How to Look Up When Things Look Down | Embracing Vulnerability and Encouragement

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Sign up at harvest.org. When Jesus really has come into your heart, everything should be open to him. Pastor Greg Laurie points out, if we close our hearts to the Lord, he's really not our Lord. When we invite him to be our Lord, we invite him into the center of our lives. You open your heart, you open your home, you open your resources, you open your future, you open everything up to him and say, Lord, I'm glad to have you in here.

Tell me what you want me to do and where you want me to go. That's right. We like to put our best foot forward. It's a cultural thing. We keep certain things to ourselves. If we've just bounced a check or we're in over our head at work or there's relationship stress, we stay silent on those subjects.

But today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out, when Jesus makes his home in our hearts, we give him permission to explore the hidden issues we're keeping to ourselves, including the one you're thinking about right now. Let's get some good encouragement. So question, have you ever been in a situation that looked utterly hopeless? There was no way out that you could see.

And it was like a worst-case scenario unfolded. And you realized there was nothing you could do to change it. So you found yourself resigned to it. But you decided to give God the glory despite what you were going through. You praised him. And suddenly, unexpectedly I might add, your situation turned around.

And that thing that seemed like the worst case scenario ultimately resulted in bringing about some good in your life and the life of others. Well, here in Acts 16 is a beautiful example of two men who saw the good despite the bad. They saw the hand of God in the darkest of places and they praised him. Now what we're reading about here in the book of Acts is the second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. Up to this point in this first journey he was with Barnabas.

Remember him? The encouraging guy. Barnabas was the name given to him.

He was effectively Mr. Encouragement. But Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement and they parted ways and others. Two missionary teams.

Barnabas goes off with John Mark and Paul now has a new wingman and his name is Silas. And so they're getting ready to go on this trip and they made a plan. They said, hey, let's go visit those churches we planted earlier in Asia Minor and let's see how they're doing. And they got ready to go on their trip but God had a different idea.

Has that ever happened to you? You had a plan and God had a different plan. It didn't quite work out. You know, you had your plan. I know I'm going to submit my resume and I'm going to get this job.

He didn't get the job. I know I'm going to propose to this girl and she's going to say yes. And she said no. I know this other thing is going to happen.

I'm certain of it. And the Lord redirected you. This is exactly what happened to Paul and Silas.

In fact, we read in Acts 16 seven, coming to the borders of Missia, they headed for the province of Bithynia but the Holy Spirit did not let them go. Listen, sometimes a door is closed in your face. And you always think that it's a bad thing but not necessarily because God closes one door often to open another. And there's a lot of ways that God can close the door in our life and by that I mean not let you do what you wanted to do. Sometimes it's through just a complete lack of peace in your heart. In Colossians it says, let the peace of God settle with finality, all matters that arise in your mind. There have been situations where I've just not felt comfortable inside.

I haven't felt that peace of God about a certain path I was pursuing and I've just thought I'm not going to go that way. That's one way that God can close the door. Other times it can be circumstantially.

Something happens. It could be sickness. We always think that sickness is bad.

Generally it is. Ultimately it's a result of sin that comes to all of humanity. But having said that, God could use his sickness to stop you. Paul spoke of his thorn in the flesh and many believe that was some kind of a physical issue. Maybe a result of being beaten and stoned and shipwrecked and all the other crazy stuff Paul went through. But Paul even said to young Timothy who was ill, probably had an ulcer, probably from hanging around with Paul, and he said, hey take a little wine for your stomach. So he was offering some medicinal advice.

If God wanted everyone healed certainly Paul could have prayed for Timothy and he would have been healed immediately. So God could slow you down or stop you through sickness or some other way. But the bottom line is the door was closed. So now they get on their boat and now they are headed in a new direction. Acts 16 11 says, we ran a straight course to Samothrace and the wind was at our back. I love this. They had a tailwind if you will.

They got through a little faster. Have you ever felt like the wind was at your back? You are just cruising along in the will of God. Everything is really good. You know you are on the road. The lights are green.

The birds are singing. Everything is fantastic. Well that is what was happening at the beginning of their journey. They started off beautifully but then they took a bad turn.

Then they took a good turn. So now they are headed to a place called Philippi. Philippi is a Roman colony that was established by the emperor. He would organize colonies by ordering Roman citizens, especially retired military people, to go to selected places. So these would be pro-Roman cities and strategic areas. So Philippi was sort of like a Rome away from Rome if you will. Very Roman in culture. Very Roman in every way. So here comes Paul and Silas headed to Philippi.

