When People Get in the Way Part 2 R1547B

Welcome to the Friday edition of The Encouraging Word, featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Wilton and a message on how people get in the way.

It most certainly could happen. I'm afraid I may be the person in the way at times, or perhaps we even find ourselves getting in our own way. But today's message, the second part of When People Get in the Way, will help us gain insight both from the Philippian church, as we discussed yesterday, but also Paul arriving in Ephesus and discovering how we can deal with people in a way that honors God, even if they are in the way. As we study the Word together, I know that we're available for you. Love to pray with you right now at 866-899-WORD. That's the number you can connect at 866-899-9673 or online at theencouragingword.org. And in just a few minutes, I'm going to talk about a brand new opportunity to study the Word together.

Now, Dr. Don Wilton. Why would God want us to have to deal with a reaction like this by a group of people when it would seem that the message of the gospel was so designed to make people whole? Why such antagonism? We're encountering this, it would seem to me, from one city to the next, don't you think?

And we know that it's not over. We know that the same opposition followed Paul and all the believers, even to Paul's death and beyond and even today, even in our own world today. You can name it by any religion, do it, and it'll be mostly accepted. But you mentioned Jesus and all of a sudden banning orders, legislation, get that prayer stuff out of our schools. Don't you dare come over here and pray in the name of Jesus. Just be generic. But don't mention the name of Jesus. And I'll have anybody on my show. But a Jesus follower?

Are you kidding me? What was it about what was going on? The Bible is very clear that when Paul shared the love of Christ, that there rose a great disturbance right there in the heart of Ephesus concerning the way. When people get in the way of the way, what are you and I to do about that? How do you deal with your distress? How do we behave? Where do we go to?

What is our response? What can God say to us today? This is what the Lord has put in my heart.

When people get in the way, ask the Lord Jesus, and I just want to pause there. I cannot emphasize to each one of us enough that this is something that you need to present to the Lord Jesus. I know people today who are dealing with all kinds of distress.

We're going to talk about distress. It comes in leaps and bounds in the lives of people in every form one can possibly imagine. But God will make his application in your life today. That little introductory statement that you're seeing, ask the Lord Jesus. You see, my friend, when you gave your life to Christ, the Spirit of God came into your heart. You'll remember even when Paul arrived in Ephesus, what was the first question he asked the followers there? He said, have you received the Holy Spirit?

They said, well, we haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit. And he said, well, who have you received? They said, in all honesty, well, we are following John the Baptist and his teaching.

And so Paul laid his hands on them and he shared the truth of the gospel concerning Jesus. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And they received not John, but they received the one that John was pointing to.

The one who is far greater that would become behind John. The one who was the only one who could grant salvation and forgive sin and give hope. And Paul said, you need to give your life to Jesus.

And they did. And they received the Holy Spirit. And if you've given your heart to Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit living in you, ask the Lord Jesus. Ask the Lord Jesus how to respond when people get in the way. What ought we to ask the Lord Jesus to do? Here are four things that I want to share with you straight from this text. First of all, ask the Lord to help you to really understand what's going on. That's what happened here in Ephesus.

I've tried to explain this to you. What was going on in Ephesus? Well, I present to you a smorgasbord of every society, every community.

Their world was essentially no different to ours. We live in an incredible world, you know. Just drive around today in our motor cars, it seems like there are motor cars everywhere. Especially in our community. Hard to get anywhere. People are busy. We've got restaurants. We've got ball games going on. We've got businesses. We've got people being diagnosed with diseases.

We've got great hospitals. We've got young people going to school and students going to college and university. We've got people retiring.

We've got nursing homes. You've got the activity of the human race and all of us individually. And out here in this big world, there are people who claim and who cling to things, to unknown gods. There are people today who are so besotted over who's the next American idol.

There are people who worship the dollar sign. There are people for whom all of life depends on their football team. There are people who absolutely swear that there is no life after death.

There are people who think any kind of religion is the stupidest thing you've ever heard of. There are people who are we. Ask God to help you really understand where you live. Understand the environment that you're in. As a believer, you really know who you're living amongst.

