How God Guides Us

Most of us know what it’s like to receive a dream from God — we have a sense of purpose, direction, and perseverance to walk in the calling God has laid out for us. But at some point, we hit resistance. Rather than bring us through upward mobility, our God-given dreams bring us through disappointment, difficulty, disagreement, or detours. In these moments, it’s tempting to give up on the dream altogether. The apostle Paul experienced this well. He’d been given a glimpse of what it would look like to participate in bringing God’s Kingdom down from heaven to earth but quickly experienced every kind of setback. But rather than give up on God’s calling over his life, Paul was obedient. By looking at Paul’s story from Acts 9-16, we learn that God-given dreams come with setbacks. But these are always for our guiding and purging. God’s “no’s” guide us to a better “yes” and purge our souls from sinful passions and desires.

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 6 through 10. It says they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia. They had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

When they came to Mysia, they tried to go in Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, Cross over to Macedonia and help us. After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

It was a dream that started our church. And that very same dream almost killed it. Back in January, or excuse me, May of 2014, I just graduated college and I was trying to figure out what am I going to do next. And right around then, I was already married for a year, so I had to figure out how to take care of my wife as well.

And so, we actually got a call, uh, From america’s pastor one of the most well known pastors of our day And it turns out that I was in the running that I didn’t put in for To be his assistant to kind of travel the world with him And learn ministry from one of the greats of our generation. So I got excited It wasn’t just an easy job to get you had to go through the application process So I put in my application, but i’m also thinking do I move back home?

Do I stay here in california? Not sure what to do, so I was kind of hoping they would hurry the process so we can figure out what to do with our lives. Well, it got down to me and one other guy. And they said, this will be your final interview this next week, and if you nail it, it’s yours. And so they were kind of acting like it was my job, but I was like, I know there’s another guy.

Kind of got nervous. All along, all of a sudden, my wife started to experience some symptoms. Uh, so she went to Walgreens and she discovered that we were pregnant and that changed everything. And so immediately, I called this, uh, office and said, Hey, I just. I can’t take this job because this job was traveling for about 30 weeks out of the year And the last thing I wanted to be was an absent dad And so I was a little bit crushed obviously more rejoicing than crushed But also what do I do now with my life?

And so I just in the middle of that moment of excitement, but also despair I looked at my wife and she just said to me directly trey if money wasn’t an issue What would you want to do? What is God calling us to do? And immediately, just within my gut, I knew I was called to come back home, come back to Queen Creek, and, uh, eventually plant a church.

And so that’s what we did. We packed up our bags. Thankfully, uh, the economy was better, so we were able to afford a house right out of college. And, uh, the rest was history. No, and then all of a sudden began this process of planting a church. And so fast forward to January 2016, January 10th, over at the movie theater.

We launched, and get this, you know what the sermon series was called? Seek the kingdom and so this is a rerun folks of what we’ve already been doing and so week one It was seek the kingdom is based off of Matthew chapter 6 and I was a young man Some of you thinking you’re still young but not nearly as young as before.

I’ve been beaten down So I was a young man filled with energy and with confidence for the vision that God gave me and I thought all the way Back in 2014. I’ve been holding this in for two years. And so we launched We had 144 people on launch day, and then the next Sunday, we had 43, which brought a whole new meaning to church planting 101.

I know how to minus 101 from the launch day to the next one, and so I just decided, though, hey, my god, My job in life is to be confident, is to be, to lead the way, and so we just decided very early, before we even launched, our vision was going to be pretty simple. It’s since been more sophisticated, but when we launched, I said two things.

We’re going to create an environment where LDS and atheists can come and learn about the faith, and so we want to make sure we’re constantly open to those conversations. But number two, as a result, we’re going to baptize 200 people In three years, and so that’s how I led and so every single Sunday, I’d say, Hey, we’re not there yet, but let’s keep going.

And so we, in that beginning, this first couple of months, we built those Jesus letters. Anybody seen those Jesus letters on Baptism Sunday? Well, great. We need to show you guys those pretty soon. Let’s get, we have some baptisms on the way, so you’ll see them, but they have 200 sockets representing the 200 baptisms we’re going to have in just three years.

