Acts chapter 16, you'll notice, I don't know if you did in the
prayers, but in the worship songs that were selected today.
And it wasn't by planning, it was by the Lord that there was a
theme throughout that we are not to be afraid or fearful.
We live in a time when people are fearful or how am I going
to, how am I going to be able to get to work?
How am I going to be able to provide?
How are we going to live? How what's going to happen?
We can't travel. What about our superannuation?
And what about our all sorts of things?
You know, people are fearful. Well, listen, the opposite of
fear is faith. The just shall live not by fear,
but by faith. And this morning, if you've
brought fear and many of you have and and it's a an
understandable thing and you worry, remember the Bible says
Matthew chapter 6. Jesus says, hey, don't worry
because it's actually sinful. It's a sin because it's saying,
God, I don't think you can handle this.
I don't think you're going to be able to look after us.
That's why we need to ask God to forgive us when we worry.
We need to turn our worry into a prayer.
And then we cast our cares before God and he takes our
worry off us. So if you've come here with a
fear or with a worry, God says, you give that to me.
I'm God and I'll look after you. Don't be fearful.
Don't don't go by what you see, because faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. And and we live by what God's
word says. You know, if you want to get the
best geopolitical advice on world events, it's not on CNN,
not on Sky, it's definitely not on the ABC.
It's the Bible. The Bible tells you what's going
to happen. We don't have to go.
What's going to happen with the events in the Middle East?
Bible tells us. So be people of the Word, not
people of the world. OK, Acts chapter 16 to get a
lead up. You go.
Well, what happened to 15? I'll give you a summary.
In Acts chapter 15, there was a conflict over circumcision.
A group of Hebrew Christians said, well, these gentiles that
are getting saved, they need to come through Judaism and then we
can accept them into the church. So they need to be circumcised.
And they said verse one and two and 15, unless you're
circumcised, you cannot be saved.
And went wow, Paul and Barnabas and Peter were not happy about
that. So Paul, Barnabas.
So our council was called, the churches got together, the whole
congregation gathered. There were people spoke.
Paul spoke, Barnabas spoke. Then Peter spoke, said this is
what happened. You can't deny what happened.
I saw it. I was there.
God let me. You can't, you can't undo what
God's doing. God's showing us what he's doing
in the salvation Gentiles. Then James, the half brother of
Jesus got up to to finalise it and said, hey, God's doing this.
We can't put any yoke upon the Gentile believers.
God's telling us they're saved just like us.
We're we're all in the in the church now.
Why should we put these yokes that our fathers couldn't
achieve anyway? The law they tried, but they
couldn't live by the law anyway. Why should we tell them to do
all this other stuff? It's not necessary.
It's it's Jesus saves by grace and that's it, nothing else.
So he said just tell them this and they wrote a letter and went
out to the churches don't eat meat that's been sacrificed to
idols and that has been strangled to death.
So the blood is still contained in the animal and don't commit
fornication. It was a very immoral world and
to many Gentiles at that time. It was just the way of life.
It was normal bit like Australia now sadly that's got to stop.
Salvation is only by the grace of God to Jews and Gentiles.
James then also in in, and it's important to say is he quotes
the prophet Amos in Chapter 9 to 8, verses 8 to 15 out of Amos.
He said this is what's going to happen in the future.
Amos told us God will regather his people, Israel.
He's doing that. There's still not all in Israel.
I think more people will go to Israel in the latter days
because they won't be able to live in countries like
Australia. So it won't be safe.
The only place they'll go is home.
They'll all go to Israel. That's going to happen.
I must prophesied that and then the Messiah would come.
We see that at the end of the seven year tribulation, Jesus
will return and when he returns he'll be welcomed by Zechariah.
Sorry. Zechariah tells us his feet will
stand on the Mount of Olives. They'll recognise him.
Where did you get these wounds from?
He'll say in the House of my friends.
There's great mourning in Israel.
