Our King is still on the throne. I thank you, Lord, for these people. And I just pray, Lord, that you would help me to be the kind of pastor that they need and the kind of pastor that they deserve. I pray, Lord, they're here. They could be comfortable at home right now with the fire going and the heat cranked up, but they came here to worship you and to hear your word preached, Lord. So I pray that they would not be disappointed. I pray that you would prevent me from proclaiming the falsehoods of man, the faulty wisdom of man, that you would anoint me to proclaim your truth, so that these people who came here to hear the Word of God will hear the Word of God preached today. I pray, Lord, if anything that I utter is not your truth, that you would just cause everyone here to test what they hear with your word. If it fails that test, they would reject it. I pray, Lord, that you'd open hearts and minds to receive truth from your word, and that you would empower us through your Spirit to apply these truths to our lives, so that we could be more pleasing to you and your Son and your Spirit. We love you, Lord. Be with us in the preaching of the Word. And supernaturally, just, Lord, just heat us up just enough to where we can focus on your Word and not the temperature. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Okay, so Acts 16, and I titled this chapter, No Power Can Stop the Preaching of God's Word. We talked about the fact that not even church splits, and I'm talking a big split. I mean, Paul and Barnabas splitting? I mean, that's like, you know, some of us are still crying about the Beatles' breakup, okay? I got news for you, they're not getting back together anytime soon, but whatever the case, Paul and Barnabas, but even a church split cannot stop the preaching of God's Word. We're going to find out that even demons cannot stop the preaching of God's Word. Persecution can't stop it. Imprisonment cannot stop it. And not even death itself. Don't forget, Stephen, when he was stoned to death, and he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And the apostle Paul was Saul back then, and he was holding the cloaks. And it seems like Saul picked up where Stephen left off. this young apostle to the Gentiles after he got saved. So even death cannot stop the preaching of God's Word. Now, Paul takes Silas with him. He adds on this young guy, Timothy, who probably reminds him a little bit of John Mark. You got Paul and I mean, you got Barnabas and John Mark. So they're out of the church in Antioch, which is a few miles to the north of Jerusalem down here. They're back in Antioch after the Jerusalem Council. And so Barnabas takes John Mark and they go to Cyprus to revisit the churches that they planted with Paul earlier, whereas Paul goes up north and then to the west and goes to Lystra and Derbe, but remember the Holy Spirit then told them not to go to Bithynia, not to preach the word in Asia, but then Paul gets a vision of a man in Macedonia praying. So we have a God who sits in throne. Okay? A lot of people, you know, what about people who never heard the gospel in some faraway land? Hey, my God is big enough. Okay? The normal way God gets the gospel message to people, he puts it in the heart of missionaries to preach the gospel message. So there's no distance too far away. If somebody's crying out for God, God can get the gospel message to them. And somebody might say, well, in some countries there's communists, and they outlaw the preaching of the gospel. Let me tell you, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he don't back down. to the communists. You can throw up an iron curtain, he's going to bust through that curtain. He's the king of kings and the lord of lords, so whatever the case, they end up going up to Philippi, okay? And now we're going to find out, if you study the scriptures in depth, we're going to find out they add another guy to their group, so I mean you got You got Paul here, you got Silas, you got Timothy, and they're gonna add another guy. Look at verse 10. We already looked at verse 10, but I want us to read it again. In fact, we'll look at verses 10 through 12. See if you notice something different about these verses, different from the book of Acts up to this point. Now, after he had seen the vision, Paul, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia. So Macedonia is that big green region under Europe there on the map. We sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis. and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city on that part of Macedonia, a colony, and we were staying in that city for some days. And even at the start of verse 13, on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the riverside. Now, when you read those verses really closely, what you're going to find out is that we are switching, the author of the book of Acts is switching from the third person perspective, Paul went and did this, they went and did this, to all of a sudden, now you've got the first person perspective. We. See, whoever wrote the Book of Acts