The Book of Acts - It's Not About You (Acts 16:25-40)

Amen. How's everybody doing? Good. If you've got your Bible, and I hope you do, grab it, go to Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 16. If you are new to Bible study, there is no shame in looking at the table of contents and finding Acts chapter 16. If you stumble upon it, then please mark it. We will be there often. And so we've got a Bible in the seat back in front of you if you want to grab one of those. And that's our gift to you. If you don't own your very own Bible, then please take that. It's not stealing. It's a gift. You can have it. We are in week four of this series called Master Plan. And the whole idea has been that there is a plan and we have a master and you're not the master. And so we've all, all throughout this series, we've asked the question, at what point did you figure it out that you weren't really in control? And maybe you figured it out through your parents. Maybe you figured it out because you tried your plan and that's why you're here tonight because your plan didn't work. And maybe your plan led you into the ditch or maybe your plan led you into everything that was on your plan and you achieved all your hopes and dreams and goals and found that that was pretty empty and there must be more. And so here you are at church seeing if there's maybe a greater plan and a bigger plan for you. Well, the good news of the gospel is that there is a plan and there is a master and you are not the master. Praise God. And so week one, we talked about what happens when God says no, when God says no. And oftentimes his no is this preparation for a future go. And then the second week of the series, we talked about how, how God saved Lydia, this, um, this business woman that sold purple goods and God used her to plant this church and about how God saves us, that we do not earn a right standing before God, but God does all the work. God is the one that saves us. Last week we talked about the fact that, that, um, one of the most commanded or the most commanded thing in all of the scriptures is fear not or do not fear. And that no fear does not come from, uh, the promise that God will make everything okay and change our circumstances, but that no fear comes from the promise of his very presence. And one of the things that we talked about last week that I need to point out is, um, I think I said in the message that Luke was a disciple of Jesus. Well, the problem with that is that he wasn't. And so, um, in my notes, I was, I was looking at Matthew. I was reading out of Matthew chapter eight and I was saying that Luke was a disciple of Jesus. And so let me just, uh, point out to you how flaw full your pastor is and point out that, uh, Luke was not a disciple of Jesus.

Uh, Luke was the author of acts and Luke interviewed a bunch of eyewitnesses, including Paul. Um, and Luke was a disciple of Paul. Matthew and John were disciples of Jesus and Mark was a disciple of Peter. And that's where we get Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So I just want to point that out as we pick up in the fourth and final week of master plan. And I've entitled this message. Um, uh, it's not about you. And sometimes the titles aren't that important. I'll have to make them up for the sake of the bulletin and the websites and stuff. But tonight's is really important. So tonight, what we are going to talk about is the fact, the truth that it's not about you. And I know if you're, if you're my age or younger, mostly younger than me, okay, probably about 10 years younger, 30 and under, then you were raised in this generation where somebody told you that you're a snowflake and you're a rainbow and you can do anything you want to do. Well, that's a big fat lie and you're not a snowflake and you're not a rainbow and you're unique just like everybody else. So that's kind of weird. And, and, and really it's not about you. And oftentimes we find ourselves in these situations and we typically ask the question, well, what about me, God? And one of the resounding messages that we get from the Lord is it's not about you, that there's a master plan and that God still has the whole world in his hands. And so tonight, what we're going to talk about, I just want you to look at the point before we ever get to it. The point is simply this, believing that Jesus Christ and not your circumstances is King results in amazing God confident contentment. Believing that Jesus Christ is your King and not your circumstances, it has a result and the result is an amazing God confident contentment. I know that's not a real word, but I just put hyphens in there and I made it just like one thought, one word, a God confident contentment. And let's see how I got there. Acts chapter 16, beginning in verse 25. We talked about this verse last week. About midnight, this is during the darkest hour of the night. And if you'll remember from last week, uh, uh, Paul and Silas, they cast a demon out of this lady because it was annoying to her. Praise God. We can get be annoyed by people and that's not a sin. They cast this demon out of this lady, and then the people that own this lady, the slave owners, they are pretty selfish. They're not concerned about the salvation of this woman. What they're concerned about is we can't make money

off of her anymore, and so they trump up some charges against Paul and Silas, and Paul and Silas get arrested and locked in the stocks, in the inner prison, basically under the prison, and it's really out of their faithfulness, not God's punishment, but their faithfulness, they find themselves in prison. But they are more dependent on the presence of God than their own circumstances, and that's why they can do this in verse 25, about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. Now how can they do that? They can do it because they believed in a master plan. They believed that God was actually in control. They could sing hymns and pray prayers other than God get me out of here, why? Because they actually believed that Jesus was their king and the circumstances were not their king. Now let's just be honest. As much as we don't wanna be in prison, we want what Paul and Silas have, don't we? Have you ever come eyeball to eyeball or elbow to elbow with somebody, and when you see their circumstances, and then you see the way they respond, you want what they have, because you look at the situation they're in, and you're thinking, if I was in that situation, if I were in prison, and it was midnight, I don't think I'm singing hymns, and I don't think I'm praying prayers. I think I'm complaining, and I'm screaming out to God,

