SPEAKER_00 0:00

Look in your Bible, Acts chapter number 28, Acts 28. And we're going to look here at verses 30 and 31. Remember, the Apostle Paul is incarcerated. He's in confinement for his faith. And he appealed to Caesar. And of course, we know he went through Felix and Agrippa and many others, and he was testifying before the political leaders and telling them about the gospel of Christ. And in verse number 30 of Acts 28, the Bible says, And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, his own rented house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. You know, I don't think the Apostle Paul got to go to church on Sunday. I think he just had church there. You know, he didn't have the same liberties like you and I, we can just go to the grocery store or we can hop on a plane and go somewhere. He was he was confined. And how many of you guys remember the message that Brother Skelly preached a few months, maybe about a month and a half ago, that your your confinement is your assignment. You guys remember that? And there's some things that'll happen in our life that you don't choose. You didn't choose it. It just happens to you. And it could be somebody ripped out of your life, or it could be you're having a physical infirmity, or maybe something on the job site. It could be a number of things, but there's a there's a confinement. And that is your assignment. And the restriction is part of God's regulation of how He wants the gospel to go forward. Your limitation is your launch pad to your new ministry. I know a lot of us, we have these ideas and visions and dreams of how we think things should go. But last I checked, you're not God. I'm not God. We're dust. You guys know that, right? We're dust. Like we're very finite, we're very limited. And praise God, we have individual soul liberty to express, to emote, to love, to care, to do all these things. But but ultimately, God's guiding us. And he's also limiting us in various ways. And I just got to thinking, the apostle Paul, he could have got a bad attitude and be like, you know what, I can't, I can't go to Galatia, I can't go to uh Cappadocia, I can't go to Colossae, I can't go to Corinth, man, my life is over, everything's messed up. And he could have got a bad attitude because what he wanted in ministry was not in alignment with what God wanted. But he didn't. He didn't. And I want to say this to you ministry happens right here, right now. Ministry happens right here, right now. You're not waiting for some future promotion for you to serve God. You serve him right here, right now, or you don't serve him at all. Amen. And so the big idea of this message is you cannot always control your circumstances, but you can remain faithful to your calling. Whether it's in a prison or a hospital room, or you were uh assigned in some sort of demotion at your work, or maybe your job, uh, your boss puts you over in a spot of town or into a room that you didn't choose for yourself, or you're a sports player and you're riding the pine, or you're playing a position that you didn't choose. Your assignment is given by God. And that confinement is where you're to do ministry. Ministry is not something you did yesterday or something you will do someday. Ministry happens right now, today. The people right next to you, the person playing the bass, the person playing the drums, the the widow woman that's walking into church. It happens right here, right now. And so if you're taking notes, number one, don't wait for ideal conditions. Don't wait for ideal conditions. Number one, don't wait for ideal conditions. Turn to your neighbor and say, don't wait for ideal conditions.

unknown 4:21

Don't wait for ideal conditions.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Be faithful where God has placed you. Your circumstances don't cancel your calling. I'm gonna say it again. Your circumstances don't cancel your calling. Don't wait for freedom to become fruitful. Be faithful in the small confined spaces. Turn over in your Bible to the book of Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah. I love this portion because Jeremiah is a weeping prophet. He's a weeping preacher. He he had a very challenging job to preach to those that were in exile. And in Jeremiah 29, he writes a letter to the exiles. In verse number one, it says, Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captive. So there are people carried away captive, and Jeremiah is writing to them. He's going to encourage them, he's going to give them wisdom and instruction. And by the way, when you're in confinement, when you're in restricted places, when you're in limitation situations, when you're in infirmities and handicaps, you need a word from God. You need a word from God so that that way you would know what is God doing in my life right here, right now. Because the temptation is to think, God has forgotten me. I'm out of the will of God. This is not part of it because our expectations don't line up with reality. And so we need a word from God, and that's what Jeremiah is doing as he's writing to those that were carried away captive. And it says this in verse 4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon. Who caused the carrying away from Jerusalem to Babylon? God did. And who was it that put you in that demotion or in that promotion? Who was it that put you in that star position or caused you to ride the pine? Who was it that put you on the platform and the very next moment he put you in the prison? It was God. It's always been God working in you to both will and to do of his good pleasure. And so he says, Thus saith the Lord, I have caused you to be carried away to uh to Jerusalem. Here's what I want you to do. Verse 5. Build ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Take ye wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and your give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters. I love this part, that ye may be increased there and not diminished. