The Divine Detour

Transcript

Week 3 of the series God's Crossover. Transcribed from the service recording and lightly edited for readability.

Welcome: Week 3

Here we are, week three of the series entitled God's Crossover. We looked at "When God Changes Your Direction," we looked at "The Crossover Blessing," and this week we're going to look at The Divine Detour. Y'all know I'm about to get off to the races, so let me slow down and pull the horses back.

Declaration Statement

Let's do our declaration statement, and then we'll jump into the word this morning:

I am a Christ chaser. I am here to be transformed. I am here to hear the voice of God. God, clear my mind and open my heart to receive Your word. Jesus, do not let me leave the same way I came. I am ready to be changed. Amen.

Scripture Reading: Acts 16:6–10

The scripture this week comes from Acts chapter 16, verses 6 through 10. I'm going to mess up some of these city names; my Greek ain't too Greek.

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they came up to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, "Cross over to Macedonia and help us!" After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

— Acts 16:6–10

Opening Prayer

Pray with me. Most gracious and heavenly Father, we just come before You today saying thank You. Father God, we thank You for this opportunity to come before Your throne of grace. Lord, I pray that You would hide me behind Your cross, and use me as a willing vessel to speak to Your people. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

When God's Plan Messes Up Ours

Y'all know I like to drive. We get on that road and we go. Somebody makes a phone call: "Oh yeah, we can be in Dallas." My wife is from Tulsa, so if anybody calls wanting to see us, we'll flip out to Tulsa. But every now and then, on that road, you hit one of those signs you don't like to see: Detour. Now my timing is messed up. I didn't calculate for this. I've got to be there, and now there's a detour. This is messing up my whole plan. Everything I put together, everything I thought was going to happen, is now messed up, and we see it as a major issue.

But nine times out of ten, the detour is there to keep you from getting into a more messed-up situation. We've all been on the highway when the GPS said get off and we didn't, and now we're sitting in a traffic jam for hours because there's an accident up ahead, maybe even a fatality, and we're just sitting there.

As Christians, God is always providing us these detours, and we get mad. We love it when God says yes, but when God says no, we get frustrated. Why? Because He's messing up our plan. "I sat down, I wrote it on the pad, and I prayed over it. God, bless this. This is what I want to do this year. This is my five-year plan. These are my goals. God, bless this." And as we go along, it seems like this is the route He has us on. But then He says, "Hold up. Wait. I need you to go a different direction." And now we're frustrated, because He's changing the plan we put on paper.

But did we consult God about that plan? Did we seek what He really wanted us to do? Or did we say, "That looks good, that sounds good, there's nothing wrong with it, it's not immoral or illegal, so it should be a good plan and He should bless it"?

Here's what happened to Paul on this journey. He has his plan. He has built up the churches in Asia, and now he wants to go back and sow into those churches. He wants to encourage the people he had already started on this journey of believing in Christ. And verse 7 says point-blank: "but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." He tried to go a little further, and he got redirected somewhere else.

A Turning Point in History

But check this out: this is actually a turning point in Christian history. It's a turning point in Paul's ministry. By crossing into Macedonia, Paul brought the gospel to Europe for the first time. The churches of Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, and beyond would have had the message delayed if he hadn't listened to the voice of God. God's no opened the door to something greater than Paul had ever imagined.

Is God's no, His divine detour, going to take you somewhere you've never imagined? We keep talking about the unimaginable, don't we? When you are obedient, when you follow the Yes Squared method, you're going to go places that are unimaginable.

Closed Doors Are Often God's Protection

But we don't like closed doors. Don't nobody like closed doors. Anybody ever had a door slammed in their face? Mm-mm, you can't stand that. "You're about to get the business. You slammed the door in my face?" But closed doors are often God's protection. God sees dangers we can't see.

We've all experienced it: a job you weren't supposed to take. You were mad about it, but a few years later, the company folded.

I told you about back in the day, when me and Quentin were young and dumb. We were about to get into the real estate game and blow it up. We were smart, we had new ideas, new plans. We didn't even know what we were doing. I'm getting land surveyed. I'm meeting with investors. I'm putting plans on paper, getting the whole thing laid out. I'm sitting in a meeting, less than 30 minutes in, and I've got investors ready to give me $25 million. And I hear God say no. "What do You mean, God? This is about to go down. We're about to make this thing happen." A few years later, the housing market collapsed. God was protecting me. Right now I might be able to handle a few thousand dollars of debt, but I don't think I could handle millions of dollars of debt, with somebody looking at me trying to get me to pay back millions I ain't got. It all sounds good on pen and paper, but God knows how to protect you from what you're not prepared for.