God, this isn't fair. Look, I have a seven-year-old boy that lives in my house. He's my son. He's not just some random kid. And you know what he says over and over and over again? But Dad, that's not fair. And I say, listen, boy, fair ended at the Garden of Eden. You don't want fair. If you want fair, I'll charge you rent. If you want fair, then you find your own way to school. If you want fair, then you gotta cook me some food, too. It's a one-for-one here, right? You don't want fair. And we don't want fair either. You know when we play the fair card, when we don't get what we want? I've never seen anybody driving down 95 speeding and see a cop that's pulled over another speeder and be like, mm, and pull over behind the policeman, walk up to him and say, I just wanna be fair. I was also speeding. Never. You drive by the policeman going like 81 in the 70, and he doesn't pull out, and you go, thank you, Jesus. That's what you do. Thank you, Jesus, that you're not fair. The coaches of our championship baseball team are here. We all go to church together here. And let me tell you how I know that parents don't believe in fair.

Because I coach first base on our baseball team. And when our kid is running to first base, and our kid is really out, but the umpire says, safe! You know what I do? I don't go, excuse me, umpire that's 16 years old, doesn't really wanna be here, excuse me. But you missed that call. And out of fairness to everyone in the game, we really need to have our kid out because they actually got him out. Absolutely not. Absolutely. I'm just like, praise God that he's hung over and couldn't see the real play. Because now my boy's safe. And we won the championship, right? See, we don't want fair. But see what Paul and Silas, they're not worried about fair. They know that Jesus is their king. And so this is how they respond, that they're praying and they're singing hymns. And now check this out. And the prisoners were listening to them. Because if you're a prisoner, you know what you're doing? And when the guy next to you is locked up, even though you don't know all of his circumstances, but you know he's in your same situation. And when he's full of joy and peace and hope, then you start to lean in a little bit and you start to listen.

And so all the prisoners are listening to them, verse 26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everybody's bonds were unfastened. And so they're praying and they're singing hymns and God flexes and all the people are set free. But check out verse 27. But when the jailer awoke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and he was about to kill himself supposing that the prisoners had escaped. And you see, the reason that the jailer would have tried to kill himself here is this, that in the first century, Roman jailers were personally responsible for their prisoners. And so if your prisoner got away, then you would be tortured and killed. And so what the prison guard is thinking here is I'd rather just do this myself and get this over with myself instead of be tortured and killed. And so he wakes up, he sees the doors open, he assumes that they're all gone. And so he is. about to kill himself supposing that the prisoner said escape. Verse 28, Paul cried with a loud voice, do not harm yourself. Can I just take an aside here for a second? There are a bunch of people at 1122 and I'm not sure why y'all show up here but praise God that you do and you've had suicidal thoughts and you've thought about that before and you've started walking down that road. Can I

just, can I just echo what the scripture says and Paul cried with a lot of voice, do not harm yourself. Can I just beg you and plead with you, do not harm yourself. Please don't do anything to hurt yourself and look at why, look at what he says, for we are all here. Now I know I'm taking this out of context but the Lord's giving me liberty tonight. Look around the room, do not harm yourself. Look around because we are all here. You have somebody to call, you have somebody to reach out to, you just show up again next week and if you've been walking down this road you just lean over to somebody and go hey I really need some help because we are all here. It is not the answer, amen? It is not the answer and if you've struggled with it before you were in the right place because we are gonna stick around for you and with you and walk with you through this. We've got people on staff trained to help you, trained to help you see yourself the way God sees you and if you could just begin to see the way God sees then you would be able to do what God says and so Paul says do not harm yourself. Why? For we are all here. Verse 29 and the jailer called for lights. Remember last week we talked about how dark it is in there and so the jailer called for lights and he rushed in and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Now if you're serious about Bible study and you're not just reading this like a Sunday school story but like an actual event don't you have to scratch your head for just a second and say hey wait a minute Paul and Silas why didn't you leave? I mean you're praying and you're singing hymns and you know what song they were probably singing do you feel the mountains tremble and then the whole place starts trembling they're like see we told you our God's in charge and the whole place begins to shake and then what happens the doors open but Paul and Silas don't leave. Why not? Because if I'm in prison let me just be honest if I'm in prison and I'm singing do you feel the mountains tremble and then they actually start trembling and then the doors of the prison fall off and my chains fall off guess what I'm doing well the Lord has spoken unto me and I am walking out of the prison and then I'm coming here and imagine the sermons illustration that I'll have that week