The impact, the vibe, the things that are important, the way people think, the issues that are there. Ask God to give you a sensitivity to the person next to you. To have a deep spiritual understanding. When it came to the Apostle Paul and Ephesus, he was unapologetic. The issue that was going on there was summarized in verse 26 and verse 27. Paul could not in any way condone man-made gods.

And that's exactly what was going on. Ask the Lord to help you to understand what's going on. Ask the Lord to help you to know who these people are that are getting in the way.

Ask the Lord to help you. Because when you ask the Lord to help you to understand who Demetrius is, God will give to you a spiritual ability to be able to love even the most unlovely people you've ever met in your life. Ask the Lord Jesus by his Spirit to help you to know who these people are. They're in every community. They're everywhere.

They're all over the place. Ask God to help you to identify the Demetriuses that are seated next to you and who go to the same shops you go to and who play ball on the same teams with you and who work in the same office with you. This Demetrius, he was a citizen of Ephesus.

But unequivocally, Demetrius had seen an opportunity. He capitalized. He was a silversmith. He got together a group of people. He said, man, we got an opportunity to trade on the pagan religiosity of our people. And they began to make these relics and began to sell them. They began to tap into the heart of the paganism of the local people.

And eventually they began to build a wonderful business for themselves. Ask God to help you to understand that. And in came Paul, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and only him. Thou shalt have no other gods before you. Jesus Christ is the king. Worship him.

No, Artemis can give you nothing, but Jesus can give you everything. When you ask the Spirit of God to help you to identify in a spiritual way, those who oppose the way. God will give to you a spiritual understanding on how to spiritually, ultimately reach out to them with the purpose that they too would take a drink of the living water. Ask the Lord to help you to understand what's going on. Ask the Lord to help you to know who these people are. Ask the Lord to help you realize why they are creating such a disturbance against the gospel and against the church and against Christianity.

Ask him. There's only one reason. And that's right there in that opening verse, verse 23. The Bible says they began to become disturbed because of the way, the truth and the life. This, my friend, is about Jesus. It's about Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And the only way you respond to that is to fall on your face in prayer, in fasting and continually, daily seek God with all of your heart.

Know and understand where you live and what is going on. No one understand who these people are. No one understand why they are coming against the church and the gospel. Jesus. And then ask the Lord to help you to know how to respond.

I want to know how to respond. So let me give to you four or five things that God will show you. When the Lord Jesus shows you how to respond, a number of things is going to happen.

This is what's going to happen. First of all, you're going to recognize the reality of spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is very real, my friends. Some of you are growing weary in well-doing.

I talked to one of my best friends recently about this very subject. The Bible says don't grow weary in well-doing. I look every day like this at a sea of well-doers. You're serving the Lord, you're loving the Lord, you're living for him. The reality of spiritual warfare, that old devil will wear you down slap sorry. He'll get into your bone marrow if he can. He'll throw everything at you and he'll look for your Achilles heel.

He'll put up every obstacle. He'll get everybody he possibly can to come and share a little word of criticism with you. He'll try and trip you up in every conceivable way that he can. He'll even send looks your way. He'll leave you out of the popular group. He'll ostracize you. He'll cause you to seemingly suffer loss. He'll make you feel sometimes so wretched you can't even begin to understand it. He'll get right here into your solar plexus. And just when you are serving the Lord so much, he'll come and give you such a shot in the stomach you'll think you'll never breathe again.

Be encouraged my friend. When you ask the Lord to help you how to respond, he will help you to recognize the reality of spiritual warfare. He will help you to check knee-jerk reactions. By the way, Paul was no exception. If you study this passage of scripture in verse 30, for example, when this all happened and there was a great response, Paul's knee-jerk reaction was, well, I'm just going to go right into the middle of them and I'm just going to stand up there and I'm going to be one tough guy and I'm going to be put it down the line. That's a knee-jerk reaction. And who doesn't have knee-jerk reactions?

We all do. You know what the Spirit of God does for us? He tempers our reactions. One of the hardest disciplines in life, my friends, is when you're confronted by distress, when people get in the way, when you're dealing with difficulty in a symbolic way, sometimes the best thing you can ever do is take a deep breath, step back, get on your knees and ask God, what must I do?

