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Acts Series Part 20: Faith at Midnight: Paul and Silas freed from prison · Growing Together in the Gospel

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Paul and Silas had been following God's leading.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: In Philippi, Lydia welcomed the gospel and opened her home.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: But when Paul freed an enslaved girl who had been suffering from an oppressive spirit, her owners lost their source of income.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Their anger led to Paul and Silas being beaten and imprisoned.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Obedience to God had brought them into a very painful situation.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: In this story, we're reminded that the proof of God's presence is not the absence of attack.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus does not mean nothing will come against us.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: His grace can sustain us, though, when it does.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: At midnight, with their feet secured in stocks, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Their wounds were real, their circumstances were unresolved, and the other prisoners were listening.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: They worshiped before anything changed.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: How do we worship when life feels like midnight?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we are uncomfortable, confused, or unable to see what comes next.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: We begin by carrying the truth of God's goodness in our hearts.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Paul and Silas had no hymn book, no screen, and certainly no music group.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: They carried something, however, into that prison that the prison could not take away.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: They had practiced praise prior to being placed in prison.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's listen to Dean.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna pick up in chapter in verse 16 of chapter 16, where it says, Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: So there's Paul and there's Silas, but there's a we now.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: So the writer of this book is the person, Luke, Dr.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Luke.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote the Gospel of Luke, then he wrote Acts, and he now joins the scene.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: He's been researching and following what's been going on, and he's recorded it.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And at this point, he starts to say we because he experienced this himself.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: He's joined in with them and he's a part of this group.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so he says that they've they've gone, they've gone all over the place, they come to a place called Philippi, but we, Luke's part of this, that he saw this first hand.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: It says, On the Sabbath, in this place called Philippi, we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: We sat down and began to speak to the woman who had gathered there.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: She was a worshipper of God.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: And she persuaded us.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which he predicted the future.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: She kept this up for many days.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: At that moment the spirit left her.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: They brought them before the magistrates and said, These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet to the stocks.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: At once all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison door open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, because he thought the prisoners had escaped.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: But Paul shouted, Don't harm yourself, we're all here.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: He then brought them out and asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Then immediately they and he and all his household were baptized.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole household.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't the first time that we've found in Acts that the proof of the presence of God doesn't mean an absence of attack.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: The proof of God's work in your life doesn't mean that everything goes easy, that actually there is a difficulty that can come when we're trying to follow God.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: I've noticed something in my life, maybe you've noticed this too.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: My childhood punishments are actually my adult goals.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Going to bed early, being put down for a nap, not having to leave the house, don't go to the party.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: These things that once you really should look forward to it, and now you're like, oh, I don't know.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds really good.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds like a nice weekend to me.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: First time I remember thinking back to when it was a real excitement to stay up late.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Staying up, I remember the first time I wanted to stay up till midnight, to see that moment when you're looking at a digital clock where the PM disappeared.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then getting everything ready and prepared, having games to play and things to eat and drink to get to that moment, and ask my parents whether I can, and staying up, thinking it'd be the coolest thing in the world to watch the moment where we get to midnight, zero, zero, zero, zero on the clock.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember getting there and seeing the digital clock and sitting there watching it, and there it was 11:59, and then it happened.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Midnight.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it was the most disappointing thing in the world.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: The PM disappeared, and that was it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: The most anti-climatic moment.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: All that change was it was all zeros.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was it.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing exciting.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: There are times, I think, as we walk with Jesus where something similar happens, where we expect a change, but we're looking forward to a dramatic moment.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: We want something brig and impressive to happen, a whole change of direction, something that, if we just enter into it, will change our lives forever.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then as we get older, we we start to change how we think about change.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: We start to not expect it as much.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: We start to live a few more years, become a bit more jaded, and there comes a point where we stop expecting it because we've seen 1159 turn to midnight enough times that it's no longer exciting.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: New Year's is perhaps the best example of this.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Not many people stay up as you get older, you stop staying up because you think it's just the same.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: They sing the song old Lang Zion, then you've got to watch the fireworks, then in the morning you've got to tidy up the mess, we just go to bed because we've seen it before, and nothing's any different each year.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's disappointing.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: In this book, in this passage, we read about that moment a bit later on in the passage where it says, suddenly, there's great moments, suddenly, that's what we want, suddenly there's an earthquake, suddenly the foundation shakes, suddenly the gates fly open, and that's what we look for, isn't it?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: These moments where God suddenly we're going along, and then suddenly God will step in and everything will change in a moment and we'll go in a different direction.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Doors fly open, chains fall off, we walk free, and we have this childlike expectation, and it sits with us, and even now reading this, perhaps it awakens in us that that sense, that childlike, yes, this is possible.