Latest / 100% Maybe / Ep. 44 - The Greater Story: Ready to Respond

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Ep. 44 - The Greater Story: Ready to Respond · 100% Maybe

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, well, welcome you guys to another episode of 100% maybe.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: You might be noticing a new face here.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Not new, new to the podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a minute though.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's been a while.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's nice to meet you, Jeff, ex uh office mate.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um I am uh Addie Middleton and I have the honor of serving as our careers pastor here at the church.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, awesome.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And uh she has a lot of amazing, really incredible things and ministries and people um that do incredible work, and you have such an important role and job, and uh know the people that um you get to pour into and then that are doing that care because that's a all hands-on deck kind of thing, right?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is, it is all all aspects.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We met we work with all the ministries, we do all the things, we walk alongside people and their joys and their sufferings and all the things.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that encompasses a lot.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I love what God has called me to do.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: So very cool.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I know you have such a heart and love for scripture and getting to dig through that, find the beautiful lessons to be carried on through that and what we can learn.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: So happy to have you here with us.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And um, Addie and I used to share the studio here, office was in here, and uh, we used to talk a lot about scripture, and I know you'd read something or see something, and it was always such a a good conversation and all that.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm excited, and I'm excited about this because um, true to form, God's word is alive and active, and so being unable to unpack uh this portion of axe and all that stuff, there was new things that I discovered.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's cool.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I tried to pick a uh an outfit that was gonna match your energy.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I you did really good.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, you know what?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Pink Hawaiian shirt, I feel like it's gonna is the move.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I actually played it down a little bit today because I knew I'd be on the podcast.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't quite as loud as uh see, so I I brought a little bit to that.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's my part.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: But um okay, so you mentioned so let's talk just in general, greater story.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um had Clint in here last week, um, got to talk some uh uh through that idea because that's a big idea that carries through every series pretty much that we do here.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's so true of God's word and the story of redemption and what we get to play a part in.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: What to you sticks out just in general about like what that means to you, the greater story.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I don't I'm gonna just give a little tidbit of information for those that have not been here at our church for a really long time.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we our mission is we love God, we love our neighbor, and we connect people to Jesus.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: However, it used to be we help people find their place in the greater story.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So this is I I don't think we did that intentionally when we were coming up with a sermon series, but it was fun.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun to kind of but that's an outflow of what we do when we love God and we love our neighbor um and connect him to Jesus, we we are finding our place in the greater story.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So um that we'll see this week and last week that we uh the outflow of what we do, the fruit of our lives, is really uh our place in the greater story, whatever that looks like.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: So this week I think it's pretty clear too that God is using the the people we'll see.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: I wanna say characters, but that makes it sound like they weren't real people.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: They weren't real the the very real people that God is using um for others' placement or benefit or realization in the greater story, too.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: So how how does that that next layer that then impacts others when we find our place?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when we I mean, that's the model of discipleship, right?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, our we use our situation, our gifts, our life experiences, our trade.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: We we saw last week with the tent makers, our our place maybe uh in in church, our seats in church to connect to others and further the gospel.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: God uses all of it, all of it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's in every detail of our lives, our circle of influence, just uh just all the things in it.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it requires a response, I think, and a decision.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I think so.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're excited about that uh piece of it too.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So let's jump in.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Where are we at?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us what's going on.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna back up a couple chapters uh in Acts, I think from where we were last week.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we are on uh Paul's second missionary journey.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be in Acts chapter 16 uh for this.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um the interesting thing about this chapter is where scholars think that Luke joined Paul and his companions because his pronouns go from them or his to we.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um this is likely where Paul uh jumped in.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: The interesting thing about the scripture that we're gonna cover this week, it's a lot of scripture.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: It is a lot, it's almost all of 16, chapter 16.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so a lot of times this is three different sermons.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: As I was reading it too, I'm like, okay, this you have this section, this I mean, it's all connected, but it's it can be thought and looked at differently too.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and often we hear a sermon of of Lydia, and then the slave girl who is uh uh has the spirit of divination and Paul casts it out, and then the jailer, those are often three different sermons, and they have all of their um their own things that are germane to how God interacts with his people.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I think um I was sharing with the guys' Bible study this morning.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I prepare for a sermon, I read the I sit down and read the entire book.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I read all of Acts in one sitting, and then I go over to Philippians 2 because this is the chur uh beginning of the church at Philippi.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And reading Lydia with the jailer and with the spirit of divination, there's just uh when you take those pericopes out, that's that big word for the chapter um demarcations.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: We we see uh God parallels in these stories.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: We see the impact of the obedience of Paul and all that stuff.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we just when we consume scripture differently, we see different things.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I'm excited about this being all together.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great point.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I love too the you can see the the birth of what happens in Philippi here and that church that that then becomes what it was, that community of faith.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it's cool to be able to do that and connect those those things and those people.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right, exactly.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we're picking up, I think, verse six, right?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're going to six and the and the we originally were gonna start at eleven because that pericope says the conversion of Lydia.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the second word in that says therefore, and so we have to go and figure out what therefore is therefore.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we backed up to um verse uh six, and this is um where Paul is told to go to Macedonia to see these people to help us, is what it says.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so if you pick it up in six, um, he's wanting to go elsewhere.