DISCOVERING GLADNESS
#329 DISCOVERING GLADNESS
Scripture Acts 16:14-15 Orig. 11/13/1966
Rewr. 10/1975, 3/22/1990
Passage: 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Purpose: To share a biographical message of a woman’s search for gladness, and finding it in Christ.
Keywords: Biography, Lydia Joy Salvation Conversion
Revival
Introduction
Discoveries are not left to men and women of science and adventure. Everyone of us has had experiences with such sudden exposure in our lives. Some of our discoveries have left us with joy, others with apprehension.
I remember, as a child, awaking to discover that I had the measles. As a young soldier, in a military hospital, I went to bed thinking I would be released the next day. Awaking that morning, I discovered that I could not get my boots on. During the night a penicillin reaction had surfaced that left me as sick as I have ever been in my life.
My dad told of the discovery that as a twelve year old lad, his dad deserted him and my grandmother. As a seminary student, working in the aircraft industry, I went to work one Friday to discover that a pink slip awaited me. My job had been phased out. How many people have returned from some ordinary visit to their doctor with the discovery of some grievous malady such as cancer, or diabetes?
But all of the discoveries are not sad ones. Many in fact are glad ones. An acquaintance of many years becomes a trusted friend, and it’s a joyous discovery. The doctor tells us of some serious malady, but, he says, there is a cure. Gladness abounds. A letter or phone call gives the news that we are soon to be grandparents. Happiness unequivocal. Lydia tells us of her discovery, as it is told by another in song.
Mankind is searching ev'ry day In quest of something new,
But I have found the living way, The path of pleasures true.
I've found the pearl of greatest price, Eternal life so fair.
'Twas thro' the Saviour's sacrifice I found this jewel rare.
Chorus
I've discovered the way of gladness, I've discovered the way of joy.
I've discovered relief from sadness, 'Tis a happiness without alloy.
I've discovered the fount of blessing, I've discovered the living Word.
'Twas the greatest of all discoveries When I found Jesus my Lord.
I. Lydia Testifies to Us that She Was a Seeker for Gladness. V14, And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us. NEB Lydia—who was a worshipper of God, was listening, and the Lord opened her heart. The state of her mind and heart was in quest for truth. It is obvious that she already had wealth. She was unusual for that day, unusual in the sense that most women would never have the opportunity for assertiveness.
She was not seeking success. Some insist that she represented a firm in Thyatira, a city known for its purple dyes.
She was not seeking religion as such. Often she’d been at pagan altars. In cities such as Philippi with a Jewish element, she would join them. All the more remarkable in light of her business. Her relationship with these Jews was made the more profound by the fact that as a Gentile, she was not accepted as an equal. [The Jews] would tolerate her presence only. To the Greeks she was a silly woman who closed her profitable business to go to church. To Paul and other local Christians she was on object of God’s love and concern.
There are still people around who merely tolerate other people without concern for them as persons. There are still others with us, who, like these Greeks, put their merchandising ahead of everything else. They are creatures of materialistic habits, and not even religion, no, not even truth is to impede their habits.
There are some characteristics that mark her seeking with success:
· By recognizing that material goods don’t guarantee happiness (Terry Meeuwsen—former Miss America—gave her testimony at 1974 LBC; the perspective of her goal was clearly [stated], “As Miss Wisconsin, I was first runner-up to a roller skater”);
· By opening her mind and heart to the search for truth;
· By examining the options;
· By starting where she was—not left hopeless by the past, not overburdened by fear of the future. Someone has share a viable truth. “A religion that does nothing, that gives nothing, that costs nothing, that suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”
II. Lydia Found in Christ the Gladness for Which She Had Been Seeking. V14, Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. What she heard of Paul should be evident to us.
· That she was a sinner. The only preaching worth anything is that directed to human need. Romans 3:23, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
· That sin separates from God. That people are created equal is just not true, that death is the only equalizer. Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
· That God loved her. Romans 5:8, But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
· That Jesus is the means through which all people may be saved. By the time Acts rolls around, the Christians were already being jailed for their faith. God uses the occasion of the jailing for proclamation. Acts 4:12, For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. They took note of that these men had been with Jesus.