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, bloom where you're planted. Make the best of that opportunity. See, some of us in here, we're waiting for someday in the future when the circumstances line up with our expectation, and then we'll serve God. You got it wrong, buddy. You got it wrong, friend. You serve God right here, right now. You plant gardens, you take a spouse, you have children. There's a ton of people that think, well, when I have enough money or when I get done with school. No. You take this season and you maximize it. Season maxing. Hashtag season maxing, right? He says, I want you to work right where you're at, that you may be increased and not diminished. You know that you can actually increase in the restriction? You can increase in wisdom and stature and knowledge and favor with God and man. He says, Here's what I want you to do. I don't want you to get a bad attitude. No, no, I want you to build, I want you to plant, I want you to build your relationships. And he says in verse 7, and seek the peace of the city, whether I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. He's basically saying, Hey, you know the people that took you away, you know your masters, you know your the people that are over you and lording over you that you get upset at and you're angry at because of the limitations. Stop having a pity party and being upset and pushing it away and playing the victim. I caused you to be there. You're kicking against me. And so instead of you getting a bad attitude, in fact, here's what I want you to do. I want you to bless them and do good to them and forgive them and pray for them and develop them and encourage them. And you might be thinking, what? Those are my enemies. Yes. That's the person who took my position. Yes. Now you're starting to see it God's way. Bless them and lift them and strengthen them and help them and encourage them, because in their peace you get peace. In their favor you get favor. He says in verse 8, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, let not your prophets and your diviners that be in the midst of you deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams, which ye cause to be dreamed, for they prophesy falsely unto you in my name. I have not sent them, saith the Lord. There were some diviners, there were some preachers saying, Hey, you're gonna get out, and we need to we need to throw off Babylon, we need to throw off this circumstance, throw off this situation. And God's saying, No, no, no, no. Don't listen to them. I want you to stay right in the middle of it. I want you to stay right in the middle of it and make the very best of it. Don't try to get out of it and maximize this season. He says in verse 10, For thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished, Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good toward you and causing you to return to this place. He says, Listen, I have an appointed time. I have a time clock that I will deliver you and I will raise you up. And so if you wait till the 70 years of captivity is over, you won't have any growth at all. If you wait until this great is over and this school year is over, you won't, you will miss all the opportunity that God has in this season. He says in verse 11, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord. What's the next three words say? Thoughts of peace and not evil to give you an expected end. Hey guys, the whole reason I got a restriction on you is I'm doing something bigger and better, even though it doesn't look like it. And I have good thoughts toward you. Thoughts of peace and not evil. I'm gonna bring you to a good ending place, even though it doesn't look like it. And so my encouragement to you is don't wait for freedom to become fruitful. You know, they had a promise concerning their future, but a responsibility in their present. Don't waste 70 years or five years or three months waiting for your circumstances to change before you start living your purpose. Live it now. Right? I mean, there's a ton of people like, oh, if my husband would just change. Well, if you'd stop being a nagging wife and just start being a blessing, that would probably help. Or if you'd stop being, uh, you know, trying to control everybody else, be a blessing. In fact, turn your name and say, be a blessing. Yeah, be a blessing. Number two, if you're taking notes, open doors in closed places. Open doors in closed places. Paul was confined, but question, was the gospel confined? Did it say in Acts that people were coming to him? Hey, are you seeing people every day? Are people coming around your life on the football field or the classroom or when you're getting your food or you're at the grocery store? Are there not people all around you? There are, right? That is your ministry. Those are the people that you're supposed to work with. Uh the people that you're hating on at the office, you're like, man, she is just crazy, or he is. God speaking my heart right now a little bit. There's a guy at the beach that uh we surf with, and my buddy and I we call him uh, well, he's kind of a problem, okay? And uh he's maybe in his mid-50s, and and he is out of his mind. And so we call him megameth. Like he's a meth head, so