it'd be awesome but not Paul and Silas they don't leave they stay right there why? Because Paul knows something that we don't really know Paul would say because it's not about me because it's not about me that God does not exist to give me what I want but I exist to serve him because he's my king and not my circumstances and when my circumstances were dark and bleak and I was beaten and I was in pain and the prison doors were shut up I praise God and when the earthquake happened and the chains fell off and the doors went open I didn't leave just because my circumstances changed and the reason I didn't leave is because Jesus didn't tell me to leave yet that it's not about me maybe I'm not the point did you ever consider that the reason that you are in pain and the reason that you are suffering could be because it's not about you what if you're not the point what if you're saying dear God would you please get me out of this and he's going no I'm not gonna get you out of this I'm about to save your husband through this he's actually gonna watch the way you handle the pain and that is gonna be the loudest voice of the gospel in his life and so it's not about you I know this messes up our like kind of American eyes view of the gospel with a little bit of prosperity sprinkled in there but if you look through the scriptures this is not a book about happily ever after I mean you pick any character out the guy that wrote this Luke killed murdered the guy he's talking about Paul beheaded I mean just pick a guy it does not it doesn't end with a TV show in a Cadillac for anybody in the book it doesn't it's pain and strife and yet they walked in faithfulness and so Paul doesn't leave because Jesus is his Lord not his circumstances and Jesus didn't tell him to go yet so I don't know if you've ever heard Jesus Do you? Right? You ever notice when those people come up to you and say, hey, Jesus told me something, they're usually kind of like, oh, did he? Hmm, that's interesting. Well, let me tell you this,

he speaks to us all very clearly in his word. But you know what Jesus said about the people that recognize his voice? Guess who he said would recognize his voice? He said, I'm the shepherd, and my sheep will recognize my voice. If you hadn't heard from the Lord lately, could it be that you don't recognize his voice because you're not getting to know him? Jesus says things like, abide in me, and I will abide in you. That word abide, it's a Bible word, it just means stay close. Stay really close to me, it's what Jesus says. John 15, stay close to me, and I will stay close to you. And when you get to know people, you begin to recognize their voice. Again, if you're under 30, this is the best way I know how to illustrate it. There used to be this thing in America called a landline, and it's crazy, hard to believe. Like a phone, I've talked about it before, but the phone was attached to the wall, okay? You had to stay kind of right there. And the one in the kitchen, it was like the precursor to the cell phone because that thing would stretch like all the way to the living room. And about once a month, you had to hold it up like this and let it unspin.

Remember that? Just. Okay? And before cell phones, there was this other thing. During the landline era, there was no such thing as caller ID. It was crazy, it was crazy. The phone would ring, and everybody in the house would panic. You'd be like, who is it? You just didn't know who it was. You'd look at it. That's why parents that have children have somebody answer the phone and screen all their calls. And so when you answered the phone and somebody would start talking, here's what you would know. If you knew them, they didn't have to introduce themselves. Because even though you couldn't see them, you just recognized their voice. And if they asked for your parents with their full names right during dinner time, then you knew they were trying to sell you something. So you just hung up on them in the name of the Lord, right? Thank you, Jesus. Right? Just like that. It was crazy. But like, if your dad called you, you didn't have to, now who is this? No, because you knew him.

You recognized his voice. Now we cheat, right? We've got caller ID, and everybody's got a phone on them at all times. By the way, I've said this before too. You realize if you call somebody and you get their voicemail, you know what happened, right? They grab that thing and went, meh, and hit the button. So you couldn't do that then. So the Bible, Jesus would say that when you know somebody, you recognize their voice. And so that's why we've always gotta be very, very, very careful not to evaluate our circumstances and base our decisions and base what we think God's will for our life is just purely based on our circumstances. Because we'll always see exactly what we wanna see. We'll drive by the Dunkin' Donuts sign or Krispy Kreme and see the hot and ready and be like, it is a sign from the Lord above, obviously. So what Paul gets, what Silas understands, they're not the point. That maybe God had them in prison for a reason greater than themselves and their own comfort.