And, uh, so every Sunday, just ask those who are with us in the beginning. I would say, I’d get up, hey, this is, this is who our church is, and we’re going to have 200 baptisms in three years. And I said this for about two and a half years. In the last six months, I began to realize, we are not reaching that goal, folks.

This is getting hard. Can I somehow make you forget this? Because you’re not going to trust me as a leader. Because I’ve been saying from the rooftops. We’re going to have 200 baptisms in three years, even the Jesus letters. That was our stage design. So it was a daily reminder. Hey, how come there’s not many light bulbs in there?

I just tell them we couldn’t afford light bulbs. That’s all we got. No, these all represent baptisms and we’re just not there yet. And so honestly, every Sunday I come in, it’d just be a reminder in my mind of my failures of leadership and how I wasn’t sharing the gospel well enough. I wasn’t creating organization that was strong enough to achieve such a goal.

Because it turns out there was a massive gap between my dream and our reality. And this sent me down a path of frustration, and honestly, at times, depression. It wasn’t just the humiliation of a missed goal that everybody knew about. That was also rough. But I really did want us to seek a new kingdom. But on Mondays, I would often tell my wife, Maybe I need to seek a new career.

This is, I’m not fit for this. I have totally missed the mark. Now, nothing about my church was what I had in mind back in 2014, all the way to 2016 and 2019. There was so much more I dreamt that never came to pass, but there’s still more to this story. Stay tuned. I am exciting updates of how our church has gone.

Obviously, we didn’t die. We’re still here. But if you take an honest look at the Bible, this story isn’t so foreign. Time and time again, from the Old Testament to the New, dreams are how God leads his people to greater heights. They function as a north star for people to keep going in their journey. It gives us energy and perseverance to keep getting back up again when the inevitability of the enemy coming and pressing against you.

And honestly, God loves to give us dreams that are accomplished here in this world. But the more I read scripture, I also recognize dreams have a way of being the vehicle by which he takes us to greater depths. Dreams can be crushing. Right? You are certain that you, a better future was just around the corner.

And it’s humiliating. Because if you’re a leader, not only do you have a dream, you’re supposed to tell others about that dream. And so people buy in for us. People literally moved from different states to come help us launch. They changed their careers. They reoriented their schedules. And now what do you do?

Because everybody’s walking around thinking this hasn’t happened yet. And so I want us to actually look together at Paul’s kingdom dreams in Acts 15 and 16. So we’ve been going through all of the book of Acts this year and then all those different practices. And so we’re now finding ourselves in the last part of 15 and the first part of 16.

But before we get there, I want us to actually remind us of where we’ve been in this book so far. So Paul, who was first named Saul, he enters the narrative. Anybody know which chapter? Acts chapter nine. It’s just a wonderful morning guys. Come on. In Acts 9, he gets a dream of his future. He actually gets a vision of King Jesus in the flesh, and he’s supposed to reach the Gentiles with the gospel.

Then you go to Acts 10, and it’s not about Paul’s dream. In Acts 10, what is it? It’s Peter’s dream. Peter has a dream that all, that he’s actually supposed to preach the gospel to the Gentiles as well. And we’re supposed to meet this guy named Cornelius, and Cornelius is like the first official Gentile convert.

And, and so this is a huge advancement of the gospel. Now, back to Acts 11. Again, we see him get a taste of the dream. He is living the dream. What do we see in Acts 11? We talked about it actually on our summer Sunday, uh, back in July. Barnabas starts this church in Antioch and it’s going super well. And it’s going so well, he’s like, I need some help.

And he goes, wait, wasn’t that Saul guy? From on the road to Damascus, his call was to help Gentiles believe in the gospel. So he goes all the way back, uh, to Tarsus, says, Hey, Saul, come and let’s start this church together. So they continue it and it begins to flourish. Miracles are happening. They’re thriving.

