His church to be destroyed.

Because it’s His church. And though there are others that may try to harass us and frustrate the church, the church will always advance the cause of Christ. You may stand before God and say, why? Why is this happening?

Why is this allowed in my life, God? And it may be that God is up to something, that you may demonstrate His power before unbelievers, and before believers who see you living the gospel. My third and final point that I want you to recognize this morning is that persecution leads to joy in our hearts.

Would you come to verse eight of chapter eight of the Scriptures, having described to us this persecution in verses one through four in the response of the church, having illustrate to us the life of Philip and how he responded specifically and the power of God being.

and demonstrated, we are told in verse eight, that there was great joy in that city. There was great joy in the city. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord. There’s nothing that brings more joy to you than when you faithfully serve God in the good times and the tough times.

I know it’s easy to follow God when everything’s wonderful in your life, when you have a job, when there’s family unity, when everything just seems to fit together in life and you wonder, how can it be any more beautiful than this?

But how many of us will live for God, demonstrate His power when times are tough, when we’re out of our comfort zone, when things are difficult and things have changed? I want you to know that more than anything that helps us to be.

enduring and sustaining in our faith is the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nehemiah reminds us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. It is our strength. Persecution can lead to joy in our hearts. I think about this often as I reflected on this passage and I thought about perhaps the people.

Maybe they heard whispers and rumors about this Jesus and this gospel and wondered would it ever make it to their community? Would the explanation of the gospel ever come to them? What they had heard about taking place in Jerusalem, would it ever come to their city?

Would it ever come to their home? Would it come to their family? Well, God used persecution to make sure it did and because of this persecution, because of this opposition of Saul, there was great joy in that city.

Why? Because when Philip came and when others came everywhere, they preached the gospel. They told the message. They lived the message and people believed in Christ and there was great joy in the city from the ashes of our hearts, from the struggles of our strife that we have, from the challenges of life.

God can raise up new life and birth joy and hope in the faith in the hearts of others who will rejoice in Christ because of your hurt and struggle in life. So how do we experience joy? How is joy experienced in our life?

I’ll give you some practical things but I just want to give you two sets of passages that I want you to study this week on your own and that is Colossians 3 verse 16 and 17. Ephesians 5 18 through 20, these are verses that help us understand that they help us understand joy and how it emerges in our heart.

Ultimately, joy is a work of God in every believer’s life. But let me just give you something practical in your life. If you say I want to experience joy every day, pastor, no matter how I feel, no matter how frustrated I am, or what kind of rejection I’ve received because I’ve stood for Christ, or what kind of pushback I might get from my own family because I am lifting up Christ and trying to live for Christ.

How do I experience joy in my life? Well, number one, know Jesus, obviously, right? Believe in Christ. There may be some of you here that you don’t have joy because you don’t know Jesus. Jesus tells us that when we have a relationship with Him, out of our bellies will flow this joy, this peace, this great river of hope that is within us.

Jesus said that I’ve come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Doesn’t mean you won’t have problems, but it does mean that we know that Christ has saved us and that we are our overcomers, that we are victors in Christ and that there is no circumstance that can weigh us down to that it could sap our joy away.

We can be in trial and yet joyful. We gotta know Him, but we gotta grow. You’re not gonna experience the full optimum joy of God by being stagnant in your faith. That’s why I wanna challenge you because when you read Colossians and you read Ephesians on your own, what you’re gonna see is the Spirit of God has to be at work in your life and that there has to be full commitment to, full surrender to the Spirit of God and the Word of God that as you are growing in your faith,

the joy of the Lord is running over in your cup, that the joy of the Lord, yes, you’re struggling, yes, there are tears, yes, there are trials, yes, there’s pushback, yes, there’s division sometimes, but the joy of the Lord never, never leaves you.

You’re a happy warrior for Christ. You’re not bitter, you’re not angry, you’re not mad at the world. People see the love of Jesus in you. You’re a happy warrior for Christ. You say, I don’t agree with the government, pastor, and I don’t agree.

Well, I told you the story about the church there in Iran. They locked the doors, they put the padlock on it and said, we’ve done away with Christianity. What did the pastor do? Did he quit and give up?

No, he said, come on over to the house. I’m sure his wife was terrified. But you know what? He opened his home. More people got saved. More people came to Christ. They got the word of God in. People got excited about Jesus.

That’s what I’m talking about. You gotta know him, you gotta grow in him, you gotta serve him. I have found greater joy in serving Christ than anything that I do. What is most meaningful to me is to serve God and to serve others and to be able to use my talents and abilities for God.

You will be tapped out in joy when you are serving others. You say, well, I just wanna sit on the couch, eat potato chips, and sulk in my misery. No, get up. Open the blinds. Rejoice in the Lord. You say, I don’t feel like it.

Rejoice in the Lord. And go do something. The height of healing is serving. Many of you know I had an elbow problem. An infection I got in my body, okay? And they treated that, but they said, Mike, you got some things you need to do.

You gotta move that elbow. It’s gonna get, it’s gonna get just stuck in that position. It was like this, I couldn’t move it. It was swollen from fingertips all the way to my elbow, but they made me do therapy.

And I go to therapy, it’s a little painful. But you know what, I used to couldn’t do this. I mean, I couldn’t move anything beyond this, but now I can do this. It still needs to get a little bit better.

I know all of you are physicians are ready to diagnose me and come up with a solution. I don’t need your solutions. I’m in good hands, okay? No pun intended. But I want you to experience God by serving.

Get up, move, do something for God. I want you to experience joy by sharing Christ with others. You experience joy by sharing Christ with others. Have spiritual conversations. Learn how to get good at that.

I wish I could teach you more. But worshiping Christ, how wonderful is that? Worshiping Christ, that is so important. So how do you react to tribulation? That’s the question I wanna leave you with today.

How do you react to tribulation? Stephen, his message, his martyrdom was the flame that launched a great evangelistic thrust of the gospel around the world. You can see in verse two that they lamented it was a great lamentation over him.

And I’m sure that the people question. I’m sure the people wondered why. Would God let such a great leader die? But God used it as a catalyst to advance his purposes. Whatever is in your life and whatever is going on in your life, God, through our surrender to him, can use it as a catalyst to advance his purposes in your family.

in your church, in your community, and, yes, even a nation. It’s easy for us to get distracted. It’s easy for believers to take their eye off the ball, to be fully engaged in things that are not useful to the kingdom, nor are they advancing the cause.

But I hope this passage today in our study in Acts chapter 8 has encouraged us to realign our hearts with God’s purposes and staying focused on what He wants us to do. I think that’s very important. I want to remind you that not only are we on radio, but Hope Worth Having is on TV.

And if you go to our website, you can find out all the times that we’re on television, as well as radio, and we’ll see you in the next video. and you can keep up with us as we strive to teach and preach the word of God.

We thank you for being a part of this ministry and your support is a great blessing. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.