Setbacks are Setups

What if the setback you desperately want to escape is actually setting you up for something God wants to do?

In Acts 8:4–8, Philip finds himself scattered from Jerusalem because of persecution. He ends up in Samaria—a place a Jewish believer normally wouldn't want to go, among people his culture had taught him to avoid. But Philip doesn't waste the setback. He recognizes that God has placed him there for a purpose.

In this message from the Open Season series, Pastor Matt Shackelford shows how God can use the hard places of our lives to open unexpected doors for ministry. Philip embraces where God has placed him, shares Christ with people different from himself, serves in ways that make the gospel visible, and discovers the joy that can come when ordinary Christians live on mission.

Your diagnosis, difficult job, broken relationship, unexpected move, or painful season may put you somewhere you never wanted to be. But God is bigger than your hard thing. With eyes of faith, we can begin asking a different question: How does God want to use this?

Scripture: Acts 8:4–8
Series: Open Season

If this message encouraged you, subscribe for more verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Central Church.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And let's take our Bibles. Let's open to Acts chapter 8. That's where we're at this morning. Acts chapter 8. As you're turning there, you may have noticed all around our campus are young people. Many of them are actually wearing goggles. And some of you have asked, what in the world is that about? Well, they're currently in the youth group. They're playing a water war game. And here's Gabe with his water gun. And I guess the way the game works is you're each assigned someone in the youth ministry, and you've got to take them out before the week is over with your water gun. And my son unbelievably was assigned none other than Gabe Britton. And he came to me this week and he said, Dad, would you help me assassinate Gabe? And I said, son, nothing would give me more joy in life than to help you pull this off. And so I sent Gabe a text message and I said, Gabe, it's for the sermon. I need a picture of you standing in front of your car. And uh and he said, Yeah, no, if it's for the sermon, no problem. Not technically alive because of this moment right now. Amen. But but but I said, I need you standing in front of your car, and he stood there, and my son was hiding behind my car, which was behind me, and I'm ready to take the picture, and he even willingly, I didn't even ask him to, he takes the goggles off because he doesn't want to be looking like a goof in the picture. And so he takes the goggles off, and then my son came comes out like a terrorist and he starts attacking Gabe, and Gabe runs faster than than any human being I've ever seen. And he takes off in that moment. And it was a great moment. I mean, it was a lot of fun. Uh Gabe got away to run another day, and he did not get uh defeated on that night. I'm told that he was taken out this morning at 8 o'clock or 8 30, all right? I'm told that he got uh assassinated this morning. But that's besides the point. You know, uh uh here's the here's what happened out of that story. First of all, I have lost all trust with one of my staff members. And you can pray for that relationship. There's a lot of rebuilding that's gonna have to happen there. Second, um, I got my sermon illustration, which is also helpful. Uh, but but really, it really goes along with what we're talking about tonight today. There are setbacks in life and there are setups in life. You know what I'm talking about? There and when the setups come, when the setbacks come, here's what we tend to do. We tend to sort of run away. We tend to not want to deal with the setbacks, the hard seasons of life, the seasons where we're under attack. And and here's the truth: in every one of you, there will be a hard season. All across this room, you're all going through something. A hard season. A diagnosis, a pain, a stressor, a divorce. Some of you have even said, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm tired. Some of you said the line, this week. I don't want to work this job anymore. I don't want to deal with this problem, this personality anymore. I am done. And what happens is when the setback comes, what happens is we tend to sort of focus inwardly. How do I fight it? How do I protect what God is taking away? How do I fight the disappointment? And we're so self-focused that we miss the setup. We miss God's overall purpose for ministry, that God has a plan for your setback. He has a plan for your setup. We miss how God actually wants to use our hurt. In fact, I heard someone not too long ago tell the story of a preacher who went before an audience and he said, Do you want to be used by God? Let me just ask you, do you want to be used by God? Some of you are like, yes. No, no, seriously. Do you want to be used by God? No, no, I'm I'm serious. Do you want to be used by God? Then God must wound you greatly. It's the truth that out of your greatest misery comes your greatest ministry. God will have to take you to experience some very difficult things. And out of that experience will come an equipping, a deployment for ministry. Friends, we're in Acts chapter 8 today, and that's really the story of Acts chapter 8. In fact, uh, it's a series that I've entitled Open Season. The church is being hunted. In fact, in verses 1 to 4, we see the word scattered twice. The early church was scattered. They are being persecuted, they are being hunted, they are being scattered across the land. And it reminds us that you will have setbacks, you will have scattering days, you'll have difficult days, a diagnosis, a move, a divorce, a trial. There will be places you do not want to be. And in Acts 8, we're going to be introduced to a guy named Philip. Philip embraces his setback. Philip actually sees it as part of God's plan. In fact, he I'm positive that he has to remember back to Acts 1.8. That it was always Jesus' plan to go from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria. That's where we're going to be today, and to the ends of the earth. In order to understand Acts 8.1, you have to understand Acts 1.8. The scattering had a great purpose. Setbacks are setups. