This sermon was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on Sunday, April 7, 2013 by Pastor Paul Mims.

Acts 16:6-10

Last Sunday, following the glorious Easter service, a young boy said, “Pastor, I’ve got something to tell you.” I said, “I would be most interested.” He said, “I woke up during the night and started talking to God as I lay on my bed. I think that God told me that He wants me to be a pastor.” I said, “That is great. He spoke to me when I was your age and called me to be a pastor. I am very proud of you that you are listening to God. He will guide you into your future.”

Our text today is one that is very special to me. We were in our second pastorate at Seaford, Virginia. The congregation had just built their first building in a beautiful Colonial Williamsburg design. Seaford is a bedroom community on the Peninsula between Newport News and Yorktown. In the Fall of 1966, I preached in revival services in two churches in Newport News. I noticed that a group of people who had visited at Seaford showed up at both of these churches. They were the pastor-search committee from First Baptist Church in Norfolk. Thereafter, we had several meetings and they invited me to consider a call from their congregation. Here I was, twenty-nine years of age, settled into what I thought would be a life-long pastorate in a new young church that had great potential for significant growth. To consider a historic downtown church founded in 1805 would certainly require an unmistakable call of God. Janice and I agonized and prayed, read scripture and waited until we got a clear answer. The Holy Spirit used this scripture, Acts 16:6-10, to verify his leading. The vision of Paul became my vision as I saw the congregation saying, “Come over and help us.” And then the statement, “…concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” On January 3, 1967, I became their pastor and they became our beloved people.

That was a significant decision in our lives and the decision for Paul had historic and world changing affects.

It happened at the beginning of the Second Missionary Journey. Paul’s companion is now named Silas. They went through Syria and Cilicia to Derbe and Lystra to strengthen the churches that had been founded on the First Missionary Journey. At Lystra, Paul meets Timothy, who was to become his “Son In the Ministry.”

Now, Paul wanted to lead his missionary team into Asia. Notice that the scripture says, “…having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.” This would have impacted China and India in time. He also wanted to go into Bithynia on the Black Sea which would have impacted Russia in time. You would think that this would have been great strategic planning to get the gospel into these ancient cultures with such great populations. But the mind of God was not the mind of Paul – so he was prevented from going in those directions.

How was he prevented from going in those directions? It was not through a revelation or a vision or some great spiritual experience. It was through an illness as he says in Galatians 4:13: “As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.” So, the Holy Spirit used an illness to say to him, “Don’t go North, don’t go East, but go West!” If you look at it on the map – that is what he did. He was driven to the coast of the Aegean Sea to a place called Troas. It was here that he saw the vision of the man of Macedonia. It was here also that Dr. Luke joined him for the advance into Europe and the country of Greece. Why Europe and Greece and not Asia, China, or Russia? This is where the Spirit of Jesus drove him. And look at what followed: Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth. The guidance of the Holy Spirit away from what Paul wanted to Europe beginning in Greece was in the mind of God for a purpose.

The Greek culture was the best suited for the spread of the gospel over Europe and then over the world. They were open to all religions including Christianity. They had the best concept of Government influenced by Solon, Pericles and Aristodes. We call our legislators “solons” after the Greek pattern. In science and mathematics they had Euclid and Pythagoras. In literature they had Homer and Sappho. In philosophy they had Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Xeno, and Epicurus. We use the Greek architecture in many of our national buildings. The Lord wanted the gospel to be planted in this culture with the Roman empire using the Greek language. The Greeks were a very religious people who were open to understanding the mysteries of life.

We stood on Mars Hill in Athens and marveled at the Parthenon and the city where Paul said to the people in the marketplace called the Areopagus: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To An Unknown God. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:22-23).

The whole emphasis of the story of the vision of Paul about the man from Macedonia is the call of God upon his life – and upon ours. When God calls you:

I. WHAT DOES THE CALL OF GOD LOOK LIKE?

God’s call to us will be one of four types. The first is a call to SALVATION. The Holy Spirit is active in the church and in the world in calling all persons to a saving knowledge of Christ. “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:5-6). This call comes gently through the Holy Spirit wooing your heart to open to God’s grace. Have you responded to this call?

