Thomas: Today's reading is from Acts 16:4-5. "As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily."
Tyler Moffett: Give it up for Thomas. His brother Henry was the one who gave the testimony. It's so cool to see what God is doing among elementary students at our church. If you're a kiddo in here, we're so glad you're with us in the month of July. Can we give it up for our elementary school kids? Again, shouting them out today.
Well, we're going to start off today the way we always start. Kids, we're glad you're here in the auditorium getting to see what your parents do every Sunday in this place, and they never miss, ever. We sit under the Word, we worship, and then we pray together. So, we're going to start the way we always start, and let's pray.
Right now, would you pray that God would speak directly to you today through the message? Then, would you pray for those around you that they would have an encounter with God today? Then, would you pray for me that God would speak through me with clarity, boldness, and humility?
Come, Holy Spirit. Father, even in July we long to encounter you, especially in July. Lord, there's such a joy to hear the laughing and the noise in this room as a reminder of what you love. Jesus said, "Unless you become like a little child, you can't come into my kingdom." So, Lord, would we remember that today, and would this be a sweet sound to your ears? Come, Holy Spirit. Join us. Give us eyes to see your Word. In Jesus' name, amen.
My name is Tyler Moffett, and I serve on the Porch team, the young adult team here at Watermark. Yeah, some of you are here. It's a joy to be back with you. I've gotten to be up here a few times. Since the last time I was here, my family expanded. We had baby number four. I think we have a picture of him, little Jett. This is Jett. Yeah. I know. He always gets that response, but I like to say I'm pretty sure he was working on a diaper when we took that picture, so don't let him fool you.
Now my family is a family of six. So, four kids. We have this picture from Pine Cove family camp a few weeks ago. That's the crew, 6-year-old in the middle, 5-year-old on your left side. That's Ty, Emery is in the middle, Malachi is on the right, and then Jett is being held by my wife Jen. So, I show you that picture. I wanted to show my family, but also to say if your kid is in here and they start acting crazy, I understand. Okay? They were here first service, so I get it. You will not offend me if your kid gets in the aisle and starts being crazy. You're good.
The other reason I show that is, you know, my family, the ages we are… We're always trying to come up with creative things, as parents, to have fun in our family. One thing we love in this season is the game Uno. Anybody play Uno in your house? Yeah. Oh, wow. A lot of people in this service.
I love Uno. It's relatively straightforward…colors, numbers, with some action cards that are complete game changers. Right? In fact, this weekend, I went to Target and got this massive version. You can buy this. I got this, and we're playing it as a family. It's funny seeing my 5-year-old with these.
In the game Uno, you have your plan. Right? You have your two yellows left. You know, I'm counting it out. Then, all of a sudden, they start throwing these action cards. One is this Draw Two. Not that big of a deal. It's a minor infraction. You throw that one out. But the next ones get a little personal. When someone throws this one your way, you're like, "Wow. Really? You're going to do that to me?"
Then, do you ever get stuck between the Uno Reverse? Like, the person in front of you plays the Reverse. You have to wait. They go the other way. Then the other person plays the Reverse. You're sandwiched in the middle. But then there's one more, the game changer of all, the Draw Four Wild. You play this one and counseling may be necessary in your household. Right?
The reality is Uno is a lot like life. I mean, in life we have all of our plans. We have it figured out. "Okay. I'm going to marry this person. I'm going to live in this place. I'm going to do this job. I'm going to be healthy forever." Then, all of a sudden, Uno Reverse. Right? "I didn't see that coming. Oh man! Draw Four Wild. Where did all of these kids come from?" Yeah, not planned in the notes. Sorry, Jen.
The reality is life is like that, and the Scripture we're looking at today in the book of Acts is like that. So, if you have your Bible, turn to Acts, chapter 16. In Acts, chapter 16, we see God change the course and the plan of what feels like outside forces that are controlling and going on. All the while, God is weaving together a plan we can't see.
All year, we as a church at Watermark are walking through the book of Acts. The past two weeks, we were in Acts, chapter 15, and it was a little chaotic. There was some theological conversation that needed to happen at Jerusalem Council. Then we watched the A-team, Paul and Barnabas, split up last week.