And he'll never fail you. All of us in our human disposition in different ways are reactionary. Everybody to different degrees. And we all react differently. Watch out for knee-jerk reactions in the face of spiritual opposition.

Prayer, fasting, meeting with the Lord, asking him for a spirit of grace and understanding. And he'll surprise you. He'll just enable you to speak the right way, to say the right thing. Every day that I'm alive, I need a good dose of the Spirit of God tempering me, holding me, guiding me. I want to know what to say because I want to love people and I want to reach out to people. And all of you will agree with me, not everybody is lovable.

Not everybody is easy to deal with. And there's a lot of opposition to the gospel. Church, God is moving. Watch out, church. As I speak to you today as a congregation, we are enjoying by only by God's grace, unprecedented unity, joy, growth, giving, serving. People are seeking after the heart of God. But we're still in Ephesus.

We've got to ask God. Family, you've got it going. Your family's doing well. Your children are healthy. You're doing right, Mom.

You're loving, you're teaching. Be on your God, be sober and be vigilant because the devil is as a roaring lion and he's seeking whom he made of our. Ask God to help you. This is not a manual. This is not leadership 101. This is a spiritual endeavor whereby God's people seek God's face, put on the whole armor of God every day, be prepared in season and out season. Guard your heart. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, and in just a minute, he'll be right back to help us figure out how to respond in those knee-jerk situations. Perhaps there are situations and circumstances you're dealing with right now similar to the idea of today's message when people get in the way or different, and you need to know we believe the power of prayer changes things, and we'd love to pray with you and for you. Keyboard to keyboard, you can share those prayer requests on our website at theencouragingword.org.

That's theencouragingword.org. We also believe there's great power in a conversation and the ability to pray for each other on the phone. Our number is 866-899-WORD. I would encourage you and challenge you to maybe store it in your cell phone.

Put a note near the phone. I would be happy to talk with you, pray with you any time, day or night at 866-899-9673. We believe in the power of prayer and the power of studying God's Word. If you don't have the e-mail that comes out from Dr. Wilton every morning, I pray you'd sign up for it right now. You can sign up on our website, theencouragingword.org, for the daily e-mail, or you can even text the word daily to 30500. We'll send you a quick link. You can sign up and begin receiving it tomorrow. Again, just text the word daily to 30500, and we'll get you signed up for a powerful insight, what I call a jump start to my quiet time and a jump start to my day every day with Dr. Don Wilton.

Text the word daily to 30500 or call and ask for your copy at 866-899-WORD. We would love to get you rolling on a daily time of God's Word with Dr. Don Wilton. Even though the world is becoming an increasingly challenging place to live in as a Christian, Jesus' ultimate sacrifice on the cross remains a message of hope for everyone. Discover a deep understanding and appreciation for our Savior's death on the cross in Dr. Wilton's powerful sermon, The Cross, along with the bonus book, The Cross of Jesus, by Warren W. Wiersbe, which explores the entire crucifixion in detail. These powerful resources are yours to have with your gift of support to the encouraging Word. Thank you for listening today.

He has great messages still to come. The rest of When People Get in the Way is off next. When you ask God to help you to know how to respond, He'll not only help you to recognize the reality of spiritual warfare, He'll not only help you to check your own knee-jerk reactions, but He will help you to thank God for your spiritual friends. You know, when you look here at Paul in Ephesus, did you notice how his friends suddenly jumped up? Paul said, I'm just gonna go over there. I'm gonna show them a thing or two.

Do they not know they're dealing with a dude who was on the road to Damascus? I know what it's like. I'm gonna go there. And the friends jumped in and said, hold on.

No, you don't need to go down there. And guess what? He listened to them. And then a whole lot of high-ranking officials who were believers in Asia and other parts got to hear about this, and they started sending word.

I guess FedEx was pretty busy back in those days, saying, listen, hold it. Paul, just wait a minute. Just listen. Man, what a blessing. What a blessing. I thank God for you spiritual friends.

I look out today, and man, I just see them by the dozens. I look into your faces, men and women, and I just thank God for you spiritual friends, for advisors, for confidants, for spiritual leaders, for people that pour into one another. Listen to one another. Listen to your parents, young people.

Listen to your teachers. Listen to your discipleship leaders. Listen to those godly people, those grandparents that God has given to you.