· That faith in Jesus is essential. Ephesians 2:8,9, By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
· Finally, that we must openly confess Him as Lord. Romans 10:9-10, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Lydia did the only thing that a human being can do that will bring him into the arena of God’s saving grace. She threw off the oppressive burden of false truth, and half-truth. She voided the meaningless burden of human religious system. At the urging of the Holy Spirit, she opened her heart to the gospel.
III. What Lydia Found Would Affect the Whole Course of Her Life. V15, And when she was baptized and her household, she besought us saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us.
· She accepted the challenge of the gospel: Belief in its truth, hope in its calling and anticipation.
· Her life was influenced by the things which she discovered: Being faithful as she understood faithfulness; being helpful as she interpreted need; being persuasive when she knew that her helpfulness to others was faithfulness to her Lord.
Closing
The daily newspaper told the story. It was datelined Ontario, Canada. A woman named Rose Crawford had been blind for fifty years. After delicate surgery and several days of impatient recovery the doctors removed the bandages. Those who were there tell the story. She wept for joy when for the first time in her life she could do what most of us take for granted. She could see. Her first words were “I can’t believe it.” Even in the sterile white of her hospital room she saw a dazzling world of form and beauty.
The profundity of her story, however, is that for the last twenty years of her blindness, it had all been unnecessary. The surgical technique had been used and her vision could have been restored at age thirty. She just assumed that there was nothing that could be done about her condition. How much of her life would otherwise have been different.
THE FIVE “R’s” OF A WINNING WITNESS
#509 THE FIVE “R’s” OF A WINNING WITNESS
Scripture Acts 1:8, NIV Orig. 6/30/1968 (12/1976)
Rewr. 1/11/1987
Passage: 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Purpose: To observe Witness Commitment Day, and to call my people to a deeper understanding of their need to express their faith in regular witness.
Keywords: Conversion Repentance Salvation Sin Witness Revival
Introduction
We are beginning to receive information from the Internal Revenue Service. We are getting tax booklets that define our responsibility. We may be getting reminders that there is additional material that we may order to assist with everything but paying our taxes. This material is a witness to us that tax-time is here again. Once a year we are affirmed as dues-paying citizens of a free republic, the greatest country of all. None of us want to be anywhere else.
When we fill out that tax form in a few weeks, the form itself will be a witness. It will witness our material well-being, or lack of it. It will also be a witness to the level of our faith. Do we take God’s Word seriously? Do we give earnest consideration to the blessings that have come to us from God? It also may witness whether we are honest persons or not.
An IRS deputy tells of an occasion which he was witness to in pursuit of his job.
“Some guy with an income less than $5,000 claimed he gave $624 to some church. It was within the 20% limit, but it looked mighty suspicious. I dropped in on the guy and asked about his return. I thought he’d become nervous like most of them do, but not this guy. He came back at me about the $624 without batting an eyelash.
“‘Have you a receipt from the church?’ I asked, figuring that would make him squirm. ‘Sure,’ he said, and he went off and brought the receipt.
“Well, he had me. One look and I knew he was on the level. I apologized for bothering him. . . . [As I was] leaving, he invited me to his church. ‘Thanks, but I belong to a church myself.’ The he said the strangest thing. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘that possibility hadn’t occurred to me.’
“As I rode home, I kept wondering what he meant by that last remark. It wasn’t until a Sunday or so later, when I was in church and started to put my usual dollar in the offering plate that it came to me.” (Pulpit Helps—1/1977)
We are witnesses, you and I. We need to renegotiate the terms of our witness, and offer a more positive face to unbelieving friends and acquaintances. To that end I share “The Five ‘R’s’ of a Winning Witness.”
I. Realize—that Man in His Natural State is Separated from God.
The Old Testament concept of sin is shared by those who knew its power, and the grace of God’s forgiveness. Psalm 32:1 (David), “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Proverbs 11:3 (Solomon), “The perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.” Isaiah 59:2 (Isaiah), “Your iniquities have separated between you and God.”
These were men who had walked under the heavy burden of personal sin, but who had experienced God’s forgiveness. Realizing that through which they had been, they were bound to witness to others of the way out.
