Change Your World…through Suffering
Change Your World
Change Your World…through Suffering
1. Pray through your suffering
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Acts 16:25 NIV
(see illustrations from prayer sermon)
2. Sing through your suffering
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Acts 16:25 NIV
(see David’s example from the Psalms)
3. Share through your suffering
26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
Acts 16:26-28 NIV
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.
Acts 16:29-34 NIV
Changing Your World
You can change your world through your suffering!
Intro:
Welcome…
I’ve been going through a Series of messages called Change Your World…the book of Acts…turning points in the early church…
We’ve discovered so far You can Change Your World…
…Through prayer: 30 day prayer challenge…
…Through encouragement…
…Through the gospel…
Last week…
You can change your world…with courage
Today…
You can change your world…through suffering
Have you ever had "one of those days?"
One of those days when there was a hint that things were not going to go well, and then it got worse?
One of those days when one bad thing after another seemed to hit you before you could recover?
One of those days when you’ve just told someone, "Well, at lease things can’t get any worse."
And then it does?
The movie Fiddler on the Roof follows the life of a poor Jewish dairy farmer named Tevye.
With his wife and five daughters, Tevye lives in a small Jewish village in the Ukraine during the days of the Bolshevik revolution.
His faith in God helps him sort through the cultural changes challenging the traditions that have provided his life with a sense of balance.
In one scene, Tevye pulls both the horse and milk wagon as he hurries to make it home before the start of the Sabbath.
His only horse, old and broken down, has just injured his foot.
In Job-like fashion, Tevye looks up to heaven and complains.
Watch this…
[Tevye…Fiddler on the Roof…22:10…]
Tevye questions God about his suffering…
Tevye expresses a similar attitude later in the movie when, feeling the load of life's injustices, he says to God: "I know, I know, we are the chosen people. But once in a while can't you choose somebody else?"
Have you ever questioned God when you are suffering?
Have you ever questioned God…”Can't you choose somebody else?"
All of us have…
One of the questions we rarely ask in suffering is the most important one…God, how can my suffering be used to honor you?
In Acts 16 we find the Apostle Paul and Silas suffering…
Our Scripture text shows us that the Apostle Paul and Silas were having "one of those days."
They were on a missionary journey in the area of Philippi and initially things seemed to be going all right….they were given a warm reception in Philippi.
Paul and Silas soon experience flogging and imprisonment for disrupting the profitable soothsaying business in Philippi….
Look at Acts 16:22-24…
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Acts 16:22-24 NIV
After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.
Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. (16:23-24)
Not only were they sentenced and beaten, but they were also secluded and bound.
It was not enough to beat them without a fair trial.
Nor was it enough to throw them in jail without determining their guilt.
They were thrust into what the Scripture calls the inner prison.
This was the most secure dungeon in the prison complex.
It was a horrible place…It was a cell, dug deep into the earth, located in the center of the prison.
There were no windows, therefore, no light…The floor was dirt…It was damp.
It smelled with the odor of human refuse.
This is a bleak picture indeed…But the picture isn’t complete.
Not only were they thrown into this horrible place, but the jailer fastened their feet in the stocks.
Even within this inner prison, they were bound with chains.
It would be difficult to describe a much more depressing situation than that which befell Paul and Silas…and if that is not enough v. 25 says…it is the midnight hour…a difficult and dark time!!!!
I am sure they could have easily asked the question, "Why?"
There is a truth here which we must understand.
The truth is that bad things do happen to good people.
That is an important truth to understand.
If we do not understand that truth, we will be forever asking, "Why?"
The answer is that all of us, saved and unsaved, good and bad, have to deal with bad situations.
The Bible teaches that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.
We all live in a fallen world, and because of sin in the world, bad things happen, even to good people, even to the best of us.
It’s how we react to the bad things that count.
The Devil comes along, much like Job’s wife did, and says, "Curse God and die."
In other words, blame it on God and give up.
That’s what the Devil wants us to do.