They’re growing. They’re sacrificially giving to the church in Jerusalem. It’s everything Paul ever dreamt of doing as a pastor. And it kind of felt like it happened pretty soon, at least in the chapters of scripture. And now they’re getting prepared to be sent out. But then, turn the page from Acts 11 to Acts 12, and reality sinks in.

The dream doesn’t seem to be all it was cracked up to be. In the beginning of Acts chapter 12, the church at large is hit with a major blow. The apostle James, the brother of John who wrote Revelation, gets martyred by Herod with a sword. And what’s hard about Acts 12 is it feels like it comes out of nowhere.

It doesn’t seem like they even had time to pray. All of a sudden he was martyred. And now they’re all asking the question as a church, what happened to all those miracles? What happened to all that momentum? What happened to God’s hand being clearly on our life? And I’ll be brief here because we talked about it in Acts 12, just search dazzled and disappointed on YouTube.

But hear me, dreams that are directed by God are filled with disappointment. The reality is, is there is evil and suffering in this world. Sin done by us, sin done to us, and sin done all around us, diseases us, divides us, and destroys us. And so it’s really disappointing. There’s really no positive spin to the beginning of Acts chapter 12.

James, this beloved disciple, the apostle of Jesus, is now dead. And of course, we have the hope he is with Jesus, and his body will be resurrected, all of that. But still, it’s not super satisfying. At times, right? It’s sad. I remember I mentioned when we were preaching through Acts 12, I still wrestle big time with the loss of one of my best friends who died at 31 from a very rare cancer.

Such an incredible person. Loved people, loved the Lord, and it’s just simply not fair. And it’s honestly just really, really disappointing. A couple weeks ago, actually, me and Pastor Caleb went to a conference in Portland. Don’t worry, we survived. But as we were in Portland, we went to this great conference and we had a great time.

And this worship, it was great. And they were singing one of my favorite songs and all of a sudden though because I know this song well enough I noticed they changed the line and I was thinking what line did they change? This doesn’t like how I remembered it and the song goes it gets to the I don’t know if it’s a chorus or a bridge I’m, not the worship leader.

Okay, but there’s a part of the song where it says he never lets me down He never lets me down. So I just love that part and they removed it. And instead they put, he is the solid ground. So I was thinking about it. Why did they remove? He never lets me down. And I thought, well, duh, if you’re a disciple of Jesus, you’re let down by him a lot.

Right? You’re disappointed by Jesus a lot. And that’s actually, there’s always a good thing. There’s a something good around the corner. But if, let’s be honest, folks, we’re setting people up for despair and deconstruction. If we don’t tell people ahead of time, follow the Lord, and not only will life disappoint you, it will seem as if Jesus himself is disappointing you.

But persevere, brothers and sisters. Can you tell today’s gonna be really encouraging? So let’s keep going. So Acts chapter 12 is pretty disappointing, but surely that’s just Acts chapter 12. Let’s look at Paul’s life. Acts chapter 13 and 14, it’s so much better, right? Well, write this down. We already read through this, so I’m going to summarize.

Dreams that are directed by God are filled with disappointments and difficulties. Do you remember Paul? He was given the task to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Now, before, Paul can just preach the gospel by starting in the Torah, starting in the Old Testament, and showing how Jesus fulfilled those Ten Commandments.

But now, with pagans, they don’t even know the Bible, so he has to do the difficult work of contextualization. We talked about that just a few weeks ago. But if that wasn’t hard enough, and that’s fine, What’s even more difficult is the crowds want to worship him. Remember, they say that he is Zeus and Hermes, and then out of nowhere, just a few people churn the tide of the mob.

And now they want to stone him and leave him for dead. And that’s exactly what they do. They take him out of the town. They’re pretty sure he is dead. They go back in and remember the Rocky music. He gets back up and eye of the tiger baby goes right back into the city. But let’s be honest. That’s a really difficult Wednesday.

Okay. It’s pursuing the kingdom of God is filled with difficulties. Humanize Paul for a moment. Don’t you think Paul is thinking, can we just go back to Acts chapter 11? People liked me. I liked them. Nobody tried to stone me. The gospel was spreading. Why are we going through so much difficulty? And yet what’s amazing about Paul is he’s obedient.

