"HOW GOD MOVES PEOPLE"
Acts 13:1-4
Main Idea: God moves people to place them where His plans desire them.
Introduction: This past October my mother moved from Hot Springs to live in Fayetteville where my brother lives. Our family had lived in Hot Springs since about 1957. My mom is only 70 but because she has some health needs, doesn’t drive, and is widowed, she really needed to be nearer to one of us. Since my brother has a new baby daughter, there was really no choice.
The day we left Hot Springs wasn’t easy. You just don’t walk away from 41 years in one place and not look back. Everything went fine but as the movers were putting the last items on the truck I noticed my Mom sitting by herself on the steps outside the door of her apartment. She had her head down and her shoulders were shaking and I knew once again this wasn’t easy.
No matter how smooth and ultimately satisfying it may be, any move has its moments of trauma and uncertainty. Yet in the middle of any move it helps to know that God is behind the move, directing the symphony of changes, transitions and adjustments. Today you may feel the excitement of change or you may feel confused because this place for this purpose is different. There’s no question that you’ll adjust because you know it’s for a good reason. It’s just different.
However, our move across the street is an excellent reminder how God moves and directs people in order to place them where His plans desire them. Regardless of why you are here today or are here in Jonesboro, whatever on the surface moved you, God is at work moving people to put them in places where He needs them.
An excellent story that helps us understand how God moves people is found in Acts 13:1-4. In these verses we will see how God moved two very important people to a place where His plans desired them. What I want us to discover is that God has a plan to move people, that He moves people for a purpose and how we can know when God wants to move us as part of His plan.
When we think about God and the church we often forget that God never wanted the church to become too settled or too comfortable. The words of Jesus were spoken to remind them that no matter where they were they were never to lose the number of the U-Haul location. They were to drive some very shallow tent pegs because the next horizon was their destination. Places like Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the farthest parts of the earth, those were to be their focus. Whenever God’s people became too rooted they soon found God turned their world turned upside down and inside out, moving them where He needed them. When they were too settled in Jerusalem a persecution came that moved them to Judea. When they stayed too long there God caused people to be saved in Samaria. What can we learn abut God’s plan or pattern to move people?
To get us where God wants us will most often mean a change in location. I realize that technology has made our world more and more accessible but a person in a place for a purpose is still the best way. To put you where He needed or needs you can mean a change in location. Also, to get us where God wants us can mean a change in our circumstances. Very likely to bring you here something changed in your circumstances. There’s another thing God uses and that is that to get us where He desires us He may cause changes in our heart. Somewhere inside of you your soul’s weather vane took a new direction and your heart changed. Location, circumstances and a change of heart are all part of God’s plan to move people where His plans desire them.
God has a plan to keep people on the move. He doesn’t do it because He’s bored or enjoys watching us pack and unpack our boxes. No, He does it because "out there" is a need that won’t be met if we stay where we are.
We imagine that if things are really going well for me or my family that God is not going to ask me to make any changes. The truth is our current success is no assurance against a future change. That was true in the church at Antioch.
The city of Antioch was the Las Vegas of the Mediterranean. It made pleasure its profit. Prostitution, gambling, horse racing, chariot racing, architecturally beauty were its selling points. The church, even though in a difficult location, had grown to the point that it had a wide range of outstanding leaders. Barnabas is a man of great skill and encouragement. Simeon was from Africa and by his nickname was likely a black skinned person. Lucius was one of the founders of the church. Manaen was a foster brother of Herod who was an appointed king of the Jews. Then there was Saul who would later be called Paul. The world has been changed because of this one man.
In spite of the leadership, location or success of the church, God wanted to make some changes. No matter how good or effective we may be where we are, that is no guarantee that God will not create a climate of change. Simply because things are great now doesn’t mean they may not be greater somewhere else or some other way. Just don’t say, "It’s going too good. Why would God want me to change?"
God may use a variety of things to get us to be open to change. He may surprise us with an interruption to get us to consider a need that He knows we can meet. That’s what happened in this church. While they were "doing church," very likely praying or praising, God broke in with a message. That message was, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." While they were talking to God God interrupted because He had something to say. What He had to say was, "Give me your two best people because I’ve got something for them to do."
Most of us see interruptions as diversions from what we are to really be doing, that somehow whatever has broken in to my life or schedule needs to be eliminated so I can get back to my real life. C. S. Lewis said, "What we must do is to stop regarding unpleasant or unexpected things as interruptions of real life. The truth is that interruptions are real life, the real life that God sends us day by day. What we call our real life is but a phantom of our imagination." We never know when a phone call, a request, a question or a need may be not an agitation or a distraction but the very voice of God!
