The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 21, verses 1 through 6.

Tony Clark: What did Paul do? He went up to Jerusalem. Now, was Paul being disobedient by going since they told him not to go—notice—through the Spirit? No. Paul lived a life being very sensitive to the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit told him not to preach in a certain area in Acts 16, verses 6 and 7, and he didn't. The Spirit of God told him to go and minister to the people in the area of Macedonia in Acts 16, verses 9 and 10, and he obeyed. He had a long history of obeying God, and it would seem very unlikely that he would disobey God this time around.

Let me just share what happened. The Holy Spirit was warning Paul of the persecution he would face in Jerusalem. You have to understand, John 16 and verse 13, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will tell us things to come. The believers in Tyre, through the Spirit, foresaw the suffering he would endure when he reached Jerusalem. So, it is only natural that they would try to keep him from going. The Spirit's message to Paul in Tyre was a warning to him of the persecution he would face and not a message for him not to go.

I was thinking about this this morning right before service as I was going over my notes. This is why we must be very careful when we call ourselves giving people a word from the Lord. It can easily happen that we slip our own feelings into that word from the Lord and we give people a mixed message. We have to be very careful with this because it is easy for us to slip our own personal feelings into that word from the Lord.

This is what happened here. They saw through the Spirit Paul being persecuted, being physically harmed and all this, and they said, "Look here, the Spirit said when you go to Jerusalem, don't go." That was their own personal feelings not to go because it is only natural that they didn't want the guy they loved to go through that. It was not a message of "Don't go," but, "You're going to go and this is what's going to happen to you." So, be very careful and make sure you can separate your own personal feelings from that word from the Lord.

Look at what it says there in verse 5. It says, "When we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way; and they all accompanied us with wives and children till we were out of the city; and we knelt down on the shore and prayed." When the week was up, it was time to make their way to Jerusalem. They all accompanied Paul to the ship, referring to the believers of Tyre. Now, who did they bring with them? Don't miss this. Notice how they brought their wives and their children.

Notice how the men brought their wives and children with them to say goodbye to Paul. I used to hear people say all the time in the earlier years of our church, "Well, we don't come to church on Wednesday nights because we're having family time." This normally consisted of Mom watching one TV, normally HGTV, Lifetime, or Hallmark. Dad is watching another TV with sports on it or some shoot-'em-up, blow-'em-up movie. The kids are either playing video games or on their phones. This is family time. Another example of family time is eating in front of the TV together, everyone with plates on their laps offering up food offerings to the one-eyed god.

These disciples brought their families to hear and to be with the Apostle Paul. The men didn't leave their families behind; they brought them along as well. Do you remember what Pharaoh said to Moses in the book of Exodus when Moses said, "God said, 'Let my people go'"? Pharaoh told Moses three things. Number one, he said in Exodus 8 and verse 28, "You can go and worship, but don't go very far away." What Satan was saying through Pharaoh is, "You can go, but don't go overboard in your worship of God. Don't be a fanatic."

However, what is the abbreviation of fanatic? It is "fan." Don't be a fan of God and church and spiritual things. Don't go very far in your worship of God. Just follow Jesus at a distance like Peter did in Matthew 26 and verse 58, and he eventually denied the Lord. Just follow Jesus, just keep Him in your eyesight. As long as you can see Him, just follow Him at a distance. Don't go very far. That is the first thing he told him.

The second thing Pharaoh told Moses in Exodus 10 and verse 11 was, "Just the men can go, and leave your little ones behind." Don't force them to be a fan of God and church and spiritual things like you are. Let them make their own decisions about God and church. That is the kind of mess that folks are saying today. "Well, I'm not going to force my religion on my kids. I'm just going to let them figure it out on their own." You don't do that with their eating, because if you let kids just eat whatever they want, they will eat cereal, candy, cookies, and chips all the time.

You make a conscious decision to make sure they get some greens and vegetables. You make the conscious decision on their physical health, and you're going to let them figure it out about their spiritual health? Are you kidding me? Oh, no. And notice Pharaoh told Moses, "Just the men can go." And then number three, Pharaoh told Moses in Exodus 10 and verse 24, "Okay, okay, okay. You can go and your families as well, but leave your flocks and herds behind." In other words, go and serve God, but leave your money at home.