He sticks to the vision. And so surely Acts chapter 15 turns the corner. Right? I think you’re catching on. Last Sunday, we covered the debate at Jerusalem. Remember, Acts chapter 15, there’s a group of Pharisees that were trying to say Jesus plus circumcision equals salvation, right? So every generation does this.

We add something to the work of Christ, and so I went through all of that, and every generation has to be very clear. What is the gospel, and what is it not? But let’s read what happens next. Now we are at the part where we haven’t read yet as a faith family. So let’s look at chapter 15, verse 15. Thirty six.

After some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, let’s go back and visit the brothers and sisters in every town where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they’re doing. If you remember, they had a first missionary journey, and then they go back to, uh, Jerusalem to settle debate, then they go to Antioch, and now they’re just living the life that’s good.

And now they’re saying, let’s go back, let’s go to Galatia, let’s go to all these places we’ve already planted churches, and make sure they’re making disciples. Verse 37. Barnabas wanted to take along John, who was also called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take along this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.

You actually read this story in Acts chapter 13. You’ll see that he just deserts them and, uh, John, Mark, this is Mark, and many believe actually wrote the gospel of Mark, but Paul is not happy with him right here. Verse 39, they had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed.

After being commended by the brothers and sisters to the grace of the Lord, he traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Now, what have we learned so far? We’ve learned dreams that are directed by God are filled with disappointments and difficulties And now we just learned it’s also filled with disagreements Right acts 15 is all about paul dealing with two types of disagreements.

The first one is doctrine What is the gospel and what is it not they were disagreeing it got pretty heated paul even had to confront peter himself But now it’s a disagreement not on doctrine paul figured figures out that fight now. It’s a disagreement on direction Again, in Acts chapter 13, John Mark leaves them to go back to Jerusalem.

Now, that passage doesn’t specifically say why John Mark left them. We can assume a couple things. The commentators say there’s, uh, it’s probably that he left, uh, for the following reasons that Paul wouldn’t think was a good reason. One is that he was homesick. I think it’s really clear. John Mark here is pretty young at this point, and so he likely just misses his hometown.

He misses his mom’s home cooked meals, and so he’s thinking, I didn’t really sign up for this. I want to go back home. I love you. I love Jesus where I’m at, but let me go back home. That’s one reason. And so Paul is thinking, that’s, you’re lame, bro. You’re not coming with me. Man up. You know, that’s maybe one perspective of him, but the second one is just fear, and I think that’s, It’s an honest thing.

Like, things were stirring up against the Apostles. The threat of being stoned to death was on the horizon. He actually seems pretty smart because in Acts 13 he leaves. What happens in Acts 14? He starts to get stoned. And so John Mark saw the writing on the walls and got out when he could. Either way, whether this was a good reason or a bad reason, it certainly wasn’t good reason in the eyes of Paul.

This led to, quote, a sharp disagreement. When Barnabas wanted to bring back his cousin. They’re actually related. And so this phrase here, this sharp disagreement implies violence. It actually implies like deep emotional pain. Paul and Barnabas are not seeing eye to eye. I want you to imagine this is probably such a serious matter that it kept both of them awake at night.

Now remember, Paul and Barnabas, they love each other. They’re for each other. Paul, uh, owed a lot of his ministry to Barnabas. Nobody believed in Saul, right? I just imagine when Saul got saved, he used to kill Christians. Now he got converted. Everybody else, but Paul, uh, but Barnabas, when they said, let’s close our eyes to pray, everybody kept their eyes open.

I don’t know about this guy. I think he’s going to try to kill us still. Barnabas said, no, I trust him. Let’s go. I believe in you, right? So there is so much backstory here, and yet it leads to this disagreement that’s so. severe that they part ways. Now, what is this disagreement? This disagreement is grounded in what most people would call a difference of philosophy of ministry.