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. Let's stand in honor of God's word. Setbacks are setups. Says this in verse 4 of Acts 8. Now to those who were scattered, they went about preaching the word. Now our text, verse 5. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them. And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. We're seeing the setup for a city. And today what I want to show you is that when you have a bitter setback, you need to start looking for the better setup. You need to start looking for the setup that God is going to use it. And I think in this passage we see three gospel setups. We see a gospel setup. You need to share your message in the places you'd normally avoid. We see a generosity setup. The one of the ways that you're going to get the attention of people who would never normally listen to your message is your generosity. And then lastly, we see a joy set up. He's going to bring joy. One person is going to bring joy to a whole city. We're going to see how the one witness can give the many joy. Guys, that's where we're going today. God is showing you how to repurpose the hard season that you're in. It's not a setback, it's a setup. And if you can see that, you will thrive when others wither in their hard seasons. You will rise when others fall. You will embrace the calling on your life when others miss it. So may God bless his word. May God bless all of you. You may be seated. Let's start with that first thought. We need to share the gospel in the places we'd normally avoid. Philip finds himself in a new setting. It's a place he would normally avoid. It's a place he would normally not want to be. And I think of many places like that in my life. I I even took some pictures in some places I didn't want to be. The first one. And then last night at around 10 o'clock, this one. There are places in life, uh, whether it's Hobby Lobby or whether it's uh Texas Stadium, Longhorn Stadium, uh that what that wasn't that a game. Good night. I was rooting for Ohio just because the enemy of your enemy is your friend. And uh there's gonna be no living with Todd now. In verse 5, that's where the disciples find themselves. It's a place they don't want to be. Samaria. Now you to understand this, you're gonna have to understand the history. Jews hated this area. Jews despised this area. When they traveled, they try to go around it. In fact, it's still like that today. It's uh traditionally known, or in modern terms, it's known as the West Bank. Uh let's put that map up here on the screen. This is so this is the Jordan River, and you've got the East Bank, and this is the West Bank. And uh this is the area where there's this large wall that goes all the way around it, and there's a massive concrete wall, and Jews are still today uh creating this separation. They they do not like this area. And it that that history of separation is strong, uh, it is emotional. In fact, it was so much so that there are there are signs all over the region that are telling Jews if you go to this area, it's forbidden, it's dangerous to your lives. In fact, when we were in Israel, I've been to Israel five times. And when we were there, our bus driver or our uh tour guide, he didn't even want to get off the bus in some of these areas because he said, I'm just gonna stay put. I don't I don't want to take my life in my own hands because there's such animosity, there's such persecution. That's a very old sentiment. It's real, it is long-term, it is racial, there it is theological. There is a great deal of animosity between Samaritans and Israelites. The language in verse 5, notice what it says. It reflects the even the priority of Jerusalem over Samaria. Notice it says they went down. Now, this is not just a racial, theological division. Actually, it's a priority for Jerusalem. Every direction, whether you're going north, south, east, or west, when you leave Jerusalem, you're going down. Jerusalem was the high point, it was the place of prominence, it was the place of power, it was where the temple was. Every other location is lower. Not only in height, certainly Jerusalem was up in the mountains, but but it's lower in priority. Even when you're going north, you're going down. It represents a long-term priority, a long-term also hatred. In fact, if you put that map on the screen, uh this goes all the way back to around 930 BC. There was a split between Israel and Judah. Israel, the the ten northern tribes, said, We want our own king, we want our own leadership, we don't want to be with you anymore, and there was a division in the kingdom. And what happens out of that is God judges them. God sends Assyria into the land, and this is just part of your Bible history that you need to know. Assyria comes in through the land, they