(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, Acts 16. Now last week we worked through verses 1 to 5. So today we're going to pick up the story there in verse number 6. So in Acts 16 verse number 6 it says, Now when they had gone throughout Phygea and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. The title for the sermon tonight is, Forbidden of the Holy Ghost. They were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. And you go, why is that? Why would the Holy Ghost stop Paul and Silas here and Timothy and Titus from preaching this? And we actually get to see the work of the Holy Ghost when sometimes it puts a stop to a work or it prevents you from going to a place that you want to go. And you know, many times it's not clear to you at the time why that's the case. But I want you to know when God or the Holy Spirit of course puts a stop, he's obviously got something better planned for you. And this is something we see in this chapter. God has something much better planned, but they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to go into Asia. And then it says in verse number 7, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia. But the Spirit suffered them not. Again, the Holy Spirit did not allow them. Okay, allowed them not, suffered them not. So they're like, they get into, they've got into Mysia and they go like, to assays essentially, you know, they've made a decision, you know, or they're attempting to go into Bithynia. But again, the Holy Spirit says, no, that's not where I want you to go. So twice the Holy Spirit is preventing them from preaching the gospel in certain areas. And you know, and then it continues, there were some eights and they pass in by Mysia came down to Troas. All right, so they end up going to Troas and there, you know, the Holy Spirit starts to guide them and direct them and they achieve a massive work, a major work here in this chapter. But you know, as I said, the title of the sermon is Forbidden of the Holy Ghost. And you know, there have been times that I and this ministry of New Life Baptist Church has been forbidden by the Holy Ghost. You know, there are times the Holy Ghost opens doors. And you know, the fact that we came to the Sunshine Coast from Sydney to start this church, you know, I have no doubt whatsoever the Holy Ghost opened the doors. When we were meeting in a hall, it was becoming quite challenging to meet there. And we prayed to the Lord for a building and the Lord opened the doors. And the Holy Spirit led us right here to this building that we still meet today. You know, that was obviously opened by the Holy Ghost. And you know, it's great when the Holy Ghost opens things and you see his hand and guidance. But it's not nice when the Holy Ghost puts a stop to things. Because again, it's hard to fully understand. Now, let me just give you an example of this. You know, when we moved from Sydney to start this church, there were a number of brethren that were actually from Brisbane that were interested in being members of our church. And in the early days, they did come up to be part of this church in the early days. And you know, I had done my homework and I had traveled up here a few times, done some soul winning marathons or just visited some brethren. And I've done the trip, I've done the drive from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, even before I started this church, just to get a feel for what things are like. You know, how far distances are, you know, because it's obviously a very different place to Sydney. Just to get my bearings, to get an understanding of what things are like for the brethren. And I decided, you know, we got that many brethren in Brisbane that were interested in our church. And then I realized just how tough it is to travel, which is why I'm always surprised and always very thankful when people are willing to travel so far to be part of this church. It's such a blessing to me. But I realized that, you know, it's a very difficult thing to do, to travel such a distance. And I had told the brethren that we're in Brisbane, look, you know, let me get myself established on the Sunshine Coast, established as to where we're going to meet, establish where we're going to live, just to, you know, settle in as a pastor and get used to the role. And then after six months, we'll start a ministry in Brisbane. That was the goal from the very beginning. The Sunshine Coast would be my key ministry, but we would have a midweek service down in Brisbane. That was the goal. All right. And, you know, as I'm talking to brethren, trying to get brethren together into agreement to this, you know, the Holy Ghost put a stop to it. What happened was another pastor came from New Zealand and started a church in Brisbane called Pila Baptist Church. And unfortunately, I lost many of the brethren that wanted to be part of my church there and they ended up joining that church instead. And so that was about two months into after the fact that I started the church up here. And so I just thought, well, hey, the brethren that I was trying to gather together to start a ministry down there, well, you know, something else has turned up. They are now attending Pila Baptist Church. And I just, well, that wasn't what the Holy Spirit wanted me to do. And then later on, I understood why that was, but I'll cover that case a bit later on. And then about six months into, I don't know how long exactly, Pila Baptist Church kind of collapsed. And the brethren out there were kind of like, pastor, would you take over our church? Would you start a new church, start a new ministry? And I was like, you know what, things have changed a bit and I'll explain to you in a minute why that was. But then after a while, you know, I was approached a few times, will you help us start a church? Can you start a ministry here? Can we go back to plan A, what the plans were originally? And I'm like, all right, let's try it again. And I said to him, but look, if we're going to do something in Brisbane, all right, I really need you guys to be carrying this church. Oh, come, I'll be a pastor, but I can't be there week in, week out. You know, I've started some other ministries. I've started some other work here. And I can't be, I can't plan the same way how it used to be. And the brethren were like, yeah, we'll, you know, we'll get behind it. We'll support it. We'll make sure it happens, but we just need you to be our pastor. And I was like, all right, well, let's do it. All right. So that's, you know, the second, the second opportunity to start something in Brisbane, right? And then a few weeks later, it all kind of collapsed. And the brethren kind of got cold feet and some even left the country. And so several