now joins Paul and Silas and Timothy. This is one of the reasons why we know that Luke wrote this. You do in-depth study and you find out, well, who was with What big name guy? We know it wasn't Paul, wasn't Silas, wasn't Timothy, wasn't Barnabas and John Mark. We can account for their whereabouts. What big name guy was with them in these locations? Because it goes... It goes in Acts 16, the author is with him and he says we. Acts chapter 20, 21, chapters 27 and 28, in those locations, who is with? Paul. And then you go to Paul's letters and you start finding out and you start crossing out people and through process of elimination you end up with the physician Luke. Okay? And let me tell you, We need to have confidence in the Word of God. It was written by eyewitnesses or people who knew eyewitnesses. If you want to see Luke's connection with eyewitnesses, just read the first four verses of the Gospel of Luke and the first three verses of the Book of Acts and you find that he got his information from interviewing eyewitnesses. Okay? So it is a colleague, one of the closest colleagues of the Apostle Paul, that is writing, a man named Luke, that is writing the Book of Acts, and he also wrote the Gospel of Luke. Both of them he addressed to his buddy, who he called Most Excellent Theophilus. And calling him, by calling him Most Excellent, he probably was a high-ranking government official. Okay? Theophilus. And so Luke is the author. So here with the we passages, we need to have confidence in God's Word. We find out that this is actually being authored by Luke himself. And now in verse 13, they're up at Philippi, right up there in the region of Macedonia. now let me tell you I have a hard time I'd have a hard time driving a distance like that but these guys are going on foot and then they're taking ships when needed You know, and how passionate are we to try to lead people to Christ? Some of us don't even have the passion, and I feel convicted by this myself. Some of us do not have the passion for the salvation of our neighbors that the Apostle Paul had for people living hundreds of miles away. that he would go through great suffering just to reach them and to preach the gospel message to them. And we said no power can stop the preaching of God's word, no distance can either. Okay? If God wants the gospel preached, he'll put it in the hearts, just like we mentioned last week, it's the Holy Spirit sends us, sends missionaries, sends us for divine encounters with people. that we come in contact with each day. So, you know, it's one of those deals. It really should become natural for us to walk in the supernatural. Just stay in God's Word, stay in prayer, stay in fellowship, obey God's Word through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will just direct you. Okay? I have no problem You know, manufacturing events like Christian concerts or speaking engagements to get people there. But there's another side to that as well. And that ought to be that we ought to just walk in the Spirit and speak Jesus into the lives of others that we come in contact with. You know? I had a young man tell me the other day, well, I'm not the kind of Christian who talks to people about Jesus. And I told the young man, yeah, but you're the kind of person that talks to me about your favorite video game or, you know, some favorite hobby that you have. I said, what you're telling me is that Jesus isn't the priority in your life. There's things you love more than Jesus. If Jesus is the number one thing in your life, it's just going to be natural for you to walk in a supernatural and proclaim the Lamb who was slain. to a world that desperately, desperately needs him. And so now they end up in Philippi to preach the word, so look at verses 13 to 15 of Acts 16, and on the Sabbath day, now the Sabbath day, the day of rest, was when the Jews would go to the synagogues. You know, I mean, just look ahead to Acts 17, verse 2, then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, and oh, and it's mentioned in verse 1 that it was a synagogue of the Jews in Thessalonica. See, Paul's custom was, go to the synagogue, even though he's the apostle to the Gentiles, he would still say, hey, the gospel came to the Jews, and the gospel is from the Jews, so I need to go to the synagogues first, where the Jews gather and preach the gospel and prove to them that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, then I can go to the marketplace and talk to the Gentiles. Paul didn't do that in Philippi. If his custom was to go to the synagogues first, the gathering place of the Jews, why did he go to a riverside in Philippi? Okay? And on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city, verse 13, to the riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the woman who met there. Woman, plural. Okay? You see, you had to have at least ten heads of, you had to have the heads of ten households. So basically you had to have ten men, ten Jewish men in an area before you could build a synagogue. Okay? Now, You know, here in America, some