pillage, Sennacherib conquers, and what happens is, you can go and put the next slide up, Jennifer. There's a there's an exporting of people into Persia, into Assyria, this this kingdom, this empire. And what you would do in the ancient world, if you wanted to bring stability to a conquered land, you would export some of their citizens, you would import some of your citizens, and what would happen is there would be this intermarrying that would happen over time. People would fall in love, and the religions would become syncristic, and there would be a syncretism that emerges, and that's exactly what happened with Samaria. Uh this is modern-day Iran, right over here, and so straight aforemost, all the activities happening right down here, and uh that's but but that's what was happening back then. And so they're taken into captivity, and out of that comes a people that are compromised. In fact, Jews saw them as uh half-breeds. They're not quite Israel anymore. Uh Jews looked at them with disdain, uh, theologically compromised. In fact, when Israel was rebuilding the Temple Mount, what happened is uh Israel says, Well, we would like to help. We'll come and we'll help you rebuild the temple. And the Jews say, You guys can go kick rocks. We don't want your help rebuilding the temple. You guys get out of here. And so what do they do? They build their own high places, they build a place of worship on Mount Gerizim. In fact, here's a picture of uh a place in Dan that we saw. And this wasn't supposed to happen in the north. Place of worship was supposed to be Jerusalem, and so all of Jerusalem is looking at the northern tribes and saying, these people are theologically compromised. They didn't even believe in the same Bible that we believe. They only believed in the first five books. They don't believe in the prophets, they don't believe the prophets were inspired. All kinds of animosity. And so this is why, whenever Jesus tells that parable of the Good Samaritan, right? This is why in the Good Samaritan, the shock, remember every parable has a shock? What was the shock of the Good Samaritan? The Good Samaritan. Because there's no such thing. They're all bad, they're all theologically compromised, they're all uh racially compromised, they've lost their distinctiveness. Jews hated this place, and they hated these people. What does Philip do? Well, Philip embraces the hard place, he sees it as the outworking of Acts 1.8. It's all part of the plan. He sees the purpose of the setback, sees the purpose of Jerusalem being a scattering point for Christians, and he sees the plan of Jesus to go into Samaria. These are new grounds for the gospel, and he teaches us to embrace the hard place that we have ourselves. Some of you need to learn that lesson today. Some of you are in a hard place in relationships, some of you are in a hard place in your health, some of you are in a hard place in your job. Well, what if God has someone in that in that doctor's office that he wants you to reach? Someone that he loves. You have to embrace the hard place and say, I'm gonna, I'm going to have that conversation. What if God has someone in that job that you despise, getting up and going to work every single day? And yet God has somebody there for you to reach. God's bigger than your box. God wants to reach people that are outside of your preferences, and we have to learn to embrace that. That's what this shows us. We have to learn to bring the gospel. Notice Philip's example. Let's get back to the text. Look at verse 5 with me. How does he accept this hard calling, this hard place, this hard people? First of all, he preached. He proclaimed. In verse 5, it says he proclaimed the Christ. He's telling everyone, he's having a constant conversation with everyone about who the identity of the Messiah is. And notice the word proclaimed here, this is a word in the tense tells us that this is just a way of life or this. It's an ongoing thing. He's just doing this every day. He's turning every conversation into a Jesus conversation. You can do this today. When you go to lunch, you're looking for an opportunity to talk to your waiter about who Jesus Christ is. You're proclaiming. It's a way of life. We have to learn that art of how to turn every conversation back into a Jesus conversation. Charles Spurgeon said that every um every road, every hamlet, every every road in the UK leads back to London. And in the same way, every verse of Scripture points back to Jesus. That's true of all of our conversations, too. Every conversation could actually, if we could learn this art, point back to Jesus. We have to figure out how to work every conversation back into a Jesus conversation. That's what Philip was doing. That's not all he was doing. I think it was actually, there's more in this text that I think that's that you have to dig into to see, but he had faith that Jesus had already done the preparation of the field. In fact, that's true. Jesus had already been to Samaria. Notice it says the city of Samaria. It doesn't tell us which city, it just says the city. Which one was it? Well, we don't know. But wouldn't it be interesting if this was Sikar? Because in John chapter 4, Jesus goes to the woman at the well, and he shares the gospel, and she's the first person that finds out Jesus is the Messiah. And he has this long conversation, this convicting conversation. And I believe she actually believes because she eventually goes out and starts telling everyone, I think I've found him. I think I've found the Messiah. And so you have this evangelism