"But God, I was going to go in there and have a good time." Then you show up, and next thing you know, you're in a worse situation than before. Has anybody ever walked through a door you weren't prepared for? Some of us, as young Christians, said, "Hey, we can still go to the club and do our thing." And then in the club, we're the drunkest one in there. We thought we could handle it, but God was trying to show us we couldn't. We hadn't built up enough of the word. I told you I wanted to be a Christian rapper. But God said, "I can't let you into that industry yet, because you don't have enough of the word in you to stand your ground against influences you aren't ready for." Sometimes God closes the door because we can't see what's on the other side.

Even Jesus couldn't go back home after He was born. God said, "Don't take Him back there. Take Him to Egypt, because they're trying to kill Him." Think about this: this is the Son of God. This is God in the flesh, and God is saying, "Don't take My flesh back there, because somebody might try to kill Him." But Mary and Joseph listened. "We can't go back home? Okay, fine. We ain't going back home."

"But I paid a lot of money for that house." "But that was my dream car God is telling me to sell." "But God, I put all this together. This is my best suit. You want me to give away my best suit?" "Yeah, give away your best suit, because you're about to get in the mud, and you ain't going to be able to work in that mud with a suit on."

God's "No" Is an Expression of His Love

Here's the other thing: God's no is often an expression of His love. I love my son, but I wasn't going to buy him a Ferrari at sixteen. Matter of fact, he got an old hooptie: his mama's old car. Why? Because there's no use giving him something he isn't ready for. When you love your children, you have to tell them no, because you know what isn't good for them. So why do we think God would do us any different?

David, the man after God's own heart. God told him no: "You can't build My temple. You've got too much blood on your hands." "But God, I've gathered all this for You." "And?" We often forget that we are here to serve God's purpose. And God is going to get out of you everything He put in you.

So a lot of times we hear no. And who wants to know how to stop hearing no? Start asking God what He wants before you ask for anything. If I ask God what I'm supposed to do when I wake up in the morning, I don't have to worry about hearing no, because I'm following what He told me to do. We hear no because we're asking for stuff we have no business asking for. "But God said He'll give me the desires of my heart." That ain't how that works. He's going to place those desires in your heart.

Stop Interpreting "No" as Rejection

We've got to stop interpreting no as rejection. We take everything so personally. You were out trying to date: "Oh, she's cute." She tells you no. "Oh, she don't like me." Your friends want to hang out: "Hey, let's go to the movies." "No." "What's wrong with me? They don't want to hang out with me." A lot of the time, when people tell you no, it ain't got nothing to do with you. And sometimes those no's do have to do with you: they're protecting you.

I'll tell y'all this. In high school, Mellie Douglas had me convinced that if I was anywhere close to drugs, I was going to jail. Just convinced. So I didn't mess with it. And I'd get to school, and they'd be like, "Oh yeah, we had fun this weekend." "How are y'all just going to leave me out?" But I appreciate them now, because they knew Mellie Douglas didn't play. They wanted me to be able to hang out when it was the right time. So they said no, because they knew I couldn't be around certain things. I had real friends. I don't know if everybody has real friends these days, because some set each other up for failure.

When God Says No, Lock In

Let's keep moving. Closed doors strengthen our dependence on God. Think about it: every time a door closes, what do we do? We get on our knees. We were praying standing up. We were praying in the bed. We were praying driving to work. But He says no, and now we're on our knees. We're trying to fast. When God says no, He's got you now. He's pulled you in, because we've got to know why.

It's the same with your kids. You tell them yes all the time, but when you finally say no, they're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, something's different. Why are you saying no now? You always let me go to my homeboy's. We go every Friday." When God says no, we've got to lock in. We've got to tune in. "Okay, why are You saying no now? What do You see that I don't see?"

When the Israelites reached the Red Sea, as we talked about, with nowhere to turn, their dependence on God produced one of the greatest miracles of all time. "We want to go back to Egypt." He said, "Nope. Turn around." "Oh, they're chasing us. We couldn't go back to Egypt if we wanted to. What are we going to do, God?" "Do what I told you to do." "Keep walking? There's a sea right here, God." "Keep walking."