God is not super concerned with our comfort. God doesn't mind roughing up a brother or a sister for the sake of the kingdom of God. And so Paul and Silas, they pray and they sing hymns and God shakes the walls down and they don't leave. And so when the jailer wakes up and he sees them and he's thinking, I'm gonna kill myself, and Paul goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we are still right here. In verse 30, and then he, that's the jailer, he brought them out and here's his question. Sir, what must I do to be saved? That's his initial response. Because he's probably thinking, well, if I was in your situation and the walls fall down, I'm running too, but you're still right here. And so I gotta know, what must I do to be saved? Now, why does he ask this question? Well, there's a few things. First of all, remember, he saw and he heard them handle pain. I mean, he is a firsthand witness of these brothers are handling rough circumstances in a way that is unique and different than anybody else I've ever seen in my life. And at first, he probably made fun of them.

Ha ha, that's weird. These people are crazy. They have lost their mind. What is wrong with these people? Do they not know that they're probably gonna be executed tomorrow? But then what happened is when this guy began to handle a little pain, when he knew that he could lose his life from the magistrate by losing these prisoners, what does he do? Now he wants to lean in and now he's got ears to hear. You see, he's watching these guys handle pain. The other reason I think he gets to the place where he says, what must I do to be saved? It's because he's at the end of his own rope. I mean, two verses above this, he is about to commit suicide. He is at the end of his rope. And so many people come to the cross because they got nowhere else to go. I mean, couldn't we just line up testimony after testimony after testimony after testimony? And it's when people get to the end of their rope when they go, okay, God, I got nowhere else to go. So here I am. What must I do to be saved? Because I've tried everything else on my own and it's all lacking. And can I just say this? If you're at the end of your rope, it could actually be God's grace upon you and not his wrath. It could be his grace upon you that you're walking through the trials that you're going through so that you can realize that you need more than you to make it. That it's not until you cling only unto him that the only hope in a hopelessly broken world is Jesus. And so maybe he's gonna let you walk through the valley of the shadow of death so that you will know that you've got to cling to him. So not only does he witness how these guys handle pain, but he's also at the end of his rope. And then he sees God move in a miraculous way. He sees what God does on behalf of these other men and he says, I've got to have some of that. So we ask the question, what must I do to be saved? Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Can I ask you this? Who's watching you? Who's watching your life? You know what the answer is for most of you? You have no

idea. This was not the evangelism strategy of the early church. This wasn't like the original Kairos ministry. Alright, here's what we'll do. We'll get arrested and then we'll pray the walls down on the prison and then lead everybody to Jesus. No. They were just singing hymns and praying to God because they could. Do you realize who's watching you? You don't even know. Let me tell you, your children are watching you walk through pain and walk through strife and walk through unanswered prayers and your boss is watching you walk through difficult times and walk through a bad review and your spouse is watching you walk through tough times at work. There are eyes on you all the time and you have no idea who has eyes to see and ears to hear. And let me ask you this, what if that person that you don't even know they're watching you yet, what if they were to just come to you at work tomorrow and say, sir or ma'am, what must I do to be saved? What would you say? You better not be. You go to church love 22, he'll tell you uh-uh. I mean if you bring him I will. But you better be ready to, you better always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. Always be prepared. If you want to memorize a verse memorize this next verse. So if anybody ever asked you what must I do to be saved you can answer this, verse 31, and they said believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. That's a simple answer isn't it? That you believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Now the problem with English language and especially in the South and America is that word believe. Because everybody in the South, oh I believe in Jesus. I mean come on. I live in North Florida which is essentially South Georgia. Who doesn't believe in Jesus in college football? Right? And sunburns. I mean who doesn't? Come on. I believe in that like I believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. But the word in Greek to believe is pastuo. It means to, it means to believe, to commit, to trust your whole life into. That's what it means. Like there's believing that and then there's believing in. For instance I believe that the University of Florida has a football team. I believe that is true. I do not believe in the Gators at all. Clear? I am not a follower of them. I'm not a disciple of them. I don't care that their