So what is Barnabas call on life? Barnabas, he is the, an encourager. He’s the, he’s got the ministry of second chances, right? He spots the diamond in the rough. He believes in the grace of Jesus. And so everything’s going to be okay. So that’s how we found Paul. That’s how he’s encouraging John Mark. This is just Barnabas’s play.

This is just what he always does. Paul’s not that way. Paul’s more like the lawyer type. Paul is a persevering man. Like his ministry is out of perseverance and brilliance. And so for Paul, he’s thinking, man, this road is tough and I need people with me that will back me every step of the way. And I need to finish this race.

We’re actually going to look at that in Acts chapter 20 verse 24. Such a huge line for Paul to talk about finishing the race. I think it’s one of the major themes of his life. And in his mind, he needs the right people to run with him. And John Mark just isn’t that guy. Now, are either philosophies of ministry evil?

No, right? Is Barnabas right? Or is Paul right? Most commentators say they both have legs to stand on. And that’s actually what happens a lot in ministry. And I think it’s really important to remember that. It’s really important to not demonize those who disagree with us. I know for us at Passion Creek, we’ve had plenty of people leave in the past and it’s a temptation for me to write them off as disobedient or dysfunctional or some other thing, but that’s honestly not always the case, right?

Sometimes literally God calls people to a new place, to a new season. And what’s amazing here is Paul and Barnabas, they agree to disagree and they just part ways, but the beautiful thing, Is they’re both preaching the gospel and so that’s the good news here There’s finally some good news today here in acts 15.

The good news comes from this what looks like division leads to multiplication So barnabas and john mark they go one direction Paul silas and eventually timothy which are the next five verses that we’re going to have to skip over for the sake of time But they go and grab timothy and they go in a different direction.

And here’s the good news The gospel spread multiple ways You Right? So that’s positive. That’s encouraging. All right, hang in there. It’s got to get better. But let me recap dreams that are directed by God. I’m not going to lie. I put always in the sermon notes this week. So I was going to say it all. And then pastor Caleb says, is that really true always?

So I was like, okay, so I want to say always, but it’s probably wrong. So don’t think always dreams that are directed by God or sometimes filled with disappointment, difficulties. And disagreements. So Acts 16 is surely gonna turn the corner, right? Okay, let’s read verse 6 again. Chapter 16 verse 6. So they, being Paul and Silas and Timothy, they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, and they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

Interesting. So when they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. And so passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. So imagine kind of their frustration. Paul’s thinking, man, I, I just parted ways. From, from Barnabas, and, and now I, I do want to preach your word, but it seems like you keep telling me no.

I imagine Paul’s having doubts here. Verse 9. During the night, Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man, this is interesting, I don’t think this, there’s any way to prove this, but a lot of people think this was, um, Alexander the Great, because he is from Macedonia, so they’re thinking Alexander the Great was in a dream.

I don’t think so, but it makes for a fun story, so maybe this is that Macedonian man. But he had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, Cross over to Macedonia and help us. So after he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Now quickly, I want you to notice the Trinity here in this text. Did you guys pick up on that? Verse 6, it says, forbidden by the Holy Spirit. Verse 7, the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. And a lot of people would imply, verse 10, God, possibly God the Father, had called us to preach the gospel to them. So I think it’s fascinating, first of all, to prove the Trinity is there all throughout the Scriptures.

But isn’t it fascinating that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were telling these men who loved the Lord, who wanted to preach the gospel to pagan people, they kept telling them no. Which leads us to believe dreams that are directed by God are filled with disappointments, difficulties, disagreements, and detours.

Now, what’s fascinating here is the text doesn’t tell us how they perceive God’s no. So let me just give you a couple of different ways we’ve kind of understood throughout history and even also in the Bible, how you and I can maybe even detect a no from God. One, it could have been in a vision, right? So maybe the vision from the Lord, from the Holy Spirit, from Jesus, they all woke up and were like, yeah, let’s not do that.

It could have been withdrawing his spirit. I know for me and my wife, there was one opportunity we had to go somewhere, and we were both at a, we were at Chipotle. That’s where the presence of the Lord is. Amen. Especially if you get the vinaigrette. Praise the Lord. Holy Spirit. Alright, so we’re there, and literally at the same time, me and her looked at each other.

