Sermon Tone Analysis

Joke I read on our Youth Pastors Facebook Page this week:

I accidentally gave my wife a glue stick instead of the chapstick earlier this week.

She’s STILL not talking to me!

I want to share a wonderfully familiar story in scripture today.

It’s such a powerful scripture because it helps us to understand that we can find Joy in Adversity.

We’ve all had difficulties and misfortunes in our lives.

It’s good to be reminded that through everything God is faithful and has a purpose.

You might have heard of a scandal called Watergate.

There was a man named Charles Colson who was known as the “hatchet man” during the scandal.

He was convicted of obstruction of justice and served 7 months in prison.

What’s interesting is that this man is also the man who years later recieved the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

It was a $1 million dollar prize which was a reward for exceptional efforts in promoting and advancing religion in the world.

This man found Christ while in prison and founded the non-profit organization called the Prison Fellowship which if focused on teaching and training people with the Gospel.

He was asked about his time in prison and this is what he said: “Out of tragedy and adversity come great blessings.

I shudder to think of what I would have been if I had not gone to prison.”

Isn’t that an interesting story?

I’m going to tell you the point of the sermon right up front today: Adversity can be God’s refining fire.

Now, most of us in this room today have never served time in jail or been locked away in a prison, but I would say that spiritually speaking, we have all been through what I would call “prison experiences” in life.

Times when it feels as though the enemy is working overtime in our lives and God is allowing it to happen!

Times when we wonder where God is and if He will ever help you through what you’re facing.

Some of you might be facing that right now! You’re wondering why, if God really loves you, are these things happening in your life.

Each person has asked these types of questions which is why I believe the scripture we are going to read is especially powerful in helping us to find joy even in adversity.

We don’t always Deserve Adversity

In the first few verses we see Paul and Silas obediently serving the Lord.

The Bible says they were just going about their daily business.

They weren’t causing any trouble, but trouble found them.

Trouble came in the form of a girl who had a spirit in her.

She was following them around everywhere they went for several days!

To me, this is a reminder that we are in a spiritual battle and just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean there aren’t evil spirits following you and trying to trip you up while you’re just trying to live your life in peace.

Paul and Silas were the good guys.

They didn’t deserve this type of harassment.

Haven’t you felt that way before?

Haven’t you seen someone who doesn’t deserve something go through a horrible situation?

Maybe you’re like the Psalmist who said:

I’ve felt that way before!

Seems like when you try to do good you get rewarded with pain.

That might have been what these men felt like when they were being beaten for doing something good for this girl who had been afflicted.

Paul and Silas were beaten, probably with a cat-of-nine tails.

When the prison experiences of life come, they tend to beat us down and leave us in torment.

If you haven’t been there yet, you will be some day!

The first question is “Why?”

The answer is “Why not?”

As we pass through this life, we can expect our share of difficulty and trouble.

Or what about our friend Job, He had experienced hardship for seemingly no reason?

These are his words:

Adversity is inevitable.

Trouble will follow the just and unjust.

We must remember that God can and does use these experiences to develop us into the image of His Son.

God has a plan even when we find ourselves beaten and cast off by the world.

These men were thrown into prison.

The word used in greek for thrown mean to “throw something without regard to where or how it lands”.

They were just tossed into the prison without any care for their well-being.

Roman Prison was dark, dirty, discouraging.

There are times in life when the Lord “shuts you up” in some prison.

When this happens, it is never pleasant!

During those times, it may seem that He doesn’t care what you are facing.

It may seem that He has just tossed you aside without any regard for your well being.

Such is not the case!

If you are His, then He is working out His perfect plan for your life.

You are in that prison because the Lord loves you and has something special planned for you.

Think back to Genesis when Joseph was thrown into prison.

He had no idea that God was going to place him in the most powerful position in Egypt!

As if it weren’t enough to beat these men, throw them into prison and cast them into the dungeon, the jailer placed their feet in stocks and prevent any activity on their part at all.

The prison experiences of our lives often serve to shut us down spiritually.

God’s purpose is to to use us more greatly for His glory.

But, the devil and the flesh seize the prison experiences of life as an opportunity to force us into inactivity spiritually.

Adversity Doesn’t Affect our Praise

This part of the story is always the most interesting to me because my first inclination in difficult times is NOT to praise, but instead to complain or try to fix.

How could any person praise the Lord in the circumstances these men found themselves in?

Maybe we need to learn that our Attitude determines our Latitude.

Or a better way to say it might be that we can get away from adversity by forcing ourselves to keep our hearts and minds where they belong.

Instead of pouting, these men prayed.

They rolled their burden onto the shoulders of the Lord.

This is a valuable lesson for us to see.

When we are in one of life’s prison experiences, we need to learn to call upon the Lord.

or Matt 11:28

Were they in pain?

Yes! Were they scared?

Yes! Were they uncomfortable and miserable?

Yes! Still they did not allow their circumstances to defeat them.

They went to God in prayer!

That is what we need to do when we are locked away in one of life’s prison experiences.

As they prayed before the Lord, He began to lift their hearts.

Soon, they were filled with praise and they began to sing songs to the Lord.

When they prayed and adjusted their focus from the prison to Jesus they forgot about the stocks and remembered who He was and what He did for them.

One of the surest ways to overcome your prison experience is to learn the secret of praising God in the midst of your pain.

Anyone can praise God when all is well in their life!

But, it takes massive faith to praise His name when the bottom falls out from under you!

In fact, if you really want to gage the depth of your commitment to the Lord and your love for Him, just see how you react when the pressure is on in your life!

That is where the real you is most clearly seen!

God can Use Adversity

So now we get to the miracle part of this story.

We’ve learned that EVERYONE will have Adversity in life.

What we do when we are locked up in the chains of Adversity proves who we are and what we believe.

Now we see that God uses these difficult times for His glory.

This verse tells us that “the prisoners heard them”.

This verb means “to hear attentively”.

These men had never heard anything like this before!

Here were two old boys beaten to bloody pulps, locked in the nastiest place imaginable, with their feet locked in stocks, which, by the way, forced them to sit in the mire and the muck of the prison, and still they are able to praise the Lord!

What a testimony to the grace of God! What a challenge to the church!