Israel finally as a nation turns to Christ and he rules and
reigns for 1000 years. But the ruling and reigning is
significant because God had promised to David, King David in
Second Samuel Chapter 7. I you can't build me a house,
I'll build you a house and the you're from your seed.
The king will establish his throne, your throne once again
in Jerusalem and he'll rule there in the Kingdom.
Age 1000 year, Millennium. So that's all in Acts 15 today,
God's plan is still unfolding. We see the events in the Middle
East. Israel is still at war.
God's plan was unfolding when the Jews didn't recognise Jesus
and they crucified him. It was part of God's plan
because through the crucifixion, salvation came.
The cross at Calvary we saw fifty days later after his
resurrection, we saw the beginning of the church, the
Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit fell and the church was birthed.
Hebrew to start with. Peter preaches 3000 souls get
saved, many of whom cried out, crucified, crucified Christ.
And then Peter is called to go to Caesarea, to the Italian band
Cornelius. And as Peter is sharing there
and he's told to go there by God, the Holy Spirit falls upon
Romans, Roman soldiers and all their families in Caesarea.
As Peter was speaking, they spoke in tongues and salvation
and Gentiles were saved. And so that's was the background
to Genesis 15. Now at the end of Genesis 15,
Paul and Barnabas are about to go on another mission trip.
And John Mark, who is, I think, Barnabas's nephew, Paul says
he's not coming with us because he left us before.
He can't, He can't do it. And Paul and Barnabas in church
had a big argument. Interesting, a great dispute.
And so Paul went one way, Barnabas went the other way.
And Paul took off with a fellow called Silas, another believer
who's also a Roman citizen. You need to remember that.
And they head off on their second mission trip.
On their way during this mission trip, they pick up a young fella
called Timothy who had watched Paul, remember, stoned, dead,
dragged out of the city, come back in the city.
As a young boy, Timothy was just young.
Now he's a little older. And now they pick up Timothy and
take him with him. So we pick it up in Acts 16 and
the title of this morning's message is when God's will and
suffering Collide from many churches and we see it more in
the teleevangelists in the US, They'll say the blessings of
God. You know, Creflo Dollar, he just
bought himself a new jet. And Kenneth Hagin Copeland,
Kenneth Copeland, he's got a couple of jets.
They don't know how much money he has.
He has he has multi millions and he's always preaching the what's
called the prosperity doctrine. Well, the Bible teaches
different. And so often when we think we
are in God's will, we automatically believe that we
are only in God's will when everything is going well.
We have this concept that oh, it's going good.
I'm in God's will. When pain then strikes your
life, do you believe that at that moment, well, I must be out
of God's will because look at the suffering that I'm going
through because how much I hurt and this is a great storm that
I'm going through. What's gone wrong?
Where have I gone off course? Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and I
recommend him if you to read any of his books that he's got out,
said Children of Light May for a time walk in the darkness of
sorrow. What's the greatest example of
that Job yet God at the beginning says of Job, look at
my man Job. He is the man of the man.
He hates evil, He loves me. And God commends Job.
He's a godly man. Job would get up every morning,
offer prayers and sacrifices for his family, and then all hell
broke loose on Job. God's will is something that all
of us strive to do. What is God's will?
We always want to know What's God's will for my life?
We want to be in it. But I think that today,
particularly in our Western culture, many only conclude
God's will as being only when things are all good.
Maybe this morning you've come today and you have some baggage
with you, some pains, some sorrows, a doctor's report or a
loved one is ill. You have a suitcase of problems.
In our text this morning, we'll find two men, Paul and Silas,
both who have at this moment will read, had their clothes
literally torn off their backs. Then they have been savagely
beaten with rods and sticks. It says they were severely
beaten. Then they were thrown into
prison. The gaoler was ordered to make
sure they didn't escape. So they'll put into stocks,
hands and feet. They were thrown into gaol and
there they had to sit in their own filth, couldn't move, can't
get up, unable to move, and they're bleeding, bloodied,
beaten and sore. Their feet were stretched out to
an unbearable distance, placed in stocks and they're placed in
the inner prison. The inner prison, the coldest
and the darkest soul that they had yet they were completely in
the will of God and Jesus LED it to the seven churches.