happening in Samaria from this event of the woman at the well. And it reminds us that Jesus has already, he's already planted seeds. He's already doing work in those areas. And so now Philip is going back and he's working on top of another's work. Jesus will say in John chapter 4, verse 35, the fields are white for harvest. Others have labored. You've entered into their labor. I actually think that's on Philip's mind. Philip is believing that he is just a part of the ministry, that there's already been a setup that he's entering into. His setback is a setup. Someone else has already been there, has planted, someone else has watered, and now he gets to be a part of the harvest. You and I have to live like that. To believe that our scattering moments are really setups. Setups that have been prepared for us. He also in verse 5 overcomes his prejudice. I think the word prejudice is a big word in our culture today. I actually think it's a big word in this passage. Notice who's he proclaiming to? Them. There's a lot in these two words. To them. To those people. To the people that are different than me, to the people that my culture hates, to the people that I don't necessarily want to break bread with. They're just too different. We know this lesson. Didn't we? Remember that? Remember what you felt? I remember where I was at. Do you remember where you were at? It's crazy to me. I asked some young people, where were you at when 9-11? I wasn't born yet. That's crazy. I just can't believe that. I remember walking into one of my classes. Everyone's glued to the TV. Couldn't believe what was happening. Watched a guy fall from the building. One of our electric guitar players actually was working in the Pentagon when the plane hit. He was in the building. Remember this image right here? My brother Pete tells stories about that and how everyone's kind of flooding out of the building. It's easy in those moments. It's easy when you're under attack. It's easy when you've been hurt to actually have anger, hatred, resentment. That's something of what the Jewish mind would have had towards these people. And yet Philip is preaching to the people his culture has taught him not to love, not to have hope for. Philip teaches us to have hope for people who are far off. Philip teaches us that terrorists can become evangelists. Don't believe it? Look at the Apostle Paul. Saul becomes Paul. He's a terrorist. And yet he becomes an evangelist. And, you know, we were just talking about how Islam is sort of moving into Memphis. And we need to pay attention to that, friends. What's startling is this Islam has a plan to take over America. That's a real plan. Secularism has a plan to take over America. They're going after our children. How? Through the universities. But where's the church's plan for the gospel? As I look over much of evangelicalism, I see no plan whatsoever. I was meeting with this pastor this uh last week, and he just said, you know, I'm planting a church, I'm involved in this church, and right down the street is the mosque. We're going after, we're going after Islamic people who are far off, far from Jesus. We're just trying to reach them. Man, I was so moved by that. I just I just felt the power of that conversation. Finally, a strategy, finally, some love towards people that are different. Friends, we have to embrace that kind of gospel love. We have to embrace the love of someone who's different than us, they have different traditions than us, they're from different places than us. This place should be multi-ethnic, multicultural. We ought to embrace that. And Philip sees that. Philip sees the opportunity for that. And Philip has a plan. He's going after them. So this reminds us: if any of you have a hard heart, if any of you are bitter, if any of you is uh feeling hurt by the person that's wronged you, you need to understand that the gospel provides grace. The gospel offers a setup to reach people that are different than you, and God wants them to know the gospel. God wants them to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. We've got to Preach the gospel. And we have to do it in places you would normally never go. Where's your place? Maybe it's going to be a hospital waiting room. Maybe it's going to be a school system, a job, a dusty office you don't want to be. Maybe it's going to be a part of town you're not familiar with, that doesn't feel like home. God wants us to go there. And I'm just calling us as a church at some point. We've got to be, we've got to move towards that as a church. To reach the people who have not been reached, to go to the places that we have not gone. Number two, if you're taking notes, we need to understand the setup. Set up to share the gospel in places you'd normally avoid. We also need the setup to serve so generously that our message is compelling. When I look at verses six and seven, there's a generosity to Philip's ministry. Notice with me that this is a generosity and it's aimed at getting people's attention. In verse 6, it says the crowd, with one accord, paid attention. Now, this is the language of our day, alright? There's a statistic that I read to our young adults a couple of weeks ago that the average person touches their phone 2,600 times a day. Wow. Now, the most wealthy companies in America understand this, okay? That how do you make money in America right now? You have to capture the attention of the consumer. And so what they've done is they've offered all of these apps, all of these different games. You can have this free game to play in your