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, maybe he can do something, maybe something can change in this moment.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe this time will be different, maybe this time it will be the right place for me, maybe this will be the right person, maybe I'll get myself together and sort myself out.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: But if you notice that there is a actually a stopping of the momentum here.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Paul and Timothy have been going on well, they've been used by God and sent by him, and they've been making big waves in the things that they've been doing.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Timothy joins the team, and in the first verse we read that Timothy, uh his father is a Greek, and so he chooses to get circumcised.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: We saw in the last chapter he doesn't need to do this, but he does it so that he can win trust with the Jewish people and earn a hearing with them.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: It makes me sort of wonder how many missionaries or pastors would join the job if that was one of the part of the job description.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: This man is committed, he's committed to the cause, and so Timothy joins this man on fire for God, and they're they're working together, and then they go to different places and they're proclaiming the word, then they come to Philippi.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And in Philippi it it's clear there's no synagogue because you needed ten men to build a synagogue, and these people don't have a synagogue, they have a place of prayer.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so God doesn't care about our rules, and so he goes, Well, I don't have ten men, but I've got one woman.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: I've got a woman called Lydia, and so I'll work with her.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so Lydia becomes the foundation of this church in Philippi, and she comes to know Jesus and she discovers who he is.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's this woman with the spirit who's annoying Paul.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like what she's saying is, okay, these men, these are servants of the most high, proclaiming the way to be saved.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, some people think the emphasis is actually what she's saying is they are servants of a most high God, and they are teaching a way to be saved, although it doesn't come across in our English, but in the Greek it's almost that emphasis, which is why Paul takes issue with it.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, we're proclaiming something better, a God above all gods, the way, not a way.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so he turns and casts out this demon that's empowering her, and then the people lose their business.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is dramatic stuff.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And they lose their business, so they drag them before the magistrates, they beat them, they flog them, then they throw them in prison, and everything comes to an abrupt stop.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: At least that's how we we read it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: They're going on well, they had momentum, and then they got brought to a full stop.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: It all comes to an end, and they're sat in this prison cell.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: They had great momentum, things were changing, they'd been sent out, they'd been used by God, but now it all stops.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Then we read, as they are sat there, about midnight, the darkest part of the night, in this cell that doesn't have windows, the only air that comes in is when the door is opened and shut, in this inner cell, actually more like a dungeon, no light, probably a sewer running through it where they would dispose bodies so they could float off and they wouldn't have to deal with them.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: This place that is dark and miserable, this place where there is no hope.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: They are put there.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it says in verse 25, about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Ever been in that kind of place, maybe not a dungeon as such, but in a place of confusion where you thought you were doing what God wanted and it comes to an abrupt stop.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Where you're doing the best you could and yet there was opposition that that halted you.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Where perhaps, I don't know, you're raising your children the best way you can and yet that they aren't listening, and they want to do things that you you know aren't wise, and they keep choosing different paths, where you are you're surrounded perhaps, but you're you're lonely, wondering if if people recognize you, you're stuck, and it's frustrating, and it's disappointing, and it's it feels like midnight.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: That middle where you're equal distance from the light you once knew, and also from the light that might possibly come.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's that middle point where you don't know where you are.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And there they are in the prison, uncomfortable.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: They've been beaten and flogged, their backs are raw, they've been put in this place, they can't sleep, they can't lie down, they can't get comfortable.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And what do they do in that place?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: What do we do when there's nothing you can do?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: They start singing.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And not just any song.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've got a bit of dancing queen or abba stuff off the radio, catchy jingles.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: It says they start singing hymns.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: At midnight at that point, they're praying and they're worshiping.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love the little note that it says, and others were listening.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: You bet they were.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: They've probably been people who've been in that cell and they thought, we have never heard anyone sing in this place.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: We've heard moans, we have heard tears, we have heard cries of agony and pleas for mercy.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: But we have never heard anyone sing in that place.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: They are listening.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: No one sings here.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is not a place for joy.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is wildly inappropriate.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them are going to die, and they hear these voices praising God.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: These men don't wait for a service to praise, they don't wait for their weekly pickup, they can't catch up online, they haven't even got scripture in their hands, there's no fellowship apart from one another, and yet they lift their voices to sing at midnight.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: How is it possible that they can do that?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Some of us know some songs, some of us have learnt some.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the the best way to learn a song, you can learn it by reading it, you can learn it by having the words in front of you.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: But the ones that stick with us are the ones that you know by heart.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: The things that you you remember and you're not sure why you remember, but you just do.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like I could tell you, G979 WGV.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the number plate of my mum and dad's first car when I was, I don't know, five years old.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know my number plate now, but but I can remember that.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it weird?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's some things that are just in there and you don't know why they're in there.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: 01202-531406, my parents' landline when I was, I don't have a landline anymore, but I know the numbers still.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's in there.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: I know them by heart.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why, but they're stuck in there.