And I love that in the Book of Revelation, my favourite church
is not the Church of Philadelphia.
Everyone says oh I'm the Church of Philadelphia.
Hear Jesus words to a church. That's my favourite, the Church
of Smyrna verse 8 and I'll read it to you and to the Angel of
the church in Smyrna write these things says the 1st and the last
is Jesus who was dead and came to life.
So Jesus gives himself his title.
This is who I am and this is what happened to me.
I died. I was, I was crucified and then
I rose from the dead. It's significant.
It gives us the flavour of the letter.
I know your works, I know what you do.
I know your tribulation, the things that you're suffering.
I know your poverty. But Jesus says I look at you and
you're rich, unlike the church at Laodicea who said they're
rich. And Paul said Jesus said no, no,
you're poor. And I know the blasphemy of
those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the
synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things
which you are about to suffer. So the people in the Church of
Smyrna are about to go into suffering and God doesn't go
well, I'm going to stop that. He knows about it.
He knows they're about to go into suffering which you're
about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to
throw some of you into prison. He's not stopping it.
Jesus is not stopping it. That you may be tested.
It's part of it tested and you will have tribulation 10 days.
What does Jesus say? I'll get you out of there.
No worries. You know he says, hear this.
You won't hear this from many pulpits today.
Be faithful unto death. Be faithful unto death and I
will give you the crown of life. Because you see, Jesus tells us
this world ain't where it all it's all at.
It's not all about what happens here.
This is just a speck in eternity.
If that Jesus says be faithful unto death and I will give you
the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches.
He, whoever comes, shall not be hurt.
It's interesting that Jesus says you won't suffer any more hurt.
That means they are going to suffer hurt on earth shall not
be hurt by the second death. That's all over Revelation 21.
No more pain, no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears.
So the world today is striving for happiness.
People who were interviewed about what they desire most will
say, well, I I just want to be happy.
Everyone thinks Lotto will make you happy.
You know what it Bible says. And here's a warning.
If you're chasing riches, it's hard.
Listen, it's hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
If you're chasing riches, you're going down a path that's
dangerous. That God warns there's nothing
that money is OK. Abraham was a wealthy man Job as
well. But the love of money, the want.
I need more. I need more.
I'm just going to do this. I'll work longer.
I work longer. I've never been into a Hospice
centre. Sat by the bed of someone is
just about to die. Who said to me, you know, Keith,
I only wish I'd worked more. You know what that Greek grant
is? I wish I'd worked less and spent
more time with my family. Too late.
If you this morning are chasing the rainbow for the pot of
happiness at the end, let me tell you the truth of the
matter. This world's happiness is
fleeting. You know, we watch the AFL and
they're they're big, you know, fancy and everyone wants to get
their autograph and how good they are.
You know what, I remember one of the coaches at Fremantle
Football Club, the players didn't want to go out to a
certain back back door because all the kids were out there
waiting a sign there and people that followed get their
autograph and say the players are going, oh, we're not going
to go that way, we'll go the other way.
And the coach said, hey, listen up for a minute, sign up while
you can because in a few years time they won't even remember
who you are. You mean nothing but the joy
that God can bring you and I in obedience to him.
That's a joy that will remain within you and with you forever.
Why and how are you able to keep this God given joy when enduring
pain or sorrow, the events of the world?
James tells us in James chapter one verse 2.
My brothers count it all joy when you fall into various
trials. How can he say that?
Well, it's like, you know what? It's great.
Just broke my leg. Car broke down, lost my job.
Isn't that fantastic? No, that's being idiotic.
No, when you, it means when you're going through difficult
times because you have a relationship with God.
You know, God's doing something in my life.
God's allowing this. What am I to learn?