When God tells us no to something, He has told us yes to something else. But we don't want that yes. We don't want to walk down that road. "It's dark down there. There ain't no lights on this street. God, I'm by myself. I ain't got my boys with me." Go anyway. We're going to have dark days. But in those dark days, our faith in God gets stronger. That's what gets us locked in and serious. Sometimes God is going to close the door so that we lock in on Him.

God Can Only Guide You When You're Moving

All right, let's switch gears. God redirects people who are already moving. If I'm at the house sitting on the couch, I'm never going to see a detour sign. I can have my GPS programmed, and I'm never going to hear "recalculating." Why? Because I ain't moving. But once you start moving, God can give you direction. Sometimes God has to get us moving first.

He told you yes: "Okay, you want to go to college? Cool, let's go." "Wait, why do You want me to change my major now?" When I met Quentin, he was a pharmacy major. He ended up getting a degree in biology because pharmacy was a whole lot of work. And now he's a lender. Those don't even go together. But God says, "I have to get you moving in a direction, and once you're moving, I'm going to redirect you to where I actually need you to be."

And God can only guide obedient people. That's basic. I don't even know if I need to break it down: if you're not obedient, guess what? He's not guiding you. I think a lot of us lied behind that wall. We got in that baptism pool and said, "Lord, be my Lord and Savior," and we were lying. We wanted Him to be our Savior. We did not want Him to be our Lord. We didn't want Him to guide or direct us. We wanted Him to save us and let us do whatever the heck we wanted. We've got to start being obedient. And that's all Yes Squared is: a fancy way of saying obedient, because I don't like that word. It's when my yes matches up with God's yes. And the only way for my yes to match God's yes is for me to be obedient. That's the only reason I'm standing here right now, y'all.

Paul's Vision Was Good, God's Vision Was Greater

Here we go: detours often reveal bigger assignments. Paul wanted Asia. God wanted Europe. Paul's vision was good, but God's vision was greater.

Joseph got a vision, and he was so confident in it that he shared it. "I've got to let people know what God placed in my heart. I see y'all bowing down to me. Not just my brothers, but my parents too." "Boy, you crazy." But his daddy liked him, so he gave him a nice robe to flaunt around in and look sharp. And then his brothers grab him, plan to kill him, and sell him into slavery. I know he was looking at his notebook: "God, none of this is in the notebook. You showed me a vision of them bowing down to me. You didn't show me this kidnapping thing." But Joseph's like, "All right, God, this is what we've got to do." He did the best he could in the situation he was given. Then somebody lied on him and got him put in prison. "God, You're tripping now. I dealt with the slavery thing, but now You've got me in prison?" Yet his faith kept trusting God. "Okay, I'm going to do the best I can while I'm in prison." And we know the rest of the story: one day he wakes up in prison, and by the end of the day he's second in command of Egypt.

Can you imagine if God had written it all out and told him, "This is how it's going to go"? He would still be sitting on the couch. We stay on the couch, but we have to get moving. Once we get moving, God can direct us different ways and take us down different paths. And when we get moving, we've got to understand He's going to take us places that weren't on the map we thought we had. He can't show us the whole picture, because God's plans exceed our imagination.

Paul had no idea Macedonia's call would have such an impact. When he gets to Philippi, he meets a woman named Lydia. Lydia was a businesswoman, so she set him up. She put him in positions he might not have been able to put himself in. All because he listened. He was obedient to the voice of God. And because he was obedient, we have more books in the Bible, because Paul was writing letters to the places he had visited. If Paul hadn't gone to Corinth, we wouldn't have 1 and 2 Corinthians. If he hadn't gone to Philippi, we wouldn't have Philippians. All because he listened to the Spirit. First the Spirit told him no, and then the Spirit told him go.

What is the Spirit telling you no to today? Because whatever is on the other side of that no is something you can't even imagine.

He's Expanding Your Purpose

God is not rejecting your path. He's expanding your purpose. We get caught up on the path, but the reason He's rejecting your path is that He knows what He created you for, and He wants to get everything He put in you out of you. So it's like, "Okay, God, what are You doing? What's in me that You're trying to get out that I just don't see?"

I think a lot of the time we get so attached to the path because it gives us comfort. And God don't care nothing about your comfort. He really don't. I learn this more every day. "God, You just like me to be uncomfortable."