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Some of those are really random and pointless, but but there are things in there.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And there is a point where God where we need to remember enough that it's it's instinctive, that it's in there and and we've remembered it and we've we've ingrained it in ourselves, and we've taken it onto a point that it's in there for moments that come just like this.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because these moments will come for all of us.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: To know something by heart, to have something such a part of us that it comes out in these moments.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's what these men have.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: They are able to sing at midnight because there is a song in their heart ready to be sung.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: They have remembered God's goodness that they saw in the light, so it is ready for them when it comes to the dark.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Ever do that when you wake up in the middle of the night and perhaps you you need to go for a drink or something, you go downstairs and there's no lights on.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you do that in your house and it's fine, you know where the end of the bed is, so you don't bang yourself, you know you know where the light switch are, so you can reach for that, you know where the shoes are left, so you can dodge them and get out.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: But if you go to someone else's house and you wake up and you go and get out in the middle of the night, and it is like a bumper car session or bumping into it, because you somehow in the darkness, you in your house, you're familiar, you can memorize it so you know where to go.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we see with Paul and Silas.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: They are in a dark house, but they have learnt the way, they can navigate the past so they can find their way through and get through this moment in the darkest season.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's how they can worship at midnight.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: They can point and they can point to God's goodness when they cannot see God's goodness.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: They can praise his goodness even when it isn't clear because it's too dark to see it.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: They've got it memorized, they've got it ingrained in them, and so they worship him.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: They have a song in their heart that they lift up.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: They they perhaps they come to the scriptures, bless the Lord, oh my soul.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: All that is within me, bless his holy name, bless the Lord, oh my soul, forget not his benefits.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: There are lots of things that they could remember.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: They could remember the frustration, they could remember the injustice, they shouldn't be there, this shouldn't be happening to them.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: They could remember, well, hang on, God, you sent us here, and now we end up in prison and and become bitter about it.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: They could remember all that, but they what they choose to remember is his goodness.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: He who forgives all my sins, heals my diseases, he who redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love, he who satisfies my desires with good things, he who gives me hope when I don't feel hopeful.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: I have it in my heart, I know it by heart.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: I know it instinctively.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Not because it's the time to remember it, that's what we do when we gather, we remind it, but I have taken it and it is a part of me.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: They sang because they knew it by heart.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't have a band to lead them, didn't have words on the screen or a hymn book.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that flowed from them.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: They did it in the day.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I imagine they'd learn to do this in the day so they can do it at night.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So the five P's, practice praise prior to being placed in prison.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's what we've got to do.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone, this is the this thing, we talked about this: that we are, we are not on, we're not cruising, we are we are battling, we are fighting.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: There is an enemy that will come.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: There will be seasons, maybe not thrown into prison, although who knows, there are brothers and sisters who find that.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: But there is something in us where we have to take these weapons, we have to learn the praise, we have to learn the words, we have to learn the goodness in such a way that when the darkness comes, it doesn't throw us.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: But we just say, it's I can't see it at the moment, but I know it's still there.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Just like at midnight, it's not the sun is gone, it's just you can't see it at the moment.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: But morning is coming.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: A new day is coming.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And as it says in Lamentations, because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, his compassions never fail.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: They are new every morning.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Great is your faithfulness.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: I say to myself, the Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for him.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: They are singing at midnight because they're waiting for the morning, and in the morning come new mercies.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: In the morning becomes a reminder of his grace.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: And at midnight, when they can't see it, they're memorizing it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Some of us memorize the wrong things.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: We recite all the things that went wrong.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: We recite, we've got to master our memory.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: You can recite, you can rehearse all the things that shouldn't have happened.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: But if you would remember, if you would remember his goodness, if you would recite it to yourself.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: We thought about again this yesterday, that if you would repeat his word to you, you are beloved.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Great is his faithfulness, his compassions never fail.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you recite that, then when the moment comes, you find that you are not alone, that you have all that you need to endure those seasons.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: These things stick with us.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: I've had the privilege of going into different places, people who have been incredibly sick, those who are diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's, and you sit with them and you discuss things, and we all have that experience where we have to go back to the time where they're they're speaking about, where they can remember things.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've got an auntie at the moment, uh Margot, who's very much like that.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: She can't tell you what she ate five minutes ago, but she'll talk about her childhood and all the things that happened and all the things that she did, and it's crystal clear to her.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that so often comes out of these people is as you speak to them, if you start singing, there are songs that are ingrained in them.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Great is thy faithfulness.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh God, my father, there is no shadow of turning with thee.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: And suddenly their lips start moving and they join in.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's something, it's just in them, and it comes out and it holds them and it keeps them morning by morning.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: New mercies, I see.