How Strange...

Its a Stranger Thing

2 weeks ago we started a sermon series that focused around a stranger. We learned quite simply that we are strangers in this world. No we are not space alines, but we are aliens to this world, the world of the flesh.

We learned that when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour we give up our citizenship to the country of destruction.

We become refugees in search of a new home. Along the way we meet Christ Jesus and he adopts us into His kingdom.

finally we become ambassadors of Jesus Christ and are sent back into the world to preach the message of Jesus Christ to all nations.

What was the main point of this message?

Even Stranger Things

Then last week we took a closer look at the life of a Stranger and how we are to act internally. the focus of the message was to bring our attention to “Internal Purity”

we learned that we must refrain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against our souls and when we resist these worldly desires, not by our own power but by God’s power we are able to surrender areas of our lives that we are still trying to hang on too.

What was the main point of this message?

How Strange...

This week we are going to wrap up the three part sermon series with a sermon I called “How Strange...”

This week we are going to apply the last part of our strange journey by exploring the “external purity” of a stranger. The main goal of this message today will be to teach you how to be a witness by your words and actions.

People make fun of you for trying to be a good person?

when people hate you, even though you are trying to do good deeds?

when they say things like “Look at him, doing buying all those grocers for that other guy… what is he some kind of hero? he cant fool me. under all that good two shoes is a bad apple...”

What do you do when the world hates you, when your every move is being watched? and judged?

What is the main point of today’s message?

This week we are going to apply the last part of our strange journey by exploring the “external purity” of a stranger. The main goal of this message today will be to teach you : BLANK

Opening Prayer

Turn with me please in your Bible’s to as we look at:

How to be a witness by your words and actions.

Today’s Main Text Can Be Found In 1 Peter 2:12

1 Peter 2:12 CSB

Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

1. Paul and Silas’ Strange Journey

Open Your Bibles’s To

Acts 16:16-24

On the way to prayer time

they met a slave girl along the way with a spirit that can predict the future.

She made her owners a lot of money.

She followed Paul, Silas and Timothy shouting:

“These men, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.” - Slave Girl

What kind of spirit did this slave girl have?

She had done this for a number of days.

After a few days Paul gets annoyed with all this yelling.

Turns to this girl and says:

“I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” - Paul

the spirit left right away.

Her owners noticed right away that the spirit was gone and their hopes of any type of future profit was gone.

They grab Paul and Silas and drag them to the marketplace to give them over to the cops.

They then go dragged before the judge of the town.

They said,

“These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.” - Concerned Roman Citizen

The crowd of people that had gone with them started to agree and join in the attack!

The Judge commanded they be stripped down and beaten with rods.

after they were beat badly they were tossed in jail.

The prison warden was told to watch them carefully.

getting such an order he locked them up in the maximum security cell in the center of the jail.

There they were locked up and and their feet locked in stocks.

So here are a few Christian guys who were out planting churches and managing to get together a group of folks to follow Christ when all of a sudden the enemy sends in a spirit of fortune telling to annoy Paul and the others with loud obnoxious shouts.

Getting fed up with the disruption, Paul commands the spirit to leave the slave girl exercising what we call Deliverance Ministry. The spirit leaves and all of a sudden these guys who owned the slave girl got upset and started to accuse these men of doing wrong

Do you think Christians today still have a responsibility to cast out demons?

2. Slandered for being a Christian

Lets take another look at the passage found in

“These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.” - regards concerned citizen… (Acts 16:20-21)

All right lets look a little more closely at this accusation... Paul is annoyed at being yelled at, so he does something about it. He does what Jesus told him to do.

How would you feel if you were tossed in jail for casting out a demon?

Paul is simply doing what he was told to do by Christ. Preach the Gospel, make disciples, cast out demons, heal the sick and so on.

But all of a sudden they get accused of disrupting the city...

Jesus said do this disciples “you will be hated by everyone because of my name, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Paul is already aware that the world is going to hate him. In fact Jesus even says “he will know how much he must suffer for my name”...

3. World hates you because of Me

Knowing that Paul was Roman Citizen do you think Paul had the “Rights” to demand to be compensated for the poor treatment they got when they were tossed in jail?

Now, at first our expression is:

how unfair is that… all these guys did was share the gospel of Jesus Christ with a lady from Thyatira named Lydia. They were headed out to church one day and noticed a girl who had a demon. They cast out this demon and now all of a sudden they are criminals. They had healed this poor girl and are punished for it.

As I mentioned before Paul was already aware that he needed to suffer greatly for Christ. It was apart of his call to the ministry but what about us as normal everyday christians?

Lets take a look at for a moment.

John 15:18-25

Who Said “They hated Me without a cause.”

The world is going to hate us because we are Christian.