The second is a call to all believers about DISCIPLESHIP. Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). We are to grow in the grace we have been given and in the knowledge of the Bible and of our Lord.

The third call is to your VOCATION. Our life’s purpose is usually found in our vocation for that is which we devote our training and years to accomplish. You do not have to be a minister, missionary, or any other vocational Christian worker to be called of God to a vocation. God needs his people in all areas of vocational life. Are you where God wants you in your choice of life’s work? A pastor said to me, “I am either where God wants me or else he forgot where he put me.”

The fourth call is to A SPECIFIC TASK. That is what we have here in the call of Paul to go into Europe to establish a beach-head for the gospel. He was already called to be a theologian, writer, preacher, and missionary. Now he was being called to a specific task in a specific place. Through his experience we can learn more of how God can direct us through the various currents of our lives. Many of you have been called to specific tasks here in the church. You are what makes Cornerstone effective. You ascribe to the ten powerful words, “IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME.” To understand the call of God to us we must ask:

II. HOW CAN I KNOW THAT GOD IS CALLING ME?

First, his call probably won’t meet your expectations. You have heard how people in the Bible were called and you might think that your call will be something like theirs. You will not see a burning bush like Moses and hear the voice of God therein. You may not see a vision like Isaiah did. You will not have the privilege of Jesus physically approaching you and inviting you to follow him. You will not likely have a Damascus Road experience like Paul or be privileged to see visions like he did. But your call will be just as definite and just as blessed as his.

God’s call to you will be based on Scripture and Prayer. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through Holy Scripture. He will apply verses to your life situation and form a conviction in your heart that “This is the way – walk in it.” He will use your gifts, abilities, and passions to direct you. He will not ask you to do something in which you are not gifted and have no interest in doing. As you pray over the scriptures you read and seek the Lord’s desire for you it will become clear.

God’s leading of you may not always be a spiritual experience. It certainly was not for Paul. He had dreams of going North and East and the Lord stopped him with an illness and made it impossible for him to go in those directions. It was after he was hindered in what he wanted to do that he was given the vision of the man of Macedonia who called to him for help. He left Troas and went around or across the Aegean Sea to Greece. That opened up the most fruitful part of his entire ministry of establishing churches.

God can use all of the happenings in our lives to direct us into his perfect will if we will allow him. Even what might have looked like a failure to you could be in the over-arching plan of God for you. You may be wondering how God can direct you through an illness or a heart-breaking loss, or a closed door for a job. But he can do it for those who place their lives in his hands. If you will have trust in the Lord’s will for your life, he will guide you when there is no vision or no voice is heard. If you will follow on in the time of God’s silence and “darkness” the time of vindication will come and you will understand the things that have happened to you. You will have God’s guidance when there was no supernatural sign. The Holy Spirit leads those who will trust and wait and follow.

When I was pastor at Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta, a search committee came from a church in Miami and talked to us about becoming their pastor. I was born in Jacksonville and have always had a special love for Florida. I had thought that we might retire in Florida and this invitation looked especially inviting. In years previous, we had sailed through Miami and on down to the Florida Keys. This was perfectly made for sailors like us. I was praying about God’s will and Janice was packing because we were so excited about this new adventure. My prayer was something like this: “Lord, I am so excited about this that if it is not your will please stop me.” Before the Sunday we were to go down to Miami and meet the congregation, I became very sick for no apparent reason. Then I said, “Okay, Lord, you have given me the answer.” So I called the committee and said, “I wanted to come so bad, but the Lord does not permit it. Thank you for your interest in us.” So instead of going South to Miami, the Lord sent us North to Myrtle Beach for our last full-time pastorate. And now we are mountaineers and are happy in retirement and in our pastorate at Cornerstone. Thank you for allowing us to serve you at this time in our lives. That is the wonder of how God leads his people along life’s journey.

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!