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it stirs them.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: It shows the power of these songs, the power of praise.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: It gets in us and it holds us, it keeps us.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And when you know God, when you've learnt to remember it in that way, you don't need the sheet music, you don't need the words, you don't need the band.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: You can be wherever you are and know it by heart.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Not memorizing my pain.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Paul could have done that, but he doesn't remember that.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Years later, in fact, ten years later, Paul's gonna write a letter.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's called the letter to the Philippians, because it was written to the people in Philippi.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: And in that letter, he starts it and he says, I write to you, Paul.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm writing to you, and he says, I thank my God every time I remember you with joy.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: So he's writing to the Philippians and he goes, I remember that time where that annoying woman got me in trouble, and I had to go to prison, and we had to sit in there in that prison cell all night.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: But nowhere in the letter does he mention what happened.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, what he remembers is I remember with joy.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: I remember that I remember Lydia and her whole family being transformed.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the jailer, I remember his life and all that strategy.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I remember with joy all that God did in you.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Even then, Paul is remembering what is good.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: He's teaching himself, yeah, there was that moment in prison, but God's goodness prevailed.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I think of you, I don't remember how they beat me and how they flogged me and left me for dead.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the outcome.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the grace of God.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: I remember that He was enough, and at midnight we were able to sing, and that carried us through, that we worshiped.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're worshiping and they're praising God.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's a powerful picture.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then it happens.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Suddenly, there's an earthquake, the chains fall off, and and then they they're free to go.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if I was writing this story, what I would do, and if I was part of this story, along with Paul, Silas, and Dean.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Paul and Silas are sat there, we're singing and worshiping, the chains fall off.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, let's do it! Off we go.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: See you later, lads, and off we go, and we escape.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And yet that isn't what happens.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Something completely different takes place.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: The chains fall off, the doors fly open.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: We thought about this before.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: An open door, there you go.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Surely this is God's work.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: He did it with Peter, do you remember?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Angel opened it, opened the door, and off he went.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: So Paul and Silas, same thing, doors are opened, time to go, lads.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: But these are a different type of person.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know that kid in school, when you have a lesson and you get to the end and you hadn't done your homework and you think, I've got away with it.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And there's always that kid and said, Miss, are you gonna collect in our homework today?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, why didn't you mention it?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that that is Paul and Silas in this moment.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: The doors fly open, they are free to go.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: The jailer notices, and he's he recognises I am in trouble, and so he gets his sword to take his life because that's gonna be the end of his story anyway, for failing to keep them in prison.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so they shout out, don't worry, we're still missed, we're still here, we haven't got it, we're good, we're we're we're we're we're not going anywhere.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: The miracle, I don't think, is the doors opening and and and the chains falling off.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: The miracle is when that happens, they stay put, they don't leave, they stay where they are because it's almost as if they thought that you can look at it and go, Well, people have thrown you in there, you and you've got to get out.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: God's trying to get you out.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: But Paul and Silas, it's not that they're trying to get out, they brought God in with them.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's why they can sing and praise, because it's not that they got through.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: But God got brought in with them.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so they can praise God in there.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: And when the opportunity comes to leave, well, why would we go out?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because God's in here with us.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: We've got He's already on the inside.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have to get out to find God.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: We've already found Him.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And for every single one of you going through trial and difficulty, and I don't say this lightly because I know how painful it is.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: If we can make light of this story, and I love the joy in it because it enlightens it, but this is not an easy experience.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: And yet, and yet they have learned that when God is in there with me, there is something powerful about that.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: There are people who will be diagnosed with illness and go through suffering.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can see that you bring God with you into it, your focus cannot so often be our focus can be God get me out of this, help me to escape this.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: But if you can see that you've brought God in with you, then suddenly that transforms your experience.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: That when you're sat in that place and you're being treated, there are people around you, and you've got God with you in that place.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: You have a chance to do something different, to proclaim something different.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: James, the brother of Jesus, puts it like this: He says, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever you face trials of many kinds, now we often say consider pure joy because when you look back on it, you'll see how good it was.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: When you're in it, you can't see it, but when you come out of it, you'll look back and say, That's fine, because God brought me through.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't say that.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say when you look back on trials, he says when you face them, as you go into them.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the that's a different kind of message.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: All of us can understand, yeah, I've been through some bad stuff, but I appreciate what God taught me through it, and we can all probably testify to that in some way.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: But this is another level.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let that person develop perseverance and perseverance finish its work, that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: That as you face these trials, you will find you lack nothing, for God goes with you into that place.