Now I left out one thing. Paul had received a call from a man in a vision from Macedonia saying come and help us. So Philippi is in the area of Macedonia. So he arrives with Silas and it is not a man that comes to faith first but it is a woman.

So he got the Macedonian call if you will from a man. Well when he arrives there is this lady there and her name is Lydia. Lydia was a very affluent woman. It says that she sold purple garments. So back in this day treating expensive cloth with expensive purple dye would be what we would call a designer gown.

A designer shirt. So this is a woman who was very affluent. Very well off. And this is the first convert of this second missionary journey. And you might say that the conversion of Lydia created a chain of events that ultimately brought down mighty Rome.

And it started with one convert. This woman named Lydia. Now she was a worshiper of God as best she knew. But she was seeking God. She reminds us of Cornelius that we talked about earlier who also worshiped to the best of his ability. But the Lord directed Cornelius to Simon Peter to hear the Gospel and Cornelius believed. So here is another woman who is a true seeker of God and the Lord directed the Apostle Paul.

Or should I say directed the Apostle Paul to her. And here is something to think about. You know there are people that say I am seeking truth.

I am trying to find the meaning of life. And I have looked everywhere. I have looked into Eastern mysticism. And I have looked into New Age philosophy. And I have looked into this. And I have looked into that. And then you say have you looked into Jesus.

And you pull out your Bible and they say put that thing away. Wait. You are a seeker of truth right.

Oh yes. I want truth. Have you ever read the Bible.

No. I don't believe in that. How can you not believe in something that you have not even looked into. And if you are a true seeker of truth why don't you at least take a look at what Jesus said. The reality is they are not a seeker of truth that they won't look into what the Bible says. And because God says those that seek me will find me.

Well this is a true seeker of truth. This lady named Lydia. And now she hears the Gospel. Look at verse 14 of Acts 16. She listened to us and the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul was saying. She and her husband were baptized and she asked us to be her guests.

If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord. They said yes we believe that. So they stayed at her home.

I love this. So they came to her home. And there is this picture in the Bible of God making His home with us. Jesus said if we believe in Him and follow Him the Father and Jesus would make their home with us. Paul writes that Christ would settle down with finality and make His home in your heart.

Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a Harvest version of Netflix.

We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions and much more.

So go and download the Harvest Plus app. And now Pastor Greg continues his message from Acts 16 called how to look up when things look down. You know the other day I was with Jonathan Rumi who plays Jesus in The Chosen. It was getting later in the day I said Jonathan you want to come over to our house for dinner?

He said yes. So I said to Kathy Jonathan's going to come over for dinner. So she's making dinner and she says I'm at the stove working with the green beans and I look through the window suddenly this car drives by and it looks like Jesus is in the car. And we had a great time. A great meal. By the way Kathy cooked fish which seems appropriate doesn't it?

I don't even know if she consciously thought about that. But great time together. Fellowshiping. Talking about the things of the Lord. And we know he's not Jesus.

We know he's Jonathan Rumi who plays a role. But to me it kind of presents it what if Jesus actually came to your house and you know you're cooking up the green beans and here's Jesus driving in right. And he comes up and he knocks at the door of your house and you hear a voice say behold I'm at the door so open it.

Because it would be more modern right. And you open it and there comes Jesus Christ into your home. You probably would serve him fish. Strike the devil's food cake really inappropriate for dessert. But this is what is happening now to this woman. Jesus has come into her home. Jesus has come in to her life. This woman named Lydia. And I love how it says she opened her heart. So she opened her heart and then she opened her home and apparently she opened up her resources too because she said stay with us we'll take care of you guys.

And you know when Jesus really has come into your heart everything should be open to him. The story is told of General Sam Houston hero of Texas history. And he came to Christ in the later years of his life. And he decided he wanted to be baptized. And so the preacher took him down to the little river there and he's getting ready to baptize General Houston.

And he noticed that Houston still had his eyeglasses in his pocket. He said he better take those out those that get wet. And so they took his eyeglasses out and then the preacher noticed he had a his wallet in his pants too. He said general you probably should take your wallet out that'll get wet in the water. And the general said if any part of me needs to be baptized it's my wallet. So they baptized General Sam Houston wallet and all. I wonder if we've all had our wallet baptized. Jesus said where your wallet is there will your heart be also.