Now we watch Paul with his buddy Silas start moving toward Europe. As we watch this, we're going to see God is steering a moving ship. It's moving, but God is steering it. There are going to be three unexpected turns in Acts, chapter 16. That's what we're going to look at quickly this morning.
1. God uses conflict as an opportunity for discipleship. Again, to recap last week, Paul and Barnabas split up. The reason they split up is because Paul said to Barnabas, "Hey, I want to take you, and I want to go and visit all of the churches we planted in our first journey." Barnabas goes, "That's great. Let me bring my cousin Mark." Paul goes, "No, no, no. I'm not cool with you bringing Mark. Mark deserted us in the past, and I don't want him to do it again." So, they actually split over this. Barnabas took Mark, and Paul took Silas. That gets us all the way to Acts 16:1.
"Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily."
All right. What happens in this section is Paul goes to Lystra, and he meets a young disciple named Timothy. Timothy's mom is awesome. She's a believer, but his dad is an unbeliever. He's Greek. Yet, Paul sees him and goes, "I want you to come with me. Be like my Star Wars padawan and follow me everywhere." He says, "I want you to come with me," and he says, "I'm going to circumcise you." (We won't go into that in this room. Ask your parents.)
"We're going to circumcise you." Not because… And this is confusing if you're reading Acts, because Acts 15 was all about "You don't need to be circumcised to be saved." Here Paul goes, "You need to be circumcised." The reason is it's not for salvation; it's to avoid confusion. Paul goes, "I'm going to revisit all of these churches with a lot of Jewish people, and I don't want them confused." But he goes, "Timothy, I want you on my team."
Now, here's what's happening here. We see this card show up right at the beginning of Acts, chapter 16. Paul is wanting to take Barnabas, but now there's conflict. There's an issue. Then he goes and sees this young boy, but he's not circumcised. He's not exactly what he would have wanted. Yet God all the while is going, "Hey, hey, hey. What seems like a setback is actually a step forward."
When you see the rest of Paul's ministry, who are the people who are with him as he's writing the rest of his letters? It's Paul and Silas, and it's Paul and Timothy. In fact, the last two letters Paul will ever write from prison are to his son in the faith, Timothy. See, what seemed like conflict that was leading to Paul's agenda being taken off task is actually an opportunity for Paul to link up with his closest two brothers for the cause of Christ. Here's a takeaway for us this morning: conflict is opportunity for discipleship in your life.
I have this in my office, and I look at it every day. My team laughs because they hear me say it. Conflict is not a setback; it's an opportunity. Some of us are so tight with our community, and we can't see beyond. God has to cause some conflict for us to go, "Oh, maybe there are other people I need to be investing in." Or our relationships are superficial. You put some honesty, you put some conflict, and all of a sudden they go deep.
It reminds me of my wedding day. On my wedding day, I'm waiting for Jen to come out. I'm looking at all of the families, bridesmaids, and groomsmen. There's this interesting moment where I'm looking at my groomsmen, and I'm just admiring them, like, "Oh, my boys." Then I have this thought as I'm going through each person. I'm like, "I have been in significant conflict with every one of these guys."
I mean, I thought about my brother Rhett. My parents bought us boxing gloves growing up so we wouldn't hit each other and draw blood because we fought so much. I thought about my friend Scott, whose dad wasn't a believer. When we were in elementary school, I was like, "He's not a believer. I guess he's going to hell." I told him, and then he tells his mom, and she calls my mom. Conflict. Okay?
I remember another friend. We were roommates in college. He wanted to get married to this girl, and I was like, "I don't think you should." It caused this big blowup with our friend group, because he was like, "I don't know." Another friend… We were camping, and I was like, "I don't think you're a believer." He was like, "I don't think you're a believer." We made it through. Like, here we are. Just significant conflict, yet it grew us.
For some of you right now, your Community Group is a mess. You look at your group and go, "Oh, this is the worst." Maybe it is, but I would say maybe it's God allowing the superficial relationship you had to go deeper or to show you another opportunity you didn't know existed. For some of you, your family is going crazy or your friend group or your roommates or classmates at school.
This conflict seems like a setback, but what you see through Scripture is opportunity. It's maybe opportunity for a necessary ending or it's opportunity for your relationships to level up if you press through. That's what we see here. Look again at verse 5. It says in the midst of this conflict, the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.