people act like a church has to have at least 800 to 5,000 people. We got this big mega church mentality. The Jews, look, you just get 10 families, we'll build a synagogue, okay? Kind of makes you wonder about our economy here. Could you afford to build a church with only 10 families in America today? Back then, throughout the Roman Empire, you could. But the other side of the coin is... Apparently, in Philippi, things were so messed up, there were so few people there seeking the true God, you didn't have ten Jewish males in Philippi, heads of households, to where they would build a synagogue. So when you couldn't build a synagogue, the customary place to go to was the riverside. Now you go to this riverside, and guess what? You find out, you find out that there's women who are meeting there. Let me tell you, Philippi's problem is not really the occult. You're going to see there's a demon-possessed slave girl predicting the future and stuff like that. And you're going to find out that occultic paganism is really almost protected by the law and all this other stuff. But that's not the problem. The problem is the absence of godly men. Okay? I mean, look at all the problems we have in America today. And I tell you, there are times when God will raise up a godly woman. I remember, I don't know how many people here remember the late Ellen Craswell. But at a time when Washington State was incredibly suffering for lack of male leadership, there was this godly grandmother who said, I'll fill in the gap. And we're going to find out about a Lady Lydia that's doing that right there. But keep in mind, Philippi is starving for godly men. You know, the Marine Corps says we're looking for a few good men. Well, I'm telling you, churches in every community are still looking for a few good men, okay? And look what Jesus was able to accomplish with 12 guys and one of them was a traitor. Okay? But here you have godly woman. Let me say this to the ladies. If the men in your life don't have the backbone to take a stand for Jesus, okay, don't use that as an excuse. for living a mediocre spiritual life. Okay? If the men in your life are not taking a stand for Jesus, you've got to take the reins. Okay? And that's what these ladies were doing. So there should have been a few guys there, and they should have said, yeah, just two more families and we can build a synagogue, but that wasn't the case. So, and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, so he went there because there was no synagogue, where prayer was customarily made, and we sat down and spoke to the woman who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira. who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us." Now, let me see if I can find Diatyra on here. She's from Diatyra, but now she's in She's in Philippi right now, and Thyatira's here, okay? So she was originally living there, but now she's moved up to here. But Thyatira was very famous for having purple dye, okay? And they used to get this purple dye from shellfish. Very hard to get, so it was very rare, so it was very expensive. And pretty much the only people who walked around in purple garments were royalty. Okay? And so this lady was probably a very wealthy business lady, and she's there, she's seeking God, she's a God-seeker from among the Gentiles, recognizes the God of Israel as the one true God. Paul comes, gives the gospel message, she trusts in Christ for salvation, and then she opens up her home to the missionaries. So, you know, I'm telling you, in an area where there's a lack of godly men, where men won't stand up and lead, God will find a Deborah. God will find a Lydia, okay? Let me tell you, all the godly ladies that have been here in America, I don't want to even know what America would be like without those godly ladies, because Lord knows we've had a lot of men who have not answered the call. But Lydia was willing to stand in the gap. Now, verses 16 to 18, And so now they're going to stay in her household, this lady, this wealthy business lady. In fact, where did I leave off? What verse did I leave off? Did I read? Ended what? The end of 15. End of 15. Okay. So I'll just repeat 15. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us saying, if you judge me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. Now you notice, she accepts the Lord, her household accepts the Lord. There used to be a lot of respect back in those days. So if the head of the household came to Christ, the whole household pretty much came to Christ too. We're going to see that later on in this chapter as well. okay and by the way Philippi was an area that I mean we don't have we're just this is just a survey so we don't have time to really go in depth but there's a lot of retired military guys living there so it's kind of like a lot like this county in that sense but they understood authority and so it's I don't think it's I don't think it's a coincidence that when Lydia gets saved her household gets saved when the Philippian jailer gets saved his household gets saved okay and A lot of the