How am I to grow in this? Because you know you're going to
get through it. You'll get through it.
Psalm 30, verse 5 says his anger is but for a moment his favour
is for life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy comes in the morning. So let's read verse 1, chapter
16 to 24. Then Paul came to Derby and
Lystra. Behold, a certain disciple was
there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who
believed. But his dad was Greek, so
Timothy is half Jew. He was well spoken of by the
brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.
Paul wanted to have him go on with him, and he took him and
circumcised him because of the Jews who are in that region.
Why? Only because this would allow
them to minister to many others. He was half Jewish anyway so it
wasn't a great problem, but it was it was poor doing this not
because circumcision has anything to do with salvation or
loving the Lord. He was doing this so that he
would be able to go into areas where they could minister
without causing further problems, opening further doors.
For they knew that they, his father was Greek.
And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them
the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and
elders at Jerusalem. So they're taking the letter
that James and the church had written.
Don't eat animals strangled and abstain from fornication.
So the church was strengthened in faith and increased in number
daily. Now when they'd gone through
Fridgia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden.
That's Turkey by the way, by the, they were forbidden by the
Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.
Notice this. They wanted to go that way and,
and, and, and the Holy Spirit. Now that's not, not what I want
you to do now. That's where you and I need to
know what God wants us to do now, all the time.
It's, it's not, well, this is a good idea, might be your good
idea. I used to have a lot of good
ideas when I was on You believe and God said that's a good idea.
It's not my idea though. It's not what I want you to do.
Now after they had come to Missia, they tried to go into
Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.
They don't want you to go there either.
So passing by Missia, they came down to Troas, and a vision
appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood pleaded
with him, saying, come over to Macedonia, help us now After he
had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia,
concluding what? That the Lord had called us to
preach the gospel to them. This is how God guides our
lives. Therefore, sailing from Troas we
ran a straight course to Samothras, and the next day came
to Neapolis, from there to Philippi, which is the foremost
city of that part of Macedonia, a colony.
And we were staying in that city for some days.
And on the Sabbath day we went out to the city, to the
Riverside, where prayer was customary made.
Why do they go to the river and not to the synagogue as any
other time? Simple, no synagogue where there
were ten families, Jewish families in any area.
You needed ten families to be able to get together and they
were then were to build a synagogue.
So there's no synagogue. Paul couldn't go there.
So they they went to the river and there they went to pray and
to worship. As prayer was customary made, we
sat down and spoke to the woman who met there.
Now, a certain woman named Lydia heard us.
She was a seller of purple. Those of you who've been to
Israel, we went at Nazareth. The purple, remember, the purple
is the very, it's the colour of the Fremantle Football Club.
It's very royal. It's very heartbreaking.
But anyway, and the purple is made out of these seashells that
are crushed. It's purple.
It was rare and so it was expensive.
Purple from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God.
The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
Notice the Lord opened her heart.
How do you get saved? God saves us, not me, not you.
It's the Lord that does the saving.
And when she and her household were baptised, she begged us,
saying second thing, baptism service coming up.
You need to go to the classes. Notice how quick the Ethiopian
eunuch wanted to get baptised member in Caesarea when the
Italian ban under Cornelius was saved.
What did they do? Baptise them?
Here we see this lady, she says what stopped me from getting
baptised? You need to be baptised.
It has nothing to do with salvation like going to church.
Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, but it has
everything to do with you're desiring to please what God has
laid out as his plan for your life salvation followed by
baptism. If you've judged me to be
faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay so she persuaded
us. Now what happened as she went to
prayer that a certain slave girl as we sorry, notice it says we.
This is Doctor Luke now saying he's jumped in.
He's joined Paul and Luke is now riding as we he's joined with
Paul and he's part of the Turing group.
As we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed
with a spirit of divination met us who brought her masters much
profit by fortune telling. This girl followed Paul and
asked and cried out, saying, these men are the servants of
the most high God who proclaimed to us the way of salvation.
