“WHEN REALITY DOESN’T MATCH THE
VISION!”
TEXT: Acts 16:6-40
INTRO: We human
beings are visually oriented.
Unlike many animal species we are the rare exception among living
creatures in that we can see colors.
We tend to think of things in visual ways, with pictures. Even when we think about concepts we
tend to do so in visual ways.
One of the
realities of being visually oriented as a species however is that many times
what we imagine doesn’t always look like what we expected it to be. This can be either good or bad. At either rate, when things don’t appear
the way we expected them to we are called upon to adjust or we become
agitated.
Many Christians
have a “vision” of what they think
the Christian life will be like, and just like in the real vision world the
vision of what we expected from God doesn’t always match the vision we had. How do we respond to these moments in
our life when reality doesn’t match the vision we
have?
The Christian
life is full of tough calls, and we either become more and more agitated when
the vision we have doesn’t pan out exactly like we thought, or we adjust and
discover the wonder of God doing things in our life we never expected or at
least somewhat different from what we
expected.
The Bible is
full of situations that didn’t match up exactly like the vision some originally
had, but if they didn’t let go of the vision and adjusted their sight they still
found a great fulfillment to a great
vision.
PROP.
SENT: The Bible teaches
us that God’s will is not found so much in what we do as much as it is in what
we are. When our focus is on God we
cannot become disappointed even when our vision doesn’t pan out exactly like we
expected.
A. Heaven’s Focus
16:6-9
1. Paul was planning on traveling east to take the Gospel message but was being kept from doing so “by the Holy Spirit.”
a. We are not told how, but either by
prophetic utterance or by circumstances they were kept from
going.
b. The interference however is
attributed to the Holy Spirit’s action, so it is accepted as
ok.
2. This meant a change of
plans.
a. It is important that they knew this
was from God and not just an obstacle.
b. There may have been problems with
travel, weather, or some other difficulty beyond their control that made it
impossible for them to go, yet they saw this as from
God.
3. No doubt had it been simply a problem
Paul would have pushed anyway, but knowing God was preventing their going made
him respond with acceptance.
a. We need to know when God says “no” and when it is time to persevere.
b. We need to have our life in such a
relationship to God however that we can know when it is God and when it is
simply a distraction we should fight.
4. The problem with many Christians is that
we have so many voices fighting for our attention that God’s voice can’t get
through sometimes!
ILLUS: Ever been in a room with the TV blaring, a
bunch of people talking, a record playing, and several kids running making lots
of noise and then try to carry on a conversation with someone who is soft
spoken? Too many distractions can
make it hard to hear a single voice!
When Christians have too many voices and demands calling for them all at
once the danger is that we can miss the voice of God in all the distractions.
– Source Unknown
B. Human Factor
16:10-12
1. Paul takes the events of the
moment; a vision by God, blocked from traveling east, possibly a prophetic
utterance, and adjusts his vision to preaching to the
west.
a. A vision of a MAN from
b. This MAN from
c. Paul interprets the vision to mean
that God wanted them to go to Macedonia and preach the Gospel, instead of east
they are to travel west.
2. Paul no doubt creates in his mind an idea
of how this vision will pan out:
a. They will go to
b. Was Paul in for a surprise, for the
vision was going to be a little different from reality when they get
there!
3. How many times when God has spoken to us
that He is going to do something in our life do we form an idea of what reality
this will take?
a. If we are not careful we may stamp
such a strong idea in our mind of what these visions mean that we may miss what
God had in mind when we get there!
b. Paul knew enough to stay flexible
with visions!
ILLUS:
A middle age farmer who
for many years desired to be a Pastor was one day taking a rest in his field
while plowing. As he looked up
heavenward he saw 2 clouds that to his amazement formed two letters in the sky
“P” and “C”. Immediately he hopped
up, sold his farm, and went out to obey this vision which he took to mean
“PREACH CHRIST”. Unfortunately, he
turned out to be a horrible preacher and after one sermon a neighbor came
forward and asked him why he thought God had called him to preach Christ. After telling him about seeing the “P”
and the “C” in the sky, the neighbor said, “Maybe the Lord wasn’t telling you to
“preach Christ” but to “PLANT CORN”!
– Source
Unknown
4. We need to be careful that we don’t just
see what we want to see.
a. Many Christians have hurt
themselves and others because they saw in visions or prophetic utterances what
they WANT to see rather than what God may be trying to
communicate.
b. There should always be
confirmations before acting on any vision, especially if it comes from someone
else!
