Expanding Our Reach
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on August 16, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
An important question churches need to ask themselves is: How far does our mission reach?
There’s a phenomenon called mission creep. We start out going one way, and somewhere along the way we get distracted by other things—sometimes even good things. Before long, we’re doing so many great things that we’ve lost the most important thing.
When I was a college student in the campus ministry at Tennessee Tech, we had an elder named Dale. He loved me so much he was hard on me. I had a minister friend whose elders were always hard on him, too. He finally asked, “Why are you so hard on me?” They said, “We wouldn’t be hard on you if we didn’t love you.” The next week he came back and said, “I’ve been thinking. I don’t think I want you to love me so much.”
Dale was one of those elders. I loved him. He was always looking out for our good and giving us direction. It didn’t matter where I was—the church building, campus, our campus ministry house. He would walk by, stop cold, stare at me, and say, “Matt.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Keep the main thing the main thing.”
“Yes, sir.” What does that mean? A week later, we’d be talking about something random, and he’d say it again. He did that throughout my years at Tennessee Tech. I can’t tell you how important it has been as I think about the church, our mission, and our purpose.
In Acts 13 and 14, we saw a church called to be sent together. In chapter 15, conflict arose over its core identity. What are we actually proclaiming? What makes someone right with Jesus? Is it Jesus’ initiating grace and love, or grace plus other things? They had to identify the core content: Jesus, what Jesus has done, and his grace. From that grace flows a way of living.
Now, in Acts 16, the church is moving. But the movement doesn’t look exactly like the disciples expected.
How many of your lives look the way you envisioned them at eighteen? If you’re eighteen, I want you to hear those laughs. Maybe there are regrets, but you’re here because you’ve seen God’s providential hand moving in your life. That’s what happened here. They had a vision for how the mission would happen, and God had some different ideas.
Our responsibility as we go out together is to be faithful—to preach the gospel and teach others about Jesus. The expansion part is God’s responsibility. That’s God’s business. Our business is faithfulness.
Acts 16 begins with Paul and Silas going out on their mission. In Lystra they meet Timothy, a disciple with a good reputation among the believers. Paul wants Timothy to go with him. As they travel, they share the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, and the churches are strengthened in faith.
Paul isn’t just going out and preaching the gospel. He’s inviting others to do it, too. Timothy will become one of his most trusted coworkers, but here Paul is investing in another generation.
Mentorship can be difficult. Sometimes it’s easier to think, “I know I’m competent. I know I’m able. I’ll take care of the mission.” We may not be looking for the people God has placed around us to invite into that work. You can do the mission alone, but think about its reach when you invite someone else to join you.
It doesn’t always go seamlessly. Mark left, and there was a dispute, but later he came back and was fruitful and useful. That friction is part of bringing others along.
It’s easy to be enamored with Paul. He’s bold and courageous, and his life shows a love for the gospel because of the transformation Jesus made in him. But you cannot read about Paul without recognizing that it’s about God. Paul is part of a great network: Silas, Timothy, Barnabas, Mark, and so many others. His letters thank people for the support that helps the gospel move forward.
This mission is multiplied through partnerships. We expand its reach when we stop doing ministry alone and invite others to do it together. As you seek to share God’s good news, ask not only what he is calling you to do, but whom he wants you to bring along.
The next part of Acts 16 is remarkable. Paul and his companions want to preach in Asia, but the Holy Spirit says no. They try Bithynia, and again the Spirit does not permit them. Then Paul receives a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading for help, and they go there to preach the gospel.
How peculiar is it that the Holy Spirit said no? Their objective was right. Their desire was good. They wanted to do what God had called them to do. But God was directing them somewhere else.
Not every closed door means disobedience. A pathway shutting in front of you doesn’t necessarily mean God is displeased. It may be a door he is closing to give you direction. God wasn’t stopping their mission; he was redirecting it.
I have conversations with people about this, and I wrestle with it myself. Should I go this direction or that direction? Talk to this person or that person? Sometimes you feel immobilized, wandering in circles without forward progress. It may mean God has you right where you are because there’s something there he wants you to do.
What is the opportunity present when we stand in front of a closed door? Sometimes faithfulness means changing direction. God may be protecting, redirecting, preparing the ground, or working on a timetable we cannot yet see. Instead of asking why our plan didn’t work, we can ask what God wants us to do right now.
We tend to judge success in ministry by whether our plan succeeded, using the parameters we set. Acts 16 teaches us to judge faithfulness differently. Paul was faithful when the door was open, and he was faithful when the doors closed.
In Philippi, they meet Lydia by the riverside. She is a merchant who sells purple cloth, a woman of means who worships God. Lydia wasn’t the person Paul planned to find. But as Paul speaks and she listens, the Lord opens her heart. She and her household are baptized, and she invites the missionaries into her home.
This is very much like Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well. That encounter didn’t stop with her; she invited others. Lydia’s conversion becomes a doorway for her household. When God opens one heart, he may be opening the way for an entire family.
Think about all the people, places, and circumstances that came together for you to hear the gospel and respond. Then think about how that changed not only you but the people you touch—your children, your spouse, your friends, your coworkers. We will have some amazing stories to tell about the ways God worked.
Then Paul encounters someone quite different from Lydia: an enslaved girl whose owners profit from her fortune-telling. Lydia has means and independence; this girl is oppressed and used for profit. Paul commands the spirit to leave her in Jesus’ name, and she is liberated. The gospel is about life transformation. Its reach includes people the world has overlooked.
When her owners lose their source of income, Paul and Silas end up in prison. That wasn’t in their plans. Yet at midnight they are praying and singing hymns, and the prisoners are listening. An earthquake opens the doors and loosens the chains. The jailer, thinking everyone has escaped, is about to harm himself, but Paul calls out that they are all still there.
The jailer asks what he must do to be saved. Paul and Silas tell him to believe in the Lord Jesus, and they speak the word of the Lord to him and everyone in his house. He washes their wounds. He and his family are baptized, and they rejoice together.
Here are three very different people: a businesswoman, an enslaved girl, and a jailer. The gospel reaches the respected and the rejected, the powerful and the powerless. The church expands its reach when it refuses to make its mission smaller than God’s. His grace is something we can overflow into the places where we go.
Paul and Silas didn’t choose prison. They didn’t expect it or want it. They couldn’t leave. So what were they to do? They witnessed where they were. Their suffering became part of the way God expanded the church’s reach.
You do not have to be where you wanted to be to be faithful where God has placed you. Maybe you’re in a season of disappointment, unexpected responsibilities, a difficult family situation, or a circumstance you never would have chosen. You may still want to get out of there. But while you’re there, who has God placed around you? What is he doing right there?
Our responsibility is faithfulness. God is responsible for the work of expansion. Wherever you are, know that God is there, too, and he wants you to witness right where you are. Your circumstances do not determine the work he can do in your life. He is sending us and directing the mission. Are we joining him in it?
