Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

We may not see them very often, but they are out there in the world, and they have always been there, and in our day there number is increasing.

I am not talking about UFO's but about those women who are wise in the ways of the world of wealth, and, thus, are rich and successful women of business.

Murial Siebert, for example, the superintendent of banks for New York State where she supervises the management of 4 hundred billion dollars in our nations largest state banking department.

She was the first woman to attain this kind of power in the financial world.

She was the first female member of the New York Stock Exchange, and she owns her own brokerage company.

Vera Newmann, the Jewish grandmother, who is co-chairman of Vera Industries with retail sales over 100 million.

She made the first designer signed articles, and the top selling designer sheets.

Her merchandising vice-president and executive vice-president are both women.

Joan Cooney is head and co-founder of the multimillion dollar Children's Television Workshop, which produces Seseme Street and Electric Company.

Her commitment to Christian principles are important to her, and those values play a major role in the work she does in teaching children on TV.

She is and honored and respected business woman.

These three I mention, out of numerous contemporary examples, have something in common with Lydia the business woman of the Bible.

They are all single for one reason or another.

Lydia was likewise single.

She represents the millions of women who have been thrust by circumstances into the world of business.

We don't know if she was a widow, or divorced, or never married, but it was a matter of survival for her, as well as many others, to use their gifts to become successful in the world of business.

Corrie Ten Boom learned watch making, and she became so good at it she became Holland's first licensed female watchmaker.

When women discover their gifts they can be successful in any endeavor.

We do not know how rich Lydia was, but the evidence we have suggests that she was quite successful.

She was a seller of purple goods from the city of Thyatira.

We find her far from home in the city of Philippi.

She was a traveling sales woman of the ancient world.

Not only is her business one that takes her over a wide territory, but it is one that provides well for her and her household, for she had a good size house there.

She invited Paul and the others to come and stay at her house.

It was obviously a large and lovely home able to accommodate more than her own family.

Lydia was obviously selling some of that purple stuff, and doing alright in the business world.

Ancient accounts tell us that this purple she sold was used by royalty and the upper classes, and so she was dealing with the money people of her day.

She was one of those women who put her whole heart into everything she did.

We want to focus on her heart as we see it functioning in three ways.

First let's look at-

I. HER OBEDIENT HEART.

The only reason we even know about Lydia is because, in spite of her being a busy business woman, she closed up shop on the Sabbath and joined some other ladies for a prayer meeting by the river.

She put God before gold in her value system.

There are only women referred to, and so we see there were others like Lydia-women who had no place to go to worship, for there was no synagogue or church.

This little group of women by the river provided the base for the beginning of Christianity in Europe.

God led Paul to this ladies prayer meeting, and out of it came the first convert in Europe, and the first church in Europe.

Paul did not look at this group and say there is nothing here but women so we just as well move on until we find a more important group.

God led Paul to Lydia because she was woman with an obedient heart.

She lived up to the light she had.

She was a Gentile who by some means had heard of the God of Israel, and she was convinced He was the true God, and she worshipped Him.

God honors those who obey the light they have received by sending more light.

The reason Lydia received the Gospel from the Apostle Paul is because God knew she would respond to this good news as she had to the previous light she had been given.

The book of Acts is filled with stories of resistance and opposition to the Gospel, but remember there is also the other side.

Many have hearts where the seeds sprouts immediately, and there is the fruit of faith.

We need to pray constantly that God would lead us to people whose hearts are prepared like that of Lydia.

There are many like her in the world, and the majority seem to be women.

Women are more likely to have hearts that are obedient and ready to respond to the Gospel.

We ought not to assume that all unsaved people are ungodly.

Lydia was a very godly person.

She believed in God and worshipped Him, and sought to live according to His law.

She was all of this before she was saved by faith in Christ.

She had a good head on her shoulders, and she knew a good deal when she saw it.

She knew opportunity was knocking and she did not hesitate to open the door.

This leads us to look at the second point which is,

II.

HER OPENED HEART.

There are several terms to describe the experience of being saved in the New Testament.

One can be born-again, or redeemed, or converted.

But the most gentle description of salvation is that of Lydia's experience where the Lord opened her heart, and she gave heed to the message.

She believed and responded by trusting Christ as her Savior, and then she was baptized.

There is no description of a conversion anywhere that is so simple as that of Lydia's.

What a blessing there is to the millions of believers who come into the kingdom of God more like Lydia than like the Apostle Paul.

We so often promote the radical and exciting conversion of people like Paul that we give the impression that this is the real experience to expect.

The lights flashing from heaven, the vision of Christ, the radical experience of being blinded and then restored, are held up as the norm.

Most of the testimonies that make it into print are the Paul type testimonies because they are exciting, and they proclaim the grace of God loudly.

This is alright as long as we get things in a proper perspective.

The reason there are radical conversions is because people have gone so far off the path that the only way to get them back is by means of a radical conversion.

This type of conversion exalts the grace of God, but it is no credit to the one experiencing it, for it is a sign that they were far from the kingdom in their rebellion.

Lydia did not need a radical conversion like Paul, because she never rebelled and went astray.

She was a sinner in need of a Savior, but she did not need to be knocked to her knees and blinded.

All she needed was to hear the truth of God's love, and of the gift of His Son, and her heart was opened.

God had to dynamite the door open on Paul's heart, but Lydia's heart was available to God.

God merely touched it gently and the door swung open, and Christ entered her heart by faith.

Paul's story is more exciting and interesting reading, and we would all rather marvel at the message of his conversion than hear dozens of commonplace testimonies like that of Lydia.

But the fact is, the ideal conversion is like hers.

To never go far into the depths of sin and rebellion, but to stay in the realm of the honest seeker whose life style is not far from that of the true believer is the way God wants it, and the way that is best for the world and for all concerned.

Thank God for the Lydia type heart so easily opened because it is not warped by a wild life of sin.

Thank God also that His grace is sufficient for a Rahab the prostitute, and the woman at the well, who lived in immorality.

But rejoice if your conversion is the more simple and gentle kind like that of Lydia.

This is the more common conversion that we see in millions of children and young people who have not experienced a life of sin.

Many Christians like Lydia are made to feel unimportant because they were not wild rebels into gangs, night clubs, and the drug scene.

These are the conversions that sell books, but the kingdom of God is built primarily out of those who are more like Lydia, and it is folly for them to feel bad for not living such a wild life that their conversion is more spectacular.

We do not see Paul expecting anyone to have a radical conversion like his.

He is delighted when God simply opens the heart of a person, and they quietly enter the kingdom by simple faith.

It is of interest also that her heart was opened as she sat by a river listening to Paul share the Gospel.

Many of fisherman loves this text which shows you can worship God by the river as well as in a church.

But we note also that there is no fishing gear involved in this account, and there were no churches to go to at that point.

New Testament Christianity is, however, an outdoor faith.

There were no church buildings and so people had their conversion experiences in outdoor places.

Zaccheaus was in a tree, Paul was out on a road, the Ethiopian Eunuch was in a chariot in the desert, the Philippian jailer was in a jail leveled by an earthquake, and the thief was on a cross.

All of these conversions remind us that the Holy Spirit is not limited to the church building.

Nobody has to come to church to come to Christ.

People can open their hearts to Christ at work, at play, out in a boat, or while driving to work or home.

The settings are endless.

We need to be reminded of this so we do not go through life limiting God to the church as if the only place people can come into the kingdom is there.

Don't spend your life trying to get people to church only.

The wise way to is take the church, or the message of the church, to them where they are.

Jesus did not say let all the world come to church.

He said for the church to go into all the world.