That Greek word for strengthened in the faith is the idea of being made solid. It's like a tree in the midst of a storm that goes in deeper and deeper with the roots so that it's solid. Conflict is opportunity to make your relationships solid. That's what we see here with Paul. So, first, we see conflict as opportunity for discipleship. From here, Paul keeps moving. Remember, God steers a moving ship. So, as he's moving, a lot of steering is about to go down.
2. God guides through opening and closing doors. Let's pick it up in verse 6. "And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them."
All right. So, what's happening here? They're moving. They're going, "Okay. We've got our new team. We're ready to go." Paul is motivated, and he goes, "All right. Let's go to Asia." Specifically, Asia Minor, where there's this city Ephesus. He goes, "If we can get to Ephesus, the gospel can explode." So, he starts to move, and verse 6 says the Spirit forbid him from going to Asia. Now, how did that happen? Was it circumstantial? Was it a dream, an impression? We don't know.
He goes, "All right, all right. Loud and clear." So, he turns north, and he starts going up to Bithynia. It says the Spirit of Jesus did not allow him to go. Again, we don't know how, but somehow he didn't. So, they go to this town Troas, and there Paul just goes to sleep. As he goes to sleep, he has a vision of a man from Macedonia, which is across the sea, urging him, saying, "Come and help us." Paul wakes up from that vision and goes, "I know exactly where we're supposed to go." He gets on a ship and makes his way to Macedonia.
It's interesting. Here in this section, we see the next two cards. He's wanting to go to Asia. He's wanting to pursue what seems right, and God says, "No. I don't want you to go." I thought about in life… How many times are you wanting to do the right thing? You're working so hard in school. You have that one university in mind. "I just want to get there." You work, work, work. You get the right scores. You do the right thing. You submit the application. You get the email, and it says, "We're sorry. You're rejected from coming here."
Or, you want to do dating the right way. So, you're dating the right people. You're going after them. You're trying to do it. You finally get the right relationship. It's going great. You're calling your mom. "Oh, I think he's the one." Then you get the text. "Hey, can we talk? It's not you; it's me." Right? Or, maybe it's your job. You finally get the job you love. It's working out, and then you get called into a meeting with HR. "It's not working." Or, maybe it's pregnancy test after pregnancy test after pregnancy test. It's a lot like this.
So, you keep praying, and you keep going, and maybe God eventually answers the prayer. Though, when he answers the prayer, it looks a lot like this: Uno Reverse. You're like, "Okay. Wow. I got into a university, but it's not the one I would have chosen." Or, "I finally got the job of my dreams, but now I have to move." Or, "The person finally asked me out, but the timing is weird." Or, "The pregnancy test is good, yet it's twins," or more. Or adoption, or something else. God oftentimes gives us the Uno Reverse. We go, "Thank you, but I didn't see that coming." That's what happens here.
Here's the key, though. Notice who's writing this story. In verse 6, it says the Holy Spirit forbid. In verse 7, it says the Spirit of Jesus forbid. In verses 9 and 10, there's a vision, and he says, "I'm called by God to Macedonia." God is the one weaving together this story. Here's the question I have for you this morning. In the midst of the open and closed doors that all of us experience in life, are you asking God…? Are you asking the Holy Spirit in the midst of that closed door, "God, are you in this?"
I remember when my son Jett was born back in March, three months ago. Everything about the pregnancy was great. The delivery was fast because it was a fourth kid. He ended up swallowing a lot of fluid. I remember, after he was born, for about 45 seconds, we're just waiting for him to breathe. That's a long 45 seconds to wait. They're suctioning stuff out. They're trying to get him, hitting him. Then finally he breathes. He coughs and kind of breathes. We're like, "Okay."
Then they watch his breathing, and they can see all of these chest retractions, like he's trying really hard to breathe. They go, "Hey, we want to monitor him in the nursery and potentially send him to the NICU." Now, part of my wife's and my story is my son, my second-born, spent the first few weeks of his life in the NICU. We kind of had a little PTSD, like, "Man, we don't want to go back. Lord, whatever it is, make it not the NICU, just for us."
