Gate Change

SUMMARY

In his sermon concluding the "Staying Grounded" series, Karl Ihfe addressed the challenge of unexpected life redirections, which he called "gate changes," drawing from the familiar frustration of airport gate changes. Using Acts 16 as his foundation, Ihfe examined Paul's second missionary journey, where despite doing fruitful gospel work, Paul encountered closed doors when "the Holy Spirit" and "the spirit of Jesus" prevented him from preaching in Asia and Bithynia respectively.

Ihfe emphasized that these weren't rejections but redirections, noting that "sometimes God's no isn't a rejection, it's a redirection." Paul's willingness to listen during this delay led to his vision of the Macedonian man pleading "Come over to Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16:9). This divine rerouting resulted in Paul meeting Lydia, "a dealer in purple cloth" and "worshiper of God," whose conversion Marked the first recorded European believer. Ihfe concluded that our gate changes often serve purposes beyond ourselves—our delays might be someone else's breakthrough, and our inconveniences might be another person's rescue. He challenged the congregation to remain flexible and attentive to God's leading, especially when plans don't unfold as expected.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, we're finishing up this morning. I wanted to end last year and begin this year in this series called Staying Grounded. Last week we looked at divine delays. What happens when things don't quite go the way that we think they will? We're going to talk about another delay this week called the gate change.

But before we get there, I invite you to turn over to Acts chapter 16. If you've ever traveled in an airport, you know this feeling of you've got your overcrowded coffee, you finally found your date, wherever you may be, you settle in, you're there, there. It's time to be boarded appropriately. Which is just this whole other. That's a whole sermon itself, right? The boarding process - thinking about where you're going, what you. And then you hear these words:

I’m sorry, gate has changed. You need to go now to the other end of the terminal. This happened to us a couple weeks ago when we were traveling back here to Lubbock, where we showed up at our gate long time, regular wall, only we're at the wrong end. It's at, in terminal B, not terminal A. You’ve got to get back on the train you got to move soon. What happens when there's a gate change in your life? I mean, you made plans and you showing up early and you're packed and ready to roll, and yet there's been gate change. How do you typically respond in those moments?

This morning I want us to look at a situation where we see that, that happens to us in life where we may be landing and God says, “attention Karl. The gate has turned their way.” We're going in a different direction. This morning I wanted us to consider about these gate changes. This question.

What if a closed door isn't a setback, but a gate change? What if we approach this year when things don't quite go the way we want them to go? What if we consider that a possibility? Maybe it's a gate change. Maybe God's got a new direction for us.

That's certainly where we find Paul and his companions here in Acts chapter 16. If you haven't read this chapter this week, I invite you to go back and do so. Those words that Jennifer read for us just a moment ago. Paul's doing really good work, gospel work, really fruitful work, and yet he's going to get a gate change. And it's pretty interesting what happens.

You know, last week we talked about Moses in that burning bush and how sometimes in those darn delays that we get, they have a sense of clarifying our call and helping us to see more of what it is God's calling us to do. This morning I want to think about in the spiritual terminal of life, if you will, what happens with a gate change, how God might be working through a delay, not just to slow us down but to reroute us. Notice here the words that we heard this morning in chapter 16 of Acts, Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit for preaching the Word in the promised Asia. When they came to the board of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. If you have a Bible then you can mark this advice to underline that last words we're going to come back to in just a minute.

But what I try to do each time we we look at a passage is to set it in this context. I want to do that this morning because I think it will show us something different. As chapter 16 opens up, we're going to find Paul and his companions are starting on Paul's second missionary journey. It's a really exciting and cool chapter. But in Acts 15 there's a really significant moment.

In fact, it may be one of those chapters that you want to do some more highlighting because in Acts chapter 15, this foundational decision is made by the apostles and the elders of Jerusalem. And this question has been out there going, Paul's reaching the Gentiles, are they allowed in? Can he do that? Is that okay? Or do they need to become Jews first?

This question is going back and forth and they settle it in chapter 15, right? So he puts us into the Holy Spirit. They will say that you don't have to become Jew. But we are going to ask him to follow a couple of things. And so Paul is now sent out with Barnabas to take this word, this encouragement back to the Church or the Gentile Churches that he's been preaching on his first ministry journey, to go back and share this encouraging work.

Now only as chapter 15 ends, there's this little hiccup, isn't it? And Paul and Barnabas here go to Barnabas says, hey, I'll tell you what, let's take John Mark with us. He's young and up and coming guy, let’s take him. And Paul's going, ah-ah, isn't that the dude who bailed on us in Pamphylia? And in fact they become so disagreed that they have such a sharp disagreement that they decided to go, well, tell me what I'm going to take John Mark and go this way.