Well he didn't actually say that but he did. In another way he says where your treasure is there will your heart be also. When you invite Christ into your life you open your heart you open your home you open your resources you open your future you open everything up to him and say Lord I'm glad to have you in here tell me what you want me to do and where you want me to go.

That's right. Well the devil is not happy when he loses a convert. So here's the devil now with his counter attack. Acts 16 verse 16. As we went to prayer a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination who brought her masters much profit started following us. So this demon possessed woman now starts following the apostles. She was shouting these men are servants of the most high and have come to tell you how to be saved. Actually this word she said could be translated she shrieked. So here's Paul and Silas walking along through Philippi. She's behind him screaming out they're servants of the most high God.

This woman's really getting to my nerves. And it's interesting because in the original language it says she had the spirit of python. And what that means is there was a myth that the python snake guarded the temple of Apollo.

And so there was this weird demonic thing. Speaking of pythons I used to have a python when I was a kid. I collected all kinds of snakes. But I had this python. And he always bit me.

I don't know what the deal was. Anybody else would put their hand in the snake cage and he wouldn't bite them. But when I put my hand in the cage boom he would strike. Every time he struck I was bitten by that python so many times. And so one day I was feeding him a mouse. I hate to break this to you. Snakes eat live creatures ok. Little baby mice.

Really cute too. You put them in there. It's not easy. So anyway when you put a mouse in the cage of the snake the mouse goes in the corner shaking and the snake sees him and he goes in. I know he didn't come to hear this at church but this is happening in life people. I got to let you know right.

So I put this one mouse in. And he kind of like, hey what's up? He sees the snake. How you doing? How you doing? Like a New York mouse. What? What are you looking at me?

You know. He walks right up to the snake. Snake's like whoa what's going on? I'm a python.

Don't you know who I am? The mouse walks around gets on top of the snake. Now the snake is in fear over in the corner. The mouse owns the cage. I said that mouse is not going to be lunch for my snake. I took the mouse out and made him my personal pet because this was a super cool mouse. This has nothing to do with our story.

Okay nothing at all. That's my token python story. She had this spirit of python. This demon power. And so Paul cast the demon out.

Like we're done with this. Why would he want that to happen? Because she was going to confuse people. People might even think she's part of the missionary team and she wasn't at all. She was possessed by the demon. Well now the people who were controlling this woman effectively trafficking her.

Pimping her out if you will. And making a lot of money off of her were outraged. Because this witchy woman was their source of income.

So when they exercise the demon they also exercise the income for her masters. So now they're angry. Acts 16 verse 20 though they go and try to whip up the people. And the whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews they shouted. They're teaching the people to do things against Roman customs. A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas and the city officials ordered them stripped and beat them with wooden rods.

Stop there. So now these accusers put Paul and Silas up on trumped up charges. Sounds like they're anti-semitic. These Jews. These Jews have come into our city. They're not Romans like us.

We're obviously superior they're saying. And these Jews have whipped the people up and have done these horrible things. So now Paul and Silas are beaten. And now they're sent to prison.

So we pick up in Acts 16 verse 23 what happened after that. They were severely beaten. Then they were thrown into prison and the jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape.

So he took no chances and put them into the inner dungeon and clapped their feet in the stocks. Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the other prisoners were listening.

Underline that. Singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening. Verse 26 suddenly there was a great earthquake and the prison was shaken at its foundations and the doors flew open and the chains of every prisoner fell off. The jailer woke up to see the prison doors open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped and he drew a sword to kill himself. Paul shouted to him don't do it.

We're all here. Trembling with fear the jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down before Paul and Silas and he brought them out and asked sirs what must I do to be saved. They replied believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved along with your entire household. Then they shared the word of the Lord with him and all who lived in his household. The same hour the jailer washed their wounds he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized and he brought them into his house and set a meal before them.

He and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God. Wow isn't that one of the greatest stories in the Bible. So Paul starts out as a prisoner and ends up leading the jailer to Christ.

Another heart is open and now another house is open. Now the Roman jailer's home would be much different than Lydia's home. She would have probably had a luxurious home with servants and plenty of food. This guy the jailer had a much different home. Lydia would have been upper class.

He would have been middle class and the demon possessed woman lower class. In fact she had no possessions to speak of but it just shows that the gospel is relevant for every man, every woman, every class of person. Everybody needs Jesus right. Pastor Greg Laurie with great insight today from our studies of the events of the first century in the book of Acts.