free time. All you have to do is every once in a while watch an ad. How many of you know that's true? There is this pursuit of your attention. We're in that game too. Church is in that game too. Christians are trying to get the attention of people that they would look at Jesus Christ. And what we're seeing in this passage is there's a couple of tools that Philip uses to get people's attention. The first one's preaching. Write it down. They're preaching, they're speaking, they're speaking in verse 6. They paid attention to what? To what was being said by Philip. First of all, you've got to open your mouth. You've got to learn boldness. And this really confronts the modern mindset. I don't really see myself as an evangelist. I don't really see myself as a witness in that sense. I'm not good at speaking. Some of you are saying the same words that Moses said. I'm not a good order. I'm not a good uh uh content deliverer. I'm not that guy. I just let people look at my life. In fact, maybe you have made the decision to pick up the the words that have been attributed to Francis of Assisi. Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. It's cute. It's not true. It's not good. The idea of a wordless gospel is foreign to the Bible. Wherever the gospel goes, it went with it goes with words. You love them enough to open your mouth. Tell them about the reality of sin, the warning against the wrath of God, the warning against judgment. Tell them that Christ has come into the world to seek and to save the lost, to love sinners, to offer everlasting life. How? He died on a cross, and his death was treated as if it was your death. He died in your place and for your sins. You've got to deliver that message. You've got to stand and deliver. And all of us have to figure out ways to do that. We have to figure out ways to witness and be that evangelist in our life. Second, not only did he use speaking, he used signs. Verse 6, they heard, they saw the signs that he did. What were the signs? In verse 7, there's all kinds of signs. There's healings, there's deliverances. I mean, there's a lot of activity here. Demons are coming out. There's a lot of signs happening. Now, some of you are saying, I can't do miracles, all right? I've never been able to do a miracle. In fact, my kids have already caught me with the whole thumb trip or thumb trick. All right, I'm not good at it. I can't do it. I get that. But here's the truth: your life is a validating sign of the gospel. And it's both. You've got to speak. But when people see your marriage has changed, when people have seen that your work ethic has changed, when people see that your opinions have changed, your theology has changed. When people see that, what it does is it validates the message of the gospel. That was actually the purpose of the signs in the early church of Acts. The further you get into Acts, you see this waning of the gifts. They become less and less and less and less. Why? Because early on, the gifts were to validate the message of the gospel. And your changed life is also a gift. Your changed life validates the truth claims of the gospel. It's always been this way. Your generosity, Jesus says that you're salt and light. Light deals with information, salt deals with preservation and flavor. Light exposes. Light conveys information. I'm a sinner. Jesus came, he died in my place for my sins. I need to believe in him. I need to come into a relationship with him. I need to love him. Light exposes. Salt is the flavor side. It proves the message, preserves the person. One without the other is not enough. You may only get one chance to share the gospel with someone around you, and it may come because they see the reality of your life being lived for Jesus Christ. That's how you become generous. It gets their attention. You and I need to learn that the priority is words, but the validation of those words are going to be the life that we live. You may be the only church that your neighbor goes to. You may be the only Bible that they ever read. Your life will prove it. And you and I need to get back to a greater value of giving those gifts away, our words and our works. The scriptures and the signs of a changed life. Imagine if you came over to my house, let's say we had a time together, we had a retreat, we had some things happening at my house, and I invited you over and I said, look, if you come over to my house, it's going to be great. We're going to have prime rib. We're going to have a great time watching some football over the weekend. I mean, we're just going to have a great party. Come over, you can stay at my house. We'll fix up a nice guest room. We'll get the new sheets on the bed. It's going to be fantastic. You're going to have the time of your life. Come over. You come over, and let's say you're at my house, and we have a great time watching football late at night, like last night, and we we get together and everybody goes to bed, and all of a sudden, a fire breaks out in the house. And I get my family out of the house, but I remember you're upstairs. I've got to get you out of the house. And so I go upstairs, I can't see anything. There's just smoke, and there's all sorts of problems, and I'm looking around, I'm trying my hardest to find you. I can't find you anywhere. I'm crawling on my hands, on my knees, on my elbows. Fire is getting hotter, and all of a sudden I'm yelling, I find you, you're unconscious, I grab you, I drag you out of the house, and together we're on my front lawn, watching the house collapse, watching the roof cave