Faith in Focus #1

A reflection from Connection Church and other spiritual events from the week

Faith in Focus is a weekly reflection on what God has been teaching me throughout the week regarding my faith. Whether it’s personal interactions, reading, or the Sunday sermon, God speaks through it all, and I hope this helps you focus on His mission.

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Sunday sermon reflection:

Based on a message by guest pastor Chris Wallace of Hope City Church in Bismark ND, Connection Church—Sioux Falls, October 2025. (watch replay here)

Acts 16:6–34 offers a vivid portrait of missional living, where Spirit-led guidance, intentional action, faithful endurance, and God’s providence intersect to bear transformative fruit in unexpected places.

Acts 16 tells the story of Paul and his companions navigating God’s direction while encountering resistance, suffering, and divine opportunity. From doors that seemed closed to lives unexpectedly transformed, the passage models what it means to live missionally: Spirit-dependent, intentionally proactive, carefully reactive, and ultimately fruitful.

Chris Wallace, visiting from a church plant in North Dakota, framed the sermon around four key characteristics of missional living, showing how God’s providence and human obedience intersect. These characteristics reveal not only the theological underpinnings of mission but also practical steps for applying the gospel in daily life.

The World Behind the Text

In Acts 16:6–10, we read of Paul and his companions being “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” (v. 6, ESV). At first glance, it may seem that God is restricting their mission, but closer examination reveals a subtle orchestration. God sometimes closes doors not to stop His work, but to redirect it. By guiding Paul toward Macedonia, God set the stage for encounters that would bear extraordinary fruit, including Lydia, a merchant of purple cloth, and an unnamed prison guard whose household would come to faith (vv. 11–34).

The historical context deepens the significance. Asia Minor, Philippi, and surrounding regions were bustling centers of commerce and Roman influence, often resistant to the new Christian message. The “closed doors” motif reminds believers that divine timing and placement matter profoundly in mission. Paul’s obedience is not passive waiting. It is a posture of discernment, ready to act where God opens opportunity.

Walking the Passage

The first hallmark of missional living is Spirit-dependence. Paul’s journey demonstrates that mission is not a human enterprise of willpower or strategy alone. While they could have attempted to press into Asia, God’s redirection led them to Macedonia. This aligns with the broader biblical theme that God works all things for His glory (Rom. 8:28).

Believers today are invited into the same rhythm. Prayerfully discerning the Spirit’s guidance, recognizing that closed doors may be a form of divine direction rather than rejection.

Intentionally Proactive

Chris Wallace illustrated the second principle through a garden analogy: “You don’t pray to the soil to make seeds grow; you plant the seeds and then pray for growth.” Mission requires intentional action. Paul and his companions traveled, engaged local people, and boldly proclaimed The Gospel. Spirit-led does not mean passive. Intentionality — planting seeds of gospel truth — is essential.

Carefully Reactive

Verses 16–24 recount Paul and Silas being beaten and jailed after exorcising a spirit from a slave girl, which disrupted her owners’ profits. Their response is remarkable: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (v. 25, ESV).

The principle here is careful reactivity: even when mission leads to suffering, believers respond not in bitterness but in faithfulness. This contrasts sharply with the world’s tendency to react with anger or revenge when confronted with loss or injustice. Prayer and worship in trials demonstrate that God can turn adversity into an instrument for His mission.

Ben’s Spiritual Song of the week: Honest - Leanna Crawford

This song has been a heavy but great one to remind me that even when I am in hard times, or doubting things spiritually, God has never left me, and He has never failed me with His kindness.

Fruit-Bearing

Finally, missional living is fruit-bearing. Through obedience, discernment, and faithful endurance, the fruit of the gospel emerges—often in unexpected ways. Lydia’s household and the prison guard’s family exemplify the multiplied impact of Spirit-led mission (vv. 14-15, 33–34). What begins as personal obedience blossoms into community transformation, a reminder that God’s purposes are larger than any one individual effort.

A Fair Counter-Reading

Some may interpret Acts 16 as implying a form of predestination that limits human agency: if God closes doors, perhaps we have no choice. While Scripture affirms divine sovereignty, it also repeatedly emphasizes human participation. Paul’s example shows a dynamic interaction: God provides guidance and opportunity, but obedience, courage, and intentionality are required. Mission is neither fatalistic nor accidental — it is cooperative, Spirit-led labor.

The Turn

The narrative pivot occurs in the jail scene. God’s work often advances in ways invisible to human calculation. Earthly suffering becomes a backdrop for divine action: an earthquake opens the prison doors, hearts are transformed, and families are baptized. This turn illustrates the gospel principle that God’s glory can be revealed through adversity, and that faithful mission carries inherent, sometimes miraculous, fruitfulness.

Carry It Into the Week

Living missionally requires a mindset that blends trust and action. Believers are called to:

1. Discern Spirit-led guidance in daily decisions

2. Engage intentionally in gospel work without rushing results

3. Respond faithfully, even in hardship, trusting God’s providence

4. Celebrate that fruit may appear in individuals, families, or communities

Missional living is therefore both theological and practical. It affirms God’s sovereignty while inviting active, obedient participation in His mission.

The Week In Reflection

This week my Bible Study signed up to volunteer at The Banquet to assist in something that most people take for granted. Having access to a meal. The Banquet is a meal ministry that was founded in 1985 starting with just one meal per week. Since that time it has grown to an astounding 16 meals per week at two locations here in Sioux Falls. As a volunteer-based ministry all the meals are paid for, prepared by, and served by volunteer groups who are local or travel from surrounding areas. It is an amazing opportunity to provide people with nourishment but most importantly, to show the love of Christ through serving. As Matthew 22:39 says, we are to “Love our neighbor, as ourself.”

Oh how God works lines things up. With my song of the week being picked Monday, my Thursday Bible reading pushed me into John 20:25 (Living in His Light by David Jeremiah). The story of doubting Thomas. And in reading the commentary from the author of this daily devotional, I read something that both hit hard, and that I had never separated. “He (Jesus) knew that Thomas was not a doubter but a believer who had questions.” Man, that hits different. Because as a Christian, there are seasons when doubt creeps in. Is this real, does He love me, why all the suffering. But to readjust your mind to say that what you are feeling isn’t doubt, but just a child who has questions of their Father, what a beautiful light. The entire Gospel is of the 12 disciples asking questions and fighting what they are being told. So today, may you not “doubt,” but may you, as a child of God, go to your Father with your questions. He loves you, He will answer! Whether it’s a Yes, or a No, or a Not Yet, He will answer.

Friday morning has come and gone and I am so blessed to have a group of 4 men that get together each Friday at a local Bagel Boy to talk about our weeks. Our highs, our lows. How God has been faithful and or how we have struggled in the week. As men we are told to be strong and lead, but a true man meets with other men and has the strength to become vulnerable with them. If you keep things stuffed down, sooner or later, it’ll explode.

Next week join me as Connection starts a deep dive into the book of 1 Corinthians!

And remember God loves you, and so do I.

About Connection Church — Sioux Falls

Connection Church — Sioux Falls is a gospel-centered community committed to living out Christ’s mission through worship, service, and disciple-making. Rooted in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, and aligned with Acts 29 and The Gospel Coalition distinctives, the church seeks to cultivate a Spirit-led, missional culture. Learn more at Connection Church — Sioux Falls.