He wants us to quit.
He would like for us to become convinced that God is not really on our side after all, that it’s no use to continue to trust in Him.
If we would become discouraged, begin feeling sorry for ourselves, blame God for all our troubles, and throw in the towel, that would suit the devil well.
But rather than doing that, we need to do what Paul and Silas did.
What did they do????
God would use them in the midst of their suffering to change their world!!
It is from their example we find that we can change our world even in the midst of suffering…
Change Your World…through Suffering
1. Pray through your suffering
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Acts 16:25 NIV
Notice, first of all, that they were focused in prayer.
In the midst of this dark situation, they had not forsaken God.
They knew that what they needed most, God had.
What we see here are men praying in a crisis, but not simply because of the crisis.
I am convinced that they were praying because prayer had become the normal thing to do.
Indeed, prayer ought to be the normal thing for a Christian to do in every situation of life, both the good and the bad.
Prayer is the great privilege the Christian has of talking over every detail of life with God.
Most would pray if they were in as desperate a situation as Paul and Silas, but it would only be a prayer of desperation.
That kind of prayer is not usually very effective.
What we need to do is to learn how to pray when times are good.
We need to develop a strong daily prayer life, where we learn how to communicate with God and how to hear His voice.
If we do, when the hard times come, we will be able to effectively touch heaven and receive grace to help in time of need.
In a interview about his Parkinson’s disease, Billy Graham said, “I think God sent it to me at this age to show me I am totally dependent on him.”
Suffering is a feared intruder to us all, but it can bring the benefit of greater dependence on God.
J. C. Penney, the founder of the store that bears his name, once said, “I am grateful for all my problems. As each of them was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those yet to come. I grew in all my difficulties.”
His words are paralleled by a recent study of religious faith in America.
When adults were asked what milestones strengthened their faith, 42 percent noted the experience of a personal problem.
The two closest responses were childbirth or adoption (15 percent), and joining a place of worship (14 percent).
Marriage was mentioned 8 percent of the time.
Adversity is often the anvil on which strength is created (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).
Joseph Scrivens knew of the power of prayer to sustain the believer in the time of trouble.
Joseph’s fiancee drown on the night before their scheduled wedding.
Later, when his mother was ill, He wrote her a letter and enclosed the lines of a new poem he had written.
We know the song as, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus."
In the first verse Joseph expressed this ironic truth:
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer.
In his suffering he would change the world through prayer…
Prayer quotes…Zingers
30 day challenge…
1. Pray through your problems…
Prayer Partners….Dec 1, Sat morn, 8:30-10:30
Change Your World…through Suffering
2. Sing through your suffering
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Acts 16:25 NIV
Notice the text says, About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.
Far from being depressed about this situation, they were full of thanksgiving.
They knew God had not forsaken them; that somehow God was going to do a mighty work in the midst of this terrible situation.
They saw in this obstacle an opportunity. They had become optimists.
Paul and Silas were optimists and they had good reason to be.
They were optimists because they had experienced the wonder-working power of God.
And so have we.
We serve a God who loved us before we ever knew what love was; who saved us when we only deserved His wrath; and who has met us time and time again with His love and mercy, patience and forgiveness.
God has done many miracles in our lives.
Surely He will stand with us in the hard times.
Because Paul and Silas understood this about God, they were full of praise.
Picture two men in the darkest dungeon, at midnight, lifting up their voices in praise to God.
They were singing when they should have been crying.
They were rejoicing when they should have been lamenting.
They were hopeful when they should have been hopeless.
They were doing the exact opposite of what the world would do.
And notice that it says that the other prisoners were listening.
When you’re facing a difficult situation and you have a song in your heart and praise on your lips, those around you will surely notice.
Many Christians live as though God were not real?
With their lips they may tell you they believe in God, but by their lives they refute their own confession.
It is ironic that the Church needs to be exhorted to live as though God were real.
But that is precisely the exhortation we need.
We must live as though God were real because He IS real.