quarterback loves Jesus. Praise God I'll see him in heaven. All right? But when he reads his Bible it's written in red and black. Praise God. Amen. All right. So that's what I'm talking about. So they say believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. It's a short phrase to describe penal substitutionary atonement. That when Christ Jesus went to the cross, he paid for our sin debt, that you and I have sinned against an almighty God. And when you sin against an almighty and everlasting God because of his justice, because he is just, it requires an everlasting punishment. That punishment is eternal separation from almighty God. We call that hell. And yet God loved us so much that not only is he just, but the Bible says that he is the justifier. And he loves us so much that he sent his one and only or his only begotten son that whosoever would believe or trust or commit or surrender their life to Jesus, that they would not perish but have everlasting life. Second Corinthians 5.21 says, and God made him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made his righteousness. That we get the righteousness of Christ, the right standing before God, and he took the full weight of our sin on the cross. And so in one sentence they say, you believe in that, you believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. And then they go on to add another line, you and your whole household. Now, this doesn't mean that just because dad gets saved,

everybody else automatically inherits salvation, right? And again, there's a lot of people in the South who believe that. I mean, they really do. You ask them, are you a Christian? Of course I'm a Christian, right? My daddy was a deacon at my church. Well, I don't care. That doesn't mean anything, right? Just because you hang out in the church doesn't make you a Christian? Just because your daddy's a Christian doesn't make you a Christian? You know what he's talking about here? That Paul and Silas had such confidence that this jailer, not only would he surrender his life to Jesus, but then he would lead his family in the gospel to surrender individually, surrender their lives to the lordship of Christ. I believe it's just an indictment on us men, men that we've got to lead our homes, lead our homes. Dads, husbands, God has instituted you as the head of your home. And that does not mean that you abdicate the spiritual and religious stuff to your wife. Absolutely not. I found this study that was done about 10 years ago. And man, I could really bore you to death with statistics,

but let me just read one of the lines in it. They followed thousands and thousands of families and different kinds of families. They followed families where the mom and the dad both went to church. And again, I don't know how you measure if somebody surrendered their life to the lordship of Christ. So when you're just getting empirical evidence, all you can really measure is just the attendance at church. Now, I know that attendance at church doesn't equal salvation, right? Hanging out in church doesn't make you a Christian any more than sticking your head in the oven makes you a biscuit, all right? That's not how it works. But if you're just gonna measure some of the, you know, what you're doing with your life, it goes through all these categories. If mom and dad both go, if mom doesn't go, but dad goes, and if mom goes, but dad doesn't go, and all of this sort of stuff. And the bottom line was this. It says, in short, if a father does not go to church, no matter how faithful his wife's devotion, only one child in 50 will become regular worshipers. But if a father does go regularly, regardless of the practice of the mother, between 2 3rds and 3 4ths of their children will become churchgoers.

Think about that. In fact, the crazy thing is, if you just look at the empirical evidence, if the mom and dad go together, about 33% of the children would be qualified as what we would call just fully devoted followers of Christ. But if the dad worships Jesus like crazy and the mom doesn't practice it at all, that number jumps from 33 to 44%. So quit bringing your wives. No, don't do that. But, listen, men, you lead. You lead. You lead. And let me tell you how you lead. By loving. By laying your life down. By praying over your children. By bringing them to church. By praying for your wife and with your wife. Let me give you a little trick, okay? Let me tell you how to pray for your wife. Because I know some of you get all embarrassed and you're like, well, I don't know how to pray and she's more spiritual than I am. Well, of course she is, all right? But let me tell you how to pray for her. You go, baby, can I pray for you? She'll say, yes.

Well, what do you need me to pray for you about? And she's gonna say some stuff. And you hold her hand and you say, dear God, and then you just say that same stuff. And when you say amen, there's gonna be a tear in her eye. And you're gonna hear Marvin Gaye playing in the background, okay? That's what's gonna happen. Lead, lead, lead, and tuck your kids into bed, and talk about their heart, and pick you some Bible verses to just start praying over your children, and lead. And when you get out of church, when you go pick your kids up, and you say, what'd you talk about tonight? Guess what they talk about? The same thing we're talking about in here. Do you know that? Have you picked up on that yet? I hope so. Guess why we did that? So you'd know what they were talking about. Because I know, I know, we reach a ton of people who aren't familiar with Bible, and Bible study, and all that. Praise God, we built this place for you. But you know, and tonight, you could talk with them about Paul and Silas being in prison, and about singing praises unto God, and about God freeing them from prison, and you could actually talk with them about that stuff. And let me talk to your wives, because I know if you're here, man, I mean, we'll preach it to the choir. Praise God, be back next week. Be here during football season, all right?