things happened. I was like, well, you know, I guess the Holy Spirit doesn't want us to start a church down there, right? I mean, I want to, I want to, you know, I'm setting my mind and thinking about how things can operate and how things can work, but the Holy Spirit closes the door. And then about a year later, one of our church members at the time, a brother who was interested in maybe being a pastor in the future, ended up moving down to Brisbane and couldn't make midweek services up here. And so in discussions, in thoughts, it's like, well, why don't you try to do midweek services under our umbrella for the brethren in Brisbane that can't make it up here for midweek services or the drive and all that distance work and all that. Why don't we attempt to do that? And then we started to plan that, organise that, promote that. And, you know, I was like, oh, wow, you know, this might actually work out. And about two weeks before we started the midweek services in Brisbane, you know what happened? COVID. COVID happened. And then we couldn't meet and we couldn't get things organised. And, you know, all the restrictions that came into the picture. And I'm like, all right, Lord, I've tried three times. I've tried three times in Brisbane. And you said no three times. That's it. I'm done. All right. Now, look, that doesn't mean that because the Holy Spirit says no, you know, those times that he may not say yes sometime in the future, because later on we saw, even though the Holy Ghost has prevented them to go into Asia, that's where they would eventually start the Ephesian Church. So eventually the Holy Spirit did allow them to go into there to start the Ephesian Church. But that wasn't the time for now. That wasn't what the Holy Spirit wanted them to do. And so, you know, what we have in this chapter, we don't exactly have the details as to how the Holy Ghost told them no. We don't exactly know if they were just pressed upon in their hearts. We don't know if there was some type of persecution. We don't know if the travel arrangements all fell apart. We don't know exactly what the Holy Spirit did. But it was very clear to Paul and Silas that that's not where the Holy Ghost wanted them to go. All right. And this is, again, very clear to Luke. Luke is a writer of the Book of Acts. And he jots down that the Holy Spirit suffered them, not prevented them from going to these places. Now let's continue there in verse number nine. And this is why, this is what happened. This is why the Holy Ghost was preventing them. Verse number nine. That the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Now like, oh, that's why. That's why the Holy Ghost is preventing us from going to this place and that place. Because he would soon reveal God's plans were for them to go to Macedonia and preach the gospel to them. There was a man, we don't know who that man was. Okay. But there was a man praying and begging. We need to hear the gospel. A man who was seeking the Lord in the city in here in Macedonia. And the Lord God revealed this to, you know, Peter, sorry, Paul in a dream. And this man is essentially begging, please come. Please come and preach the gospel to this area. Now I mentioned the fact that the Holy Ghost prevented me and this church three times from starting a ministry in Brisbane. You say, why is that pastor? Why is that? It's because Blessed Hope Baptist Church popped up, right? You know, I would have started that church six months into the ministry here. I would have started something in Brisbane. And for me, that logically makes sense. Driving one hour and a half to Brisbane is not a big deal and driving an hour and a half back is not a big deal. But what happened was, you know, with that idea being out of my mind, the need popped up in Sydney. And you know what, God, brethren, pastor, do you have a solution for us? Can you help us? We're reaching out to you. We've left our former church and this is the situation. I don't know. I'm like, well, you know what? For the time being, I can travel down there for some midweek services. Let's put a Band-Aid on this damage that's been done. Let's try to get together. Let's try to encourage one another. Let's make sure you're out there going together, preaching the gospel. And I didn't know what was going to come out of that. But look, you know, almost seven years into it, that church is still going strong. It's still going strong. And the Brisbane attempts have always collapsed. Why is that? You know, the Holy Ghost has a plan. And this is why it became difficult for me to say to the Brisbane brethren, look, I'm willing to start something there because I had now started another ministry. We had started another church. We went and planted a church down there in Sydney. And of course, you know, they're out there every week preaching the gospel, seeing souls saved. You know, there was a Macedonian call. That's what we call this chapter. There was a Macedonian call from someone saying, we need the gospel being preached to us. And praise God, we've got blessing up at the church preaching the gospel there in Sydney. People getting saved. The Lord knows. Like, I'm getting frustrated. Like, you know, oh man, I have these plans to go to Brisbane. And I've got these brethren that I've been gathering together to make something happen. You know, Lord, why are you stopping me once, twice, three times? But God had other plans. God had better plans. That church continues. It blows my mind that that church continues with a part-time pastor. And it steadily grows. You know, it's of the Holy Ghost. It's of the Spirit of the Lord. It's of the Lord for such a thing to happen. And so I've become more and more aware, you know, as ministry and time goes on, when the Holy Ghost opens things and when he closes things. And when he closes things, it's because he has a better idea. He's got another plan. There's something always better in the future down the track. And in this case, they had that vision of a man that prayed and asked him to go into Macedonia. You know, I've got another story like this. And I've told this story before, but just to remind you guys, you know, a while ago, and Brother Martin, I think he's listening online at the moment, but Brother Martin needed me to go down there. He lives in Country Victoria, three and a half hours out of Melbourne. And I won't go into the reason why I went there right now, but I went down there for ministry. And I had my flights booked and I booked a car to drive from Melbourne, you know, three and a half hours to Country Victoria there in Horsham. And then about a week before I had to get out there, I lost my wallet. And I lost my driver's license. And, you know, I contacted the rental car place and