Some of you even here today are facing trouble, I recall one time when I was talking with someone about Jesus and without a reason other than I was talking to a person about Jesus I was told to keep my mouth shut! I was not even talking to this other person, they had gone out of their way to tell me to keep my mouth shut and even threatened me. True Story.

So, by this point we should understand the problem.

If we follow Jesus Christ and do what He commands us to do we will at some point face persecution of some kind.

but the point of todays message is not about the trials of being a Christian its about our words and actions.

4. Let Your Light Shine

Turn with me to

Matthew 5:14-16

Who Said: “Let your light shine before men”

Would you have run away if the prison doors flew open and your chains had fallen off?

lets finish up the story of Paul and the demon girl to get a better understanding of what I am talking about.

Recap!

Paul and his buds are out doing church stuff when they cast out a demon and get beat up and tossed into jail.

Here is where the story turns strange...

Here is where the story turns strange...

in the middle of the night, Paul and Silas are PRAYING and SINGING HYMNS to GOD.

The prisoners are all around them hearing this.

suddenly a violent earthquake hits the foundation of the prison

All the doors open

EVERYONE’S Chains fall off...

The Prison Warden wakes up and sees the doors open and the chains that had fallen off.

pulls out his sword and was going to kill himself thinking that the prisoners had got out.

Paul shouts out. DONT DO IT! WE ARE ALL STILL HERE!

The Warden runs over to Paul and falls down in terror (shaking).

takes Paul and Silas out of the prison back to his own home.

Along the way asks them “How can I be saved?”

Paul tells the Warden “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

They get to the house and they begun to preach the gospel to the whole house hold.

The Warden cleans up the wounds that are on Paul and Silas.

The Warden and his whole family that night were baptized. They fed Paul and Silas and had a party that night because they too were saved and believed in God.

What a fantastic ending to the story. If you want to know what happened next just keep on reading it gets better but the point of the message today is this: how to be a witness by your words and actions

End result of being a witness is the salvation of the jailer!

Jesus teaches us in that we are go into the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Paul gave us an example of what that can look like:

He preached the birth, life, teaching, death, resurrection, and assiteion of Jesus Christ and made new disciples to follow THE WAY.

As he preached the gospel the power of God manifested in the form of deliverance for a slave girl.

They were then in turn hated by the world and tossed into jail.. end of the story right! Nope!

At this point Paul could have demanded to be let go before they got tossed into jail. Paul was a Roman citizen and needed to have the proper trial first.

But Paul and his buds kept their mouth shut. They knew that God had plan for them to be in that prison.

Fast forward a bit its now in the middle of the night.

Paul and Silas are now praying and singing in full ear shot of everyone in the prison.

the greatest prison break takes place and yet by their actions they were able to preach the gospel to the prison guard and his whole family.

It was by their actions and words that an entire house hold was saved and became followers of Jesus Christ.

Paul and the other Christians at that time had made sure that their actions and words were honorable so that even if they were slandard for the Gospel they did not complain or give up.

How to be a witness by your words and actions?

5. Glow in the Dark Christian

In the Story of the “Glow-in-the-dark Matchbox” we learn that the more we are exposed to Christ the more we glow. Where do you see yourself today?

in closing lets take a look at one last story.

Example of light:

Some years ago, on returning from a business trip, a man brought his wife some souvenirs. Among them was a matchbox that would glow in the dark. After giving it to her, he turned out the light, but the object was not visible. “This must be a joke!” she said. Disappointed, the husband commented, “I’ve been cheated!” Then his wife noticed some French words on the box. Taking it to a friend who knew the language, she was told that the directions read: “If you want me to shine at night, keep me in the sunlight all day.” So she put her gift in a south window. That evening when she turned out the light, the matchbox had a brilliant glow. The surprised husband asked, “What did you do?” “Oh, I found the secret,” she said.

“Before it can shine in the dark, it must be exposed to the light.”

Just as the matchbox, having been exposed to the sun, took on the nature of the sun and began to shine, so

Christians should constantly expose themselves to the Son, that they may take on his nature and shine as lights in a dark world.

Be in the Word and in prayer so that when you go into the world people will see your actions as a witness to the Good news of Jesus Christ.

call to be in the Word and in prayer so that when you go into the world people will see your actions as a witness to the Good news of Jesus Christ.

Thoughts for the Quiet Hour March 1

The morning is the time fixed for my meeting the Lord. This very word morning is as a cluster of rich grapes. Let me crush them, and drink the sacred wine.

In the morning! Then God means me to be at my best in strength and hope. I have not to climb in my weakness. In the night I have buried yesterday’s fatigue, and in the morning I take a new lease of energy.

Sweet morning! There is hope in its music. Blessed is the day whose morning is sanctified! Successful is the day whose first victory was won in prayer! Holy is the day whose dawn finds thee on the top of the mount! Health is established in the morning. Wealth is won in the morning. The light is brightest in the morning. “Wake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake early.”

Joseph Parker

Lets Pray.