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the only difference between midnight and morning is how you choose to see it.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And isn't that the case?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: I remember we used to stay up to midnight on New Year's Day, and if we'd celebrate midnight, then there's always that joke, okay, oh, good morning.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because it is.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Midnight is the morning.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it depends how you see it.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: You can see it as midnight, the darkest middle part of the night, or you can see it as the morning, as the start of something new, a chance for God's mercy to break in.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: You see it differently.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the only difference.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: And James says, consider it.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Try and get your head into a mindset where you can see midnight as morning.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you can, then there is a way that God might use you that is so powerful.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: So powerful, like this jailer who falls in, doesn't even question it, but it's just so astounding.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: If he's had a jailbreak before, he's never seen a jail door open up and people stay in the prison cell.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: He can't even fathom that why would you be doing this?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: So he falls down and says, This God that I've just heard you singing about, he must be something special.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: He must be something different because you haven't gone anywhere.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So please tell me how can I know him?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: How can I be saved?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: How can I discover him for myself?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so they teach him, he washes them, you see this change in demeanour, he cares for them, he provides for them, and then this whole household come to know this same God.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe as you look back on your life, you you ran out of every prison cell that opened.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe every trial that you ever went through, you just prayed, God, get me out of this.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's instinctual.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna don't want to make anyone feel guilty for that.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: But when you see it coming, when you look at what you have to face or what might come your way, if you could see that God is going with you into it, if you stop thinking that surviving is success, because you can get through anything.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: God is with you, you can get through anything.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: But if in the middle of it you can discover God, if you can see that the miracle isn't you surviving, but it's how you get through it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: The miracle isn't the door being opened and being set free, the miracle is being able to sing before that happened and being able to stay after the opportunity has come because you know that God is with you.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: The miracle is when you can keep your smile, the miracle is when you don't compromise your character, the miracle is that you don't become bitter or hardened.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: But you realize that God is still with me.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: That just because I cannot see the sun doesn't mean that it isn't coming.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't just make it.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't just make it, I made something of it.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: God does not want you to leave any situation empty-handed, but he also doesn't want you to go in and into any situation thinking that you are alone.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so we learn to worship, we remember his goodness.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: The challenge today is to do that, however that might look.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Might be learning some songs, getting them, might be memorized.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I said the other week that I'm trying to memorize a psalm every week.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's now gone to a psalm a month because I can't memorize that quickly.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: But just trying to get some words in me because there are times where I'd just be able to walk around it and recite some of God's word.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Started with Psalm 23.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it'd be nice and easy.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: I know half of it anyway.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I've done that one.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just, it's just all that is just me trying to prepare and go, there might be a time.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it will look like.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it will be.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's just when I'm in the in the traffic and someone annoys me, then I need to go, right, God, no, you are with me here.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it'll be far darker than that and far bleaker.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: But unless I get it in me, then I can't expect it to be with me when the time comes.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Unless I've eaten it, I can't expect the energy to come out.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: I could give so many different ways to describe it, but I think you get what I mean.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it may be if you just just to memorize a few verses, do one a month, and just keep going.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: It could be some songs just to learn them by heart.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: To maybe have the music playing, but then to have the music off and just let your see how much you can get on.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe creating your own song, whatever it might be, but it's it's trying to get it on so it's instinctual.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's there, just like the number plate, just like the phone number.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's not it's not something I do, it's like a muscle reflex.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's just part of who I am.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: So when midnight comes, I can say to it, good morning.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning, midnight.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're not as dark as I thought, you're not as scary as I thought.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Always remember when I was little at night time, you know all those nighttime noises?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: You go to a parents, there's weird noises, yeah, that's just the fridge.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's just the pipes.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's just the foxes out there so in Bournemouth.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many foxes are screaming all the time.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds like people being murdered all over the place.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: What's that?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's just this.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: When you go into your midnight, there are all sorts of noises.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: All sorts of things that can make you fear.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: But when he is with you, and he is with you, it is enough.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on Growing Together in the Gospel.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's teaching today and encourage you to feed back to us any questions or reflections that you might have.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: You can do this by clicking on the feedback link, which you'll find in the podcast description.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Alternatively, if you live locally, please feel free to give us a call or drop by.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to answer your questions.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to meet you.