said, look, we can't allow you to rent a car without your license. We need your physical license, okay? And I had a photo. I said, look, can I send you my photo? And they said, no, no, when you get here, you need your physical license. And I'm thinking, man, there have been times that I've tried to get my physical license and it takes like a week or two weeks before he arrives in the mail. I'm like, how is this going to work, right? Anyway, and then I find out later on. Eventually I get my physical license, but like the day before, the day before the flights. But the other thing that was a problem is that the flight that I had purchased was arriving at a time in Melbourne when that rental car place was already closed. The office was closed. So I wouldn't be able to, like, I was able to book it online after 6 p.m., I think it was. Or I think it was around 8 p.m. from memory. But they told me, look, we close at 5 p.m. Like if you're going to land at 8, it's too late, we're closed, we won't be able to give you the vehicle. So I'm like frustrated, like, what's going on? Like, Lord, why are you doing this? Like, why is this becoming hard, right? I just want to be a blessing. I just want to go and support my brother Martin over there in Victoria. I want to be a blessing. I want to show him that we care and we love and we have love for him, et cetera, et cetera. So I said, look, the only way I can get this happening is to book another flight. So I don't know if you guys remember this story I've told you before, but I ended up booking the earlier flight, a flight that would land in like half an hour. And I'd like have an hour to get there before the office closed, you know, to get the rental vehicle. All right, so anything, everything's working out so far. I've got my new license and I've got the new flight, the earlier flights. And then it takes off from the Sunshine Coast. And instead of landing in Melbourne, it lands in Brisbane. Why? Why? It's just faster to drive to Brisbane than wait in the airport and take off and land into Brisbane, right? And what happened was there was no fuel in the Sunshine Coast. There was no fuel. They were like, look, we ran out of fuel. We need to land in Brisbane and fill up the, you know, the plane so we can then fly to Melbourne. And the pilot said, look, it's only going to take 20 minutes. And I'm like, I know it's not going to take 20 minutes. Like for the time for them to circle Brisbane and land, that's going to take longer than 20 minutes. For them to fuel up, that's going to take longer than 20 minutes. For them to go to taxi and take off again, that's going to take longer than 20 minutes. It ended up taking a few hours, the whole process. And I'm like, frustrated, Lord, what's going on? Don't you want me to go to Victoria? What's going on, right? Anyway, I got no, I'm stuck on the plane. They don't let you off. I was stuck there waiting for everything to happen. They take off. We finally land into Melbourne and it only landed, I can't remember if it was 15 minutes later than the original flight or 15 minutes earlier than the original flight that I booked. But the office was closed where I had rented the vehicle. So I went to the other places, the other rental places that I could see that were open. And I went one by one, one by one, asking for a vehicle. They're like, no, it's a long weekend and you won't be able to, it's all booked. If you haven't booked it online now, it's, you know, we can't find your vehicle. I'm like frustrated. I'm like, Lord, it's three and a half hour drive from Melbourne. You know, so I'm like, oh, I know I've got a contact there. Or I call a brother in the Lord and say, like hoping that he might be able to drive me out there. And then I'll figure it out later on, like how I'm going to get back. And I ring my brother up in the Lord and I ring him and it doesn't pick up, it doesn't pick up. I'm like, what's going on, Lord? Why is nothing working out for me? Right. So then I'm like, I got no other choice but Uber. But will an Uber drive three and a half hours and then three and a half hours back to Melbourne? A seven hour trip overall for that one guy. So anyway, I book an Uber and I get in there. I'm like, dude, are you happy to drive to Horsham? And he's like, oh, do it. I go, all right, jump in there. And I'm sitting there in the passenger seat in the Uber. And I'm telling you Brevin, I'm frustrated. I'm 100 percent in the flesh. I'm frustrated. I'm tired. I'm wondering to God, like, did you not want me to come? And then as we're driving, it's like a three and a half hour drive, I'm looking at the driver. I'm like, I better give this guy the gospel. But I'm in the flesh. I'm frustrated. I'm like, I don't even feel like opening my mouth and talking. And so I'm just sitting there being quiet. And I just kind of told the Lord, look, I don't even feel like giving him the gospel, Lord. I'm done. I'm tired. You know, and I just wasn't in the mood. And the driver sparks up a conversation. He starts to talk to me, right. He says, oh, so what do you do for work and blah, blah. So I'm a church pastor. He goes, oh, like Christianity? I'm like, yeah, yeah. Because what's the difference with Christianity versus other religions? Here's the one that brings up the topic. Here's the one that brings up the religious conversation. And so I've got no choice but to give him the gospel and the man calls upon the name of the Lord, gets saved. And I'm like, now I understand, Lord. Now I understand the Macedonian call or the Uber call, whatever it was, right. And now I understand why I lost my license. Now I understand why that office was closed. I understand why you didn't want me to drive. I understand why you delayed my flights. And we had to go and stop in Brisbane out of all places and get further delayed. I understand why, you know, as a public holder, you didn't want me to drive at all. I understand now why when I called my brother-in-law to pick me up, he wasn't answering his call. It was for this one man, this one man that was seeking the Lord and got saved. I was still frustrated a little bit, but also rejoicing in the spirit that this man came to know the Lord as his savior. And so the Holy Spirit does this sometimes. Like it just, you know, when he says no, he puts stops, he put blocks. You're like, why are you blocking me, Lord? Why are you blocking me? Because he's leading you to the right place where you need to be. And often it's a Macedonian call. Often it's people seeking the Lord. They need the gospel. They need to be saved. And the Holy Spirit would make sure that, you know, your efforts are maximized to the fullest potential when he leads you in that path. So, you know, we have to get used to identifying