We got a lot of services, and the Holy Spirit invented this thing called DVR, okay? Use it for your own sanctification. So be here. And wives, if he's not here, can I tell you the worst thing that you can do? The worst thing that you can do is go home from church, and tell them, if you ever start a sentence like this, well, Pastor Jobe said, mmm, my goodness gracious. The Bible says, wives, submit your husbands as unto the Lord. So let me just tell you how he hears that. That you would leave his house, and come here to this house, and sit under the teaching of another man, okay? That's already got him bothered a little bit, and I don't blame him. You wanna lead your husband to Christ, let me tell you how you lead him to Christ, all This is free advice. The more you come to church, the closer your walk with Jesus, the more your husband should benefit as a husband. He should look at you, and your involvement here at the Church of 1122, and your involvement in your relationship with Jesus, and he should be one of the primary beneficiaries. And then that brother, look, he's like a puppy, all right? I mean, if you reward good behavior, he will repeat, all right? Amen, fellas? Amen, right? And what will begin to tick in his head is, hey, wait a minute, the more she's there, the better things are here, and I'm telling you, and guess what, ladies? You're not the point. It's not about you. Now, bring him here, and I will wear him out, okay? I promise, I'll wear him out, and I'll promise you, I'll talk to him about how he needs to pursue you, and love you, and lay his life down for you, and I'm telling you, you hold him, and I'll hit him, all right? Get him here, and I'll wear him out, but don't you, don't you, you respect him, you respect

him, you respect him. Every man in here was built to lead, and they were lead, they will lead where they feel most competent to lead. So you go home and say, the only thing that would make that church better, if you were sitting there, I'm gonna tell you, the only, that thing is missing, it's missing you, and your leadership, and your service, regardless of what you believe, all right? But men, you lead, and so here's what this jailer does. He leads his own home, because it says, you and your household, verse 32, and they spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house. So you know what that means, that he went, and he got his whole family, and he took responsibility for getting them in an environment where they were hear the word of the Lord. Did you hear that, husbands? He took responsibility to get his family into the environment where they would hear the word of the Lord, verse 33, and he took them the same hour of the night, and he washed their wounds. I mean, think about this for a second, you want to talk about not fair, I mean, Paul still got a bloody nose, and he's leading people to Jesus, all right? You want to talk about understanding that he's not the point, that it's seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and hey, all right, somebody, I still got some open wounds, and I got a bloody nose, and I think my arm's broken, but I'm not gonna miss an opportunity for the gospel? And so after this guy gets saved, then he's abandoning up their wounds, so he took them in the same hour of the night, and he washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family, there was a public declaration of their faith immediately there, 34. And then he brought them up into the house, now remember, these are prisoners, and he brings them into his house, and he sent food before. for him and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he believed in God. They threw a celebration for his salvation.

You know what, that's what I loved about our beach baptism celebration. What, didn't that feel biblical? I mean, after we baptized people, and you know what else I loved? I loved that you brought people from all over the country. I mean, we should get all those airline miles, Church of 1122, because y'all were flying in people from everywhere. And I was meeting people on the beach that you brought in from, I mean, all over the East Coast, West Coast, North, South, all over the place. And then we gathered on the beach to do what the Bible says here and rejoice along with their entire household that he believed in God, verse 35. But when it was day, the magistrate sent the police saying, let those men go. And the jailer reported these words to Paul saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go, therefore come out now and go in peace. Now, what would you do if you were a prisoner and you prayed the walls down, and then you led the jailer to Christ, baptized him, ate some fried chicken at his house, and then the next morning, the magistrate sends word,

all right, you can go. See, I'd leave, all right? At first, I'd be like, God, did you love my faithfulness that the walls fell down, but you didn't tell me to go, so I didn't go yet, but now the magistrates tell me to go, so I'm gonna go. Why? Because it's about me. But what does Paul do? Paul doesn't go because it's still not about him. Again, his circumstances are not king. His circumstances were not king when they were bad circumstances, he didn't complain or argue, but also, his circumstances aren't king when everything's looking up and sunshiny. But Paul isn't most concerned about himself, he's concerned about what God has called him to do. Verse 37. But Paul said to them, they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison, and do they now throw us out secretly? No. Let them come themselves and take us out.