Your Detour May Become Someone Else's Deliverance

All right, let's bring this home. Here we go: your detour may become someone else's deliverance. We get so caught up in self: "I don't want to go through that." But how many of us have gone through something and then been able to minister to others because of what we went through? I'm telling you, this place is going to be full once we start sharing with the world what we've been through and what God delivered us from.

Your obedience opens doors for others. Paul going to Macedonia opened the door for Lydia and her family. Not only did Lydia get saved; her whole household got saved, and Lydia's conversion helped establish the church at Philippi. Last summer I got to go over to Greece and walk some of the paths Paul walked. It's interesting to actually walk where history was made and see some of those things. It's so amazing what happens because one person was obedient.

Sometimes God calls us to do some strange stuff. Give somebody some money. Call somebody for no apparent reason. Invite them somewhere. I've got a habit I'm trying to get better at: when something pops into my mind, I try to do it. So God says, "Hey, text a friend." Okay, cool. One of my friends, Matt, visited here some months ago. Matt used to work in Spain, and I didn't know if he was in the country or not, so I texted him: "Hey, Matt, what's going on? You in the country?" He's like, "Yeah, I'm in the country. And the crazy thing is, we've got to come back and visit His Way. Y'all's church is my kids' favorite church." Matt is Asian, his wife is white, and they've got Asian and white kids. It blew my mind. I thought they might have felt out of place, uncomfortable. But whatever love they felt when they were here was awesome, and that was all y'all; that had nothing to do with me. It's amazing what God does when you're just obedient. I could have said, "Those white folks ain't going to want to come to no Black church. They're going to feel kind of weird." I know I do sometimes when I go to a white church. But God will do what God is going to do.

Your Suffering May Position You for Ministry

And here's the thing, as much as we hate it: your suffering may position you for ministry. Later in Acts 16, starting at verse 16, Paul and Silas are in this new town. They went to Macedonia, they converted Lydia, and then they find themselves in prison. "God, I went to this new place and had great ministry when I first got there. I saved some souls, saved a whole family. And now, because I stopped this fortune-teller from telling fortunes, they've thrown me in prison? God, Your math ain't mathing. This doesn't make sense. I came over here to do Your work, and now You've got me in jail."

But it might be your greatest ministry. Whatever you're battling, whatever you're struggling with, whatever you're going through, whether it's a family issue, a work issue, or a personal issue, God is going to use it to minister to somebody else. The work God is doing in your life does not go in vain. He ain't just doing it to play with you or to torture you. He's doing it for a purpose, and when that purpose is fulfilled, it's going to be so amazing. Does it hurt right now? Yeah, it hurts. But that's what we, the body of Christ, are here for: to surround you, pray with you, be there for you, and support you the best we can. And at the very least, we can remind you that God is going to work it out.

God's Detour Always Serves His Kingdom

As I go to my close: God's detour always serves His kingdom. Paul thought God was just changing his travel plans, but God was changing the history of the world. The persecution of the early church scattered believers, and as the believers scattered, the faith spread all over the world.

That's why I tell y'all: if you ever feel God is sending you to another place, another church, go. You're not going to hurt my feelings, because I know how God moves. Sometimes God has to move us out of the way so He can bring somebody else in, or more people in, because there's something about us that's going to be in the way of whatever God's got going on.

I've left here before, and now I'm back. Look at my boy here. I'm going to tell the truth and shame the devil. When I left, my mom started leading Bible study, and she's still doing that thing. My boy Walt stepped in and was a son to my father in my place. I'm for real. I think Walt was closer to my daddy at one point than I was. Real talk. Why? Because God is going to do what God is going to do. We can't be scared of what God is doing. When you come in next Sunday and somebody else is sitting in your seat, just move to another seat. Because one day none of us are going to be sitting in these seats; He's going to give us a bigger building with more space. These seats aren't permanent. We aren't doing this just for right now. If all we want is to be in this building and be comfortable, we might as well sell it now and go somewhere else. God wants to do more than just this right here. Amen.

So the inconvenience you're experiencing today may be part of God's strategy to impact generations you'll never meet.