And the world needs to be encountered by believers who live like that.
If we do, the world will sit up and take notice.
We find David in the psalms singing through his suffering…
In Ps 42:8 he says,
By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
Ps 42:8 NIV
In Psalm 59:16-17…When Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him…David says…
But I will sing of your strength,
in the morning I will sing of your love;
for you are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.
O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.
Ps 59:16-17 NIV
In Ps 146:2…the psalmist says
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Ps 146:2
Some of you are suffering today…what can you do?
Learn to praise God in your suffering…
Let’s practice…singing through our suffering…
[Insert song… I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous/amazed]
I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And wondered how He could love me
A sinner condemned, unclean
Chorus
How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Savior’s love for me!
How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Savior’s love for me!
Amazed
Chorus
Lord, I’m amazed by you
Lord, I’m amazed by you
Lord, I’m amazed by you
How You love me
When we are able to sing through our suffering:
1. We are praising God that He is bigger than our problem…
"Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead, tell the storm how big your God is!"
2. Other people will be impacted….v.25 the other prisoners were listening to them…
What did they hear?
· Not complaining
· Not feeling sorry for themselves…
· They heard Paul and Silas singing!!
When you suffer other people are listening to you…
What do they hear???
Change Your World…through Suffering
3. Share through your suffering
Paul and Silas did not just pray through their suffering and sing through their suffering…they shared through their suffering…
Notice what happens in the story…
26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
Acts 16:26-28 NIV
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.
Acts 16:29-34 NIV
Prayer and praise are powerful weapons….
God responded by shaking the foundations of the prison, opening all the doors, and loosening the prisoners’ bonds.
They could have fled to freedom, but instead they remained right where they were.
For one thing, Paul immediately took command; and, no doubt, the fear of God was on these pagan men.
The prisoners must have realized that there was something very special about those two Jewish preachers!
Paul’s attention was fixed on the jailer, the man he really wanted to win to Christ.
It was a Roman law that if a guard lost a prisoner, he was given the same punishment the prisoner would have received; so there must have been some men in the prison who had committed capital crimes.
The jailer would rather commit suicide than face shame and execution.
A hard-hearted person seeking vengeance would have let the cruel jailer kill himself, but Paul was not that kind of a man.
It was the jailer who was the prisoner, not Paul; and Paul not only saved the man’s life, but pointed him to eternal life in Christ.
“What must I do to be saved?” is the cry of lost people worldwide, and we had better be able to give them the right answer.
The legalists in the church would have replied, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1, nkjv). (Clean up your act and be a good person…)
But Paul knew the right answer—faith in Jesus Christ (Come to Christ). In the Book of Acts, the emphasis is on faith in Jesus Christ alone (Acts 2:38–39; 4:12; 8:12, 37; 10:10–43; 13:38–39).
The phrase “and your house” does not mean that the faith of the jailer would automatically bring salvation to his family.
The phrase means “and your household will be saved if they will also believe.”
Jailer and his family…I want this kind of God you have…In you suffering you pray and sing and share and show compassion…
Paul and Silas…Jesus makes the difference in every situation…even in prison!!!
That is what we need to share with others….Jesus is the one who saves me and sustains me…and He will do the same for you!!!
You remember the story of Joni Eareckson Tada?
As a teenager in the sixites she was injured in a diving accident and was paralyzed from the neck down.
She has been in a wheel chair for the last 40 years.
In the months following the accident, she prayed for deliverance, but deliverance didn't come.
She prayed for healing, but healing didn't come. She even prayed for death, but death didn't come.
During this time she heard that "dreadful silence" from heaven.
And she learned that the only way out of this situation was to go all the way through it.
She responded with obedience, and surrendered herself to living out the will of God.
She has accomplished much in the past three and a half decades.
She has witnessed about Christ in countries all over the globe.
She has written a number of best-selling books, she has become an activist for the rights of those with disabilities, and her daily radio program is heard on more than 850 stations.