Paul says, I'm going to take Silas and were gonna go this way. And that's kind of how chapter 15 ends and chapter 16 begins. So off on this second missionary journey, here we go. And it's pretty exciting. God's doing some amazing things. In fact, in verse 4, we hear these words, “as they travel from town to town,” this is Paul and Silas, it says “they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and they grew daily in numbers.”

Man, just think about that. My ministry is rocking and rolling along. Not only has Paul been blessed by elders and the apostles in his ministry, but he's been turbocharged to say, hey, take this word back to these churches that they're in. They're a part of God's family. So keep the word going, keep the message spread, and we'll find out as they do it. And the church is growing more every single day. Every day. It's awesome.

Paul wasn't being disobedient. He wasn't being lazy. He wasn't unsure of his calling. God had sent him out and he is on his way, doing amazing things and yet a door still gets closed. At first he wants to go into Asa and the answer is no.

Then he wants to go to Bithynia again, no. Two times now he's told just in a couple of verses. He's been thankful for the work and yet things aren't going the way he found. Have you ever found yourself there? Found yourself time to do what you believe that's all you to do, and yet things aren't quite working out the way you want it to.

Well, here's a crucial point I think we see in Acts 16. I hope it’s encouraging to us. Did you notice who stopped Paul from preaching the Word in Asia? And we're told scripture pretty clear because the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Jesus stopped him. The delay wasn't because Paul was lost. The delay was because God is trying to be more precise with his life.

And see, one of the first things I'm biased and consider about these gate changes is sometimes a closed door, but it's not a closed fish. And sometimes God's no isn't a rejection, it's a redirection. It's something that's finding a new direction to go. It may not be in there, it may just be not here, not now.

It may not be stopped. It may be awake. You see for Paul, a closed door didn’t mean mission failure. It means they should refine it. And the same may be true for us.

And some of us know this, don't we? At that job that didn't quite work out or that relationship that didn't quite make the turn like we were hoping it would. Or maybe the opportunity that looked perfect but then at the last minute all just kind of fell apart. See that door closing may not be God is done yet. It may be God is still leading and guiding you towards something that you can't see.

Because a closed door doesn't mean a closed future. It just means God's still navigating. God knows the facts and we don't. And so don't confuse a no with not yet. And sometimes the gate change is an opportunity to say “God, where do you want me to go next?”

Paul got one of these gate changes. In fact, they're told in verse nine. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing begging. Come over to Macedonia and help us. “After Paul had seen the vision, we are ready at once to leave to Macedonia, concluding that God called us to priestly the gospel.”

God's gate changed. The call comes in a particular order. First there's a delay, but then there's a rushing. You know, Paul could have tried to force his way forward. No, you know what? I'm going to just keep going. He could have gotten frustrated, angry, or he could have just filled that silence with more noise. All things we're tempted to do when we find that ourselves against a closed door.

But instead Paul stays grounded in God's presence. And because of that, he was over here when God's spoke, which is the second thing when you face a gate change.

Invite you to listen for the reroute. Where might God be sending you next? You know, closed door didn't mean a closed future. Well, will you be listening for the rebrand?

This is often where we struggle. We don’t mind open doors, but we hate waiting rooms. We don't mind clarity, but we resist silence. So we fill delays with distractions. Sometimes it's complaining, sometimes it's scrolling, sometimes it's rushing ahead or trying to make something happen.

What's your typical way of dealing with not yet? How are you avoiding normal life? See, delays are often where God's whisper can be heard most clearly. If were listening. were listening to the reroutes. Notice how Paul responds when he gets the reroute. We're told, in fact Luke tells us we got ready at once.

I love how Luke includes himself in there. And Luke's telling the story. He says, hey, as soon as you got this vision, we heard it, we went. There is no debate. There's no demand for more signs, no spiritual procrastination. You see, faith doesn't always get a full itinerary.

And sometimes it's just port to port, side to side. Sometimes faith is simply saying yes to the next generation, to the next destination, where our delayed obedience calls us to miss an assignment. Having a gate change doesn't mean we're passive. It just means we're preparing. I love Paul's flexibility.

His willingness to listen to the reroute actually unlocked an opportunity to take gospel to a new region, a new barrier. Notice how sometimes our gate change could be somebody else's rescue. Verse 11 told “from Troas we were put to sea, sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day went on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony in the leading city of that district in Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.”

“On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women that were gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia. A dealer in purple cloth, she was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. And when she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.”

“If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house. And she persuaded us.” See, this is where everything comes together in the story. Paul didn't plan to be there. Paul wasn't having or planning on having a conversation outside of the river in Philippi.

