“It Happened When I Prayed”

Introduction

Friends, we can never underestimate the power of prayer. Prayer is our personal way of communicating with God. Prayer is something that we all need to practice. And prayer has power.

I am a certified church kid. I have always loved everythung about the church and I always like to be in church. And while in church and around churchy people, you hear a lot of phrases, and one of those phrases is “Prayer changes things”. And I understand that we might’ve heard that phrase a thousand times, but it is actually 100% true. Prayer can actually change things.

Prayer can help you in whatever situation you are going through, prayer can give you encouragement, it can make you feel that everything is going to be ok.

Prayer changes things, and we even see examples of that in the Bible. In 1 Samuel 1, a woman named Hannah prayed for a son, and God gave her a son named Samuel. In Acts 12, the church was praying for Peter while he was in jail, and next thing you know, God sends his angels to come and free Peter from the jail. And it happened when they prayed.

Psalms 50:15 says “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” We have to understand that even as young Christians, we can talk to the Lord. We can come to God in faith and know that God will answer. We can tell him how we’re feeling. We can tell him that we’re frustrated, hurt, sick, tired, worried, and I want to encourage you to do this because prayer changes things. You can receive strength, joy, comfort, hope, when you pray. Things can happen when you pray. And we see another example of that in our text today. 

Text Context

Acts 16 covers the apostle Paul’s second missionary journey. In his first journey, Paul and a man named Barnabas traveled all throughout a placed called Antioch, and they were spreading the gospel, even though they were facing challenges. But that is his first missionary journey. Acts 16 is not really new to us, because this chapter reminds us of how God is able to deliver us. Whenever we find ourselves in a situation that may cause us to shut down and become afraid, God has the power to give us victory over our adversity. 

And today, we are in this interesting story. Paul finds himself traveling with a man named Silas, and they have traveled to twelve places preaching the word of God. They have been preaching to many people and making them believers. They have been doing what they are supposed to do.

They are telling everybody about the goodness of God. They have even preached to a very rich woman named Lydia, and as a result Lydia was not only saved, but she invited Paul and Silas to stay at her home. 

Now here in verse 16, we get into the plot twist of the story. This is personally my favorite part of this text. Paul and Silas are one day headed to pray, when all of a sudden, they meet a slave girl, but this girl is not just your average girl, this girl can tell the future, and she had got a lot of money by being able to do this. This girl followed Paul and Silas, and she shouted “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” This went on for a few minutes, then minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into days, until one day, Paul had enough. 

He could not let this go on any longer. Paul did not want this slave girl to be following him and Silas around all of the time, and so he commanded for the Spirit to come out of her, and it instantly left her, but this was a bad move for her masters. See, this girl was a fortune teller, which means that people actually came to her to hear about their future and they paid her, but the money went to her masters. Her masters were actually making money off of her, so when Paul commanded that the spirit come out of her, this messed with the masters’ money. They had dreams of being rich, but those dreams were now broken. 

The masters were so mad that they grabbed Paul and Silas and took them to the marketplace. They beat them and they did everything to publicly humiliate them, and eventually, they ended up thrown in jail. Wait a minute, they have been doing what the Lord has been telling them to do. They have been preaching and converting people to Christians, but now they have been sent to jail, and in fact, the guard who was watching Paul and Silas was told to make sure that they didn’t escape. They are not put in jail because they did something wrong, but they are put in jail because they did something right. Some people will hate you and dislike you, not because you did something wrong, but because you are doing what God called you to do and being who God called you to be. Some people just have a problem the calling that is on you. 

So now Paul and Silas are in jail. They went from preaching and spreading the Gospel to now being put in jail. But while they are in jail, they are having church. They are praying and singing, and when this happens, the text tells us that a massive earthquake came, and this earthquake was so strong and powerful that it shook the very foundations of the prison and somehow, someway, the prison doors flew open and the chains of the prisoners flew off. The text goes on to let us know that when the guard saw this, he assumed the prisoners just escaped, so he took out his sword to kill himself, but Paul told him to STOP and to not kill himself, because they were all right there, and then a few moments after that the guard and everyone in his household were saved and baptized. 

Body of Message

All of these things happened, but this did not just happen on it’s own, this happened when Paul and Silas started praying. Things can happen when you pray, and if you don’t mind, walk with me for a little bit and let's look at these things that happened.  