And there's more to come as this message continues here on A New Beginning. You know the key question in that story is the one the jailer asked. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? The answer holds the key to being able to spend eternal life in heaven in the presence of God. Pastor Greg it's easy to come to the Lord and make that a reality isn't it?

That's right. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So think of it this way. Maybe you're out in a riptide in the ocean and you can't get your footing and you're in trouble and you see a lifeguard. Call out for help and the lifeguard will rescue you.

The same is true spiritually. You're drowning in your sin. You need help. Jesus will save you. He will rescue you but you must call out to him.

And you know how you do that? You do it in prayer. So let me just lead you in a simple prayer and you can pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you like and this is where you are calling out to Jesus to save you.

Just pray this. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus I know I'm a sinner and I know you are the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Now Lord I turn from my sin and I put my faith in you. Be my savior, my Lord. Be my God and my friend. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Hey if you just prayed that prayer I want you to know that Christ himself has come to live inside of you and I have a resource I want to send you. It's called the New Believers Bible. So the New Believers Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believers Growth Pack but let me get this New Believers Bible into your hands as quickly as possible.

Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah we'll be glad to send it all your way free of any charge if you prayed along with Pastor Greg today. Just ask for the New Believers Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300.

You can reach us anytime 24 7 again at 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click know God. You know Pastor Greg I think our listeners would agree with me when I say you not only know God's word inside and out, you're not only a gifted communicator, you not only make your teaching relatable and practical, but your sense of humor is just so enjoyable that it keeps us riveted. And for those of us who know your sense of humor we can see it throughout your new animated cartoon series, The Adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. You know laughter, if laughter is the best medicine then this cartoon series is full of that medicine.

Wouldn't you say so? Yes and thank you for those kind words. Yes my humor you know it's just always been there. You know the funny thing is you'll find it when you see a comedian interviewed that often they had a painful childhood and the reality is is they developed humor as a coping mechanism and that's and that's very true for me because of my crazy topsy-turvy childhood with my mom married and divorced and living in an alcoholic home where there was screaming and yelling and all those things. I retreated into a world of cartoons and I learned how to almost make a joke in any given situation. Well that stayed with me and it is woven into my sermons and it's also now woven into these animated episodes. So you're going to hear stories that I've told in my sermons like the time the snake got loose in my car and I ended up getting the car from my mom. That's in one of the cartoons.

The time my grandson kissed a jellyfish goodbye and it stung him on the face not very badly thankfully but he did get kind of a red face from it. That's in one of our cartoons. You'll see other little things I refer to like cats and strollers that's there too. Pretty much I put a lot of my own life in my own gags into these cartoons and I'm working with a very talented team. One of the gentlemen that works with me to write these cartoons has worked in animation for years and he knows how to bring these things into the world of animation.

Then we have the art team that bring these characters to life. It's so interesting and fascinating to me and I have to tell you it's a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed doing this and I hope that you see the joy in it when you show them to your kids or your grandkids or even when you watch them yourself. You know there's something about a cartoon that's disarming and I think it's a great way to well how shall I put it sneak up on someone because you're entertaining them. They're laughing they're having a good time but all of a sudden there's some full biblical truth embedded in that episode and everything I do I'm always going to get to biblical truth.

It's just the way I'm wired but I'm also wired to use humor to do it. So we're taking all of these elements and using them together to hopefully have a tool that can touch a whole new generation but I can't do this on my own. I need your help. If you believe in this vision if you want to reach younger people with the message of the gospel and the truth of the word of God then I ask you to support this financially and and as my way of saying thanks to you I want to send you a brand new resource called the Ben Bourne Again New Believers Growth Book. Now I have to tell you that thousands of these have been in print for many years and have touched so many people but we've gone back and we've revisited the whole thing. We've rebuilt it from ground level up. New artwork, more content. I think it's even better than the first edition and I want to send you one that well how shall I say it it's hot off the press and so let me get you a copy of the Ben Bourne Again New Believers Growth Book for your gift of any size as you support our endeavors to reach this young generation.

Yeah yeah that's right. We have it waiting for you so get in touch with your investment in the work we're doing here at A New Beginning and Harvest Ministries and we'll thank you with this brand new Ben Bourne Again New Believers Growth Book. You can call us it's a 24-hour phone number 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or just go online to harvest.org. Well next time we'll see there's so much more inspiration to draw from Acts 16. We'll see the miraculous conversion of a Philippian jailer. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. Thanks for listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a Harvest Partner at harvest.org.