The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid, and when they heard that they were Roman citizens, you see, it was illegal to punish a Roman citizen without a trial, so the magistrate knew that Paul could get the magistrate fired. And so when they show up and say, okay, because they figured out they were Roman citizens, they say, all right, you guys can go now. Paul's like, we ain't going anywhere. You better come here and apologize to me. Now, at first, it looks like Paul is being prideful, but in fact, Paul's doing the same thing he did when he was singing in prison. He's understanding, it's not about me. This isn't about me and my pride. You know what is more important than me and my pride and even me and my freedom? The name and the renown of Jesus Christ. I am not gonna have the entire town of Philippi think that being a Christian means that you're a troublemaker because we were innocent. We didn't do anything wrong. We were beaten without a trial. We were imprisoned without a trial. And now you're just gonna go, oops, our bad. No, no, no, no. I understand that this could have negative implications for the church that I'm trying to plant in this city.

And for the sake of the gospel, even if this lands me in jail for more days, you are not gonna throw me out secretly. But publicly, you need to tell all of these people that we were breaking no laws. It was actually for the sake of the gospel. Paul was more concerned about the reputation of the church than his own skin. So 39, so they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and they asked them to leave the city. Verse 40, and so they went out of the prison and they visited Lydia, remember her from two weeks ago. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and they departed. So think about this. Only a sovereign God could take the evil intentions of evil people like a magistrate or like the owners of this slave girl that cast false accusations against Paul and Silas. Those were evil moves by evil men. And what did God do with those evil acts, those evil intentions and those evil deeds? He just led a whole family to Christ. See, only a sovereign God could take even evil things done against you and use them for his own glory. And believing that Jesus Christ and not your circumstances is king, it results in amazing, God-confident contentment.

So the place where Paul is in prison is in the city of Philippi. Later, so Paul gets out of prison, he's gonna get arrested again in a few months for us. And he's gonna write a letter to the church in Philippi from prison. And Paul's gonna say some crazy stuff in this letter we call Philippians. Paul's gonna say stuff like in Philippians 1, 12 through 14, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. And what had happened to Paul, he was locked up in prison. And so Paul's gonna write back to the place where he was originally arrested. He's gonna write to the church that's taken off there. And he's gonna say, hey, this thing that's happened. to me these false accusations and me getting locked up in prison it's really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ in other words you put me in prison I'll just lead all the guards to Christ to verse 14 and most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear you know what Paul saying here in Philippians chapter 1 hey Church at Philippi don't worry about it it's not about me I'm not the point but the gospel is Paul writes in Philippians 1 21 for me to live as Christ and to die is gain I mean what do you do with a guy like this what do you do with a guy that actually believes that Jesus is his Lord and not his circumstances because in town after town after town they say Paul you got to shut up with the gospel if you don't shut up we're gonna put you in

prison put me in prison I'll just lead all your guards to Jesus give me a hymnal though cuz I kind of like to sing and they're like well never mind we're gonna kill you and he goes praise God kill me cuz cuz to live is Christ but to die is gain it's even better that I can shake off this earthly body and be face to face with my king what do you people are like yeah what do you do with that guy there's not even a category for that guy it's like the world tries to grab hold of him and they're not even handles for me to live as Christ and the guy die is gain in Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 and 4 Paul says this do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourself others you mean like jailers in Philippi yeah others like that so if it's about your freedom or his salvation I'm gonna count his salvation more important than my freedom he says in humility count others as more significant than yourself let each of you look not only at his own interests but also the interests of others Paul's gonna say back to this town in Philippi hey you're not the point Paul writes these words in Philippians 2 14 one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible do everything without complaining or arguing and when your grandma tells you that you're like come on grandma really I mean what are you gonna complain about you know I'm saying but when Paul tells you that he wrote that from prison beaten with rods shipwrecked we're gonna get to in about a year from now Paul gets shipwrecked and he winds up on an island and on the island after he's shipwrecked and he's still him he's still chained up he gets bitten by a snake I mean at some point aren't you like come on Lord really but do everything without complaining or arguing why because you're not the point and so when you want to complain and when you don't want to argue you know why because you think it's all about you and I think it's all about me and so you see if the thing that I want to complain about the thing I want to argue about let's see if it falls in that yep it falls in the everything category dang it so I can't complain or argue about that do everything without complaining or arguing or Philippians chapter 4 he says this he says I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have