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching where in Asia at that time.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um again, the spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we see already Paul had a plan, it's going there, and God said, Nope.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: You're not going there, you're going here.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: So they end up in Philippi.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or in Macedonia, yeah.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: So what what is is there a lesson there for you at all as far as hey, I've got my plans and God keeps saying no?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know that I've gotten that I've learned that lesson yet, but just a reminder that even Paul uh had plans and that God wrecked them.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and we see that these plans are are not that much fun because he's thrown in jail and beaten and all the things.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh sometimes uh God but he was in God and the spirit were in all of it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that's the part that I'm gonna cling to rather than um realizing that my plans um yeah, I always tell God what I wanna do.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Nope, we're going to Macedonia.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if uh there's I'm sure there's a lesson there, but I haven't learned it yet.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's always uh all ongoing.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yes.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, but I yeah, I think that's but I think that's so relatable too about how we see um what what starts out and what we want to do.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then Paul the thing significant I think we can see from here is he was wherever he went, he was ready to be on mission and and respond and understood the great he understood the greater story about what was happening because you know when you follow it along, he ends up um with Lydia and when he gets to where he's going, he's he wants to find a prayer meeting.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean and his and his plans were righteous, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he wasn't just going because he had some friends to visit over in Asia.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like he he was going to spread the gospel and he had a plan about where he wanted to go.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: But so I think sometimes even though our plans are righteous, that God has other plans for us.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we see that as Trina said yesterday in Bible study, that this was the this was the gateway to the whole church in Europe.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: What that what this was in Macedonia, which is really cool.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's wanting to go to Asia.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: God says, let's do something in Europe.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, let's go over here.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go over there.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, the those unexpected detours.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: So often God's um that greater story just it happens in ways we would never plan, obviously.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh luckily we're not the ones in charge.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's nice.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so when he gets where he's going, he goes down to the water.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about that, the riverbank.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: There was always congregation people down there.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: That was the the source of life in these ancient cities and still for us today.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Although uh we don't have to walk down there and and fetch water, luckily.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, so he's looking for a prayer meeting, finds it, meets Lydia.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what sticks out to you about about her, maybe?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because we don't know a ton about her.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, we we there are other parts of scripture where you can learn a little bit more, but what Yeah, we have about four verses that tell us actually a lot about Lydia.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that going down to the river um for the prayer meeting meant that there was not a synagogue there.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So there was not ten righteous men or f Jewish families, so they had to go down to the river.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that she's a worshiper god.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we know that she was from Thyartira and she was a dealer in purple.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so she had means.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Dealer in purple.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it sounds kind of um it could be a lot of things.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that if you just read the mysterious yeah, dealer in purple cloth, it says.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Also, uh to us that doesn't sound like a very big deal.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you give purple handkerchiefs to to people sell those?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, we know that um uh a dealer in purple cloth meant she was a woman of of wealth.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: She dealt in wealth.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Purple signaled that people were royalty.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: There was ocean mollusks that you had to have a bajillion of them to crush to be able to to derive the dye to be able to do that.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but there are people, scholars that think that uh Lydia dealt in um purple cloth that was made from matter roots, which was a root that uh was much more available in all of things, all of that to say that she was a woman that of means, of great wealth, and uh she was the one who dealt in purple cloth.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so those are um and she was a worshiper of god.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So she already um was faithful in some ways because she was down on the at the Sabbath on the Sabbath uh with some women praying at the river.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's cool that when uh she connects with Paul um says as she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, she accepted what Paul was saying.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: So do you get the sense kind of like we talked about last week with Apollos, he knew what he knew, but he didn't have the full picture, maybe.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and Paul was the guy to now bring their understanding to a to a greater level.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was that was an important piece of spreading the gospel.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: The good news is the good news of Jesus, right, right, in that he has um died for us to be able to have our place in the greater story.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So this was such an important piece.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: But also in the uh this is my Methodist res residue coming out that that God opened her her heart is what we call provenient grace, the work of the Holy Spirit that g gets you ready for the message when it when it's time.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a really beautiful example of how God um turned her face to hear the whole message.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: You see both sides of that, you're hearing from Paul, but God is the one doing the the opening of the heart to be able to understand it or to take it in or um beautiful.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: We're co-workers, co-laborers with God to do the work.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And God's like divine spirit is is all over this passage, which I love.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think the part to uh w we often think of the divine spirit of spirit being uh coming to us in the dream, but like he did when he told him to go to Macedonia.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I think over and over we also see um the spirit dwelling in people and how the Holy Spirit uh not only works supernaturally, but also through God's people.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Is that uh do you think sometimes that's harder to pick up on or harder because we want this big miraculous moment, the bigger moments?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we miss that.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think we um as humans, we either think that that's our that we did the work or we miss that that could have been the spirit what working.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes we reject things because we're we're thinking that that's not the spirit.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: God is gonna do something for me.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: God is gonna do something for me and it's gonna be supernatural.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I need um provision.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And one of our friends offers us a job that's right for us, and we're like, no, God, God's gonna just like give me a lottery ticket or what uh something.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know that that sounds uh kind of crass, but I think that sometimes that God we see all through this that God works through his spirit, his people, his spirit works in people.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so our place in the greater story is connection to our community and a response to that too.