SF300 - MIRACLES AT MIDNIGHT (Acts 16 25-31)

@PAGE NUMBER = SF300

@TITLE = MIRACLES AT MIDNIGHT

@LEVEL ONE = ACTS 16:25‑31

@LEVEL ONE = INTRODUCTION

@LEVEL TWO = Scriptural Background

@LEVEL THREE = 1. Obeyed God's call (vv.11‑12)

@LEVEL THREE = 2. Preached the truth (vv.13‑15)

@LEVEL THREE = 3. Confronted Satan (vv.17‑18)

@LEVEL THREE = 4. Wrongly imprisoned (vv. 22‑24)

@LEVEL TWO = We can learn a lot about how God works...

@LEVEL ONE = 1A. GOD WORKS ON HIS SCHEDULE NOT OURS

@LEVEL TWO = 1B. God Is Always On Time

@SCRIPTURE = Midnight = The darkest part of the night

@SCRIPTURE = 2PE 3:8<R>But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

@LEVEL TWO = 2B. God Is Always Right

@SCRIPTURE = ISA 55:8<R>"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

@PAGE NUMBER =

@PAGE NUMBER = Page 2

@ILL TITLE = GOD'S CONTROLLING HAND

@ILL TEXT = James Russell Lowell wrote of God's supervision when he penned the following lines:

@ILL TEXT = "Truth forever on the scaffold,/  Wrong forever on the throne./  Yet that scaffold sways the future,/ And, behind the dim unknown/  Standeth God within the shadow,/ Keeping watch above His own."  Echoing that same trust are the words of English clergyman John Nelson Darby: "God's ways are behind the scenes; but He moves all the scenes which He is behind.  We have to learn this, and let Him work."

@LEVEL ONE = 2A. GOD WILL NEVER DO FOR US WHAT WE CAN DO FOR OURSELVES (V.25)

@ILL TITLE = "FERTILIZER SURE HELPS!"

@ILL TEXT = A Sunday school teacher wanted to impress her young pupils with the miracle of life in nature.  So she pointed to a large plant in the room and asked, "And who made those beautiful flowers to grow?"  An answer came back quickly from one of the boys in her class.  "God did!"  The teacher was pleased by the response, but before she had a chance to comment, another lad shouted, "But fertilizer sure helps!"  That youngster touched upon a profound reality‑‑the commingling of the human with the divine in God's plan for growth.  For example, even though the Lord created this world with its growing things, He put man in the garden to tend and cultivate it.

@ILL TITLE = DO YOUR PART!

@ILL TEXT = In a small village in Pennsylvania these words were on a church bulletin board: PRAY FOR A GOOD HARVEST, BUT KEEP ON HOEING! What an excellent bit of advice!  It would be foolish for a farmer to ask the Lord for a good crop but fail to sow the seed. How futile his prayers would be if he paid no further attention to his corn after he planted it!  To have an abundant yield, he must cultivate his fields and protect them from pests and insects, using every means at his disposal to produce the greatest increase.  Prayer and work go together.

@LEVEL TWO =

@PAGE NUMBER = Page 3

@LEVEL TWO = 1B. They Prayed To God

@LEVEL TWO = 2B. They Preached About God

@LEVEL TWO = 3B. They Praised God

@LEVEL ONE = 3A. GOD WILL ONLY DO THROUGH US THAT WHICH BRINGS GLORY TO HIM

@LEVEL TWO = 1B. Shook The Jail (v.26)

@LEVEL THREE = 1C. Testimony of His power

@LEVEL THREE = 2C. Conformation of His Church (vv.35‑40)

@LEVEL TWO = 2B. Saved The Jailer (vv.27‑33)

@LEVEL THREE = 1C. Saved his life

@LEVEL THREE = 2C. Saved his soul

@ILL TITLE = OFFENSIVE MAYBE, BUT ALWAYS RIGHT!

@ILL TEXT = A businessman reacted sharply when his wife came home from a Gospel meeting and said, "I was saved this evening."  "Don't tell me that!" he retorted.  "It's all right with me if you say you've been converted or you've accepted Christ or you went forward in a crusade, but don't ever talk about being saved. When you do, you infer that I'm lost!"

@LEVEL THREE = 3C. Saved his family

@PAGE NUMBER =

@PAGE NUMBER =

@PAGE NUMBER =

@PAGE NUMBER =

@PAGE NUMBER = Page 4

@LEVEL ONE = CONCLUSION

@ILL TITLE = TO WORK OR TO WAIT?

@ILL TEXT = There was once a gifted woman who was very active in the service of Christ.  On her wall she place a motto taken from 1 Chronicles 28 which summarized the goal of her life.  It read, "Be strong‑and work for the Lord!"  Some years afterward she was stricken with an illness that confined her to bed.  The words of exhortation that formerly energized her now brought only distress, for she no longer had the power to rise and serve.  A Christian friend, recognizing her troubled state of mind, counseled her by reading the concluding verses of Numbers 9. She reminded her that there is a time when God expects us to march, and another time when His highest will for our lives is just to "mark time."  Her visitor pointed out that at certain intervals during their wilderness wanderings, the Israelites were required to rest in their tents "two days, or a month, or a year," whenever the guiding cloud tarried over their tabernacle. However, when the Shekinah glory once again moved on, they also journeyed forward.  Then walking over to the wall, she took down the first motto and replaced it with one she had purchased to quiet and encourage the heart of her bedridden friend.  The new plaque carried the words from Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know."

@LEVEL TWO = God can and will do miracles in your life ‑

@LEVEL TWO = You must:

@LEVEL THREE = ALLOW HIM TO WORK ON HIS SCHEDULE

@LEVEL THREE = DO WHAT YOU CAN DO

@LEVEL THREE = GIVE GOD THE GLORY