Acts 16:7-8 KJV After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. [8] And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
I. INTRODUCTION—THE CHALLENGE OF CONTENTMENT
-One of the most challenging spiritual battles that many face in our generation is that gnawing unsettling feeling of discontentment. It seems that after a while their new toys, new jobs, new cars, new homes, and new clothes all become much less valuable to them.
-If we are not careful, the beast of “more” can rule our lives in such a way that we are never content with the blessings of God. The insatiable hunger for more can choke out all of the potential that God has for us in any situation.
The story is told of a young man who wanted to be a physician and so he spent much of his high school days and early college years preparing for a career in medicine. He took the most challenging classes and the most difficult professors to prepare him to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). For whatever reason he did not have the money to continue his education and had to drop out of school and then he was drafted into the Army to fight in World War II. He spent the rest of his life feeling cheated and was constantly voicing his disappointment to anyone who would listen to him. His chance bypassed him and now his life is filled with regret.
-This young man is not alone. There are many people in life that set their sights and goals on a particular thing and in the end did not achieve whatever it was that they wanted to do. They live out lives of bitter disappointment and rancor but it would do us well to remember that if we could ever start seeing our places in life was the spot where God has placed us it would serve vast dividends to our spiritual wellbeing.
-Contentment is one of best blessings that God has offered to us. Although I have to clarify that contentment is not complacency or laziness. Contentment is determining to be what God wants you to be in the place where He has placed you.
• He knew the challenges before you got there.
• He knew the limitations of resources before you got there.
• He knew the difficult people you would face before you got there.
• He knew of the spiritual attacks you would be under before you got there.
-But He still put you in that place of service for a reason.
A. Jules Levy—The World’s Greatest Cornet Player
Jules Levy has been cited by many as the world’s greatest cornet player but the path he took to it was long, arduous, disappointing but he chose not to let his surroundings drag him down. He was born in 1838 in extreme poverty. When he was twelve years old he came into the ownership of a cornet mouthpiece. For the next five years, he pleaded and begged with his father to buy him a cornet but his father simply could not afford it.
One day they were at an auction and Jules saw a cornet that was moving toward the auctioneers block. It was in terrible condition with its finish almost totally burnished, had dents all over it and the valves were constantly sticking. His father managed to get it for fifteen shillings (about $3) which was almost a giveaway. The normal price for a low-end cornet in the 1840’s was around $50 and Jules now had one that only cost $3.
He promptly went home and began to play it with cheeks full of air not realizing that this was the way to jeopardize any abilities he might have had. He ended up getting sick and spent three months being treated for a severe lung infection. After his severe lung problems, his neighbors encouraged him to find someone to teach him a few lessons.
He managed to make an acquaintance with a very good cornet player in London who took a liking to him. When the man offered to give him a few lessons, Jules readily accepted. After six lessons, Jules appeared to be a very motivated student and the teacher offered to give him six more lessons. However, before the seventh lesson could be taken, the cornet teacher had to leave because he was in the military and his regiment was deployed.
Jules wrote in one of his cornet instruction books that it almost broke his heart because he had just learned to play correctly. When the teacher heard of the great disappointment of Jules, he sat down and wrote out twenty progressive music exercises and mailed them to him. Enclosed was a letter of encouragement imploring the young musician to work hard at them. He spent hours on end in rigorous discipline until he became one of the most widely recognized cornet players to ever play. No one could master the intervals from the highest notes to the lowest notes like Jules could. He could play the highs and the lows and never have a change in the quality of the sound that poured forth from his cornet. Even his most jealous contemporaries had to admit that no one could play with the excellence that Jules did.
• What if he would have given up in his disappointment because he only had a mouthpiece?
• What if he would have thrown in the towel because his instrument was so sub-par?
• What if he would have quit when his teacher was transferred with his platoon?
-The seeming setbacks and rough back roads that God navigates our lives through are sometimes the very best thing that could ever happen to us. It is during those times that we come to a place of spiritual maturity and know that God’s will is the most important thing and the He will do everything He can to keep us in His path.
-We must realize that many times in life that our first choice is actually God’s second choice. What we thought would be the ideal place or situation for us would have been ruinous to our own soul.
B. Great Advances in the World
-Some of the world’s greatest advances were made not as the first choice but as the second choice.
• Rayon, the first synthetic silk, was discovered by French chemist Chardonnet an assistant to
• Louis Pasteur when he spilled a bottle of collodion.
• Silly Putty was discovered by James Wright, on the way to solving another problem: finding a rubber substitute for the United States during World War II.