Don't give God your material wealth. Their herds and flocks represented financial wealth back then. Leave that behind. To each one of these, Moses looked at Pharaoh and said, "No. I'm going to go all the way with God. I'm going to bring my family with me on this journey with God. I'm going to worship Him with my material wealth as well." Did you know that giving to God financially is an act of worship? Second Corinthians 9, verses 6 through 9, tells us this.

Moses told Pharaoh that he was going all the way with God with his family and he was bringing his wealth with him. When I hear that, I say, "Lord, give us more men like Moses that will lead their families in God's direction." Give us more men like these disciples in Tyre that went with the Apostle Paul and listened to him with their families. They didn't leave them at home playing video games, or over a friend's house, or at home doing homework.

Sometimes it may be the case, but here is the thing: that kid knew for a week or two that the project was coming up. They wait on the night before, which happens to be church night, to say, "I got a project that's due." "When's it due?" "Tomorrow." "Oh, we got to go to church." "Well, this project is worth 50% of the grade." "All right, stay home, get it done." See, that is the kind of mess. And then when you walk away, they are smiling at you.

Then all of a sudden you go as a man or as a single parent. You go, and you come home blessed by being in God's presence and sitting at the feet of Jesus hearing His Word being taught. You come home and your kid's fingers are hurting from texting or playing too much PlayStation 10. Your wife is looking at you funny because she just finished watching some movie on Lifetime where the husband was cheating on his wife. Now your wife is saying, "Church was over 30 minutes ago. Where were you? You're just like the guy on the movie."

No, men. Pray for God's strength to be the man of God in your home to say, as Joshua did in Joshua 24, verse 15, "As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord." I don't know about the rest of y'all, but for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Turn off the phone and the TV, honey, because we're going to church and the kids, too. Get in the back. That is the real man of God that's going to lead his family that way.

I love the second part of verse 5, how he says, "We knelt down on the shore and prayed." What a beautiful witness this must have been to the fishermen nearby and the people of Tyre to see these believers bowing down in prayer together on the sand. They prayed together on the sand. Men, single parents, do you have times of prayer with your families? You should, because it is rightfully said, "The family that prays together stays together."

I have said it many times: if you want to see your family altered or changed, you must have family altar. Have a time of just praying, reading the Bible, and expressing your heart to the Lord as a family. You'd be surprised at the things your kids pick up on just reading the Scriptures. They were a witness praying on the shore, and we can be as well when we go out to eat and we publicly pray and give thanks for the food. It can be a powerful witness to those that are in the restaurant. None of this headache praying.

What do I mean by headache praying? You pretend like you got a headache while you pray. "Lord, I just thank you for this food and..." This is how the kids pray at school because they don't want the other kids to know they're Christians praying for their meal, so they pretend they got a headache. "Lord, I just thank you for this food, in Jesus' name." "You all right?" "Oh, yeah. I'm good. It's gone now." I see this stuff all the time.

Look at what it says there in verse 6. It says, "When we had taken our leave of one another, we boarded the ship, and they returned home." They parted ways and these precious believers headed back home. Do you think that any of them regretted their time hearing Paul and praying together? Oh, no. I believe that they were blessed because Galatians 6 and verse 8 says, "He who sows to the Spirit or spiritual things will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." They chose as a family to sow spiritual things by praying and hearing from Paul.

God's blessings were upon them. However, Galatians 6:8 also says, "But if we sow to the flesh or fleshly carnal things, we will reap corruption." In other words, when we sow to our fleshly desires, our walks with Christ will begin to deteriorate. We will start to see corruption in the family. These families went away blessed. Is your family blessed? Do you guys sow spiritual things? Men, single parents, do you sow spiritual things?

Men, don't allow your wife to always do the spiritual things with the children while you are down there watching a game. Nowadays, because of technology, you hit that pause button on that game and you go up and you read and pray with them. It is a great time. On top of that, you can come back and pick up where you left off. You have enough time where you can fast forward through the commercials. This is a great thing with technology today.

