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Lydia,
the First Believer in Europe
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(Acts
16:14)
One
of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the
city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to
respond to Paul's message.
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The Apostle Paul
lived his whole life just to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He would travel anywhere if that meant that he could share the gospel.
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Paul and his
companions tried to go to many other places for the purpose of mission. However,
this time the Holy Spirit stopped them from going to a certain place. Whenever
they decided to go somewhere, if the Holy Spirit did not allow them to go
there then they couldn't.
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However, one day,
Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia who appeared to him and began
begging, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."
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After
Paul had seen the vision, they got ready at once to leave for Macedonia even
though it was not where they had planned to go previously, concluding that
God had called them to preach the gospel to them.
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Paul and his
companions blindly traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city
of that district of Macedonia. Like this, the Apostle Paul was a person who followed
the Will of God above his own will.
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On
the Sabbath they went outside the city gate to the river, where they expected
to find a place of prayer. Paul and Timothy sat down and began to speak to
the women who had gathered there.
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Then an amazing thing
happened. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia who had been
listening very carefully. As she listened to Paul, she got the faith in Jesus
because the Lord had opened her heart.
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Lydia
is a dealer in purple cloth. She is originally from the city of Thyatira and
she had come to here, Philippi. Today, she met Paul by chance and accepted
Jesus.
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She
invited Paul and his companions to her home.
Paul shared the gospel to her family and all of them decided to believe in
Jesus, too.
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Lydia and all of her
family were baptized. This was truly an amazing happening.
Again Paul realized that the vision he had was God's Will for this to happen.
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Lydia decided to
actively help Paul and his companions.
She said to Paul, "If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and
stay at my house."
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So Paul's mission
team went and stayed at Lydia's house where they could share the gospel to
many people. God provided everything to them through Lydia in Philippi.
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Today, this woman,
Lydia who helped Paul is the first person who believed in Jesus from Europe. God
wanted Paul to turn and go on a mission trip to Europe.
Paul was able to preach to Lydia and her family by obeying God's Will.
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The Church had been
built in Philippi through Lydia.
That Church is called as the Philippi Church.
Philippians that we know well is the letter from Paul to the Church in
Philippi.
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Paul who believed in
Jesus and put God's Will before his will; and Lydia who obeyed God's Word to
help Paul could bring out this beautiful fruit. Friends, let us be wonderful
children of Jesus who listen to God and obey Him to bear beautiful fruit.
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(You can change the conclusion of this sermon best suiting
to your listeners of this sermon. We want to make it clear that the provided
conclusion is only a sample conclusion provided by CTM.)
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