And this she did for many days. Now if you just looked at that,
you go, well, isn't that good? It's good if you don't read the
Bible, you need to read before and after.
But Paul greatly annoyed. Why was he greatly annoyed,
turned and said to the Spirit, that is the Spirit that
possessed this young girl. I command you in the name of
Jesus Christ to come out of her, and he came out of that her that
very hour. But when her Master saw that
their hope of profit was gone, they grabbed Paul and Silas,
dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities,
and they brought them to the magistrates.
That said, these men being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city.
They teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to
receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up
together against them. The magistrates tore off Paul
and Silas's clothes, commanded them to be beaten with rods.
You're thinking huge canes. And when they had laid many
stripes on them, that's, that's terrible.
They threw them into prison, commanding the gaoler to keep
them securely, having received such a charge.
So he put them into the inner prison, fasten their feet in the
stocks. But at midnight Elvis Presley
came on the radio and they sang Jailhouse Rock, and they were
praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were
listening to them. Suddenly there was a great
earthquake. Foundations of the prisons were
shaken. All the doors opened, everyone's
chains came off, all the silence as well.
That's what happened when the chains came off and and another
chain coming off and another chain coming off.
Supposing the prisoners had fled.
The gaoler drew out his sword. He was about to run himself
through, but Paul called with a loud voice, saying, Hey, we're
still here. Then he called for a light.
That is, the gaoler ran in, because it's so dark, fell down
trembling before Paul and Silas. And what did he say, Sirs?
What must I do to be saved? Where does that come from?
Why is he interested? Why does he want to know about
salvation? So they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved, you and your household.
Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who are in
his house. He took them that same hour of
the night and washed their stripes.
Immediately he and all his family were baptised.
Now notice now when he had brought them into his house, he
set food before them. He rejoiced, having believed in
God with all his household. So Paul and Silas are director
to Macedonia. No synagogue.
They come across this woman, they pray, she comes to the
Lord. And the first convert in Europe
is the woman Lydia. Now, whenever God moves, Satan
moves as well. You need to know that you need
to be prepared. Whenever something good happens
to your life and God's moving and using you, you got to be
ready because he's about to take a swing at you.
Paul did not want the gospel or the name of God to be promoted
by one of Satan's slaves. That's why he cast out the
spirit out of that girl. He didn't want later on, that
girl being used by the devil cut.
Yeah. You know, And by the way, this
is also what God wants you to do.
Get that? That's why she had to have the
demon cast out. But secondly, Paul wanted this
young girl delivered, set free from demonic attack.
So Paul and Silas have ruined the business of this girl's
pimps, basically users, because you want a divination, it'll
cost you. She'll talk to you, but it's
going to cost you. Their business is now ruin.
They grab Paul, Silas beat them, take them and throw them in the
gaol. Now again, let me interrupt, but
in all of this, Please note that Paul and Silas were completely
in God's will. We often pray and ask God to use
us to win souls to Christ and as we do so, we may find ourselves
under attack. You know, you're going witness
to a family member next minute another family member says, what
are you doing coming over here telling us all you about Jesus
stuff? It's on.
You're going to be attacked personally, physically,
spiritually, as did Paul and Silas, yet all in God's will.
And this is where so many of us go wrong.
It's because when we suffer, we then deviate from this path of
resistance. We go, hey man, this is too
hard. This is causing too much ache
and pain. I'm getting out of here.
And we head for calm waters, safe anchoring.
We often move straight out of God's perfect will when we're in
battle to try and get peace in our lives.
Paul and Silas were placed into a period of pain and trial,
difficult personnel circumstances allowed by God.
God didn't cause the beating. God didn't cause the abuse.
God didn't cause them to be thrown in gaol.
But God is allowing them to go this way and He's using these
events because He wants something to happen because
there was a gaoler. How else are you going to win a
gaoler to Christ? But in gaol, how else are we
going to win the gaoler family? Unless we win the gaoler, we
can't get hold of the family. God had a plan.
