Untitled Sermon (8)

18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

Yet, this is the place where a lot of are, we’re in that place where what God said and what we see don’t align and we have questions. We’ve been faithful to our assignments, we prayed, we’ve shared the Gospel, we took care of our families and it seems as if we’re stagnant. It looks like doing right hasn’t paid off and we’re wondering where the Miracles, signs and wonders are? We heard the word of the Lord that the supernatural would breakout before the end of the year but we’re down to a day and we aint seen it. I know we’re down to a day but I serve the God of the Last Minute Miracle. As long as the clock as 12:00 A.M. Jan 1st God still has time to Bless you and Blow your mind this Year. If you’re in need of a last minute miracle i Dare you to open your mouth a holla, I need Miracle! For this is where we find the objects of lesson this morning in the text. Paul and Silas have been on a their first missionary trip through what we know to be Europe. Paul and Silas have prayed, preached and performed miracles throughout this journey. They’re on a mission to Convert the unbelievers and build the Lord’s Church. Paul and Silas have done the right thing as their work was for God but their work for God has landed them in Jail. The question I want to raise this morning is what do you do when we working For God cost your comfort? What do you do when what God told you to do puts you in Jam?

2018, wow, what a year, this was the year to build something that mattered! This was the year to write the vision, to lay the foundation, to sow into yourself and into the assignment that God assigned to your hand. This was the year to find purpose and launch into destiny but this year was also unsettling. From the hurricanes that devastated the East coast of United States, to the Floods of South and North Carolina, to even just week ago the unsettling earthquake that hit us right here at home in Atlanta. No matter what we’ve faced or experienced this year we as people were prepare for it! Bishop through his preaching made sure that we could weather any storm or tragedy in our lives with sermons like, This Ain’t Your Fight and Just Do It. Bishop reminded us of God’s Plan. Bishop told us it was going to take a Hard Reset and that limping wasn’t easy and that we all had to level UP. Bishop the summation of the year to me was that you were trying to build people that mattered. In building a church that mattered you knew that if the people could handle anything then you knew that the church could handle anything. I believe that this year was designed to show us that if we submitted to the process of God and followed the plan of God that we would live in overflow and eat from the land flowing with milk and honey. Yet there was condition attached to the promise and that was that we had to be faithful and yield to the leading and guiding of Holy spirit. This was the formula for us to see a demonstration of God’s power on our behalf but we had to submit to the process. Even when what we heard didn’t look like what God said, we had to stay committed, even we got frustrated and wanted to walk away. We have the assurance of God’s word in that all things are working together for our good. We have the assurance in God’s word in that God watches over his word so that it will be fulfilled.

Paul & Silas give us One actions that in turn gives One results from God. Paul & Silas are in Jail, the innermost part of the Jail and they’re locked in Stocks and the bible says in verse 25 that Paul & Silas began to pray and praise God! This is where i have a problem in the text, Paul & Silas are in the deepest part of the Jail singing Everlasting God bound to the ground by two wooden boards and they’re praying. They’re not upset or mad with God but they esteem God. Paul says in but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience. In other words Paul & Silas says I’m Good in here because God is working this Situation out for me but God is working somethings out in me. How many of us Can offer up praise to God when we are sitting in hell? Paul & Silas shows us how to grow up but shows us how to trust that there is an exit plan already in place.

Yet, this is the place where a lot of are, we’re in that place where what God said and what we see don’t align and we have questions. We’ve been faithful to our assignments, we prayed, we’ve shared the Gospel, we took care of our families and it seems as if we’re stagnant. It looks like doing right hasn’t paid off and we’re wondering where the Miracles, signs and wonders are? We heard the word of the Lord that the supernatural would breakout before the end of the year but we’re down to a day and we aint seen it. I know we’re down to a day but I serve the God of the Last Minute Miracle. As long as the clock as 12:00 A.M. Jan 1st God still has time to Bless you and Blow your mind this Year. If you’re in need of a last minute miracle i Dare you to open your mouth a holla, I need Miracle!

For this is where we find the objects of lesson this morning in the text. Paul and Silas have been on a their first missionary trip through what we know to be Europe. Paul and Silas have prayed, preached and performed miracles throughout this journey. They’re on a mission to Convert the unbelievers and build the Lord’s Church. Paul and Silas have done the right thing as their work was for God but their work for God has landed them in Jail. The question I want to raise this morning is what do you do when we working For God cost your comfort? What do you do when what God told you to do puts you in Jam?

Paul & Silas give us One actions that in turn gives One results from God. Paul & Silas are in Jail, the innermost part of the Jail and they’re locked in Stocks and the bible says in verse 25 that Paul & Silas began to pray and praise God! This is where i have a problem in the text, Paul & Silas are in the deepest part of the Jail singing Everlasting God bound to the ground by two wooden boards and they’re praying. You and I wouldn’t be doing that. They’re not asking God to get them out or God make a way they’re just giving God pure praise. They’re not upset or mad with God but they esteem God in these moments. Paul says in but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience. In other words Paul & Silas says I’m Good in here because God is working this Situation out for me but God is working somethings out in me. How many of us Can offer up praise to God when we are sitting in hell? How many of us could honestly say that we wouldn’t be upset with God? Paul & Silas shows us how to grow up but they also show us how to trust that there is an exit plan already in place. Paul & Silas knew that they served a Miracle working God so they put pressure on God. The first thing that happens in the text is that God moved Suddenly.