• Teflon was found by Roy J. Plunkett, who was trying to develop a new gas for refrigeration and got a slick substance instead, which was used first for lubrication of machine parts
• Superglue (a.k.a. Krazy Glue) was accidentally twice discovered by Dr. Harry Coover first when he was developing a clear plastic for gun-sights and later, when he was trying to develop a heat-resistant polymer for jet canopies.
• Scotch-guard moisture repellant, used to protect fabrics and leather, was discovered accidentally in 1953 by Patsy Sherman. One of the compounds she was investigating as a rubber material that wouldn't deteriorate when in contact with aircraft fuel spilled onto a tennis shoe and would not wash out; she then considered the spill as a protectant against spills.
• Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming. He failed to disinfect cultures of bacteria when leaving for his vacations, only to find them contaminated with Penicillium molds, which killed the bacteria.
• Coronary catheterization was discovered as a method when a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic accidentally injected contrast into the coronary artery instead of the left ventricle.
• The discovery of the principle behind inkjet printers by a Canon engineer happened after he put his hot soldering iron by accident on his pen. The ink was ejected from the pen's point a few moments later.
• The microwave oven was invented by Percy Spencer while testing a magnetron for radar sets at Raytheon, he noticed that a peanut candy bar in his pocket had melted when exposed to radar waves.
• Chocolate chip cookies were invented by Ruth Wakefield when she attempted to make chocolate drop cookies. She did not have the required chocolate so she broke up a candy bar and placed the chunks into the cookie mix. These chunks later morphed into what is now known as chocolate chip cookies.
-The natural world and the spiritual world are filled with examples of men who achieved far more than they anticipated with what they thought was a secondary choice.
II. OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND IN TROAS
-Our text indicates that Paul’s first choice was Bithynia but he ended up with Troas. Troas was a coastal town and although its climate was a good place to be, because it was not the first choice, it probably was a place of disappointment to Paul. He intended to do one thing but God intended for him to do something else.
Barrie—The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make.
A. Closed Doors Are Necessary
-The great lesson of life is that there are times that things are withheld from us for our own spiritual good. In our spiritual life there will be times that the doors will be closed to us.
-Before it was over with in this passage of Scripture four doors had been closed to Paul.
Acts 16:6-8 KJV Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, [7] After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. [8] And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
-It appeared that God was saying “No!” to play very emphatically.
• Phrygia—NO!
• Galatia—NO!
• Mysia—NO!
• Bithynia—NO!
-God closes doors to test our faith and to test our character. The question isn’t really can you serve God when all you touch is turning into gold but rather can you serve Him when the doors don’t open?
-There will be times in your service to God that the road will literally seem to rise up and turn into a wall. You can strain at the barricades and struggle with the closures in the Spirit but every bit of it seems only to sap our strength and leave us disheartened and weary.
-This is when your character is going to be developed.
• Can you prayer when the heavens seem to be brass?
• Can you serve God despite the fact you cannot hear His voice?
• Can you press on in the face of hardship and criticism?
• Can you preach in a church that is empty?
• Can you pray in faith for healing when God has not healed anyone in months?
• Can you see a harvest in the middle of a famine?
• Can you do the will of God when it is hard to do?
-When God withholds you will have to wrestle with your disappointments and your failures. When God closes the door, the test of true faithfulness comes into play.
-In this passage of Scripture we find that the leading of the Holy Ghost was marked by restraint and by forbidding them to go. The Holy Ghost never comes out and tells Paul what to do. There is just a series of doors being closed and Paul being pulled in another direction.
-Paul had important plans for reaching the great cities of Asia but important plans do not always take the priority.
• Paul had the wrong timing—they would be reached but not now.
• Paul was never given a reason for the rejection of his plans. The doors were simply closed and he did what he was called to do—in another place.
-The great advice from this lesson about God closing doors: When God closes the doors don’t let your disappointment disarm your faith.
• Do the basics!
• Keep praying!
• Keep fasting!
• Keep witnessing!
• Keep paying your tithes!
• Keep preaching the Word!
• Keep praying in the altars!
• Keep your spirit clean!
• Keep your heart pure!
• Keep being an encouragement!
• Keep reading your Bible!
• Keep showing up to church!
-Don’t let the devil take advantage of your disappointment and cause you to sin or want to give up! God has a plan and you are just a few steps away from understanding it more clearly!
-If a man loses his character when the doors close up—he most likely will disqualify himself from the greater cause the God has for him in the future. Keep the faith!
Galatians 6:8-9 KJV For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. [9] And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Isaiah 40:30-31 KJV Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: [31] But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Zephaniah 3:16 KJV In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.
Hebrews 10:35-39 KJV Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. [36] For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. [37] For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. [38] Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. [39] But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
B. Closed Doors Are Not a Rebuke
-So if we know that closed doors are necessary in our walk with God, the second thing to know is that closed doors are not a rebuke from the Lord.