in. At that moment, are you saying, hey, thank you for those sheets? I mean, the extra thread count really, really was good. At that moment, are you asking about the dessert? No. There's a priority for words. There's a priority for the salvation. And I think that's the application for us. We've got to use, we've got to use our words. We have to be evangelists. We have to tell our story. Even when it's a painful story. I have to imagine that Philip was telling of the persecution that was happening in Jerusalem. I have to believe that. In 2051, there was a plague that was sweeping through the Roman Empire. True story, it took out about 5,000 people a day, according to historians. What was so powerful was that the early church rose up. See, the pagan witness was basically the plague was so bad, you would take your relative, your grandma, your grandpa, your friend, whoever you knew, and you would put them out in the street to die alone. Or you'd escape, you'd leave them behind, leave the city, get out of the city. The Christian witness was to take those people on the street, bring them into their house, nurse them back to health, bind their wounds. And what happened is one historian said that one plague did more to spread Christianity than any other preaching campaign in history. Because all of these pagans were seeing the visible change that had happened in their culture around them. They were seeing people live out their Christianity. We've got to have a priority for the message that says the building's on fire. We've all got to get out of here. But we also have to have a priority for the generous deed. Both of those will get the attention. And so here's the question: where do you need to live out that generosity this week? Do you need to be more bold in your words? Do you need to be more bold in getting that message out? Or do you need to be more bold in living it out? And for some of us, for all of us, it's both. We need to use our resources to get people's attention, to earn a hearing, to make the gospel contagious. Last point, we're done. There's three setups in this passage. We need to share the gospel in the places we'd normally avoid. We'd never go to some places unless we were taken there by suffering. We need to serve so generously that the message is compelling. To create a compelling message. And then lastly, we need to see the joy that one witness can give to the many. Philip was just a guy. Doesn't say he was a pastor, doesn't say he was an elder, doesn't say he was an apostle. We're not a super Christian. In fact, we're introduced to him in Acts chapter 6. He was just a deacon. And what happens is, so often in the church is that we corporately depend on a few people to be gospel witnesses. What this shows us is that everyday Christians, just a table waiter, he goes out and he lives out his faith. In fact, you guys may not realize this, but in Ephesians 4, what's the purpose of a pastor? What's the purpose of an apostle back then? It was to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. It's that you would be doing this. It's that all of us would be living out our faith day by day. And the result would be that joy would come to the city. That, like, guys, what is the hope for our city? Is it better schools? Is it that we would have lower taxes? Amen. Would it be that we have uh more police? Friends, all that's helpful. But the thing that changes a city, the thing that brings joy to a city is everyday Christians doing these things, living out their generosity, finding themselves in places they didn't normally want to be, and sharing their faith. It's Christians embracing their setback as a setup. It's a setup for ministry. And the result is verse 8. So there was much joy in that city. Next slide. There's much joy. There's overwhelming joy. There will be joy in those who bring the message. Evangelism's a strange thing. You go out dragging your feet, you come back clicking your heels. It's very strange. It's always that way. It's hard to go. But when you come back, it's thrilling because you've walked in that obedience. It will be joy to you, it will be joy to the hearers, it will be joy to the city. Actually, there is a very tangible result. Even that plague story shows it that a city is transformed by faithful evangelists, by faithful church members. Everyday folks. What happens is it brings joy to a city. It's Christians embracing their setbacks as setups. What here's what I want to end with this morning as the team comes out. What's the setback that you need to embrace as a setup? Years ago, I'll never forget this, I was um pastoring in Anaheim. My wife got sick. And as we were in our house struggling, several weeks of sickness, several weeks of pain, several weeks of hardship. A pastor came to me and he said, You know, God must have something great for you in ministry. Because you're going through something so hard. I thought my wife was gonna die. We were having conversations about cutting out her large intestines. We were having conversations about getting affairs in order. I mean, these are not fun conversations. Not a place I wanted to be. But over time, it's put us around a lot of people that need the gospel and need encouragement and hope. I can see how God's used it. That disease has cleared up in her life, but now we're we're dealing with another issue, new medicine. She's got some um, she's got some bone density issues. She has the bones of an 85-year-old. We're trying to rebuild those bones. A lot of medicine, new injections every day. There's a lot of hope. I