Acts 16:9-15 “THE CALL”
1. Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke received a call to go into the district of Macedonia,
• The call came in a vision” a man from Macedonia pleaded, “Come over to Macedonia and help us”
• I volunteer as chaplain for the fire department I have app called dispatch when the call comes I immediately pray they immediately respond,
• Paul and the team got a call their response was “set sail from Troas, where the vision had occurred and soon were sharing the gospel in Philippi, the leading city of Macedonia.”
2. The call from God may ask us to travel if not at the least respond
• Guy Smith got the call was told to go visit my grand pa tell him to straighten up and get back in church 3 am grandpa wasn’t upset but got back in church
• The Call asks us to help other believers in verse 4 we learn Paul and other believers were traveling “from town to town” strengthening existing churches. Our revival other churches helped us
• Don’t do nothing until you get the call from God it will be clear
• At one point, they intended to preach the good news in an area of Asia, but the Holy Spirit put the brakes on that. So instead, they decided to carry the gospel to northwest Asia Minor, but the Spirit pushed back on that idea as well. So when Paul had his vision, it was clear to the team that God really wanted them to go to Macedonia.
3. The call is something you can do with the help of God
• Question asked if the ordained are Have you faith in Christ. Are you going on to perfection? Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life? Are you earnestly striving after it?Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and his work? Do you know the General Rules of our Church? Will you keep them? response is with the help of God
• When the call comes to help someone with faith our response might be “Who, me? I’m no professional”? Or you might say, “I would suggest you talk to my pastor.”
As a first responder to share our faith with someone our response
• Our response could be to tell the person what your faith means to you with the help of God.
• With the help of God when life feels empty God fills or God did me
• With the help of God I know when I felt all alone God became a ever present help in my time of needs. I felt another
4. The Call is a request from God for us to be first responders
• That’s what first responders do they hear the call and immediately respond
• First responders don’t have all the answers to solve the injuries or solve the problems
• They sometimes hand the situation over to someone else to help
• They do what they can that’s all.
• First responders share just what they know
5. Finally, we are called from God
• God calls us to travel I suggest take God wherever you go and share him Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia10After , the vision, they got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, Paul traveled from Troas to Samothrace from there to Neapolis, from there to Phillipi, and then Macedonia.
• We sort of do the same from home to work, to school, to wall-mart, to places we eat,
• God calls us to trust Gods faithfulness vs 9 God had called us to preach
• With the help of God we can do it God already been there preparing that person. Vs 14 The Lord opened her heart to respond
• We are called to be responders
• Responders are present, praying, offering what they can do no more
On the morning of his death on September 11, 2001, Father Mychal Judge was moving quickly. Stopping only for his Fire Chaplain’s helmet and FDNY coat, he raced down to the smoking World Trade Center buildings to offer all the aid and comfort that he could.
Despite the danger to his own life, his presence was mandatory, he believed. In a prayer, once he had outlined this philosophy: “Lord take me where you want me to go, let me meet who you want me to meet,” it began.
He set off urgently on that world-changing morning to where the Lord wanted to take him, thinking only of helping others. A passing documentary crew filmed his anxious face, already a shocked witness to history, as he prayed in the lobby of the north tower, his white helmet reading “F.D.N.Y. Chaplain.”
Refusing all offers to be evacuated, Father Judge instead gave sacraments as huge parts of the building — and people — fell to earth all around him. Dozens of bodies were hitting the plaza outside as people jumped to their deaths from the top stories. Passersby heard his final prayer, which he repeated over and over: “Jesus, please end this right now! God, please end this!”
When the South Tower collapsed at 9.59 am, the debris crashed through the North Tower lobby, killing many in its path, including the man that the FDNY called Father Mike.
The medical examiner, recordedJudge as the first fatality of the day, assigning him the number DM0001-01, the DM standing for Disaster Manhattan.