rebellion we experience today is not found in many circles in ancient times. But whatever the case, they accept the Lord, and then what happened? They got baptized. Okay, and I... Before you baptize somebody, you really need to try hard to make sure they understand the gospel message okay but when we set up a six-month to a year-long course that you have to take before we'll baptize you we're not really being obedient to the Lord You read the book of Acts, you accept Jesus today, they're gonna baptize you today. I feel guilty that it takes me a couple weeks to get things ironed out. Some pastors now that don't have baptismals are baptizing in the Y, at the Y, getting permission to do that. But, you know, and you might say, well, if you do that, as soon as somebody professes faith in Christ, you baptize them? you're going to find out, Fernandez, you're going to find out, you're going to end up baptizing a few people who aren't true believers. Hey, I'm in good company, because the apostles baptized Simon the sorcerer, okay, and it turned out that he really didn't believe. So, anytime we make baptism an option, okay, I remember I wanted to teach Bible studies and all, but after I accepted the Lord, It took two or three years of me studying the Bible to realize I needed to get re-baptized. Because I had been baptized as an infant in the Roman Catholic Church. So it took me several years of studying the Word to realize I need to get re-baptized. But I always try to start little Bible studies and they never really got off the ground. I mean they last a couple weeks and they fizzle out. And God still bore fruit out of that. That's a whole other story. I taught a study for George Walls, Cease and Cathy remember George for his teenage sons and these guys were not believers and they just made fun of me and it just, it bombed. After three or four times I stopped going over there. But one of his sons said that that impacted his life. So that decades later, when he was in the Navy, he came to Christ for salvation. And now I get to teach his daughter, whose name is Lydia, George's granddaughter. But I was trying to teach these studies and nothing, it was like, Lord, I just can't seem to get any kind of ministry going. What's going on here? but on the day that I was getting baptized uh... it was another guy his name was Steve Anderson and we were uh... getting ready to get baptized and so we started talking to each other and I found out I wanted to start a Bible study and he wanted to do praise and worship at a Bible study so we locked it on right there and that Tuesday night we started the Bible study in Cesar's house which evolved into Trinity Bible Fellowship okay but I think one of the things though I was diligent in my study to try to figure out if I needed to be re-baptized. I was trying to do, accept Jesus, trust in Jesus for salvation, do ministry, and then give some thought to baptism. God's Word, the order, even though Jesus was under John the Baptist's baptism, Jesus got baptized before he started his ministry. So in other words, the first thing, after trusting in Jesus for salvation, the very first thing you should do is to publicly confess Jesus as your Lord before others by getting publicly baptized. And then you could say, okay, Lord, now what do you want me to do? But I'm telling you, if you know the Lord and you're not baptized yet, you're saying, Jesus, I love you, what do you want me to do for you? You know what Jesus is saying? get baptized. After you get baptized then you can ask me again and maybe I'll give you some more info, okay? But a lot of people say, well I don't think I need to get baptized because it's not essential to salvation. Well, There's a lot of things that are not essential to salvation, but if Jesus commanded you to get baptized, if you believe he's the Lord, you better get with the Lord's program. Okay? And so Lydia and her household were baptized. Then take a look at verses 16 to 18. Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. The girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days, but Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour." Okay, so here you get this annoying slave girl. Now look at what There's two possibilities here. Look at the message that she's saying. She's following them around for days saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. Now, some translations, there's a Disagreement in the Greek text, some would say that she's saying that they proclaimed to us a way of salvation. If that's the case, Paul cast the demon out because she was preaching a false gospel. But, some of the Greek copies say that, who proclaim to us the way of salvation, which means she would have been saying the right thing. She would have been actually proclaiming the truth. Why would you cast a demon out if the demon was proclaiming the truth? Hold this page and look at Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1, verses 23 to 25. Mark 1, 23 to 25, Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." See, what that demon is saying is true. It's