After God Shakes Things up
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Where are you God?
Where are you God?
Have you ever been in a circumstance where you wondered Where God was at? Or God what are you doing? Are you really in this God? Tonight we are going to talk about what to do when we are faced with tough circumstances.
Ministry in Europe
We are going to be learning about a leg of Paul, Silas, and Timothy’s Missionary journey.
The journey started in Antioch and they started to move around the boundaries of a country named Asia but they ended up going to Europe.
The first thing we need to know, they didn’t really want to go to Europe they wanted to preach the Gospel in Asia. God shut that down quickly. The Bible says the Holy Spirit forbid them...
Show the picture that Josiah drew for me.
I imagine this is how we look like to God.
Look God! I have been working so hard working on this plan for my life. You see God I’m going to be the best pastor there has ever been. I’m going to go into Asia to these cities that have never heard of you. I’m going to save them for you. By my projections I will have all of Asia saved by year two. Now let me show you what year three will look like...
So when we give God our plans often times this is his response to us.
Oh, yeah, neat? I love you so much son. I love that you want to help me. It means so much that you planned to help me. I am going to hang this right here so I can see your love for me.
God then takes our hands and says, “Now let me show you what we are going to do.”
God does this with Paul.
One night Paul had a dream where a man was pleading with him to go to Macedonia. Right after the vision they left for Macedonia, which is present day Greece, concluding that God was directing them their to teach the Gospel. They went to Philippi the leading city of Macedonia and got to work. They immediately found a group of people shared the Gospel and a lady and her entire family believed and were baptized. God was moving and changing lives.
Lets pick up the word in Acts 16:16-18
Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling. As she followed Paul and us she cried out, “These men, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.” She did this for many days.
Paul was greatly annoyed. Turning to the spirit, he said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out right away.
Why did Paul get annoyed with this girl? She was telling the truth wasn’t she?
Probably because the shouting of the possessed slave girl attracted more attention than the gospel itself. Paul feared his audience would lose track of their priorities.
When her owners realized that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. Bringing them before the chief magistrates, 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.”
The crowd joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had severely flogged them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer to guard them carefully. Receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.
This slave girl was making bank for her owners and when Paul exercised the spirit out of the girl their paycheck left with it. Can you imagine, you had this thing that was making you tons of money and one day this stranger comes and takes it all away from you? You might be a little angry. I mean how are you going to find another demon possessed girl for sell again.
Now there is one bit of information you need to know, Paul and Silas are Jewish, but are also Roman Citizens which means they are required by law to be treated in a specific ways. One way is they are not to be beat/flogged. They also must stand trial before being sentenced. The magistrates completely skipped those things. Why?
First of all the slave owners lied they falsely accused they of practices that were unlawful. But the practice of this time was to allow each other to worship different gods.
They were very racist. During this time Jews were considered lowly and trouble makers. During this time Jews were not allowed in Rome.
Just like today there was Social injustice that Paul and Silas were feeling.
As the people in the marketplace start their attacks against the two, the city officials side with the crowd without investigating what was really happening. they had the two flogged and thrown in the jail unjustly. Both of those actions were illegal.
This is pretty severe, I’m sure none of use have had this same thing happen to us in the past. But I bet some of us here have seen some racism maybe pointed at you. I bet some of us have been unjustly blamed for something you didn’t do. Do you remember that feeling? Now try to imagine you were doing something you know God told you to do and you are treated this way. You have to be going, Hello God, are you asleep?
I turned 30 the day my family got to Bakersfield. You see God told my family to move to Bakersfield to help start a church here. So I sold my house, my wife and I quite our jobs, and left our family and moved. During this process we were seeking God. We sold our house when he told us to. We moved in with my parents. My wife quit her job. But we still didn’t know when we were supposed to move. During this time I needed to have surgery on my knee. Right before they put me to sleep God told me the date we needed to move on. I told my wife the date, I left my job the week before to get everything in order.
We left on the day God told us to. We packed up our van with our two boys, two cats, and a dog. We left our life, family and everything we knew because God told us to. 1 hour in our 5 day journey across the country our van motor blew up… I will pick up my story in a little while.
So now Paul and Silas are in the Dungeon/sewage hold with their feet in stocks and in so much pain they can’t sleep. Let’s see what happens next.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
Can you imagine what they were praying for? GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!!!
God you told us to come here, now look at us! God we know you know what you are doing but could you let us in on your plan?
They are in the worst of the worst part of the prison with the worst of the worst prisoners who are sitting there listening to these two praying and singing to God. Gives some meaning to that prison in NY Sing Sing Prison.