When they prayed, the other prisoners listened.(v. 25)

The text tells us that around midnight, Paul and Silas are praying, and while they are praying, other prisoners are listening. These prisoners are listening. May I suggest that they are eavesdropping. We know it as being nosy. Being all up in the kool aid, and not even knowing the flavor. They are in prison and the others are listening. They feel like they are just drawn in and they have to listen to them.

EX: How many of us are considered nosy? How many of us are considered certified and professional eavesdroppers? Now personally, my parents and my sister seem to believe that I am the nosiest one out of the four of us. Now I’m not saying that I disagree with that, but I wouldn’t say I’m the nosiest, they have just come to that conclusion. But the thing is, it’s so interesting. Whenever I come into the kitchen to go get some food or to do whatever, and I see both of them talking, I feel like I have to intervene and ask “What are y’all talking about?” because I just want to know what they are talking about. Whenever they are talking in my mom’s office, sometimes I feel like I have to listen in and be nosy, because I am just so interested in hearing what they’re saying.

And that is the same mindset of these other prisoners. They feel like they just have to lean in and listen to Paul and Silas worship. They are listening to Paul and Silas, but get this. This does not mean that Paul and Silas were praying and singing on the low, but they were worshiping out loud. And as they are worshipping, the other prisoners are all in.

EX: Let me let you know, that as young Christians, we have to be careful. We do not want to be undercover Christians. What does that mean?? Being an undercover Christian means that you are a Christian on the low. Keeping your faith on the DL (down-low). And maybe some of us have gotten into the habit of doing. Maybe because it’s not the coolest thing, or it not trendy and maybe people will look at us a certain way, but let me let you know that if we are going to call ourselves true Christians and true believers, them we have to be loud and proud believers. We’ve got to let people know that we are Christians. And it could be doing the small things like posting your daily Bible verse on your Instagram story, calling somebody up and telling them about church, praying even in public, etc. Just the other day, my father showed me that his dear friend sent him a devotional message. We even as young Christians have to be loud, proud, and unashamed about our faith in God. 

As Paul and Silas are praying, the others are listening. And I like this because you may know it or not, but people are listening to you. That's why we have to watch what we say at school and watch how we react to certain things, because people are listening. There is power in the tongue. That means that the words we say have the power to either help people or hurt them. We have to stay grounded in faith and in God’s Word, that we don’t say anything that won’t glorify God. Paul and Silas are praying and worshipping, and while they are doing this, the other prisoners are listening. 

When they prayed, they’re chains fell off.(v. 26)

The text says that there was a violent earthquake that shook the prison doors open and caused the prisoners’ chains to fall off. Paul and Silas are praying and singing at midnight, when suddenly, an earthquake comes.

Now, the text lets us know that this earthquake is so powerful, that it opens the prison doors and causes the chains to fall off. When they pray, their chains fall off. This tells us that prayer will free you from some things, but it is up to you to pray. It's midnight and Paul and Silas are in jail, but they are praying, and when they pray, their chains fall off.

Prayer is so powerful, that when you pray, some stuff has got to come off of you. When you pray, depression has to come off of you. When you pray, frustration has to come off of you. When you pray, discouragement has to come off of you, because prayer has so much power, that when you pray and talk to God, all of that unnecessary stuff has got to come off of you. But the thing is we have got to pray. If we don’t pray and talk to God, even in the midst of our situations, we are saying that we don’t need God’s help and his power, and this does not glorify God. But when we do pray, we are telling God that we need him and we are allowing him to come through and deliver us. Paul and Silas prayed.

If we’re being honest, when we get in a situation, the first thing on our minds is not to pray and worship. When we get in a situation, the first thing that we do is try to figure out how in the heck we’re going to get out of it. But when Paul and Silas are thrown in jail, they start praying. Why is that?? Why do Paul and Silas immediately start praying? Keep in mind that they are preachers, who have been traveling and sharing their testimonies about Jesus, so I believe that since Paul and Silas were preachers and believers in Jesus, they already knew about Jesus, so in their minds, if they could just keep praying and keep worshipping, then sooner or later, God would come and deliver them. Let me help you out a little bit.