like, Jesus of Nazareth, you are the Holy One of God. Verse 25, "...but Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet, and come out of him." And then the unclean spirit left. You see, Let me tell you something. If you're a believer, God wants you preaching his word. Okay? But he also wants you to be consistent and to be a man of your word or a woman of your word so that people can trust you. God doesn't want his word preached from unreliable sources like the demonic realm. Demons are in the business of deceiving people. And so, it's as if Jesus and Paul said, look, this is demonic, you have no part in the ministry of preaching God's Word. And now, it may have taken Paul several days to realize, you know, this lady that's announcing that, I thought she was real on fire for the Lord, but I'm starting to realize here, there's no, this isn't a lady speaking, this is a demon speaking through her. And so once it came to his attention that this lady is demon-possessed, he cast the demon out. Now, let me say something here about the biblical view of casting out of demons. If you want to do more research on it, go to the website, go to our website, and click on the sermon audio button. And you'll have to navigate through there, but click on the videos and I give a lecture on a biblical critique of the Roman Catholic rite of exorcism. Okay? And I talk about the things that the Roman Catholic Church has done right. for about fifteen hundred years but the things they also do wrong and one thing they do right is they're not going to be trying to cast demons out of somebody unless there's real evidence that the supernatural is involved that it really is demonic but then when they start casting out demons yeah they have some very powerful prayers to the triune God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but they also call on Michael the Archangel you're not supposed to pray to Michael the Archangel They call on Mary. Okay? That's probably why some of the Roman Catholic exorcisms take 40 or 50 days, and the exorcist could lose 30 or 40 pounds. You've had some Roman Catholic priest, the exorcist, actually get demon-possessed in some of these cases and all. Let me tell you, God's Word says if you go in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you cast the demon out, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit the demons have to leave. Now the only difficulty there is a lot of time we can mimic the words and not really go in the authority of the Lord. Sometimes we got too much trust in ourselves. And this is where Mark 17, 18 to 21 It's something that we really should look into. Jesus, the disciples couldn't cast out the certain demon. So then Jesus walked over and cast the demon out. And then the disciples said, well, how come we couldn't cast it out? And Jesus said, certain demons only come out with prayer and fasting. Okay? And it's not so much like you need more of Jesus. Okay? Let me tell you, if Jesus shows up, the demons are gone. You don't need more of Jesus, you just need less of you. And when you pray and you fast, you're saying, it's like you're driving in a car and you got Jesus in the passenger side seat and you're saying, Jesus, I want you driving. I'm going to be in prayer, I'm going to be in fasting. Anytime somebody tells me they want me to look into something which could be a possible case of demon possession or demonic activity in a household or whatever, I will almost, if I say yes to the people, I will tell them yes, I will be there in 24 hours. And what that means is I'm going to fast and pray for 24 hours. I did that before I confronted Satan worshippers while in the Marine Corps. I did that while I, before I investigated in Port Orchard, this big demonic activity that was going on in a household. But it's recognizing sometimes we've got to deprive ourselves of our physical needs through fasting and devote so much time and effort on our spiritual needs that we can then really be filled with the Spirit when we confront the demonic realm. But when you look at Paul, if you're looking for a big fancy formula on how to cast out demons, you're not going to find it in the Bible. You're just going to see things like Paul saying, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour. Now, you know, later on in the book of Acts we're going to find out that they're the sons of Sceva. These guys were not believers. They tried to cast out demons in the name of the Jesus whom Paul preached. Okay? And so these guys ended up running out of the house naked and bloody. Okay? You don't cast out demons in the name of the Jesus that somebody else preached. You gotta cast out demons in the name of the Jesus that you know. the Jesus, the true Jesus of the Bible that walks with you, that empowers you, and that is at work in your life. And so, Paul cast out a demon of an annoying slave girl, and so what's the response to that? Look at verses 19 to 24. But when her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, so they made a lot of money from this girl doing some fortune-telling