He didn't anticipate this meeting. And yet there's Lydia, a businesswoman, a seeker, a woman whose heart God had already had been preparing long before Paul ever arrived. And what we discovered here in Acts 16, is the first recorded European convert. See, if Paul had gone where he wanted to go, Lydia may never have heard the gospel, we don’t know. But because of a divine gate change and Paul's willingness to listen and to follow, this entire continent now was impacted.

See, here's the truth, and I hope we will hear, even though we don't always like listening to it. God's redirection is really just about us. Sometimes in our life when we face a gate change, it's rarely just about us, that God's got another plan happening, that he's allowing us to take part, that you're delayed. It might be someone else's breakthrough. And your inconvenience may be somebody else's rescue.

Your reroute may place you exactly where someone else has been praying that they might encounter God’s help. And maybe that coworker this week, the office or fellow student at school that you sit next to. Maybe it's the neighbor you keep running into. And maybe during this season that feels so unproductive that God's positioning us, readying you for what’s to come take. Staying grounded allows us to see beyond our frustration and to recognize those divine appointments.

The gospel reached Europe because one man listened during the gate change. What might God want to do here at Broadway?

In Lubbock, and around us. And we had a whole church who was willing to listen to the gate change. This morning we followed Paul through blocked paths and unexpected turns. He wanted Asia, God sent him to Europe. He wanted momentum and God gave him a pause.

But in the gate change, Paul did disconnect. He listened, he prayed, he obeyed. And because of that lives were changed. Incredible impact was had starting with living and continuing on for generations. I don't know if you know this like I do - gate changes don’t always make sense at the time.

We can't always see what God is trying to do, where he's trying to redirect us. But looking back, we can often see how God was orchestrating a bigger plan, way something better, something more powerful, something eternal. So when the gate changes, when your plans get delayed this year, when you get rerouted or your flight plan gets turned to aside, I want to invite you - don’t panic. But stay grounded, God isn't lost. He's leading you somewhere before you and so to do so I just want to send us out today with thinking about a couple of questions.

I hope maybe one of these will impact you in this first month of the year. What if God is changing your gates not to confuse you, but to use you? What if God's giving you a gate change because he has some plan in mind He wants you to be a part of it - would you be willing to listen, to stop and to obey. Or maybe what if the delay you're resisting is the very place that someone else needs you.

Maybe there's a moment in your life where you feel “God, I’m ready to move on. I'm ready to find the next thing.” But maybe there's somebody there that God wants you to have a divine appointment with. Will you be willing to stop and listen? Would you be willing to look around the room, find that person? Who's that person that just didn't talk?

Who's that person that looks like they're lonely? Who's that person that looks like they can use a friend to encourage them? Perhaps your delay has less to do with you and maybe more with what God wants to do in you. So pay attention this year church, to who and what is right in front of you and all around you.

And when God speaks we follow Paul and Silas and Luke's advice and obey. Obey when he says go, go. Even if it doesn't make sense. Maybe the reroute might be the reason for the gate change.

God, I'm praying that that's our heart this year in 2026 that we would stay grounded. And the that we have plans and ideas and thoughts God given us brains and passions and hopes and dreams and we're setting some things out, some things we want to do with God. None of it matters if it's not being led by you. So Father would you help our spirit to be sensitive to your lead, to your guidance.

Open our eyes and our ears and in those moments that sometimes look like Moses at the burning bush would find them like that when we feel like we're kind of wandering in the wilderness for forty years to prepare fora gate change.

Or maybe like Paul, and Silas the gate change that we plan to go one place but God you're sending us another that might make a lot of sense God to give us the courage to follow. We need all of us to see our lives not just through our own experience and what we want but instead see it through the eyes of Jesus that perhaps this week you have a divine appointment for us, a Lydia that you want us to spend some time talking to.

Or maybe it’s a classmate, that one we don’t (??), trying to find a place, friendship. God would you help us to seize the moment when you give us that divine warning now maybe as a coworker at the office one who's struggling and just seems to be behind - how you help us be an encouraging force in their life.

So many people in our world God, the world trains us to have a plan and ended up from middle school on to get to college and by the time we're starting college I already have a major and job and career plan out there's so much pressure. Could You help us to be the kind of people who stay grounded in you, the kind of people who, like Paul and Silas, be flexible and when we encounter a gate change, God, we wouldn't get frustrated or fill the silence but instead to stop and take pause. Holy Spirit, would you guide us this year to the places that you want us to go and as you led Paul instead of Asia into Europe, God, where would you want to lead this year? Would you help us Father?

Thank you for those divine appointments that have come before us. God, each one of us is here today because someone seized the divine appointment with us. God would you help us to do that this year here in Lubbock or wherever we may be. Thank you Father for your amazing love for us. Thank you for always being with us and guiding us. Would you continue to do so in this new year. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.