when the Holy Spirit opens doors and when he closes doors, and not to be, you know, hard-headed and stiff-necked when he makes a call and just say, all right, Lord, I'll do, I'll go the direction you want me to go. Not always understanding why it is in the time, but in the long run, in the future, it always works out to be better than what you originally thought. Well, let's continue then in verse number 11. Actually, before I get to verse number 11, verse number 10 is interesting. Because if we look at verse number 7, go back to Acts 16, verse number 6 even. Now when they, look at verse number 7, after they, verse number 8, and they passed in by Messiah, and then it says in verse number 10, it says, And after he had seen the vision, immediately we, not they, we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us, for to preach the gospel unto them. So what does that tell you? Again, the narrator is Luke. Okay, Acts 1, 1 proves that it's Luke, you know, that this is his second writings. The first writing was the gospel of Luke, of course. And now we definitely see by looking at this, that Luke has joined the party. He's now part of the trip. He's part of the team, all right, that's going out and preaching the gospel. So you can kind of see how it changes, right? The pronouns change, and it refers to them as we now, and us. And you start to notice that over and over again. Look at verse number 11, So they finally make it there to Macedonia, and primarily they get to the chief city, the main city there of Philippi. And then verse number 13, All right, so something we notice here on the Sabbath, we've seen Paul's practice, we've seen so far what he does on the Sabbath when he's travelling. He goes into the synagogue. So when he gets a chance to preach the gospel of Christ, he does so. Sometimes they receive it, sometimes they reject it. But this time on the Sabbath, I'm assuming they find no synagogue. There's probably no synagogue there at all. But they discover that there is a place, a public place that by the riverside, where prayers are being made to God. So he goes, all right, that's where we're going to go, right? If there's no synagogue here on the Sabbath, we'll go there near the riverside and speak to the ladies that are gathered there, praying. Verse number 14, And she constrained us. All right, so they go to the river and they meet Lydia, okay? Bible introduces her as a seller of purple, okay? So I'm assuming this is like purple linen or something like that, coloured linen. So obviously it's, you know, the colour purple is something a little bit seen as more like royal colours, if you want to put it that way. And the fact that it's coloured is, you know, she's got good merchandise. She's got good materials to sell. And so she hears them talking or she hears them preaching, whatever it is. And because the Lord has already opened her heart, I believe she's already saved. You know, she's attracted and she's like, yeah, you know, these guys are speaking the truth and she gets baptised, all right? So we can see and it says, and her household. So all the family, I don't know if it's her husband there, I don't know if she's a widow, you know, maybe children, maybe servants, they all hear the gospel, they all get saved, they all get baptised and she invites them to stay in her house. All right, so not only have they turned up to Macedonia and to Philippi, the chief city, but now they have a place to stay, okay, in Lydia's house. Now, keep your finger there and come with me to Proverbs 31. Come with me to Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31. I want to, and I've done this before, I've done this over the years many times, but sometimes I feel like I need to clarify this because I see a lot of really bad application when it comes to women many times in our circles, all right? It's not uncommon for people in our circles to say things like, you know, a woman is only good to be chained up to the kitchen or something like this. And I'm just joking, no, no, it's horrible. We're to honour our wives, they're the weaker vessel, all right? And look, don't get me wrong, the man is the head of the wife, the man is the leader, all right? But that idea that, you know, a woman just needs to be barefoot in the kitchen chained up, you know, it's so ungodly, it's so unbiblical, it's so corrupt, it's so wicked. And, you know, and I don't know why this is because I've never preached this, I've never preached that a woman should never work, okay? I've never said, it's never come out of my mouth, all right? But for whatever reason, people think that's what I believe, okay? And I think the reason they believe that is because my wife has never worked since we've been married, okay? We've always lived on one income, even before we got married, we wanted to make sure let's try to learn how to live on one income because if the Lord blesses us with children, we want to be able to learn how to manage, you know, this amount rather than having two incomes and then we're struggling to go down to one income, you know, I've never taught such a thing and one thing that we learned with Lydia is that she's a seller of purple, she's a salesperson, all right? And, you know, I don't know what it is, I don't know if it's words that have come from another pastor and then people believe that and understand that and then they apply that to me. Like instead of judging me by the words that I preach, sometimes they judge me and this happened many times, they judge me by the words another preacher preaches and then holds me to account for what another man says that I don't even know, I don't even know, I don't even care, I don't care, you know, my goal is not to parrot what another pastor says or what another preacher says, my goal is to preach the word and that's it. And in Proverbs 31, verse number 10, the Bible reads, who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies? This is the, you know, story of the virtuous woman, this is the objectives that all ladies should attain for, you know, I believe my wife is a virtuous woman, I believe my wife is, her price is far above rubies, I mean far above everything, you know, if I were to lose everything, all my bank account, all my possessions, I'd still want to be with my wife, she's far above rubies for me, okay. But drop down to verse number 16, she considerth a field and byeth it, with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. So she plants the vineyard, she's working. Verse number 17, she girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms, she perceiveth that her merchandise is good, her candle goeth not out by night. Look, she's making merchandise out of her vineyard, right, she's selling the grapes or selling