and all, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates and said, these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city. Remember, there weren't even enough Jews there to build a synagogue. So it was just nothing but unchecked paganism. And they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. Now, is that true? No. There was nothing that Paul and his colleagues taught that would have forced them to go against Roman law. Then the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. So Paul cast the demon out of annoying slave girl. You would think people would applaud. But instead, Paul and Silas are beaten and in prison. Okay? Let me tell you, if your goal is to receive the applause of man, don't serve Jesus. Okay? We've had it good in this country for so long, where if you love Jesus and you proclaim Jesus, people pat you on the back and they look up to you. Well, those days are almost completely gone. Okay? You serve Jesus and the world isn't going to like you. Here, you had paganism protected by law, but not so with Christianity. That's what's happening in America. Now you have two guys, if they want to get married, they have the legal right to get married. If you have a Christian county clerk that doesn't want to issue the license, the county clerk can lose their job. If bakers don't want to bake a cake for a gay wedding. you could lose your business. If florists don't want to provide flowers, eventually you could lose your business. Eventually pastors are going to be forced to perform gay weddings or have to go underground. And I think that's just around the corner, but this is what they face. That's why when you want to see what, you know, what will it be like for me to be a Christian In the year 2020, we'll just read the book of Acts, okay? Because that's the kind of world we live in now. This is not, you know, when President Obama said that America is not a Christian country, and my pastor friends all freaked out, I said, give credit where credit is due. He spoke the truth when he said that. We haven't been a Christian country for a long time. And we gotta wake up and smell the coffee that this is a neo-pagan culture in which we live right now. And so they're beaten and imprisoned. And then, so that's the response of the people. Paul's response to a demon-possessed person, he cast the demon out. The community's response to Paul casting out a demon and healing this girl, they beat him and put him in prison. What's Paul and Silas' response? They sing praises at midnight to the Lord in a Philippian jail. Verses 25, we'll start at verse 25. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Let me tell you, the prisoners were listening to them, These guys just got beaten with rods. I don't know about you. That doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me. Okay? These guys were beaten with rods. They're in a cool, damp prison cell. They could have been complaining. How many of us? I'm not going to ask for a show of hands. because my hand would be going up too, but how many of us would be complaining after that? Okay? There's a scary phrase there, and the prisoners were listening to them. See, that's one of the problems with the American church. Our culture's listening to us. All they hear us do is complain. Why would anybody want what we have when we have the joy of the Lord, but we so successfully suppress that, that all they just hear is complain all the time. Right? What are we known for? What are we Christians in America known for? Are we known for our love for Jesus? No. Are we known for our love for the Bible? No. All people know about Christians in America is what we hate, what we're against, what we oppose. So it becomes real easy for people to label us as narrow-minded bigots because we're just complaining all the time. Now, if we had the joy of the Lord, and proclaimed Jesus more, and sang hymns more, okay? Everybody likes... Look at Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5, starting at verse 18, And do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. And a lot of us say, hey, I'm doing that really good. I'm not even drunk right now. And we act like, you know, just like, man, I'm a solid Christian. I haven't been drunk for years. Okay? But you can't stop there. Okay, that's not even a full sentence right there. And do not get drunk with wine which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. That's what you're not supposed to do. You're not supposed to get drunk with wine. You're supposed to be filled with the Spirit. And then he describes what being filled with the Spirit is like. speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." You see, you know, I once heard a guy, he was an Italian guy too, he was an educator and he was given a talk and he said how You know, we Christians think that we're doing real well because we don't walk around in the airport. When we're in an airport, we don't walk around staggering drunk. We say, see, I obeyed that passage. But, yeah, we don't walk around staggering drunk, but we also