Go and sit at their feet and drink from that fountain of wisdom that God has given to them, and you, my friend, will do well when people get in the way. Listen, you ask the Lord how to respond, you'll find yourself on your face saying, Lord Jesus, thank you for my precious friends. What you'll find when you ask the Lord how to respond, you will expect the unexpected. You'll just expect the unexpected, which means you don't know it's coming, but you'll expect it when it arrives, because the Spirit of God is already there. If I may say that he provides in your heart and your soul spirit like a spiritual shock absorber. You'll find yourself in your heart saying, well, I'm not surprised that he said this or she said this or this happened or that happened.

God will have already prepared your heart. But finally, and I think most importantly, when you ask the Lord Jesus how you should respond to these disturbances that come your way, he will remind you to just trust the Lord Jesus all the way. You know, I just love the way this all ended.

I mean, it's amazing. Here comes the chief clerk of the city, he plays a role, he wasn't even a believer. Then he began, there was such confusion. He began to speak legally and then he began this and then he said, now wait a minute, how does this figure out and be careful. I mean, God's using somebody that's not even a believer.

You don't suppose God can do anything he wants to? And in the final analysis, they all disperse, they go home and I have to read the next chapter in verse one because I just love the way Paul closes this all out. He just gathered all the believers together in here. What did he do? He just encouraged them.

He just gathered them all together. He said, be blessed, my friends. Hold fast to the truth of God. Love Jesus with all your heart.

Make sure you know him. Keep yourself where you need to be before Christ. Understand that he loves you. Take hold of the spirit who indwells you. Trust him, trust him. There's a real sense in which when you and I face all kinds of circumstances and we go to the Lord, there's a way in which God says, it's okay, I got it.

I got it. God's got you. He's got me. He loves you. He made you. He created you for the purpose of having fellowship with him. Have you given your life to him? You know, we talk about all of these things going on. You know, right in the middle of this, there he is, the Lord Jesus. That's why when we sing, we can sing with absolute confidence. Lord, I will bow to you and to no other God but to you alone.

I love that. Lord, I will bow to you and to no other God but to you alone. Jesus, the Lord Jesus, saver of the world.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. Where are you today? You've given your life to Christ? Do that today.

Are you facing some kind of difficulties, distress, opposition? Take it to the Lord in prayer. He'll show you what to do. He's got a solution. He's gonna bring you through, I promise you. I promise you, the sun is shining.

You're getting there, and God is gonna take you right there. He's got it. He'll do it. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Trust in him.

That's the bottom line. You have questions? Let's talk about it. Let's pray about it at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Or if you prefer the keyboard connection, meet us at our website, theencouragingword.org. Now perhaps the most important moment for our pastor, Dr. Don Wilton, is next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart.

In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God. This is exciting news. What a great week it has been. What a great day it's been. And perhaps this moment has been a life-changing moment for you. If you've just given your heart to Jesus, please let somebody know.

And why not us? You can email Dr. Don Don at theencouragingword.org and tell him what God's doing in your life. Let us know how we corporately can pray for you. But you can also just let us know right now by calling 866-899-WORD.

Dr. Wilton will get the message, I guarantee you. If you call and let us know how we can pray for you, or perhaps if you've given your heart to Christ, how we can put resources in your hands that'll help you grow. The number again is 866-899-9673, or meet us online at theencouragingword.org. And thanks again to all of you who are becoming encouragers. Hello, my friends. I want to speak to you personally today from my heart to yours. I don't think there is ever a better or more important time for us to respond to our world by standing up for righteousness. Now, with this in mind, I would like to invite you to become an encourager ministry partner. You see, together we can impact lives both now and for all time and all eternity. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. And to know that you are standing with me financially enables me to move forward with confidence to do the work God has called me to do. So please call the number on your screen and just simply say, I want to become an encourager.

Thank you so much for helping me. The number again is 866-899-9673. To discover more about being an encourager or just to let us encourage you, 866-899-9673 or online at theencouragingword.org. Preacher Wilk, I just wanted you to know how my family life has changed. I gave my heart to God listening to you on the radio. Now my wife has a new husband and my kids have a new dad. And I thank God for your ministry.