mean, uh, we're we're in a good place. You guys don't worry about that. But we're looking for the setup. We're back in the waiting room. Rooms you don't want to be. And we're asking the question, okay, where's God in this? It's hard. But where's the Lord in this? God is always opening a door for the gospel. And he does that. Here's one of the ways he does it. He puts you in places, environments, situations that you don't want to be. Relationships that are failing. Sickness that is overwhelming. Careers that are at dead ends. And what God does in his sovereign plan is he sort of scatters you so that you can have a bigger impact for the gospel. So we're looking for the setup. What's God gonna do through this? What's your setback? Where can you look on your life and say, this is hard? This is a setback. I hate this. And with the eyes of faith, can you say, it's actually a setup? I could see how God could use this. I can tell you how many hospitals I've been in with people where he's used the events of like almost 20 years ago with me and my wife, where we're in the hospital and we're going through these things, and I can still remember the smells, I can still remember the that hospital cleaner, and it just brings back like this camaraderie as soon as I walk into someone's room. I can see how God's used that. Isn't that amazing? How's God gonna use that in your life? With your heads bowed, with your eyes closed, I want to lead us through a time of response. I'd like our prayer partners to come forward. This week, I want you to think through how you need to respond to this. We're gonna have some people coming forward to help pray with you, to help talk to you, maybe just to counsel. There will be people here ready to just lend a hand. And if you don't need anyone nearby, you can just come up here and pray. But here's the question: where is your setback? That's a great question to start with. Where's the setback that's happening in your life? What's the hard thing that you're enduring right now? And you're even, maybe you're saying it to yourself, I can't see how God can use this. I don't see it. I don't see God's plan in this. This just hurts. It's medical, it's relational, deals with your career, maybe a move. Something in your life where you'd say, This hurts. Would you just say, Lord, I don't see the result, but I trust you. Would you just say that to the Lord right now? Lord, I trust you. I don't know how you're gonna work this out, but I'm gonna have faith. I'm gonna trust that you're gonna put me in the room with the people who need to hear the message. I'm gonna I'm gonna trust that you're ordering my steps. I'm gonna trust that you're using my hard job, my hard marriage, my hard whatever, and you're gonna work it out so that you will be glorified and so that more people will hear the gospel. Ask this question or answer this question. Who is your Samaria this week? Who's that person that's far off? Who's that person that maybe you don't click with that the Lord's wanting you to reach because of this new situation in your life? Is there something you can do to show gospel generosity to them? Is there a word that you can give? Is there a witness of your life, a sign from your life that you can give to show that gospel generosity to that person? Is there a service that you need to provide to become? You ought to be the most generous person in your office. Christians are known for their generosity. We need to stop waiting on the professional to engage in this. You and I need to be the church, the everyday church that gets scattered. And every week we come here, we gather, but we are leaving and we are going to be scattered today. Don't wait on the professional, don't wait on the pastor. You are the evangelist. You are going into that office, you are going into that community, you are going back to your neighborhoods to invite people to come taste and see. You are being salt, you are being light, you are inviting others to know Jesus Christ and to know that their sins can be forgiven. And their sins, though they are many, can be washed white as snow. You be the evangelist, you be like Philip. You're a setback. As hard as it is, God intends it to be. You're set up this week. As hard as it is, He's setting you up. Would you stand with me and I'm gonna pray over you? I've shared my story. You guys have stories too. Hard things you're walking through. God is bigger than your hard thing. And God's going to use it. Heads bowed, eyes closed. If you need to respond, go ahead and come down during this song. Go ahead and respond where you're at. You can take a knee, you can come to the front and take a knee. But let's use this song to respond to what the Lord is doing. Father, we thank you. We thank you for some of the hard realities in life that there are seasons of scattering, there are seasons of pain, there are seasons of trouble, there are seasons of discomfort, but Lord, in your providence, in your kind hand, you're using it. You're reaching more people with the gospel, you're reaching more people with hope. And Father, you you have as your goal to raise up evangelists in our midst. So, Lord, would you now do that? Lord, all across this room, I pray that every person in this room would be scattered in a good way. And we would lay hold of the plan that you have for Central Church to bring so much joy to this city. Lord, we love you. And Lord, we just want to say this we trust you. We trust you with our scattering. And it's in Jesus' name we pray these things. All God's people say it together. Amen.