plenty I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation Paul says I know the secret of being content in any and every situation you would pay you would give all of your money to know that secret you would sell everything you have to know that secret the world is dying to know that secret you know how I know because going to the going to Barnes & Noble the largest section is self-help books right they want to try to tell you here's how you here's four steps to contentment and then they come up with a volume two if you have to write a volume two of your self-help book you're a failure that's what that means he says he says I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well-fed or hungry whether living in plenty or it won't and here's the secret that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength that verse is not a verse that helps Tim Tebow score touchdowns alright that verse is a verse that talks about the secret of being content is knowing Jesus as your king and not your circumstances whether in want or in plenty whether well-fed or hungry Jesus is your king not your circumstances you know I was I was just thinking and praying about how to close the service and you know what I began to think about story after story after story of men and at our church where at one point in their life it looked like everything was out of control and yet actually God was working in that situation and God was never out of control. And he actually used the evil deeds of evil people to lead families to Christ, or he actually used really just death notices from doctors and miraculously saved and miraculously healed and gave new life. And I was thinking about maybe, what story in our church do I use? I mean, what is that one illustration, that real life illustration that drives it home, where from our perspective in the midst of the darkness,

it looks like things are totally out of control. And yet when you get the right perspective, you could see that God was totally in control. And then I felt like the Lord just kind of spoke to me and said, hey, how about the cross? How about the cross? Because I'll bet you, if you could gather up the disciples, can't really, couldn't really get Judas, but you get to 11 and you say, hey, what were the darkest days of your ministry? When you were following Jesus, when you were being discipled by Jesus, as you before, but even before the Holy Spirit fell, or maybe even after that, and you planted churches, at what point in your life did it look like it was dark? You were in your midnight hour and you thought, I don't know, it looks pretty hopeless. I think every one of them would have said, when our rabbi, when our Messiah, when our King, when Jesus was arrested and tried and was hanging on a cross, and we were thinking, I mean, it literally got dark. The whole earth turned dark. And we thought, it's over, it's over. How can you claim to be God and then die? It must be over. God has lost complete control of everything. And you know what we know about the gospel? That God didn't lose control. That God didn't lose control at all.

In fact, what we thought was the darkest moment in human history was actually God's master plan, was God's master plan to redeem the world. So look, I don't know your situation. I know that there is some real pain that some of you are in. What I would encourage you to do is I would encourage you to look at the cross. Your life may feel out of control, your situation might feel out of control, your marriage, your finances, your household, your job, whatever it is might feel out of control, but I know because of the cross and the resurrection that God is in control and that your circumstances are not king. That Jesus is king. And when you bend your knee to King Jesus, when you surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ then the result of that is he may not change any of your circumstances and you may not need him to. Because he will give you a God confident contentment and his name is Jesus. Would you please stand and pray with me? God, your word tells us, that your word tells us that we are valuable to you, that we are more valuable than the rest of this creation. God, your word tells us that you, that you wanna be known as our heavenly father. God, your word tells us that you demonstrated your love for us in this,

that while we were yet still sinners, that Christ died for us. God, we're so human. We're so human, and we so often look at our immediate circumstances and surrounding. God, we're so full of ourself. We really do most often think we're the point. God, would you please forgive us of that? Holy spirit, would you cleanse us from that? God, may our attitude be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself. God, would you help us to empty ourselves and not be full of ourselves? Would you empty us, God, so that we can be filled with you? And God, we beg, we beg for a change in circumstances. We do, God. Lord, give people jobs, and give people babies, and give people healthy marriages, and God, bless them like crazy, or break them, break us. Lord, whatever it takes to draw us unto you, so that no matter what, whether it's a flood of blessing or pain, that we can say, like the old hymn writer said, it is well worth it. With my soul Because having you is more important than any temporary thing in this world

God would you sink that anchor deep in our soul this very night? We prayed in the good strong name of Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Hey every week we respond to the gospel we respond by bringing our tithes and offerings to the offering boxes around the Side of the worship center to the giving kiosk in the back One of the things that I love about our church What I love about you is we respond by coming to the altar and just laying some of those circumstances down And every week we have staff and elders and deacons and people that are ready to pray over you and pray with you and join With you wherever you are And we also respond to the gospel by joining our voices together And we're gonna sing a hymn an old hymn written a couple hundred years ago and it was written by a man Who lost his family? On a on a boat ride over the ocean It's called it is well with my soul And he penned these words On a boat ride back over the ocean and essentially the same place where he lost his family in a shipwreck And what he can say is what we learned from Paul and Silas That when Jesus is your King and not your circumstances then you can be able to say with a humble God-inspired Confidence and contentment that it is well with my soul. So let us join together and sing