So, when they said, "He's going to the NICU," I fought. I was like, "No, no, no. Just let him breathe for a little longer." I'm just fighting, fighting, fighting. Finally, they go, "Mr. Moffett, he needs to go." They send him to the NICU. They put a feeding tube down his throat. They hook him to all of the machines, everything I hated. I think we have a picture. Everything I hated from my second-born son. I'm just crying looking at that.
We go back to the room, and I just vent to my wife. I'm just letting her have it, the hospital, God. I'm just mad. My wife said something. She looked at me. In tears, she goes, "Tyler, I just need to know you're being led by the Spirit right now." Man! It hit me like a punch to the gut. It humbled me. I went over and hugged her and said, "You're right. I'm not even considering God. I'm just mad."
We prayed Psalm 73. "Whom have we in heaven but you? There's nothing on earth we desire beside you. Jett's heart and his flesh may fail, but, God, be the strength of our heart and portion forever. As for us, it's just good to be near God." It's interesting. That NICU stay was much shorter than with my other son, but they found something during that that we're so grateful they found. God was weaving something together that we didn't know.
I want to lovingly ask you… All of us have open and closed doors, but some of you have had a door close in your life that has caused a lot of pain, a lot of hurt, and a lot of embarrassment. I just want to press. Have you in that moment asked God, "What are you doing in this?" He may reveal it or he may not, but as I look back on my story and biblical history, God is weaving together a picture we rarely can see the fullness of. One day in heaven we will. The Spirit is weaving. Will you trust him? Will you acknowledge him?
3. God turns detours into divine appointments. If you remember Paul's vision… While he's sleeping, he sees a man from Macedonia who's standing up and urging… He's asking for help. So, when Paul makes his way across the sea, you know he's looking for this man. Let's see what he finds. Look at verse 11.
"So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi…" He is on a mission. He is going. "…which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days." He hadn't found the person yet. Verse 13:
"And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.' And she prevailed upon us."
So, Paul is on mission to get to Macedonia. I think we have a map of his journey. You see there at the top left there's Troas, and then he sets sail. It's a pretty big journey to get all the way up north to Neapolis and to Philippi, but he's on a mission. It normally would take a sailor five days. It took him two days. The wind is at his back. He's feeling favor. He's going, "I've got to find this man."
He gets there. There's no synagogue. Then he's trying to find who this man is who's urging, and he hears of a place of prayer. You can just imagine Paul going, "All right!" He storms into the place, and what does he see? A bunch of women sitting and praying. Yet he's faithful. He shares the gospel to them. Then Lydia, this one woman… Her heart is open to receive the good news of the gospel. She not only gets baptized, but she tells her household, and then she tells Paul, "Hey, I've got a big house. Why don't you come stay with me?"
What we see when we continue reading (a little preview to next week) is that after Paul goes to her house, he starts a church in her home. The church of Philippi, which the letter of Philippians is written to, starts right there, and all of Europe will begin to hear the good news of Jesus. See, this is God's version of the Draw Four Wild.
Paul had in his mind one man who's going to hear and receive the gospel. God goes, "Man, I've got so much more. There's a women's prayer breakfast that's meeting right now that needs to hear you. Not only that. Lydia and her household are going to hear the gospel, and a church is going to start that's going to impact all of Europe."
Where is God wanting to use you for beyond what you can ask or imagine? And where maybe are you Lydia? I mean, just think about Lydia. It says she's a seller of purple goods, which means she's wealthy. Purple goods were rare, so she's a seller of rare things…Rolex watches in our day. She has a big home, yet she's at a prayer gathering. It's not working for her. She has money, she has resources, yet she's longing for more of God. Then Paul comes and tells her about Jesus, and she goes, "That's it. That's it."
It reminds me of something that happened yesterday. I was going to get my hair cut. The guy I normally get a haircut with was unavailable, so I just went to the place and clicked the first available link. I got linked up with this guy Isaiah. He asked me my story, I asked him his, and I dropped the "I'm a pastor" thing. I always wonder, "Where is this going to go from here?"
So, he listens, and we're talking, and then he goes, "So, you're a pastor." He goes, "Do you ever give relationship advice?" I was like, "Lay it on me, bro. Come on." So, he starts going through. He's like, "Man, I was dating this girl. I really like her, but we broke up. What do I do?" So, I'm asking him questions. We're talking back and forth.