EX: At my school, which is Captain Shreve, the best school in the land, we have vending machines. Thank God for vending machines, because sometimes a brother be hungry, and them chips and cookies be coming in handy. But back to the real thing…we have vending machines that are outside and inside. The ones that are on the outside don’t really work how we want them to work. So one day, I was very very thirsty and I went to one of the ones that are outside. I was very thirsty, and I had my heart and my taste buds set on a cold Coca-Cola. I was set on it. My mind was made up, and it was no debate. I had to have a cold Coca-Cola. So I went to the vending machine outside, I put my dollar in, and I pressed the coke button, but nothing happened. I pressed it a second time, and nothing happened. I pressed it a third time, and nothing happened. I pressed it a fourth time, and y’all know what happened…nothing. I’m not going to lie to you, I got a little aggravated, so I repeatedly pressed the coke button, and I pressed it as hard and as fast as I could, and eventually, I heard some noise inside the vending machine, and when I looked down, my coke was there. And it was there because when I kept pressing the button, eventually the coke came out. 

And I believe that that is the same mindset Paul and Silas had. They knew that if they could just keep praying and keep worshipping, sooner or later God would come and deliver them. When they prayed, their chains fell off. 

When they prayed, the guard got saved.(27-33) 

The text says that when the prison guard saw that the doors had been opened and the chains had fallen off of the prisoners, he pulled out his sword and tried to kill himself, but Paul told him not to, because they were all there. After that, the guard asked the question “What must I do to be saved?”

See, when I read this, I was a little confused. I was asking myself why the guard tried to kill himself. Now when I looked it up, I found something interesting. See, back in those days, it was custom that when prisoners escaped, the guard that was supposed to watch them was severely punished, and to avoid this punishment, this guard takes out his sword and tries to kill himself. But when Paul said that they were all there, this guard was so shocked that he had to ask the question.

This guard had seen Paul and Silas praying and singing and he saw that God had come and delivered them, and when he saw them as he was about to kill himself, he had to ask the right question. See, God has a way of putting us through situations in order to bring us closer to him. To the guard, this situation meant the end of his life, but to God, this situation meant the beginning of a new life, because God will put you through some stuff to bring you closer to him. God puts us through challenges, heartbreak, and other things so that we would become closer to him. 

EX: You know, sometimes, even as young people, we will ask the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” We ask this when something happens like when we get a bad grade on a test that we studied for, or when we go through heartbreak, or when we are stressed with the pressures of school and life. And we’ve all been there. We ask this question because we generally want to know why all of these things are happening to us, and we didn’t even do anything wrong. I believe the answer is that God puts us through these things so that we would grow in our walk with him and become closer to him.

God lets this situation happen, so that the guard would ask the question. But I want you to keep in mind that when Paul and Silas were thrown into jail, they were praying encouraging prayers and worshipping, and the guard saw this. The guard saw that when they prayed and started singing, an earthquake came and freed them. He saw Paul and Silas’ faith and saw that God was working through them, and this moved him to come asking to be saved.

EX: Brothers and sisters, let me let you know that you may be the only Bible people read. You may be the reason that somebody gives their life to Christ…because they see your faith in God. They see you praying, they see you going to church and they recognize the fact that God is working in you and through you. See, that’s why as young Christians, we have to not only have to talk the talk, but we have to walk the walk. We cannot just say that we believe in God and say that we have faith, but not show it, because the Bible says that faith without works is dead. If we just say that we believe in God and not show it, we are saying that we are ashamed of our faith and we are not showing true genuine expressions of it. We may be the only Bible people read. We have to show that we have faith in God. So when we go through things, people need to see us praising God in spite of. We need to still be thanking God, even through the rough and hard times, because we may be the only Bible that people read. 

When they prayed, the guard saw their faith and God working through them, and he eventually got saved. 

Conclusion

Prayer is powerful. These amazing things happened when they prayed. When they prayed, the other prisoners were listening. That means that you don’t know who’s listening to you, and that there is power in what we say. When they prayed, their chains fell off. That means that prayer is so powerful, that all of those things, like discouragement and fear, have to come off of you and prayer will set you free. When they prayed, the guard got saved. That means that you not only have to talk the talk, but you have to walk the walk, because you may be the only Bible that people read. And all of this happened….when they prayed. It can happen when you pray.