So often it is the difficult times that you and I face where
we really excel in serving God. Let me ask you this when when
difficult times really hit you, do you read your Bible more?
You know, are you really like man God?
Are you looking to God? Are you praying?
You're really just you're cued in, you're not concerned about
other stuff. You know, I've got more
important. This is this is a difficult time
because because God is allowing this to get you to the place
where He wants you to be. Remember that we have no more
faith at any time than we do have when we're in the hour of
trial. God uses such circumstances to
make us stronger, to make us become more reliant upon Him, to
become more like Christ and less of ourselves, and to remove the
love of the world from our lives.
How often when something significant happens to a family
member, you don't care about stocks and shares and the price
of petrol anymore? You're still going to go to
hospital, aren't you? You don't care how much a petrol
costs, so that's irrelevant. I got to go and see him.
I got to go and pray for him. You don't care.
Satan, as he did with the young girl possessed, often will flood
the world with cheap imitations. Helen and I went to Ephesus.
Got off at Ephesus, walked into the city.
I loved the Ephesus Turkish there.
Saw a shop. Oh man, I'll go to that shop.
Genuine fake watches. Huge sign this watch.
Genuine fake watches walk in. You want a Rolex?
I can't remember the other good brands, that's the only one I
can think of. Citizen got them all here.
Genuine fake watchers. I bought one for most of the
guys back here and I think they lasted for a couple of months.
How many Australians can recite the Lord's Prayer off by heart
today? How many Australians open the
Bible to read every day? But how many Australians read
their day by the stars every day or have been to a fortune
teller? I'm shocked at the number of
people that have been to fortune teller because Bali is so close.
Bali has opened the door to so much wrong.
How do you and I rise above times when God's will includes
us? Enduring pain allows.
He allows a storm, a cloud to wash over our lives.
How do we when it seems as dark clouds are hanging over us?
How can we shine as Christians at that moment, as Jesus
commands us to? What stops us in those times
from becoming angry at God? God, why is this happening?
What will keep my heart, my mind thinking that God does not love
me now because look what I'm going through?
Why would He allow such pain and sorrow as I'm enduring now?
England is an interesting study on child slavery and many little
kids were just cruelly treat of child slavery in England.
Child slavery was rampant in England in times past, and
children would often be put to work in the coal mines.
One such boy I read who was put down a coal mine and his job was
to close the door after the coal waggons had passed by.
And he was then forced to sit there alone hour after hour in
complete darkness. And 1 miner, noticing the
counteness of this young boy, this little kid asked him, are
you not weary with sitting so long in the complete bit of
darkness? And the little boy responded,
yeah, I do get tired, Mr. But sometimes the men give me a
little bit of a candle and when I get a light, he says, I sing,
I sing. The power of praise in times of
pain is something that Paul and Silas revealed to us this
morning in Acts 1625, it says. But at midnight, Paul and Silas
were praying and singing hymns to God.
And who was the audience besides God?
The prisoners were listening to them.
Is not midnight always the symbol of the darkest hour?
Instead of being angry against God, instead of blaming God and
thinking he doesn't care about what's happening to them,
instead of seeking an easy way out of the situation, trying to
avoid it, instead Paul and Silas pray and give thanks unto the
Lord and burst into song. Now, I'm a fan of Minions and
the Minions. If you've ever seen the movie, I
recommend it to you. They're alone in the frozen dark
place and they're singing and eventually they just run out.
Hurray, hurray, hurray and they will fall down.
These guys aren't saying oh praise, praise, praise the Lord.
They were proclaiming the power and wonder of God that was
singing with gusto and all the prisoners heard them.
They were listening to them. Instead of the prisoners hearing
rage, cursing and groans as was the usual atmosphere in the
gaol, they heard singing. No wonder the prisoners
listened. Prisoner had never ever been
like this. Never had joy disturbed the dark
air of gaol. Paul would write about such
times and he gives us a great window on how to how and why
were they able to praise God in these times.