"Abraham, leave your people." "For what?" "I'll make you the father of many nations." "God, that's dumb. I ain't got no children. You want me to leave home to become the father of many nations, and I ain't got no children?" Okay. "Come on, Lot, you've got to come with me. I ain't got no children, so I'll bring a younger generation with me." "Abraham, I told you to leave everybody." "Everybody?" "Everybody. Keep walking." And now he's over here with all these people and all this stuff, and he's got a fine wife. "Hey, can you tell them you're my sister, so they don't try to kill me to get to you?" "Okay, we can do that." Why? Because he didn't know if those people knew God. And then they come back: "Abraham, why did you lie to us? God told us she was your wife." "Oh, you know God? Hi, God." And then at ninety, God makes Sarah pregnant. Like I said, when was the last time you saw a pregnant ninety-year-old woman? God can do whatever God wants to do.

Everybody can read this whole book. But if you would just read Genesis for me, as you read it, you'll see some of the awesome things our God was capable of just in the beginning. Most of the stuff God wants to do in your life, we can't even imagine. You cannot imagine where He's taking you. You might have some ideas, an inkling, some excitement in you: "Oh, God is about to do some awesome things in my life." You might have a bucket list you're hoping to check off. But you can't imagine what God is going to do.

We've all been to funerals, right? You hear people talking and you're like, "Are we at the right funeral?" You know that joke. All these people get up talking about how this person impacted them, and you're checking your program and walking back up to look in the casket again. Why? Because people impact other people's lives in ways we can't see from our narrow view. Whether you feel like it or not, you're impacting a bunch of people's lives you don't even realize.

What If Paul Had Refused the Detour?

So just imagine if Paul had insisted on his plan. Imagine if he'd said, "Lord, I know You're closing the door to Asia, but I'm going anyway. I've got to go." Imagine if he had refused the detour. No Lydia. No church at Philippi. No Philippian jailer converted. No letter to the Philippians. And if there's no letter to the Philippians, there's no "I can do all things through Christ." Think about that. One act of obedience changed the course of history.

Church, some of us are angry because God is closing doors. We're still standing outside an opportunity God has already walked away from, praying for God to reopen a door He has already nailed shut. But what if the greater blessing isn't behind the closed door? What if it's waiting down the road you never even wanted to travel?

The crossover is one of the greatest moves in basketball because it shifts the defender. It has him thinking you're going one direction, and then you change directions. Sometimes God has to set things up so people think we're going one way when He's really sending us another. He's redirecting your steps before you even know what He's doing. So we have to trust God and know He's redirecting our steps, whether we like it or not. If He tells you to bust a move, bust a move.

So don't despise the detour. Don't despise the detour. It may be the very road that's taking you to your greater purpose.

Weekly Challenge

• Reflect: What closed doors or unexpected detours have I been viewing as a disappointment instead of possible divine direction?
• Act: Stop asking God to reopen closed doors. Instead, ask Him to reveal the new direction He wants you to pursue, and take one step of obedience toward it.
• Pray: "Father, thank You for guiding my life, even when I didn't understand Your direction. Help me trust that every closed door is either Your protection or Your preparation. Give me the faith to follow wherever You lead, knowing that Your plans are always greater than mine. In Jesus' name, amen."

One More Thing: Lenders, Not Borrowers

All right, I'm going to give y'all one more thing. I knew I was forgetting something. Check this out; this is how God works. I told you we're going to get out of debt. Everybody in here can get free of debt. We're going to be lenders and not borrowers. And I applied for a loan and got rejected. Some of us are going to apply for loans and credit cards and get rejected. Why? Because you can't be a lender while you're borrowing. Come on, Nancy. We've got to change our mindset. And I told you I'm going to walk this out in front of y'all. I promise you I'm trying to be as open a book as I can. So God had to work on me: "Derrick, how are you going to tell those people they've got to be lenders, not borrowers, while you're trying to borrow your way free?" We just preached a whole series last month about being free indeed. So I'm tackling it myself. And the last part of that sermon was, "I ain't going back." Tell the truth and shame the devil.

Closing Prayer

Let us pray. Most gracious and heavenly Father, we just come before You saying thank You. Father God, thank You for all that You're doing in our lives. Lord, we know You are the great I AM. You are Jehovah. You are our Lord and Savior. Father God, continue to direct and guide our path. Continue to break down the misconceptions we have when You say no. Lord, just have Your way in our lives, so that You will get the glory. Father God, we love You and praise You. In Jesus' name. Amen.