Verse 26a Clause and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken;

Verse 26 and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken;

God sends an earthquake suddenly! God moves quickly and in an unexpected way. God sends an earthquake to do two things, 1. It’s free from what’s holding you down. The bible says in verse 24 that Paul & Silas were in Stocks, which were used in antiquity to bind the legs and ankle of prisoner rendering them immobile. So the sudden earthquake comes to break the very things in our lives that have us immobile. What’s holding you down, who's holding you like a stock that God needs to break off of you? The second thing that the sudden earthquake comes to do is affirm to Paul and Silas that it’s God. Let me explain, Paul and Silas are in the bottom of the Jail, they’re in the dungeon, they’re below the basement in a cave that sets in the valley of a mountain. So they’re in the low of lowest places and the only person that can reach them God. Some scholars argue that this earthquake was the hand of reaching into the Jail to shake the ground that held Paul and Silas hostage. I don’t know about you but there are somethings that have tried to hold me back and stop the plan of God concerning my life and I need God to respond with mighty hand and reach down into my situation and shake the very foundations of it. If you’re like me and you need God to respond to your situation I dare you open your mouth and do what Paul and Silas did and give God a great praise! The second thing that the shows that happens is that God grants Paul and Silas an Immediately!

God sends an earthquake suddenly! God moves quickly and in an unexpected way. God sends an earthquake to do two things, 1. It’s free from what’s holding you down. The bible says in verse 24 that Paul & Silas were in Stocks, which were used in antiquity to bind the legs and ankle of prisoner rendering them immobile. So the sudden earthquake comes to break the very things in our lives that have us immobile. What’s holding you down, who's holding you like a stock that God needs to break off of you? The second thing that the sudden earthquake comes to do is affirm to Paul and Silas that it’s God. Let me explain, Paul and Silas are in the bottom of the Jail, they’re in the dungeon, they’re below the basement in a cave that sets in the valley of a mountain. So they’re in the low of lowest places and the only person that can reach them God. Some scholars argue that this earthquake was the hand of reaching into the Jail to shake the ground that held Paul and Silas hostage. I don’t know about you but there are somethings that have tried to hold me back and stop the plan of God concerning my life and I need the Miracle working God to respond with a mighty hand and reach down into my situation and shake the very foundations of it. If you’re like me and you need God to respond to your situation I dare you open your mouth and do what Paul and Silas did and give God a great praise! Open up your mouth and give a miracle working God the type of praise he deserves.

The second thing that the shows that happens is that God grants Paul and Silas an Immediately!

Verse 26B Clause and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

Now God frees them from the cage that was holding them. The text is interesting in nature because the text doesn’t just talk about Paul and Silas getting free but it talks about everyone in Jail with them getting out. This is quite interesting that the praise of two could set an entire jail free. Which would suggest that your praise has more power than we give it. The guards, had it wrong in the text they shouldn’t bound the hands and the feet of Paul and Silas but they of Shut their mouths. For this is not the first time that praise became a instrument of liberation. Joshua and Children of Israel began to shout in on the seventh day on the seventh time around the wall Jericho and their praise destroyed a city and the enemy in the land of Caanan. Jehoshaphat was another that praise helped out. For when the Children of Ammon surround the Israelites, the Israelites opened up their mouth and gave God praise and God set ambushes on the Children Ammon as they killed each other. So praise in the bible is not just a singular occurrence and experience but when a people get on one accord they’re praise can set a nation free. Have told you to touch your neighbor yet. Touch your neighbor and tell your neighbor our praise can set a nation.

Now God frees them from the cage that was holding them. The text is interesting in nature because the text doesn’t just talk about Paul and Silas getting free but it talks about everyone in Jail with them getting out. This is quite interesting that the praise of two could set an entire jail free. Which would suggest that your praise has more power than we give it. The guards, had it wrong in the text they shouldn’t bound the hands and the feet of Paul and Silas but they of Shut their mouths. For this is not the first time that praise became a instrument of liberation. Joshua and Children of Israel began to shout in on the seventh day on the seventh time around the wall Jericho and their praise destroyed a city and the enemy in the land of Canaan. Jehoshaphat was another that praise helped out. For when the Children of Ammon surround the Israelites, the Israelites opened up their mouth and gave God praise and God set ambushes on the Children Ammon as they killed each other. So praise in the bible is not just a singular occurrence and experience but when a people get on one accord they’re praise can set a nation free. Have told you to touch your neighbor yet. Touch your neighbor and tell your neighbor our praise can set a nation free! So text implies that there is a corporate freedom in our praise but we have to be willing to have the posture of Paul and Silas. For Paul and Silas were set free immediately, for God had broken them out and had given them a breakthrough but all this was predicated upon their praise. And I would ask the church this morning what are you willing to do to get God to move for you like he moved for Paul and Silas?

CLOSE: 2018 has been filled challenges and 2018 has been filled with small victories but I’m still waiting on God move for me supernaturally. I still believe that miracle, signs and wonders are going to take place this year! Because I came to sound an alarm that there is shift that is about to take place. (Alarm sound) I came to tell everyone who hasn’t seen God move yet, that you serve the God who performs last minute miracles. But this miracle is going to require your participation and that means you’re going to have open up your mouth and give God a praise.