I think of a scene in the movie Shawshank Redemption when the new batch of prisoners come into the prison and they get a scary welcome. “Here they are boys fresh meat” they are all just waiting to see who cries first.
That doesn’t deter Paul and Silas from seeking God and seeking his kingdom. They keep worshipping God!
Back to my story. So we are sitting in this Firestone car center with my dead van going God?
Then God makes his move.
Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains came loose.
I read that and I just see the prison break scene in Robinhood Men in Tights… If no video just describe it.
But that's not what happens.
When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul called out in a loud voice, “Don’t harm yourself, because we’re all here!”
What? God shakes the jail to the foundations. All the doors open up around us. Our chains are freed, and we just sit there! How in the world is the Robinhood scene not happening?
Our human nature is on the lookout for comfort. When we are in an unfair circumstance we want to get out of it as fast as possible. When we are being tortured we want it to stop as fast as possible.
We look for any sign to say that was from God, and he wants me to do blank. Whether God truly wanted us to do that or not. The fact is we wanted to get out and we don’t care if God wants us to or not.
Not Paul and Silas, they wait on God to show them what he is doing. And even stranger than that, they got all the other prisoners to do the same...
What do you think they told the prisoners? “Nobody move or God will make another earthquake that will kill you!”
So the jailer comes in and all he can think is, his life is over. He was about to be beaten and killed because he let all the prisoners escape. He might as well get it over with.
The thing on the jailer’s mind is his Physical well being. And we find out all God was concerned about was he and his family’s spiritual well being.
Back to my story. After around four hours of sitting in the lobby the manager tells me this. Seeing as we worked on your van in the past and on this area of your van. And seeing that your are in process of moving across the country we are going to get you a rental car and fix your van and ship it out to you. What are you kidding me? God is so good!
The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house. He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized. He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household.
The thing is everyone knew why they were in prison. They knew this famous slave girl that could tell the future was telling everyone that these guys were “telling everyone the way for salvation.” They just didn’t believe it. The people of Philippi needed something big to happen.
Let me tell you guys I needed something big in my life to happen also. You see I was living off borrowed faith. We had made this big move to move across the country but I was scared out of my mind. What if I really didn’t hear God? What if he doesn’t do what he said he was going to do? What if… This little bump in the road God used to grow my faith in him. Paul writes about his experiences in 2 Corinthians
Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing.
Paul was an OG!
Paul lived a life desperate for Jesus. It didn’t matter to him what was happening around him as long as he was with Jesus doing his will.
This car experience we had was just the first of many for me. We reached Bakersfield on my 30th Birthday. We knew 7 people in Bakersfield, the house we were going to be renting was not the greatest, we had 4 weeks worth of cash to live off of, and I had no job.
The first night one of our friends got some mail for me. It was a post card from a hospital that I applied to work at 6 weeks prior. The card was asking is I was still interested in interviewing for a job. I’m like God is that you?
It was a few days later on a Sunday and we were all getting ready to go to a church and I layed down on my bed in tears scared for my family and our future and asked God what are we doing. Should we be here? Will we be able to pay our rent next month. Will I be able to feed my family?
During that moment of raw emotion I felt the presence of God and I heard him say, “I got this.”
Because of what happened with the car and a few other experiences I knew we would be okay. The next day I got hired for the job I applied for 6 week prior. The day of my first paycheck was the day our savings ran out. He took care of my family.
But let me tell you the bigger picture. During these last 13 years we have seen hundreds off people give their lives to Christ and get baptized. And as thankful as I am about how God used circumstances to grow my faith. I am even more thankful God worked through me in some part to grow his kingdom.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy left Philippi shortly after getting out of Prison. The Bible tells us of only a few people were effected by their visit. A lady named Lydia, the slave girl, and the prison Guard.
Less than ten people most likely knew the Lord. Ten years later Paul returns to Philippi and there is a church. Years after that Paul and Timothy sitting in another jail write a letter to the church that we see as a book in the Bible called Philippians.
When we are desperate for God we are just along for the ride. You will see amazing things, miracles, life change. And those good things help to grow your faith for the tough times you will experience and help you remember God is in control and has a plan. Those good times will help you seek God and praise him in the tough seasons. They will remind you that God has a plan for his kingdom and you are a part of it.
As a closing remember to seek God always, in the good times as well as the bad times.
Seeking God helps grow our faith that God is good and he will do what he said he will do. Are you really seeking God?
Let’s pray
Lord Jesus, help us seep you continually so that we can rejoice always. Your Word says that if we seek You with all of our heart and soul that we will find You.
Father, help us remember that You are near! You live IN us. Your kingdom is here and now. Lord help us to be in the center of what You desire us to be and to do so that You receive the most glory!
Amen