Finally, I go, "Isaiah, can I be honest with you? I know I'm a pastor, so I have to ask this, but is religion important? Is Jesus the center of your relationship?" He goes, "You know, it's so wild you say that. The reason she broke up with me is because I wasn't religious." I was like, "Really? Tell me more about that." He goes through, and we're talking back and forth.
I go, "Man, how wild is it? Like, I wasn't supposed to see you. I'm supposed to see my other guy. I just happened to be here. I said I'm a pastor, and you're wondering things about faith. Would you be willing to talk about it?" He's like, "I'd love to." I said, "Not only that. I'm preaching a sermon tomorrow at a church called Watermark. Would you come?" He's like, "I work at 10:00." I'm like, "That's tough. You can be late." So, we'll see. Isaiah, if you came to the 9:00, that would be amazing.
He said, "Can I get your number?" and we're going to text. Who knows? But here's what I realized. What seems like a detour for me or for Isaiah is a divine appointment. It's happening in your life and in mine all the time if we have eyes to see it. The beauty of this passage is it says that God opened Lydia's eyes to see. God is the one weaving this story together. The reality is that is the punch line of the whole thing.
See, as great as this story is, this story is actually pointing us… It's churning toward something greater or, really, someone greater. Each of these themes ultimately find their fulfillment in Jesus. Just think about it. The first, that conflict is opportunity for discipleship… Jesus, in heaven, saw conflict with us as opportunity to press in. I mean, we were far from God, rebelling against the God of the universe, and Jesus didn't stay. He pressed in. It's a long passage, but look at 2 Corinthians 5. Let's read this.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."
Jesus reconciled with us. When we were far off, he pushed in to conflict. Not only that, but Jesus followed his Father's guidance even when it was difficult. This passage, the night before Jesus died… Do you ever think about that moment right before the cross when Jesus is praying to his Father in the garden?
What is he asking? He's saying, "God, I don't want the door you've opened for me. Is there any other door? Close the cross door, because I don't want this." Jesus. Look at Luke 22:41. "And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, 'Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.'" "Father, I don't want this, but I trust you. So, whatever you say, I will obey."
Then, thirdly, Jesus turned what looked like a detour into the greatest divine appointment of all time. I mean, the cross made no sense to those who were experiencing it in real time. That's why all of the disciples fled. That's why everybody is leaving Jesus. Yet, it's at the cross where all of history turned. It's the climax moment.
It's why your watch says "2026," because 2,026 years ago, something crazy happened that completely changed the world. What seemed like so much loss, what seemed like a detour on redemptive history, is the thing that changed it forever and magnified the name of Jesus. That's why we wear crosses around our necks, celebrating something because of what happened. Philippians 2 says it this way:
"And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
The gospel, what Henry told us at the beginning, that Jesus died so you didn't have to, is the good news that we can be reconciled with God, that if we place our faith in Jesus, then one day… As we go through the chaos and struggles of life, we have confident hope that because of a resurrected Savior, our redemption is set. Our eternal hope is secure. Whatever changes and chaos this life can bring, God is weaving together a story I cannot see.
So, final question. Where is your life not going according to plan right now? Where do you look and are frustrated with your health, with your relationships, with your job, with your finances? You just go, "Gosh! If this one thing would change… God, why are you making this so difficult?"
Maybe today God has you here in this moment to surrender, to sing what we sang earlier, "I surrender all. Even that closed door, even this chaos, even that detour…I surrender." And to sing, like we're going to sing in a minute, "I trust you. I really trust you." Maybe, for some of us, for the first time, today is the day of salvation, to come to this altar at the end and say, "God, I need you. I believe in Jesus. I can't do this on my own. I receive you into my life, and I believe you're doing something I can't see." Let's pray together.
Father, thank you that you never sleep, you never slumber, and you are sovereign and fully in control. God, what feels like Uno Reverse in our lives is you weaving together a plan we can't see. The great picture of that is the cross. What seemed like loss, what seemed like a detour, was divine intervention on our behalf to the glory of Jesus and to our salvation. So, God, would you help us believe? Would we sing, "I trust in God," and would we be people who mean it because we know our God is good? We love you, and we trust you. In Jesus' name, amen.