megameth. But the Holy Spirit's telling me, hey, that's your ministry. It's easy to minister to people you like, right? It's harder when God says, No, no, I want you to love that person and be good to that person. You want to fix her project? You want a challenge? Here, I want you to love that person. So now here's what I gotta do is I gotta start loving him and blessing him and praying for him. I gotta stop making fun of him. Open doors and closed places. Paul was confined, but the gospel wasn't. His location changed, but his purpose didn't. He couldn't go to the people, but question could the people come to him? Yeah. Look for opportunities within your limitations. Hey, listen, if you're in the hospital getting a procedure done, do you think that maybe those are the people you're supposed to minister to? You know, the other night when um Mrs. Frazier had asked for me to come because her husband passed away, um, I was in the middle of a softball game. And I was like, and I had just dove up the middle. I was playing shortstop and dove. I got the ball, you know, skidded, got blood everywhere. But I made the catch, but then I messed up, right? I threw it to second too hard and it just messed up, you know. Yeah, but I was in the middle of the softball game. It was a good catch though, wasn't it? Yeah, thank you, thank you. Yeah, you know. Yeah, you gotta focus on the good, block the bad, right? But when that that that message came through that um the widow had requested me to come to pray for the hot at the hospital for them, obviously I couldn't bring Tim back. But I could come and be a blessing. And sometimes we think, oh, I gotta, and I I told my wife, should I change my clothes? I feel like I'm dirty, you know, and I mean I got blood and I got I got dirt everywhere. And uh, and I and she's like, nah, this is part of life. Just minister the way you are. And so I showed up over there and and uh she was weeping and and and um uh you know I was waiting, and and eventually I was like, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna pray. And there was there was uh there were people in the next room over. It was a shared room. And the people next to the room was being kind of loud and kind of talking about other things. And um I was just taking it all in and I got to thinking, this is ministry right here. Whether we're in the mountaintop or we're making diving plays or we're you know weeping and crying over death, that's ministry. You you you minister the gospel right where you're at. And uh when I got to praying, man, I just I just just went at it. Went at it praying for the Lord, the Holy Spirit to comfort, to bless, to strengthen, to help her heart, to heal her, to strengthen the rest of the family. And and when I first started praying, I could hear the chatter in the background. By the time I got done praying, uh, there was nobody else out there chattering anymore. I was just praying that the Holy Ghost of God, that heaven would come down and engulf the room with his presence. It's not gonna take away the sorrow, it's not gonna take away the grief, it's not gonna take away the loss, but certainly that sorrow will be mixed with some hope. And that grief would be mixed with some measure of comfort that the Holy Spirit is there with us. And certainly that took place. It's an open door in a closed place. You know, your restrictions may change your methods, but they don't have to stop your ministry. You may not have people who used to be next to you, and you may not have the finances or the health or whatever it is, but it doesn't it doesn't change your purpose in your ministry. You still have the same calling. You're still supposed to preach the gospel and shine the light, right? And so what this does is it should pull off all the reservations that you're not in the right spot, but you're right where you're supposed to be. And then number three, write this down. Uh, number one, number one was don't wait for ideal conditions. Number two is open doors and closed places. But number three, number three, people over platform. People over platform. Minister to whoever God places in front of you. Listen, I'm on a platform now. This platform doesn't make me a minister. I was at one paseo yesterday with Ray and Patty, enjoying a little bit of time after the couple's uh retreat, just sitting there. That's ministry. One-on-one, walking with uh with people. It's not about the light and the spotlight as much as it is about being a person that loves people and loves God. Minister to whoever God puts in front of you. Paul received all that came in unto him. Don't underestimate one-on-one ministry. Don't underestimate it. You know, sometimes when you're around a crowd of people, it's so easy to like look around and think, oh, I gotta do that, I gotta do that, I gotta get to all these people, and it could be heavy and it could be pressure. But I have found a lot of peace and a lot of comfort when I just like lock in and just see that one person. And just like let everything else fade away and do my very best to love that individual and to comfort and support that person. And if I do that one person at a time, and if you do that one person at a time, you're not so focused on quantity, bigger, bigger, bigger, but it's quality. And if you can do that for one, man, you'll be making a big difference. You'll be making a massive difference. Don't overlook today's opportunities while dreaming about tomorrow's possibilities. I'm not saying don't have a vision, don't have a plan. Like, in fact, that's what I did for some of the couples. I I gave them some instruction on how