don't walk around singing praises to Jesus. Would people or would they not freak out? If, let's say you picked up a hitchhiker, I don't recommend it anymore, I don't even know who you can trust anymore. Let's say you picked up a hitchhiker, you got in your car, and you're singing praises out loud to Jesus. Would he or would he not think you were a nut, right? You know, there's some days, you know, you just can't keep it in. where you want to praise Jesus at the top of your lungs. That's one thing I like about my students. If I'm having one of those days during weight lifting, they leave me alone. And if there's a new student thinking, you know, is he drunk or is he crazy, the other students will say, no, that's just Doc. You know? But, you know, on a good day, when I wake up on a good day, And I'm feeling God's presence. Yeah, I'm gonna sing praise song, you ain't gonna shut me up, okay? But on a bad day, if I've been beaten by rods, I'm not sure I got what Paul and Silas had, you know? I'm not sure I got the character where I'm gonna sing praises to Jesus even if you beat me with rods. Let me tell you something, the prisoners were listening to them. Let me tell you something, the last time you complained, the last time you acted like a little spoiled brat, the last time you forfeited the joy of the Lord and exchanged it for some grumbling or whatever, people were listening. Sometimes it's kids in your own household who are listening. Sometimes it's just people at the store that were listening. But these guys were listening, and I'm telling you, it impacted their lives. You can say, well, the text doesn't say it impacted their lives. Yes, it does. I'll explain it. Look at verse 26. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awakening from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, Do yourself no harm, for we are all here. uh... that's why I think it influenced them and impacted them they were listening to them so there's this great earthquake where everybody could run free the prison guard thinks they're running free he's thinking of killing himself more about that a little later he's thinking of killing himself and Paul says no don't worry nobody's leaving well excuse me Paul These guys, these prisoners don't even know you. Who gave you the authority to decide for them that now that they're able to run free that they're not going to run free and they're all going to stay put? It's just like the shipwreck in the last two chapters of Acts. Paul could speak for the entire crew. All the other prisoners, he could speak for them. Where did he get this kind of authority? I'm telling you, when these guys saw these two guys beaten and battered and still singing praises to their God, revival occurred in that prison. And if Paul of Tarsus says nobody's going anywhere, then nobody's going anywhere. Paul did the same thing with the shipwreck, we'll see later on, um, in Acts. And, uh, but the people were listening to them, the prisoners were listening to them, and, um, and then, uh, they weren't gonna go anywhere, they were all gonna stay put. See, sometimes, sometimes when God brings an earthquake, it's not to set the prisoners free. Sometimes there's an earthquake because God just wants to save a Philippian jailer. And so when God does something, don't just assume you automatically know exactly why he did what he did. You need to be in the spirit enough. Paul, you know, God sent an angel to free Peter from jail. Paul could have said, here's an earthquake, God wants us to go free. But Paul saw, he looked over and he saw the Philippian jailer about to kill himself. And he said, that's why God gave us the earthquake. Nobody's going free. Tonight salvation is going to come to the household of the Philippian jailer. And so Paul says, do yourself no harm for we are all here. And I'm just going to close with this, but we'll pick it up there, the conversion of Philippian jailer, next week. Paul—in fact, let's read just a few verses down. Do yourself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light and ran in and fell down, trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Okay? And they're going to answer him by saying, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Now, it's just like, believe on the Lord Jesus, you'll be saved, but this also applies to your household. His household was important to him. There's two possibilities here. One school of thought among Bible scholars is that in ancient Roman law, if there was a prison break and you were the jailer and anybody gets away free you get executed okay however they would also execute your family if you didn't give enough resistance another school of thought was no they probably wouldn't execute your family but then your family would be dishonored because you did a shameful thing. You were the prison warden and people escaped. Either way, whether it was to save the honor of his family or to save his family's lives, this guy was a family man. This guy cared about his family. And so Paul said, look, don't do it, don't kill yourself. And