5. In Paul’s case, the vision to go west and
preach had been confirmed in several ways:
a. Prophetic
utterance.
b. Blocked abilities to go east beyond
human control.
c. Paul’s personal vision of the MAN
from
d. And … the general desire to preach
the Gospel to everyone!
A. Hardly Fruitful!
16:13-24
1.
Paul’s vision of a MAN from
a. I.E. men who were just waiting to
hear the Gospel when they arrived on the scene, perhaps even a synagogue of men
whose hearts were all prepared for the truth of
God.
b. Paul may have been anticipating a
quick and full response by hungry men that would stir the city and the planting
of a large Church.
2. What does Paul expect to find when he
gets there? He clearly expected
to find at least some Jewish men praying by the river side that would be ripe
for the truth of the Gospel, notice this was his expectation in
a. NO MEN! … there were only women on the
river conducting a prayer meeting!
(1. There wasn’t even 10 Jewish men to
constitute a synagogue, 10 being the minimum to have
one.
(2. Paul’s vision doesn’t match reality
here!
b. Instead of the MAN FROM
c. They weren’t crying out for help
either as Paul had seen in his vision.
d. Paul had actually been there
several days with NO results!
16:12b
3. So far the vision Paul had was hardly anything like the reality he encountered!
a. At this point many Christians would have
condemned the trip saying that Paul must not be living right or that the vision
was false.
b. Even a couple similarities would
have been nice but there are almost none!
4. What’s a prophet to
do?
a. Paul seems to accept the reality
however as the fulfillment to God’s
vision!
b. They stay and work with what they
got; a bunch of women who opened their hearts to the
Gospel!
c. If Paul had rejected the circumstances as not being the
fulfillment of the vision there might never have been a Church planted in
(1. The Philippian church became one of the
strongest and healthiest churches in the New
Testament!
(2. Imagine if Paul had given up the vision
because he got a Gentile woman named
5. Too many times we miss God’s best
because things do not always match our concept of “vision” in
ministry!
a. Many pastors do this with churches
they pastor, they think they are all going to pastor mega-churches running in
the thousands and they will be sr. pastors of huge staffs
...
b. And so, they never are content
where they are, or find any joy in the reality of the vision they are
in!
c. Christians do this too with
spouses, children, and ministry in
general!
(1. How tragic when we can’t see in our
spouse, children, or others God’s plan in our life because it didn’t measure up
to what we thought we were going to get or should
get!
(2. Too much joy is wasted on false
perceptions of visions or at least our ideas or
visions.
6. It may have seemed like a lousy start to
fulfilling the vision God had given Paul, but he takes great delight in
preaching the Gospel anyway to these women and finds a harvest and a start,
albeit a bit different than he expected from the manly vision he had seen in his
dream.
7. Paul is neither disappointed nor bitter,
we could learn something here about unfulfilled expectations or
ideas.
a. We need to trust God more in the
way reality unfolds in our lives.
b. If we are proclaiming trust in God,
then we ought to show it in our attitude even when things don’t pan out exactly
like we expected.
ILLUS:
Like one little girl who
was frightened by thunder storms.
As she was about to go to bed a real storm kicked up, lightening,
thunder, and wind. She remembered
how such storms sometimes knocked out the lights and how she hated the
dark. She was heard praying, “Dear God, I hope it doesn’t thunder and I
hope the lights don’t go out” … then after a brief pause she continued, “But I thought it over, and you can do what
you want, in Jesus’ name, Amen!”
– Source
Unknown
8. Paul wasn’t about to throw the vision
away because it looked a little different from what he
anticipated.
a. Paul had the privilege of baptizing
this woman
b. It was a small start but it produced one of the most stable churches!
c. The Philippian church became Paul’s
home church; his epistle entitled “Philippians” in our Bible has as its central
theme: JOY!
d. It is clear that Paul did not get
hung up on the minute details of the “Man from
9. The town’s reaction is not one of open
arms to Paul’s efforts, they become
hostile!
a. So much for dreams of a thriving
joyful church plant!
b. Nearly everything that can go wrong
goes wrong!
c. Paul and Silas are thrown into
prison as a result of preaching to these
ladies!
d. On top of this a demon possessed
woman follows them around to harass them all day long! Hardly the warm reception a church
planter expected!
e. Then when Paul frees this demon
possessed woman all the business people in town get mad because she was the key
to their fortunes!
f. The business community
certainly didn’t open their arms to Paul!
g. All in all, this was quite a
fulfillment to a hopeful vision!