the grape juice, whatever it is that she's selling from the vineyard, right. Drop down to verse number 24, she maketh fine linen and selleth it and delivereth girdles unto the merchants. She's making business deals with other merchants. She's like, look, you sell my linen, you know, you can get this percentage of the sales and whatever it is, right, I'll provide the merchandise and you sell for me, she's also a seller. Like we see here in like, what was her name, Lydia, we see Lydia being a seller of purple. Now again, when I say this, you know, it's like, I often talk about extremes, right, and the idea that my wife should just be chained up in the kitchen is one crazy extreme. And that's all, that's all she does, all right. And then you've got the other crazy extreme where the woman chases a career, okay, and neglects her family, neglects her children, right, she just gives everything to the job, she works a full time job, you know, other strangers are looking after her kids, that's the other extreme. Right, the truth is, it's somewhere in the middle, and it depends on your family needs. Behind this pulpit, I have said that I would work a second job, a third job, I'll work the weekends before I send my wife out to work. Okay, so why do you say that Pastor Kevin? Because we've got 12 kids, 11 kids now, sorry, I should say, right, we've got 11 kids at home, we still have little babies at home, it's a lot of work. I don't want some stranger, I don't want some daycare to take care of my kids, I don't even know what they're teaching them, I don't know how well they're taking care of them, I don't know what they're feeding them, I'd much rather trust my wife, who carried them for nine months, and laboured to bring them into the world, I know she's going to give them the best care, and the best education, you know, for them, and she'll love me and take care of me, when I'm at home and I have needs around the house. I would rather work the second job, I would rather work the third job, I would do all the hours that I need to do, to ensure my wife stays at home. But you know what, when we had a few kids, when we had two kids, when we had three kids, my wife would take the clothes that our children would grow out of, and she'd sell them on eBay for a profit, she'd make a little business, bring some money on the side, a little bit of a side hustle to help with the finances, and I was all in favour of that. You see, there's nothing wrong with a woman making some money on the side, nothing wrong with it. I'm not against that, I want to make it very clear, because people think I am. And sometimes when I talk to people, it's like they have to apologise to me because their wife works. It's got nothing to do with you, your life, your marriage, your family, right? But what I am against, and what I'm clearly against, is women neglecting their children, neglecting their families for some career path, or turning their husbands into the house husbands, because the wife can earn more on the job. No, we have priorities in life, we have things that God wants us to take care of, the idea that my wife needs to be just chained up in the kitchen is as ridiculous as saying my husband, if a woman says this, my husband has to be just chained up in his workplace, and can never come home, because that's all he has to do. We know as husbands, we go and work, we produce an income, we take care of our families, but when we get home, do we say, well, we don't touch the kids, we don't play with the kids, we don't talk to the kids, that's your job. And we say that's ridiculous, that's crazy, we're one flesh, we're a team, we're working together, we have roles and responsibilities, we have priorities. And I want to show you that the virtuous woman has a bit of a side hustle, some part time or casual job if you want to call it that, but she always prioritises her family. She doesn't neglect her family. And my priority is to work a job, but that doesn't mean that I neglect my family. When I get home, I need to make sure that I'm there for the children, that I'm helping them, that I'm involved in the family life. But there are extremes, and I just don't know where these extremes come from. When you take the Bible as a whole, we understand we have roles and responsibilities, but there are times that a woman has to labour. What about a widow? Sometimes she has to labour. A single mum for whatever reason, sometimes she's got to labour. It's not the ideal, the ideal that she has a man to take care of her. Or the ideal is a church will take care of a widow that has served faithfully in the church if needed. We have obviously priorities, but I don't know why some people have these extreme crazy views that are so contrary to the Bible and behave like it's biblical. Behave like it's okay to say ridiculous and stupid things, disrespecting women. And sometimes ladies in church think I'm like anti-woman for things I've never said. Things some pastor somewhere else has said maybe, I don't know. Or wrong thoughts that her husband maybe had and it's that cult there at New Life Baptist Church. It's like I'm not against women. I've got four daughters. I've got a wife. I've given myself faithfully to take care of them, to work hard and to labour. You know, doing the best I can to make sure my family has everything they need in life. So I want to make it very clear, okay, I don't have this stupid mindset. Just chain her up to the kitchen. I think you're crazy. I think you're weird. You know, I don't think your wife loves you if that's the attitude you have toward her. Alright, honestly I just think it's just, I don't know, so anti-Bible, I just don't even know what to say. I don't know where it comes from. Okay, maybe it comes from the MGTOW movement but it doesn't come from the Bible. I'll tell you that. But come back with me to Acts 16, Acts 16 and verse number 16. Acts 16 and verse number 16. Acts 16 and verse number 16. So you've got this woman who's got the spirit of divination. She's got a spirit, okay, she's got something, some devil that's given her information. And it says here that she brought her masters much gain by Sufsein. So whoever her masters are, whoever's in control of her life, they're benefiting from the spirit of divination that she has. Now keep your finger there and come with me to Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18, Deuteronomy 18. Are there spirits like this in the world today? Absolutely. Okay, spirits of divination and this is obviously not the Holy Spirit. Okay, these are devils. These are devils. And in Deuteronomy 18 verse number 9, Deuteronomy 18 verse number 9 it says, When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abomination of those nations. So God