It's none of that sort of stuff like, "I got to turn off this game. I'm missing the game. Okay, y'all want to pray? Let's pray. Bow your head so I can hurry up and get back to this game." You don't have to miss the whole first half anymore because of technology; you can pause that. These are the things that the men of Tyre did by bringing their families to hear the Apostle Paul, say goodbye to him, and they sowed into spiritual things. We will pick up and see part two of this message next week, God's will.

Let me conclude with this: focus on the family. We saw how Paul had a seven-day break or vacation and he found disciples or he went to church. Don't look at vacation as a time to take a vacation from church, Bible study, Bible reading, or spiritual things. Personally, the only time that I can't find a church is when I'm on a cruise ship. If I'm on a cruise ship, I have my own church. Outside of that, I'm looking for a church because I study churches. I am always wanting to learn.

What works in one area may not work in another area, or there may be some universal principle that another church is doing that may work here as well. I'm always looking to learn and see the great things that folks are doing in other churches. So find a church, find one like Paul did. Report back to your family. It will be a huge witness to your unsaved loved ones and you will also find that your vacation will be enriched and blessed. We saw how the men of Tyre brought their families and children with them to hear and to be with Paul.

Men, single parents, this is our job to do. Pray that God will give you the courage, strength, and favor to say as Joshua did, "As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord." This means diligently praying for them before you make your declaration. Pray first so God can soften their hearts to receive your bold declaration. I don't care if you're living under my roof; that means that it is my house. It means that they are my rules. If you don't like my rules, there is always the door.

The door opens up on both sides. I don't understand your parenting today. You're under my roof, that means it's my house. I pay the bills and I make the rules. If my rules don't agree with you, then you're grown, especially if you have some grown ones at home. You can go ahead and make other accommodations. I'm not going to be sad about that at all because I'm in the empty nester years and I want to enjoy that. If you don't like my rules, then it's time for you to find a new nest.

You've heard me say many times that at home, I'm Mufasa and you're Simba. Just in case Simba grows up and doesn't like Mufasa's den, then it's time for Simba to find him a den. I don't have a problem with that. There is nothing wrong with helping our kids if they fall into some tough times; everybody needs help. But if you're going to be under my roof, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. For mine, we serve the Lord. We didn't give our kids an option. It was just automatic. If it's Wednesday or Sunday, they already know where we're going.

I really need to do a parenting 101 class because some of y'all are struggling. You have some grown folks living at home and they stay home like they make the rules. You can make the rules in your own house. You're living with your mama. Your baby needs God. Your grown baby needs Him. That's probably why he's still at home. That's a whole other sermon. Mama, cut that apron string. Let that boy grow up. Boot him out and he'll grow up fast then. He'll find a way to make it. That's probably what he needs.

God is talking to somebody, and I'm trying to end, but God is still talking to some folks. Mama, get out of the way when Dad is trying to make a man out of them. He will still be your baby, but he'll be your baby on the outside. Let that Dad be a dad in his life. We raised our boys to be men because we knew one day they would have families of their own. You got to go. Don't let the doorknob hit you.

My son will tell you. He was like, "Oh, I'm ready to go." I was like, "Okay, I'm ready for you to go, too." He said, "When I get off, we'll load the moving truck and I'll move to my apartment." When he came home, I was sitting on the couch. I had loaded the truck myself. I had the couch on my back and walked it up. He said, "Dad, you ready to load the truck?" I said, "It's loaded. Let's go." I was raising men. Now the thought of him having to come back home, he'd be like, "No, I don't want to come back home," because he is now Mufasa of his own home.

You can't have two Mufasas in the same den. He has his own den and loves it. A mama would have said, "Oh, baby, you don't have to go right now." But you have to get out of here. I need to do a parenting 101 class from boys to men. Before we close in prayer, we're going to have the worship team come back up and those who are serving are going out to their posts. This is now your time to do some things that God is calling you to do to make sure your heart is right.

Make sure that God is the head of your life. Maybe there is someone here who has never repented of your sin and accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. We're going to give you that opportunity now. Father, we pray that Your Holy Spirit will move in this room. Lord, that You would change lives for all eternity. Tug upon hearts and draw them by Your Spirit. Draw them now, Lord, to You.

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