This ancient concept of sin, and separation, was not altered by the teaching of Jesus, nor by the instrumentality of the church. John 3: 19 (Jesus), “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Luke 15:17f (Jesus), Parable of prodigal son/loving Father. Romans 3:23 (Paul), “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And, risking misunderstanding here, I remind you that Jesus knew about sin from personal experience. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us “He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” He knew that sin separated. That was reason enough to dread the cross.
II. The Next “R” is to Recognize that We Cannot Save Ourselves.
A story was told in “Reader’s Digest” a while back entitled “The Trail.” It was the story of a man who went back to a wilderness trail that he had traveled with his wife. He was in a state of agitation because of her death. She had been killed in a needless accident. While on the trail, there came a sudden worsening of the weather, and he suddenly became resigned to his own death on the trail, rather than to struggle to safety and survival. Suddenly, as his strength was ebbing, he heard a cry for help. Managing the strength to reach the victim, he found a boy injured in a snowmobile accident. He cared for the boy through the night, and with daylight, managed to get the boy to safety. Visiting the boy in the hospital he heard him say, “‘Thank you for saving my life.’ I did not say so to him, but it was he who saved my life.”
How often has the word of a friend turned us from despair to destiny? Why should it seem so unbelievable that God chooses to arrange our salvation through another? John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me.” Ephesians 2:5, “Even when we were dead in sins, [God] hath quickened us together with Christ.”
III. Next Comes Repentance. I John 1:9, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin.” Luke 13:3, “Except ye repent, ye shall all . . . perish.”
We must not overlook any important aspect of repentance. One can easily claim to be a Christian: Brought up in home/church; taught the language; participate in the extraneous. With glibness we measure ourselves by our functions rather than scripture. We may even know 4 Spiritual Laws. Can we point to an experience of “repentance” with life-changing emphasis?
Nothing brings sin home to us like repenting of it. It’s like living in a house with dirty windows, refusing to go outside because it looks so dismal. Finally, being forced out, we discover that the bleakness is over us, not the world.
IV. Hence Comes the Two-Fold Stage of Request and Receive.
No because of what we are, but because of what God is that they can’t be separated. To come to His altar, to seek His grace, . . . is to receive His bestowal. Romans 10:13, “For whoso shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them God gives the power to become His children.”
We must be reminded where that altar is: Not the place where we stand, [but rather] a place for which we are reaching. Just as marriages are not sanctified by a place, but by a vision for which we are reaching, by two who together are seeking the will of God in communion with each other.
May it be stated as simply as ever it can be, “to seek . . . is to receive.” The burden that is upon the preacher is that of proclaiming unadulterated truth with simplicity. The story is told of Andrew R. McCheyne: Talking with a fellow preacher he asked what he had preached the Sunday before. “That the wicked shall be turned into hell.” McCheyne replied, “Were you able to preach it with tenderness?”
V. Finally, is the Certification that the Believer Rejoices in His Salvation.
To hear gladly is to believe gladly. Mark 12:37, those who heard Jesus “heard him gladly.” Likewise, those who believe in Jesus, “believe in Him gladly.”
The very word “gospel” is from a Greek word meaning “good news.”
Christmas brought and brings a proliferation of the word joy, in a form that rolls out as “jolly.” Anyone can be jolly: the clown beneath his external hilarity .. . , even Santa Claus, behind grandfatherly beard, and pink cheeks—may be grieving to death or loneliness. But Christian joy is something else—not a mask (Mardi Gras) or cloak (expensive furs); it is an inner presence that no misfortune can conceal.
Conclusion
A message preached years ago carried a story of an event of early WWII vintage. Protectionism was running scared, especially on the West Coast. Threats were seen everywhere. A bottle washed ashore. Inside, a message, but sun and salt had bleached the words. Suspicion developed immediately. FBI, and Secret Service were called in. Every skill applied. Finally, “two quarts of milk, no cream.”
What is the real message, told by our inner lives, though we try to conceal it from the world? What kind of witness do you want to be?
McCheyne: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/he-died-early-in-the-smile-of-god