And though she has some level of fame, her celebrity status doesn't change the fact that physical pain is her constant companion.
And a simple infection—that which is a mere inconvenience for most of us—can put her in the hospital for months.
And yet, she keeps moving forward, she keeps serving God.
There are times when suffering is inevitable, and the only way out is to go all the way through it.
Joni Eareckson Tada writes, “When life is rosy, we may slide by with knowing about Jesus, with imitating Him and quoting Him and speaking of Him. But only in suffering will we know Jesus.”
This is what Jesus experienced in Gethsemane, and sometimes we must face the same call on our lives.
Like Joni Eareckson Tada, like Paul and Silas, and ultimately like Jesus…
You can change your world through your suffering!
When you respond with:
Prayer…
Singing…
Sharing…
And ultimately by submitting your life to God…take me and use me for your glory!!!
Changing Your World:
You can change your world through your suffering!
In 1993, Charles Colson received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
The $1 million prize is the largest prize for achievement in any field.
It is ranked higher than the Nobel prizes in such fields as science and literature, in the belief that religion is more important.
Colson, having served seven months in prison for obstructing justice in the Watergate cover-up, was known as the scandal's "hatchet man."
His conversion later led to the founding of Prison Fellowship in 1976.
In response to this award, Colson 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."
Adversity can be God's refining fire.
Changing Your World:
You can change your world through your suffering!
The Man with a Plan
Philippians 1:6
He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
When a young teenage girl named Joni Eareckson broke her neck in a diving accident, she thought it was the last step on her road to life. In reality, her mishap was actually the first step on a path of fruitfulness that she could not have imagined at the time. From her wheelchair, the quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada has touched millions of lives through her books, art, music, and advocacy for the disabled.
Joni’s story is more dramatic than anything most of us will ever experience. But the depth of her suffering serves all the more effectively to illustrate the point: The day we think life has come to an end is the day God’s plans and purposes are brought into even sharper focus. What we call “accidents” in life are nothing of the sort if we mean that accidents are random occurrences outside of everyone’s control—unpredictable events with no more meaning than a ricocheting steel ball in a pinball machine. The same God who has every hair on your head numbered has the days of your life numbered as well.
The child of God should rest in the knowledge that our Father in heaven has a plan—and He is never late.
Jeremiah, David: Sanctuary : Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God. Nashville, TN : Integrity Publishers, 2002, S. 118
Let me share some examples of what I’m talking about. These are true stories:
1. The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later both of the seals were eaten by a killer whale.
2. In 1992, Frank Perkins of Los Angeles made an attempt on the world record flag-pole sitting record. Unfortunately he had to come down only eight hours short of the 400 day record. When he got down he found that his sponsor had gone bust, his girlfriend had left him, and his phone and electricity had been cut off.
3. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to knock him free from the deadly current she found a large piece of wood and whacked him on his arm, breaking his arm in two places. What a shame, he had only been listening to his Walkman.
4. Then there was the Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, who didn’t put enough postage on a letter bomb he had mailed. It came back stamped, "return to sender." You guessed it, he opened it and it exploded in his face almost killing him.
What happens when a terrible situation becomes the reality of your life? All you’re doing is trying to live your life, do your best, do what’s right. You’re not doing anything wrong. And then, unexpectedly, without warning, you’re bowled over by a terrible situation, over which you have no control.
Well, that’s precisely what happened to Paul and Silas. They had been preaching the Gospel wherever they were, and now they came to Philippi. But not everyone liked what they were doing there.
they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. (16:22-23)
Notice how this situation unfolds.
Because of their witness for Christ, not because they had done wrong, they were arrested.
And the first thing that happens to them is that they are sentenced and beaten.
The magistrate conducted a kangaroo court, in which he was judge and jury.
Their robes were torn from their backs, and they were beaten with rods.
The Scripture says that they inflicted many blows upon them.
This must have been an excruciating ordeal.
Then they found themselves thrown into prison.