to have a vision and shared values, and and they they walked hand in hand individually by the cliffs there in Del Mar and we're dialoguing over the future together. You should have a future and you should have prayer and plans and dialogue over it. But but don't wait for all that to come to pass for you to love right here, right now. Like make right here, right now great because you're here right now. Ministry is not about the size of your platform, but your faithfulness to the people God placed before you. Listen, I get it. We all have grief, right? We all have loss. We all wish that maybe maybe I could get a little bit more time with you know my dad or a little bit more time with the person I love, and maybe a spouse that passed away, or maybe I wish I could have a little bit more money so I could go do this. We all have those feelings that come upon us, and and I'm not I'm not saying like dismiss those, but I am saying like realize God has given you this moment right here, right now. Don't let regret or shame or misery over the past stop you from seeing who's right here, right now in front of you. Like, yeah, some of the kids are gone, but who do you have right now? Maybe that person's not not with us. Maybe he went prodigal, but do you have this one here right now? Can you not love that person? You can. And you can make a big difference. I want you to see how much Paul loved people. And I want to encourage you to love people too. Uh, look over in your Bible, Romans 16. I'm I'm wrapping up here. I'm coming, the the plane's about to land, okay? Look what look how he mentions people by name. These are lives that he enjoyed. These are people he loved. As we're turning there, I was thinking, how many of you guys, when you have a really cool experience in your life, like you go on a vacation or you saw something somewhere and you take a picture or video and you send it to a loved one. Does anybody do that? I was asking myself, why do we do that? And I got to thinking it's because we what we feel, we want those that we love to feel that with us. And we want to we want to have a shared heart connection, whether it's a laughter or something going on. And so it's our way to bring them into our lives because we want to include them. And by the way, if you have some people in your life that you're sharing you know experiences with, make sure you love them. Make sure you appreciate them. In fact, let me say this to you. Why don't you today work on telling people, hey, I really appreciate you? Like, thank you for doing this. I really, really, I notice you. I see you. I appreciate you. In fact, turn your neighbor and say, I appreciate you. Okay, now, now, now, if your neighbor didn't do that for you, tell them, hey, now you tell me, you tell me. Because sometimes it can go one way. And the person that is the giver all the time appreciating is not getting the appreciation. So you want to make sure that that you're that you're fostering that. Look how much Paul loves people here. He says, right here, look at all these names. Let's just pick it up in um in verse number three. He says, Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus. He says they laid down their lives in verse 4 for him. He says in verse 5, likewise greet the churches in their house. Notice, notice how they they just used what they had. They may not have had a big commercial building like this, but they had a they had a house. You know, a lot of churches are just in people's houses. Sometimes in our American Christianity, we can think, oh, bigger's better. There's, you know, 500, there's a thousand, there's ten thousand people there. That doesn't necessarily mean that's a high quality connection with God. Stadiums get filled all the time and God's not getting glory in it. Right? Here's what I'm saying: like if you if you just have a small space and you're serving God, praise God for that. Paul used his own little rented house. There's people here having house church. How many of you guys, you're enjoying your life groups? Man, I'm enjoying my life group. You know, this week, this last few weeks, man, we'll have a little bit of food, we'll sit there, we'll talk, we'll do life together. We'll share what's hurting us, share some praises, do a little dialogue. That is fantastic, heart-knitting stuff that you're enjoying life together. Paul's making mention of people. Look at all these names real quick. He says in verse number six, greet Mary. Look at what he says in seven, salute Andronicus and Junior. Look at what he says in eight, greet Amplius. Look at verse nine, uh, salute Urbane, uh, the helper in Christ. Verse 10, salute Apollos. And the list just goes on and on and on. Do you think Paul loved people? Yeah, he loved people. It wasn't about the star position, I'm the apostle, everybody. No, it was like, I just love people. If you go around just loving people individually, you're gonna have high-quality relationships in your life. So, in closing, ministry happens right here, right now. It's who you are today that matters. Paul didn't wait until he was released to start ministering. Israel wasn't told to wait until captivity ended to start building. Here's my challenge to you: build where you're planted, minister with what you have, reach whoever God places in front of you. Your present circumstances are not necessarily an interruption to your calling. They may be the very place God intends to use you. Right here, right now, with what you have where God has placed you. Don't wish for last season or for a future season. Be thankful and build right here, right now. Ministry happens now.