-Some of the noblest goals have had their delays and some of the greatest longings of the heart have to be delayed. But the devil would like for us to buy into the idea that we have the wrong motives, a wrong spirit, and a soiled life.
• See there, if you were such and such, that door would be opened.
• See here, if your faith was a bit stronger, that door would be opened.
• See now, if your prayer life was a little better, that door would be opened.
• See here, if you weren’t such a flop, that door would be opened.
-The fact of the matter is that it has nothing to do with the man who has the dream but it has to do with the will of God. Often what is wrong to give today will be right to give tomorrow.
-The longing in the soul is a preparation process for what God is going to do in the future. Faith is like a seed. It is planted and there is a longing for the harvest to come but it will take time before it comes to pass.
• We don’t harvest peanuts in April we have to wait until October.
• We don’t harvest tomatoes in January we have to wait until June.
• We don’t harvest watermelon in February we have to wait until July.
-A closed door is not a rebuke from the Lord but rather it is a time for that seed to die in the ground and then it will emerge in a few months when it gives up its fruit. A seed does not look like much in your hand but given time it will astound you. A closed door may harbor all kinds of disappointment but given time it will be the very door to revival.
-More often than not what we call failure is only the angel of God stripping away the unnecessary and frivolous from our lives. He is setting us free from the lower entanglements that hold us down into the world of spiritual pygmies.
Howard Goss, one of the early leaders in the Pentecostal movement, around 1904 and 1905 was exposed to the work of the Holy Ghost. He participated in services, even preaching and teaching in some of them, prayed in the altars but he still had not received the Holy Ghost. He wanted the Holy Ghost more than anything in the world. But despite the fact that he was around the atmosphere of the Spirit, it would be a little over a year before God would fill him with the Spirit evidenced by speaking with tongues.
It actually took place when he was on a train that was going from Galveston, Texas to Angleton, Texas. He was with eleven other young preachers and they were all in a car by themselves when it pulled out of Galveston. Before too long they begin to sing, pray, worship, and exhort with the Word. As they clicked down the tracks, the Spirit of the Lord begin to fill that car in 1905 and when Howard Goss got off of the train in Angleton, he had so much of the Holy Ghost the he couldn’t even speak in English.
-I am encouraging anyone who has not received the Holy Ghost or maybe you are not as far along as you want to be in your walk with the Lord. . . . Don’t let a closed door be taken as a rebuke from the Lord. God is preparing your life to do so much that it will astound you in the coming months how much God is going to do!
C. Closed Doors Lead to an Open Vision
-So if we know that closed doors are necessary in our walk with God and closed doors are not rebukes from the Lord. The last thing we need to know is that closed doors will bring us to an open vision.
Acts 16:9-10 KJV And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. [10] And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
-You must understand that the devil wants you to get so log-jammed at the closed doors that you cannot press on into the future. He can get you fretting and worrying about the closed door to such an extent that you are literally paralyzed by fear.
-That is the task of the enemy to grid-lock you and keep you from moving forward. But Paul just did what faithfulness called him to do when the doors closed.
-Every great revival, every great church, every great life will have some flashpoint of vision and that is what Paul had in his life.
-Look beyond that vision and you will see some tremendous things.
• Lydia by the riverside—Acts 16:13-15
• The demoniac girl delivered—Acts 16:16-18
• The Philippian jailer and his conversion—Acts 16:25-27
-From there on to Thessalonica and then to Berea. He went from there to Athens and then on to Corinth and lastly on to Ephesus.
III. CONCLUSION—BEYOND THE OPEN DOOR
-Doors may close for now but there is an incredible vision that is waiting to be fulfilled in your personal life and for the true Church.
In the things familiar we find security
Resisting all the changes that days and years can bring,
When God decides to lead you through an open door
Inviting you to walk in realms you've never known before.
Beyond the open door is a new and fresh anointing,
Hear the Spirit calling you to go.
Walk on through the door for the Lord will go before you
Into a greater power you've never known before.
Hear the Spirit calling to wake the living dead,
To reach the huddled masses who cry out for living bread.
Arise, oh mighty army, take up thy shield and sword
For the Father lifts His golden lamp beside the open door.
Beyond the open door is a new and fresh anointing,
Hear the Spirit calling you to go.
Walk on through the door for the Lord will go before you
Into a greater power you've never known before.
Beyond the open door is a new and fresh anointing,
Hear the Spirit calling you to go.
Walk on through the door for the Lord will go before you
Into a greater power you've never known . . .
Where He leads me, I will follow.
Where He leads me, I will follow.
And where He leads me, I will follow
Into a greater power you've never known before,
Beyond the open door.
Philip Harrelson
October 8, 2010