then the guy looked at him and said, what must I do to be saved? Why would he ask that question? Well, when the prisoners were listening to them singing hymns to the God of Israel, to Yahweh, the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who can provide salvation to mankind, the jailer was listening too. And he said, look, you guys know the way of salvation. What is it? And Paul doesn't complicate things. He tells them to just believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. And you're a guy who loves his family, your household will be saved as well if they believe. And so we'll pick it up there next week. Just a few things to point out. We can have confidence in God's Word because it was written by eyewitnesses. and those who knew eyewitnesses. That's one of the most important we's. in the Bible there is when all of a sudden the author of Acts is telling us, and I was there with these guys, we can have confidence in God's Word. Ladies like Lydia play a significant role in the early church. At a point in time where women were considered property of the man in ancient chauvinistic culture, you had ladies like Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Lydia, Priscilla, The list goes on and on. The whole woman's rights movement, by the way, before it was hijacked by a bunch of communists and socialists, the whole woman's rights movement, just as the abolitionist movement, was all founded by Christians. Because they saw in the Bible that women were created in the image of God as well. We see here the power of God over the demonic realm. You might feel like, well, you know, I don't have a lot of power. I don't have a... I'm not... I don't have a big name or this or that. God's Word says, 1 John 4, for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. The triune God indwells you, and you have access to God's power, and the power of God overwhelms the power of the demonic realm. Also, God wants us to, you know, He gives us access to His joy in the midst of our suffering. That's why James could say, consider it all joy when you encounter various sufferings. How many of us You know, how many of us would be able to sing praise songs after we had been beaten by rods? The Philippians looked and said, man, these guys can worship their God even when things are bad. I want what they want. And then finally, the salvation of one household or even the salvation of one person is more important than our own freedom. I'm a freedom-loving American. I stand up for our freedom of religion, freedom of speech, right to bear arms. I think God instituted human government to serve mankind, to protect mankind, not to enslave mankind. But the fact of the matter is the salvation of one person is more important than our freedom. Paul, Silas, and the other prisoners could have fled, but they stayed because they realized the salvation of one person is more important. That's why, you know, the ancient Jews in the Sermon on the Mount, the ancient Jews, well, anybody who was not a Roman citizen, a Roman soldier could walk up to you. You could be walking in opposite directions and a Roman soldier could stop you if you were not a citizen and say, okay, you need to carry my armor for one mile required by Roman law. And you could say, well, I'm not going in your direction, officer. Oh, it doesn't matter. Now you are. And you've got to walk one mile. Guess what Jesus said about that? You know, Jesus could say, we're the chosen nation of God. We're not, we don't have to submit to these pagan Romans. Jesus said, well, for now you do. Go the extra mile. You see, what Jesus is thinking is, look, you go the extra mile, now you're going two miles, you could talk about the God of Israel. With this pagan Roman officer. Turn the other cheek. Don't stand. When we stand up for our rights, we should never stand, I should never stand up for my rights. I don't want what I deserve. If I get what I deserve, what do I get? It's called hell. Okay? But when I stand up for our rights, it's because I'm standing up for your rights. And it's the right thing to do. But in my own personal situation, if I could take my rights and put it on the shelf, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, if need be, to lead other people to Christ. Praise God that Paul and Barnabas were singing hymns to Jesus after being beaten that night in the Philippian jail uh... this chapter would have read a lot differently had they been moaning and complaining like Phil Fernandez probably would have done you know instead of instead of allowing your circumstances to determine whether you're happy or sad You need to allow God to give you his joy despite your circumstances. Don't trust in your circumstances. Trust in the one who controls your circumstances. And that's what Paul and Silas did. So you beat them with rods and they sing praises. to their king. You come to Christ and they sing praises to their king. Bad days, good days. They're praising Jesus just the same. Let's close with a word of prayer. Last I heard, our king is still on the throne.