is saying, look, don't be abominable like these other nations. Why? Verse number 10. There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consultant with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord thy God both drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God, for these nations which thou shalt possess hearken unto observers of times and unto diviners. But as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. Now there are people that have these spirits or familiar spirits. There are people that can predict or tell or know information that they should not know. I've come across situations like this where people know information about my life that they would have no idea. They should have no idea and I have no doubt some spirit of divination gave them that information. You've probably heard of stories where, I don't know why you do this, but it's happened where police officers or detectives have engaged psychics to help them with like a murder case or something. And apparently there are times that, you know, these psychics have found the dead body or have found the weapon or has figured out who did the murder. And there are situations like this that happen. These things are true. There are spirits of divination. There is this power, this power of darkness. And, you know, some people get amazed and, wow, and they want to tap into wizardry. They want to tap into witchcraft themselves and go, wow, there's information, there's knowledge that we can gain from this. But there's a reason why the Bible refers to these spirits as familiar spirits, familiar spirits. And the Bible tells us, God warns us that we should have, as God's people, we should have nothing to do with such wickedness. Nothing to do with it. But powers exist, these powers exist. And look, it's not that amazing, it's not that great, okay? We started with the Holy Spirit, how he can open doors and close doors. And when you're sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading, okay, he'll guide you into all paths. You know, the Holy Spirit is God. You know, the Lord God has all knowledge. But these spirits, these other spirits, they don't have all knowledge, they've got some knowledge. So let me explain to you how this kind of works, all right? Let's say some guy commits murder. Maybe motivated by that same spirit. Maybe motivated by that same devil goes out and commits a murder and buries a dead body. Thinks nobody can see me. But there is someone that saw that. Obviously the Lord God saw that, but also many times some wicked spirit. Or maybe motivated, possessed that man to do such a thing, who knows, all right? But the spirit is aware, yeah, there's the dead body. Ah, there you hid the weapon and you're the one that did this, right? That familiar spirit knows about it. Then that spirit enters into a damsel in this scenario and tells the damsel, look, the body's buried over here. Tell the police officers, the body's over here, the weapon's over there, and this man is your suspect. And so she gets that information from that spirit and tells it to the police officers. And they go and, oh, look, there it is. The spirit itself might have done the murder, right? It might have pushed a pressure and caused that hatred and that anger toward that person that's caused that murder to take place. Like pretend I did something really wicked, like I committed murder, right? And I bury a body. And then I go to the police and tell them, hey, the body's buried over there. You're like, well, that's nothing special. Yeah, these familiar spirits are nothing special, right? They have information. They know certain things because they infiltrate lives. They can see things, obviously, from a spiritual level, and they give that information to other people, these wizards and these witches, and they're able to come up with this information and this knowledge seems amazing, but it's no more amazing than you observing something and telling someone else what took place, okay? These aren't like super powerful beings or something like this, right? But greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. We should have no concerns about the powers of darkness. You know, you in the Holy Spirit, you in Christ Jesus, are much greater than the powers of these spirits of divination or these familiar spirits. But come back with me to Acts 16. Acts 16 and verse number 20. Acts 16 and verse number 20. Sorry, is that what I'm up to? Oh yeah, sorry, one thing that I wanted to say here is, oh, verse number 18, sorry, verse 18 is what we're up to. And this did she many days, but Paul being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and he came out the same hour. And when her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers. All right, what's really interesting about this spirit and this woman, she said these words in verse number 17. These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. The spirit is actually speaking the truth, right? That these men, Paul and Silas, these men are the servants of the Most High God. Like she's pointing people to these men, listen to these men. They know the way of salvation. You go, what's the problem with that? Why would we want to stop that? Well, number one, we don't want to give the devil credit for your salvation. But secondly, we noticed twice what the Bible says about this, is that the men who were the masters of this woman, that they, it says in verse number 16, which brought her masters much gain. Okay, verse number 16, brought her masters much gain. And then when the devil leaves her, it says in verse number 19, and when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone. So this woman was able to cause them to gain, I don't know, wealth, prestige, power, right? Information can many times be powerful. These men were able to gain from this woman. And so one thing we learn is that by this woman proclaiming to listen to Paul and Silas and these other men, is that they were hoping to gain from that interaction, right? They were hoping to gain from that. Now let me give you an example of what I'm talking about here. Come with me to Acts 20. Come with me to Acts 20 and verse number 29. Acts 20 and verse number 29. Acts 20 and verse number 29. The Bible says in Acts 20 to 29, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, look at this, to draw away disciples after them. Sometimes the Holy Spirit, sorry not the Holy Spirit, a wicked spirit, you know, a devil will want to infiltrate a church to draw people away after some false prophets. And so they say, yeah, listen to the preaching here. Listen to a new life about the church, come and be part of this church. But secretly, they want to draw people away for them, okay? Look at 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter 2 please. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 1. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 1. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 1. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the law that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. See, false teachers and false prophets. Verse number 2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be even spoken of, and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now for a long time lingereth not, but their damnation slumbereth not. See, there's a reason why false prophets want to enter a good church. They want to make merchandise out of the people. They want to make you, they want to profit from you. Take your riches, take your possessions, you know, take disciples away after them, that people would hear them. And so with that in mind, we have this woman telling, hey listen to Paul and Silas, for what purpose? So they could maneuver themselves into their ministry and pull people away from them, and they would gain from them, they would profit from them. Okay, they saw this is a way that we can become profitable. Everyone's listening to Paul preaching, let's get in there and let's get our slice of the pie, right? Well anyway, this devil gets taken out of the woman and they get really upset with Paul. And if you come back with me to Acts 16 and verse number 20, And brought them to the magistrate, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city. So remember they were loving them, they were saying, yeah listen to them, listen to them. Now they're like, now we hate them. They trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes, not just beat them, many stripes, that's whipped, they were whipped upon them. They cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. So now they're in prison, they got beaten, they got whipped, they're thrown in prison, alright? And then we have this great story here, verse number 24, Who having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. I love this example. Boy, if you're taken, beaten, whipped and thrown into prison, I mean how many of you, I mean maybe some of you, some of you guys, maybe some. I'd have a hard time praising God, I'd have a hard time singing praises, I'll just be honest. I'd have a hard time, I'd be like, what's going on God? You told us to go to Macedonia, you told us to go to Philippi, now we're in prison. It's like me, right? Lord, my flight's cancelled, it's this and that, and I can't get my car, and I'm frustrated, I'm in the flesh. I'm not thinking, let's praise God now. I'm not thinking, let's sing in praises. I still have a long way to grow, I just want you to know that, right? I'm just being honest, you know. But these guys are able to sing praises to God, and of course that's what Christian maturity should lead us. We should get to that point that whatever hardships we face, even rejection, even when we do exactly what God wants us to do, we find ourselves in jail. So you better say, well Lord, I'm going to praise you. I don't understand, I don't know why I'm here, but I'm going to praise you, I'm going to sing you glories, Lord. You know what's best, you know why I'm here, I'm just going to praise you, Lord. What more can we do? Our God is deserving of praise, even if we find ourselves in jail. We have salvation, we have everlasting life, we have plenty to praise our Lord God about. Verse number 26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prisons were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awakened out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. So the keeper of the prison was like, he wakes up, he had a little sleep, the doors are open. You know what happened? He thinks all the prisoners have run away. He's like, I can't face my leaders now. You know, like, I failed, I failed as a keeper. And I don't know if they would have killed him, maybe they would have killed him anyway. So he says, look, I'm just going to commit suicide, I can't face this. Maybe he can't feel like he can't face his family. So look, I failed as the keeper of the prison. So he's about to commit suicide. And then it says here in verse number 28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Beautiful. We use this often, I use this often when I go door to door soul winning, preaching the gospel. Such a simple question. What must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. I guess he heard the singing, he heard the words of the Lord, seeking the Lord. I don't know. Was this the man that was praying? I don't know. Is this the Macedonian man that was praying? We don't know, we don't have the information from us in the Bible. Was this a guy that was seeking the Lord and wanting to know, because he's so receptive. He just wants to know how to be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And if you're saved, praise God. But what about your family, and thy house? Your house there is a reflection of your family. You know, if your family believes, they too will be saved. It says in verse number 32, and they spake unto him the word of the Lord, look at this, and to all that were in his house. They're like, alright, you know, Philippian jailer, we can give you the gospel, but let's go to your house, let's make sure everybody in your house can hear the gospel too, right? Verse number 33, and he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. So he takes Paul and Silas, he treats their wounds, washes their wounds, I guess keeping away the infection, possibility of infections, whatever, right? And then he goes, alright, well, I've done that, we've got more water now, let's get baptized. Him and his whole household, they all believed, right? Him, his family, his servants, whoever is there in his house, they all believed the message. I mean, this is amazing. To go from being in prison, to not just saving one man, but saving his whole household. Now we know, now we know why they were in prison. They had to meet the jailer, that jailer was seeking the Lord, right? Again, like I was telling you, now I know why I lost my license. Now I know why my flight was moved to Brisbane, and I have to arrive late. Now I know why, you know, all these happen is because that one Uber driver needed to hear the gospel. It's hard when you're in the middle of it, and the Holy Spirit's directing you, and you're like, I don't think this is what you want God, why is it so difficult? Why are you closing the doors? Why are you preventing me from doing what I want to do, Lord? There's always a reason, there's always a better reason, right? There's this man seeking the Lord, he had to hear the gospel, and his whole house. Let's see, where am I after brethren? I've lost my place. Verse number 34, And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, look at this, believing in God with all his house, all his house, they all got saved. And when it was day, the magistrate sent the sergeant, saying, let those men go. So they think Paul and Silas are still in the prison, all right? And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, the magistrates have sent to let you go, now therefore depart and go in peace. But Paul said unto them, they have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison, and now do they thrust us privily? Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out. He goes, they know they did wrong, they didn't give us trial, they didn't condemn us, they didn't find us guilty of anything, but they still beat us, they whipped us, they threw us into prison, now they're trying to hide the fact, all right? Because they're Romans, like, there's still law and order, even during those times. You can't just take someone and throw them into prison for no reason, all right? There's got to be proper justice, we've seen this on Sunday. You know, we need a justice system, you know, this is God's ways, this is what governments are supposed to do. You're supposed to let someone go through trial and see whether they're guilty or innocent. You know, you should be innocent until proven guilty. You know, that's God's ways, you don't just, I don't like you, let's just think you're guilty, let's just listen to some false accusation and act upon that. We're meant to be diligent, you know, research to see, is that person guilty or is that person innocent? So, they bring this up that we're Romans and they treated us like this. We've got Roman rights and they did this to us, they thought we were just Jews, but we're actually Romans. They've got Roman citizenship, okay, so we have rights as Roman people. Say, why are they doing this? Are they just trying to get revenge? You know, there's a reason behind this, I'll explain to you in a minute why, all right? But, verse number 38, and the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates, look at this, and they feared when they had heard they were Romans. They're like, uh-oh, we did bad, we're in trouble. You know, when our bosses find out that we did this, we're going to be in big trouble. You know, I kind of feel like that's what's happening in the US, I don't know if you guys have been following. There's all this wasted money that's been found, all these backdoors, all where politicians are getting millions of dollars and just a waste of money, I don't know if you've been following this at all, and like everyone's freaking out, you know? It's like, you know, like, you know, these guys are kind of reacting the same way, we've done wrong and they're going to find out we haven't dealt with this properly. What we see here is that Paul and Silas, they're using their citizenship, they're using the law in their favour. Okay, and there's a reason why, because let's continue there, verse number 39. And they came and besought them, so the magistrates did come and see them, alright, and brought them out and desired them to depart out of the city. And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia, and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. Okay, there's a reason why, that they wanted to make sure the magistrates came, alright, and said, look, it's all good, just go, just go, alright. They wanted to openly show what you did was wrong, okay, you can't just treat us this way, and the reason for that is because this is the beginning of the Philippian church, okay. The Philippian church started to meet in the house of Lydia, alright, the cellar of purple. That's where they started to meet, okay. So they go to the house, they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. So we got the book of Philippians, okay. In fact, come with me to Philippians chapter one, come with me to Philippians chapter one, Philippians chapter one please, Philippians chapter one. Philippians one and verse number one, the Bible reads, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. So what we see here when the Philippian, the epistles of the Philippian church is written, that years have gone by, right, churches have been established, there are pastors, there are bishops, and there are deacons, you know, this mission for them in Acts 16 was very fruitful, very fruitful. And the reason they stood up for their rights, you know, as believers is obviously to protect the rest of the church. You can't treat us like this, you can't just take us into prison and beat us and whip us. You come yourself and let us go, you come and see us face to face. You know, they stand up to the rights to protect the church, they need to be able to return back to Philippi, to visit them, to let these churches grow without the persecutions, right. And if these law makers, these magistrates are all afraid of the believers, they're going to leave them alone, right. And so Paul uses his power, uses that, you know, leverage to make sure that they can return back to Philippi, you know, not be treated like garbage, that these other people in Lydia's house can be protected, and that the churches can flourish and grow, and they do. Pastors and deacons, these churches definitely grow, all the saints that are there in Philippi. The title for the sermon was, Forbidden of the Holy Ghost. Like, Lord, why did you stop Paul and Silas from preaching the Gospels in certain areas for the Philippian church? That that church would grow, that church would flourish, that the church would do well, alright. And again, when we're in the middle of the Holy Spirit stopping us, preventing us, we don't understand. When the Holy Spirit's making our ways difficult, maybe stuck in prison, we don't understand, until we realize that's the person that we're trying to preach the Gospel to. That was the whole reason you made my maneuverings go this way and that way. Oh, this is the reason we needed a church to be planted here in Philippi. You know, if I went to these other places, sure, we might see some souls saved, but to come and start a great church, the Philippian church, that's what the Holy Ghost wanted them to achieve at that point in time of their ministry. So brethren, like I said, Forbidden of the Holy Ghost, it's good when you're forbidden by the Holy Ghost. It's good when he closes doors. It's good when he opens doors. You need to be sensitive to his leading. Don't be like me that gets in the flesh when I get frustrated. But I'm just telling you, I promise you, the Holy Ghost always has a better plan for you, and you just need to follow his ways. Alright brethren, let's pray.