Reality didn’t hardly matched the vision BUT Paul and Silas kept on
singing anyway!!!!
B. Horrible Fantasy?
16:22-24
1. At this point many Christians would
be questioning the vision!
a. Almost nothing had been a blessing
except the salvation of one Gentile lady and her household and one demon
possessed woman who found deliverance!
b. What little success they had created even bigger messes!
2. At this point, many of us would have had these thoughts:
a. “Maybe it wasn’t really a vision from God, just too much pizza before bedtime?”
b. “The guy who prophesied must have been in the flesh.”
c. “They must have hidden sin in their lives,
look how things are going!”
3. The problem with all these concepts is that we assume when God gives us a vision to do something it will always be smooth and fruitful by numerical standards or financial status, or turn out exactly as we dream it in our own minds and understanding.
a. In doing this we may miss out on God’s fulfillment.
b. If they had given up on the vision one of the greatest churches in the New Testament would not have come into existence!
c. In fact, since this was a change from taking the Gospel to the east and instead it went west we today might have seen the whole western world exist in pagan isolation while the East would have been Christianized throughout the middle ages!
4. The trouble is rarely the vision, it is usually how we view the vision against reality!
ILLUS:
Like the guy who stopped
at a full service gas station while on a trip with his wife. After the attendant cleaned his
windshield he got mad and told the guy, “It’s still dirty, wash it again!” The attendant politely obliged, after
washing it again however the man was still angry and said, “It’s still dirty, don’t you know how to
wash a windshield?” Just then
the man’s wife reached over and took his glasses off his face and cleaned them
with a tissue, and then put them back on his face again, and suddenly he noticed
the windshield was sparkling clear!
The problem wasn’t the windshield or the attendant; it was the man’s own
perspective from his glasses that were the problem … he was the problem! – Source Unknown
5. So what’s a Christian to do when reality doesn’t match the vision?
A.
Honorable Faith
1. Instead of pity or anger Paul and Silas praise God by singing hymns in prison!
a. They make the best of what they have!
b. Notice verse 16:25b … the other prisoners were listening!! – No wonder the prisoners didn’t run away after the earthquake.
c. How they handle their reality sets the stage for future ministry!
2. They didn’t see the tensions they were facing as a sign of God’s disfavor!
Why do we so easily do this?
ILLUS:
Loose wires give out no
musical tones, only when both ends are fastened and stretched with tension do
they make melodious sounds!
– Source
Unknown
3. Their faith stays intact even when reality didn’t match the vision!
B.
Hope & Freedom
1. Could things get worse … YES … an earthquake comes next! But this was God’s way of opening up a door of ministry for them!
a.
Finally they get a MAN from
b. And lots of other men too – the prisoners, who all stayed put!
2. It becomes clear now that such suffering was all part of the plan, though reality seemed so different at first from the vision, it is taking better shape now and a great church is starting to form!
3. Too often we view reality as signs of God’s abandonment or of God’s disapproval of us when in fact it may be His setup for a great plan!
ILLUS:
A distraught young boy watched
helplessly one day as his toy boat began to drift out of his reach in a
pond. No matter what he tried it
only drifted further toward the center of the pond. He looked around for some adult to come
to his rescue and finally found a man who said he would help. But, to his horror he watched this adult
pick up stones and start throwing them at his boat in the middle of the
pond! He was angry that this man
who could help him was instead apparently trying to sink his ship, how could he
do this! As he watched however, he
noticed that the man was a bad aim, for he missed the boat each time, and then
something wonderful began to happen, the ripples created by the rocks thrown
near the boat began to drive the boat toward the shoreline where sure enough,
the boat eventually arrived again.
The boy finally realized the man was helping him, he just didn’t see it
right away in his anger. How many
times have we viewed God in a similar way?
– Source
Unknown
4. The whole atmosphere in town changed now, Paul and Silas and the new Christians in that town could freely worship and promote Christianity once the authorities realized they had mistreated Roman citizens like Paul without a proper trial.
a. All the anguished realities were in fact building toward protection of the church in a city where they would not have had it before.
b. At last, though reality was a bit different from the original vision a great work was established because Paul could see beyond the negatives and see opportunity by faith.
5. How has your reality compared to your vision? AND, how are you handling it?
CONCLUSION: What do you do when life doesn’t seem to be what you thought it would be as a Christian? There can only be 2 responses,
(1. Trust God in everything and continue to serve Him faithfully no matter how many things go wrong.
(2. become bitter and sullen and live a miserable life!
Which one do you want? Which one will build His kingdom better, and your life better?