FBC Morning Light – April 26, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:17

A good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your week has gotten off to a good start. I hope you were able to get out last night to our

00:25

Bible conference with Mark Chansky. That wraps up this evening, by the way, at 7 o 'clock with the final session.

00:34

The whole subject of this Bible conference has been that of encouragement. I hope it's been an encouragement to you if you've been able to either watch the live stream sessions or be in attendance.

00:49

Last week I wrote a Pastor's Page article concerning the matter of adversity and how adversity can be one of the things

01:02

God uses to channel us and direct us in a new way. Not always.

01:07

I suggested there are several different uses of adversity in our lives.

01:13

Sometimes adversity teaches us things. Sometimes it's chastening. Sometimes adversity is used to simply teach us patience and growth in grace.

01:27

But sometimes God does use adversity as a means of redirecting our efforts and our attention.

01:35

In the course of that article, I mentioned how

01:41

Paul was facing a particular time of adversity when he was writing to the

01:46

Corinthians, and he was in the city of Ephesus. He said,

01:52

I'm staying here in Ephesus for a great door of opportunity is before me.

01:59

What he's saying there is, I'm going to go through this door. Then he said, and there are many adversaries.

02:08

In that particular case, Paul did not allow the presence of adversity to direct him to another place, to leave

02:17

Ephesus, and he was determined to stay. Adversity may or may not serve that purpose of redirecting us.

02:26

But in today's reading, in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul shows us another way that the

02:34

Lord can direct our steps by using circumstances of our lives.

02:41

Let me read a couple of verses and then make a few comments on this. This is in 2 Corinthians 2 and verses 12 and 13.

02:48

He says, furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened to me by the

02:56

Lord. This is a similar thing that he says related to Ephesus.

03:02

He's in Ephesus, and a great door of opportunity is open before him. He acknowledges, he says, this is the door, a door that the

03:11

Lord has opened for me to preach Christ's gospel. But listen to what he says next. He says in verse 13, but I had no rest in my spirit, because I could not find

03:22

Titus my brother. But taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia.

03:29

Isn't that interesting? That even though there was this door of opportunity for him to preach the gospel, he left

03:37

Troas, and he went to Macedonia. On what basis?

03:44

He went to Macedonia this restlessness of his spirit. We have to be really careful here, don't we?

03:53

I have heard this particular means of the

04:00

Lord directing us. I've heard it used in the wrong way. It's almost like an excuse for not doing the right thing.

04:10

For example, I've heard partners in a marriage say,

04:17

I'm just not at peace here, I'm restless, and God would want me to be happy, so I'm leaving my spouse because of that restlessness.

04:30

That's clearly not God's direction, and that's an extreme example of how this restlessness can be abused.

04:40

I've also heard it expressed in other ways. I've talked to people about opportunities of ministry in the church, and I'm thinking back years ago now.

04:51

I was talking to this one particular individual, and he just said, I don't have any peace about this.

04:59

He was saying, I'm restless in my spirit about it. The reality was that there were other issues beneath the surface, and it wasn't that he was restless.

05:09

He had a few burrs in his saddle, if you will, and he wouldn't acknowledge those, so he just couched it all very piously.

05:20

God just hasn't given me peace about this thing. Acknowledging the possibility of abusing this,

05:28

I do want us to at least acknowledge that the Lord can use a restlessness within to as a means of directing us in a new direction, in another direction.

05:42

Paul's case here is a good example of it. I don't have any particular clear tests about this, other than to say, if that restlessness is leading you in a way that's clearly contrary to the

05:59

Word of God, then you know it's not from God. There's another problem for your restlessness. If your restlessness is keeping you from gathering with God's people on the

06:11

Lord's Day, that's not from the Lord. Anytime this restlessness is prompting you to take a course of action that's a violation of God's clearly revealed

06:28

Word, then you can be confident that that's not from God. There can be other things as well.

06:36

That restlessness may be due to some selfishness on your part.

06:42

You're restless about your job, or you're restless about something in the home, or whatever, and it can simply be because of your own selfishness and what you want.

06:57

But that doesn't change the fact that when your heart is after the

07:02

Lord and you want to do what's right, you want to do God's will, and you're endeavoring to please him and obey him, and there's just regarding some specific thing, there's just a restlessness about settling on that, then perhaps what the

07:21

Lord is doing is using that to get you to look in a different direction. Maybe in some way you haven't looked yet.

07:27

You may need some suggestions or some advice there about that. But let's just acknowledge it.

07:33

Let's not dismiss out of hand that restlessness. Paul said, I had no rest in my spirit, simply because he didn't find

07:40

Titus. That led him to conclude, I need to go find Titus.

07:46

I need to go to Macedonia, and off he went. I hope your spirit is at rest today, and I hope you're confident and comfortable, if I can use that word, in your pursuit of the will of God, and that you're right where he wants you to be.

08:05

You sense that restless spirit, then pray and ask the Lord, what are you doing with this?

08:13

How do you want to resolve this? And ask him to guide you through his word and through godly counsel.

08:21

Heavenly Father, we do thank you that you do love your people, and that you care for us, and that you endeavor to lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.

08:35

We do acknowledge today that sometimes a restlessness in our spirit can be a means of getting us to look in another direction, but may we always look to you before pursuing it, we pray.

08:49

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a good rest of your day today, and again, if you can make it out tonight, seven o 'clock for our

08:58

Bible Conference closing session with Mark Chansky. I encourage you to come. If for whatever reason you can't come, we will be live streaming it, and I hope you can at least watch.