And we were like, God’s not calling us here. And she’s like, I literally was thinking the same thing at that moment. It’s weird. There’s just this presence that’s removed. If you’re interested in, in like ancient spirituality, Ignatius has this spiritual exercise. It’s called consolation and desolation. And it’s honestly a huge way.

I helped discern God’s will for my life and God’s will for our church. And we do this in community. Consolation just means you’re inspired. It leads you to love, joy, and peace. There’s an excitement when you think about a certain direction and desolation, it’s interesting. Everything may sound right. It sounds like that’s the right way to go, but every time you think about it or pray about it, it’s draining.

It’s not life giving. There’s something depressing about it, and that’s honestly often how the Holy Spirit guides us. Now, you could be wrong. That’s why helpful in community and reading the Scripture, but that is one way. It could be that God was closing doors for transportation. I know for me and my wife, we wanted to become missionaries in Southeast Asia, and God literally just kept closing doors, so it just wasn’t possible for us.

And also, maybe he was sick. We know that Timothy had a lot of stomach issues, and maybe they kept trying to go somewhere, and it stopped. Ior I just think it’s in prayer, and the Lord just revealed it to them. Either way, all we know is they discerned from God it was a no. Or at least was a detour and I call this a detour because if you actually read second corinthians Which I will say at the very end of this passage.

We do see paul does go to asia. But what about bithynia? I don’t know. It’s certain the gospel god wants the gospel to go there But hear me God has more plans. God has more people than you to accomplish his purpose. So just because God said no to Paul doesn’t mean he was saying no to Barnabas to go to Bithynia in Asia.

We have to understand this is how God works. Now it’s important for all of us to know and hear me clearly. God has the right to tell us no. I love it. One of my favorite lines from Tim Keller. He says, if your God never disagrees with you, all you are worshiping is your own idealized self. Does your God disagree with you?

Because if not, you have made yourself God and be very careful brothers and sisters, right? We say all the time at our church, we can’t pick and choose what to follow because if we do, we’ll have a faith that’s fake and hollow. God has the right to tell us no. But if we trust in the goodness of God, we know these detours, these no’s, they will lead to God’s glory and our joy.

So in Paul’s case, this ultimately leads to Macedonia. So Macedonia is a really wealthy area. It’s the embodiment, embodiment of Rome, Asia seems more strategic because they’re very in desperate need. And honestly, when you share the gospel, you’re sharing the gospel. You go to poor people, desperate people, they eat it up a lot quicker.

You go to wealthy people. Those are hard places to preach the gospel. And it really seems like this region had it all. How in the world can we share the gospel to people who have everything in life that they need and yet God calls them there. But listen, God knows what he’s doing more than you and I, amen.

Do you know who is in Macedonia? Three churches that we see in Acts and we see throughout the Bible. One is Philippi, leading to one of the most joyful books ever written, right? For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I counted all joy, brothers and sisters. Philippians is a wonderful book that was created because they went to Macedonia.

The second one is Thessalonica, where we get Thessalonians. First and second Thessalonians are incredible. They are talking about the second coming of Christ and how to love one another in community. And then you have Berea. This church doesn’t get a letter, but it’s a wonderful picture of a gospel centered church who uses the Bible to interpret the Bible.

And so, so many amazing things happen in Macedonia. Not to mention, the church in Macedonia is the one that inspired radical and joyful giving. Remember our generosity practice when we talked about tithing, not tipping? We read 2 Corinthians 8 through 9, and Paul was talking to Corinth and saying, Yo, this church in Macedonia, they’re doing the right things.

They’re poor because they believe Jesus. They’ve been taken away from the market. But. Still, they’re joyfully and abundantly giving to the mission from their lack, not from their surplus. And it inspired Corinth to be a generous church. And it has inspired thousands upon thousands of churches throughout history, including our own, to become more generous.