What are we to do, though, when God has disturbed our comfort zones and interrupted our security? The only thing we can—obey! The Spirit of God had selected the very best, Barnabas and Saul, to go out where God needed them. The church then responded with affirmation of the choice by sending them out to do the work God wanted for them.
It would be good if we as a church, or personally, could respond as quickly to the commands of the Spirit. Unfortunately, we are more like this light-hearted comment on how denominations, particularly Southern Baptists would change a light bulb:
"How many Southern Baptists does it take to change a light bulb? One hundred and nine: Seven on the Light Bulb Task Force Sub-committee, who report to the twelve on the Light Bulb Task Force, appointed by the fifteen on the Trustee Board. Their recommendation is reviewed by the Finance Committee Executive of five, who place it on the agenda of the eighteen-member Finance Committee. If they approve, they bring a motion to the seventeen-member Church Board, who appoint another twelve-member review committee. If they recommend that the Church Board proceed, a resolution is brought to the congregational business meeting. They appoint another eight-member review committee. If their report to the next business meeting supports the changing of a light bulb, and the congregation votes in favor, the responsibility to carry out the light bulb change is passed on to the Trustee Board, who in turn appoints a seven-member committee to find the best price on new light bulbs. Their recommendation of which hardware has the best buy must then be reviewed by the twenty-three member Ethics Committee to make certain that this hardware store has no connection to Walt Disney. They report back to the Trustee Board, who then commissions the Trustee in charge of the janitor to ask him to make the change. By then the janitor discovers that one more light bulb has just burned out!"
God is looking for people who won’t spend all their time trying to question His purpose. God is looking for people who will obey His voice when he speaks. Has God spoken to you? It may not be in an audible voice but have you sensed Him pulling at your tent pegs and disrupting your security? What He needs you to do is take the next step of faith. You may not have all the information or answers you want but your have heard all you need—obey.
Beyond where you are is a need to which God knows you can be part of meeting. Your success is good but don’t be surprised if He interrupts and says, "Go!"
I realize that knowing when God is directing you to uproot your life is a very subjective thing. You wonder how do I know this is God’s purpose for me and not my own desires? Let me give you some ideas that can help you distinguish the difference:
One suggestion is do not automatically remove any possibility. You may have in your mind what you want to do or where you want to live, marry, work, or go to church. Just because what you sense may be God’s voice doesn’t fit the plan don’t turn it off.
Another thought is do not get so busy that you aren’t sensitive spiritually. That can happen to any of us. We allow our lives to be so full of activities that we are just insensitive to what God may be saying to us. We may need to "unplug" for a few hours or days to hear what we are needing to hear.
Remember also that God’s moves are personal choices. Not everyone will feel the same thing you feel or hear what you hear. So don’t expect others to carry the same sense of call to respond to God as you have. He speaks to individuals not groups of people.
Finally, when you feel God is moving you to something new, how will you know? Ask yourself these questions:
-Are you growing more restless than content where you are?
-Are you wondering more about what it would be like somewhere else?
-Are things that once held you down not as important?
-Are you nearly bursting to follow through with what you are thinking about?
-Are you constantly thinking about what might be out there for you?
Restless, curious, detached, compelling, constant thoughts—all ways God may be saying, "It’s time to move."
Conclusion: One of my favorite novels is All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. It’s the story of two teenage boys who go on adventure. The boys have a dream of leaving their home in South Texas and working on a ranch in central Mexico. After planning for a few days they set off one fall morning. McCarthy writes, "They rode out along the fenceline and across the open pastureland. The leather creaked in the morning cold. They pushed the horses into a lope. The lights fell away behind them. They rode out on the high prairie where they slowed the horses to a walk and the stars swarmed around them out of the blackness. They heard somewhere in that tenantless night a bell that tolled and ceased where no bell was and they rode out on the round dais of the earth which alone was dark and no light to it and which carried their figures and bore them up into the swarming stars so that they rode not under but among them and they rode at once jaunty and circumspect, like thieves newly loosed in that dark electric, like young thieves in a glowing orchard, loosely jacketed against the cold and ten thousand worlds for the choosing."
You may not be moved by God to leave the familiar. It’s just that I don’t want you to miss the "ten thousand worlds for the choosing" by thinking, "Surely, He can’t mean me?" God can be moving you to follow Him by accepting Jesus as your Savior. He can be moving you to obey His leading you to change an address, job, school, church, relationship or something that I can’t possibly know but you do. God moves people to place them where His plans desire them.
Where does God want to move you?
Sunday, January 31, 1999
Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Jonesboro, Arkansas