And Philippians chapter 3, verse 7.
I'll read it to you. But what things were gained to
me? Those I counted lost for Christ,
Yes, doubtless. And I count all things but loss
for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
But all the things that I've lost, I do count them but manure
in comparison, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is a God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, I want to know
that being made conformable unto his death.
Brothers and sisters, this morning here.
This is the power of the Holy Spirit within us.
It's so powerful that it rose Jesus from the dead.
It's so powerful this this the Holy Spirit who dwells in you,
that you and I as sinners, we could be set free, forgiven and
cleansed forevermore from all of our sins.
And then God calls us his child and we can say have a father.
Paul knew. You see, this is what was behind
him. It was a privilege to suffer for
Christ. Paul had a jukebox loaded with
all the wonder and the glory of what God had done to him.
So no matter what he just said, Silas, hit button #10 let's sing
and praise the Lord. And out it came.
And notice we are given this privilege by Christ, as you and
I grow on our knowledge of Christ and our experience of his
power. But you'll only find it in his
will, and you'll only find it when you're going through
difficult times. Athletes don't become the best
athletes in the world by being void of pain and suffering and
diet and training, Paul says. We're like athletes.
We come under the attack of the enemy.
Paul lived for Christ because he had died the self.
It didn't matter. He was in gaol.
I'm in gaol, but I'm saved. And he took up the cross and he
followed Jesus. You see, God had changed Paul's
mind on how Paul saw the world. How do you see the world?
How do you view the world? You fear it.
God wants to change the way you view the world, because the
world is is the footstool of God.
Paul now saw the things of the earth from heaven's viewpoint.
That's where you've got to be all the time in every matter.
How's the situation in hospital? How's the illness that you have?
How's the the pain that you're going through?
OK, go to the heavenly vantage point.
Look at it through eternity. It looks way different from
heaven. It looks way different from
heaven. People who live for things are
never really happy because each day they must constantly protect
their treasures. The more you get, the more you
worry about it, losing it. But the Christian with the
spiritual mind, his or her treasures are in Christ, and
they can never be stolen. They can never lose their value.
Maybe today God is asking you to evaluate the things in your life
that matter most to you. It says in the Greek of the
prisoners that thou are listening with great attention
and pleasure when you're in pain in the midnight hour.
You may not feel it is this time to sing praise to God, but the
Bible tells us surely it is Job 3510.
But no one says, where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the
night? Psalm 42, eight.
The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and
then in the night his song, his song shall be with me.
Spurgeon said. Any fool can sing in the day.
It's easier to sing when we read the notes by daylight.
But the skilled singer is he who can sing when there is not a ray
of light to read by it. You know, the African American,
the strength of the African American and the gospel that's
come through them. It's what held them from slaves
until to be that which still has in its roots the African
American this this wonder and power of the gospel
proclamation. It says when you go to an
African American church, when the singing breaks out, man,
it's on. How do we do this?
Romans 828 We know that all things work together for good to
those who love God, to those who are the called according to His
purpose. Now we are not talking mind over
matter. This is not what's happening in
the gaol mind over matter. We are talking about faith over
circumstances. Hebrews 11/1 Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
You see, God is in control of every detail of your life.
It was Daniel who said to Belshazzar who was about to die
that night. And the God who holds your
breath in his hand and owns all your ways, you have not
glorified. You know, I am only alive
because God says keep living. Doctors don't control my life.
Yes, I need to be wise in what I eat and all the exercise that I
don't do. But it's God who says Keith home
and it's God who says not yet, not yet.
God knows what he's doing. But Keith, does this mean that
everything that happens to us is good and in in of itself, no,
many things are not good. They may even be painful and
bitter. You know, there was a teaching
that came out a few years back in churches that says, well, if
you break your leg, praise God for breaking your leg.
Oh God. Oh, praise the Lord, I broke my
leg, praise the Lord. No, that's stupid.