And so clearly, of course, God needed Paul and Silas and Timothy to go to Macedonia. God sees the bigger picture here. And so it’s easy for us to get frustrated with God’s delays, his denials, and his detours. But this passage reminds us of a simple truth. God’s no is a better yes. In hindsight, of course God said don’t go to Asia.

Not yet. We need Macedonia for the mission. But they didn’t know that then. Paul, Silas, Timothy are probably throwing a pity party. God, you keep closing doors. I’m trying to do this for you. This vision is to expand the kingdom and you keep telling me no. At Passion Creek, we’ve had a lot of doors shut in our face.

I mentioned, in 2019, the door was shut in the face, at least of the goal of 200 baptisms in three years. It took me a few months to lick my chops, but now we’re back at it. September 2019, I got so excited, we started a building campaign called Something New. Does anybody remember that? You don’t even remember that?

That’s how effective this campaign was, guys. So, we met, actually, it was actually very short lived. It was like two weeks, and there’s a reason. So, we actually met with the church who was closing its doors, and it was in a neighborhood, so that was a drawback, but the price was actually, like, doable for a church of 70 people, and so we’re like, let’s do it.

The building wasn’t complete yet. It’s a very reasonable price, and so we met, we prayed, We got there on campus. We saw all of it. We’re very excited. It was a few acres. Already had a soccer field. Let’s go. And so I meet with the person. They greet. Handshake deal on Friday. Hey, this is your church building.

So I’m pumped. And I’m young and dumb. So on Sunday, I show the blueprints of the church. And I show the location. I say, This is ours! Isn’t God so good? You know? And you guys know how this ends up, because we’re here. Monday, the deal was go to the bank, we’re going to go, handshake, we’re going to sign it on Monday.

So I go to Monday, I go to the bank, they never show up. Turns out they gave it to another church, who’s a little more Pentecostal than us. It’s fine. And so I had to tell the church that next Sunday, you know that thing, nevermind. And so then to save myself, there’s something new, guys. That was COVID 19. I was prophetic.

I just, you know, put it in the wrong area. There was something new entirely coming, but it wasn’t what I thought. And then early last year, none of you know about this, but I met with somebody else who was interested in giving us a space. We talked and, We met and talked about doctrine and the direction of our church.

I honestly thought the meeting went really, really well. And so I started to dream of what we can do in this space. It wasn’t the perfect space, but it was a space. And so I got very excited for God and what he’s doing. I slowly shared some with our leadership team, but I kept it pretty close to the chest because of what happened back in 2019.

And then all of a sudden I stopped hearing from him and that’s fine. That’s just how things go. And I get on Facebook one day last summer, and I see that it was given to another organization. Gut punch. Here we go again. Another closed door. And so honestly, instead of telling myself as you would hope your pastor would do, I didn’t say, Trey, dreams that are directed by God are filled with disappointments, difficulties, disagreements, and detours.

You got this. I did not do that. Instead, I wrote a letter to the man and I wrote, uh, the header says, thank you for not giving us four acres because we have a bigger vision. And so I made this whole thing. I was like, a four, a four acre vision can’t contain what God has for us. I was like, we need more than four acres to form people by Jesus.

We need more than four acres to build a hospitable environment to reach our community. We need. So I just went off and I was like, this is going to be so insane. It’s inspiring when we get a building one day, and I hope it’s more than four acres, right? Or else that letter doesn’t have as much power, right?

4. 3, let’s go, you know? And I lost the letter, and to the glory of God, I think, I didn’t type it, I wrote it down. I think my wife threw it away for my own sanity. It was honestly more vengeful than it was Christ like. And, uh, and I know there’s anticipation that I have a building announced. I don’t, okay? So let’s just lay that down right now, okay?

I feel like I’m really ramping up to something here. I don’t know. No. Okay. Um, but even, but even this week, I thanked God for all the no’s partially because I am holding out that we’re going to have a better location with a better facility and better timing. And it already has been better timing. We weren’t ready even a year ago as we are right now.