But it's saying God, no matter. Even though I've got a broken
leg, nothing changes the way I think about you.
David suffered greatly, but he said before I was afflicted,
Psalm 100 and 1967, I went astray.
And here's what God does to me many times.
Maybe he does it to you. God allows a storm to hit me.
He allows something to really set me on my tail.
It's painful. But David said, because it
happened to him before I was afflicted, I went astray.
But now I keep your word. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right, and that in
faithfulness you have afflicted me.
The shepherd with a runaway sheep.
They kept on running away, running away.
It's going to be eaten by wolves.
It's going to fall into a trap. The shepherd would snap the
front forelock of the sheep, and then the sheep couldn't run
anymore. And then the shepherd would
bandage it and he would carry that sheep home with him, and
then he would watch over that sheep and see that it mended
correctly. That sheep had to have that to
happen so it wouldn't run away again.
It was an affliction that had to happen, that was painful, but it
wasn't necessary. In the same way, God allows
things to happen to us in Romans 828, the words work together are
where we get our English word synergism or synergy, which
means the work together of various elements to produce an
effect greater than and often completely different than the
sum of each element acted separately.
All things work together. That's the God gets the mess.
For example, did you know 2 poisons?
Sodium and chlorine, both singulon, 2 poisons, combine
them, give you NaCl, got some more salt?
You see that's the difference, Synergism.
It's what God does. He takes the poisons that the
enemy comes and he turns it into something that's a flavour and
bite. Now it's not just the prisoners
who are listening. I need to rap.
Verse 26. There was a great earthquake.
The gaol rushed in. They're still there.
What must I do to be saved? How hard was it when you need to
cut your hair, wash your clothes, stop talking the way
you talk, no more swearing. And I want you to do this and
this. And I said, just believe on the
law. Isn't that like the thief on the
cross? As simple as it?
Why do you make it so hard? Then they spoke the word of the
Lord to him and all who are in his house and his whole house
but saved and were baptised. It was the gaoler Unchained who
asked Paul how he could be saved and be set free.
Paul was in gaol, but he was the one who was bringing release for
those that were bound by sin. Were Paul and Silas in the will
of God when they were thrown in gaol?
Yep. Was Joseph, Yep.
Was Jesus, Yep. Was the whipping and the brutal
treatment they received part of the deal?
Did God know that Paul and Silas were going to come through in
this situation? Did God want this gaoler and his
family saved? Absolutely.
Can you see God's plan and all of this?
Because God has done the same thing for you and I.
But it all began when just two servants of God in tough
situation chose, in the midst of suffering, to sing praises unto
the God they loved and worshipped, trusting Him to work
out His plan in their painful situation.
My grandfather used to weave these things on this big spread,
and I'd watch him this weaving. I figured what they'd actually
call it and just look a huge mess.
But then when you turned it over, there was this beautiful
scene of a man on a gondola rowing in a lake.
You see, you and I, we just see the mess of the threads.
But if you see the view from heaven, it shows you that God
loves you. Be assured, God is working in
and through your messy situation for you and for others.
The Holy Spirit says to you today, now is the time for you
to sing. To sing so loud that others will
hear of your love for Christ in spite of what you're going
through. You will praise the name of the
Lord. All suffering and pain that God
allows to wash over us has a purpose.
Let us never allow our suffering, your period of pain,
to go to waste. And you know when you're
suffering, You know who's watching?
God's watching. Don't forget, this is the last
word. As the worship team comes
forward. Suffering may come, but you know
what the Bible says will come. You will overcome.
It ends.
For Smyrna, the suffering ended
with their death. When my brother who I buried
last Wednesday, I'll His suffering ended when he breathed
his last breath upon this planet.
God, he even takes death and he says, you know what with death
pulls this thing out of it, kicks over the grave.
And he says it's just the window to coming home now.
It's the window to coming home now.
It's the place where you close your eyes and you know who you
will see next. Me.
You'll see me the moment you close your eyes.
The first face you'll see is mine, because I love you.