But more importantly, all those no’s have created and are creating a better soul within me. And I have seen it so much as created better souls within you. See, dreams are central to how God guides us, and we like to talk about that a lot, but it’s also essential in how God purges us. And if we are a church that is supposed to be formed by Jesus, of course purgation is a part of the process.

So God guides us with dreams. I think we have a dream to seek the kingdom of God together. And this year specifically has been about being hospitable people who make peace with others. And we’re generous with our resources. And that is a beautiful picture of the kingdom. But what I also love about our good God, he doesn’t just want to accomplish things through us.

He wants to form us along the way. He wants to create us into loving, Gentle kind people who have the capacity to receive his gifts and not make them act like they’re the giver No, those are just gifts. We’re grateful But God you are the one that we worship and you are the one we always focus on see this process of purgation Or evangelicals would call it sanctification is essential to our discipleship.

What God does is he purges us. He burns us. He burns away those passions, those fleshly desires that we know is wrong, but we still fill in the depths of our being. But if you suffer long enough, if you suffer well, you can get to the point in your discipleship where you think, I actually don’t want those things anymore.

I don’t care about the praise of man. I don’t need to have the biggest church in the city. I don’t, X, Y, and Z, God actually begins to purge you. I love a Dallas Willard line that gave me so much hope this week, and why God really puts us through this process. It’s not on the screen, but he says, quote, God wants to see what we do when there are no fireworks.

Are we faithful in the little things? See, we want to change the world. We want to seek the kingdom. And I love that line. Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to help mom with the dishes. And so this is what we do. We do the little things for the kingdom. And so we will continue to have, here at Passion Creek, a large vision of seeking the kingdom here in Queen Creek and the surrounding cities because we’re continuing to reach beyond just Queen Creek.

But hear me, expect disappointments, expect difficulties, Expect disagreements. And they don’t always have to end like Paul and Barnabas. We can actually still stay together despite some disagreements. And expect detours. See, it’s within these chapters of Acts, specifically 9 through 16. Everybody agrees within that window.

He did write the letter to the Galatians. Now, there’s some debate When was it during chapter 14 or 16 and that stuff is fun to talk about with pastor Caleb Um, but in Galatians when he writes this to the church, I think he’s handing it back Remember he’s on after his first missionary journey. He’s now going back to Galatia I think he hands him this letter and here’s what Paul says Remember the context of All Paul has gone through in Acts 9 through 16, a span of over 20 years, he says the following, quote, Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

I just feel like that’s been the theme of my life lately. Persevere. Keep going. See what the Lord can do. And here’s what I think the reaping of the harvest means. I think we reap a harvest of new souls in the kingdom. Yes and amen, but also we reap the transformation of our own souls where we truly become people filled with love, joy, and peace.

So actually we’re gonna respond to this message in a different way. Partially because we don’t have a keyboard today. So you know me, I love that little keyboard backdrop. We’re not going to do that today. I’m going to make you uncomfortable. I want us the next few moments in silence, listen to God and how he directs you with these two questions.

The first one. So actually, if everybody can help me close your eyes and maybe even put out your hands, push back against distraction and ask the Lord to speak to you in the next few moments. The first question is God. Where are you guiding me?

If you have a family, maybe even ask, God, where are you guiding us?

And if you call this church home, ask the same question, but in light of our whole family, God, where are you guiding us at passion Creek

all throughout scripture, the Holy spirit is typically found in the silent places. And the enemy wants to distract us and to pull us away from this moment. So even if you need a bit of recentering before I ask this next question, just encourage you to breathe a deep breath in

and breathe out. Here’s the harder question, God, how are you purging me?

May we surrender to your purging.

Later on in Paul’s journey, he does go to Asia. And we know this because of his letter to the Corinthians. And he endures even more tragedy and disappointment. Listen, it won’t be on the screen, but I want you to listen, maybe even continue to close your eyes, because I want you to imagine your journey is much like Paul’s, because we as Christians typically have the same type of journeys.

Chapter 1 verse 8, he says, We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure. And we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die, but here’s the gospel turnaround folks.

But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learn to rely on God. Only on God who raises the dead.