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: That what made me think of the old was the old parable, the guy's on his roof in a flood.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, God, please help me.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Boat comes by.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: He says, No, no, no, God's gonna save me.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, God, please save me.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Helicopter comes by, no, no, no, God's gonna save me.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the we think of just this, yeah.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then he gets to heaven and God's like, I sent you a boat, I sent you a helicopter.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean, what are you doing?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um okay, so let's continue on then.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Cause is there anything else for Lydia like you don't feel like you'll get into Sunday?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't we I don't know where I'm gonna go on Sunday, so we'll see where it is.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean Lydia is such an important piece.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Also, the irony of uh the woman pastor speaking on Lydia.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is often the place that one of the places in scripture that we point to that says uh that women have place in ministry.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was just that wasn't because they make me preach on women, by the way.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's an important piece of um that Lydia uh was prominent in in this place because she was a woman of means.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: So very cool.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: So Paul and Silas run into a bit of trouble after this.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: So they keep going, they're on mission, they got things to do.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um pick it up in 16 there.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a demon-possessed slave girl.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: She was a way of making money for her owners, um, a fortune teller, and it's kind of funny to me.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: The uh she followed them, basically was following them all around.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: Talking, talking, talking.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like what she says is not that crazy.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: No, but it maybe just the fact of the sarcasm or I don't know what it is.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, just so maybe Paul's just cranky.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's just like you just have it in your ear all day, following you, and finally, I love this.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: He's just exasperated and says, takes the demon out of her.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, get out of here.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Which is so also like I think it's so funny.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he is annoyed, like there's not uh that feels less than righteous that he cast that.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it doesn't feel like his super holy moment.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: My gosh, enough.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yes, out, out.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's relatable, right?
• 17:27
  unknown: Totally relatable.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: All the the same power that dwells in us is the one that raised Jesus from the dead.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if we would have like, how many times have you wanted to cast something out of people when you've been annoyed?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've tried with my kids maybe like name of Jesus.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Please stop asking me.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that's uh I I just think also it's so real.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like Paul, we often think, uh, I don't know.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my relationship with Paul is complicated, but I think some of us think that Paul is like this holy and righteous man.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I love that he has emotions of being annoyed.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like in ministry, there are times that we get annoyed.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're not always when you're doing what God has called you to do, exactly.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: It still doesn't exactly it's not always uh up into the right.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: But it has some consequences.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this uh uh when he casts that out, it it made her owners mad.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because now they don't have their cash cow making money for them.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so um they they go and tell them Paul.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, and so that doesn't go well for them.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: City officials order them stripped and beaten, severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole crowd joined in and attacking them.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that mass mentality of things is kind of interesting.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: So they they land themselves in jail in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they're like high security uh way down in the depths of of this this though.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so they're tasked this guy, the jailer.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's all we know about him as far as his name goes.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's the jailer.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: The jailer.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he's tasked with keeping an eye on them.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: And what happens next?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they've been singing some praises and some hymns to the prisoners there.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think it's interesting to note that it doesn't say that they were praying for release.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: They were pr they were praying and singing hymns.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the prisoners were listening, and then God uh sends an earthquake.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole place just shakes and their shackles come off and all the things.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: So why is that significant to you that that they don't know this is uh coming when they're worshiping?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because uh it's easy to worship if we know the end of the story, if we know we're about to to get out, but that they worship uh Paul is famous for one being in jail.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: We see him over and over again in jail.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: He has he's good at being in jail.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: But um also that he he's he's uh praises uh inhabit the God's people, right?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um so where he's singing and praying.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: In whatever his circumstances are, right, he has learned to to praise God.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that that is significant in that he didn't know the end of the story, but also he doesn't he doesn't act on the that uh that earthquake taking him out of his shackles, yeah.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: They stay put, which is significant to the jailer.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the jailer uh right really matters to that guy, really matters to him.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the jailer, um, if prisoners escape on your watch, you were subject to whatever their fate was.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if there was going to be if somebody was going to be put to death, you would be put to death.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: What the exact same punishment would have come to you, which I don't know that I would have signed up to be a jailer.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: A little bit of risk there.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of risk there.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to be really confident.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: But also, I I guess you don't expect an earthquake and all the things.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but because he stayed, I mean, the jailer was gonna kill himself because he knew his life was over.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but because they chose not to escape, um, that ministered, that response ministered to that jailer.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Big time.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Significantly.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Saved his life.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Saved the guy's life by staying.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: And how about to it it all kind of gets made right?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: They want them to just leave, and Paul says, No, I want this.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: I want my public apology.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: But she doesn't always do that.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just interesting in this sort.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I I don't know I don't know what that's about, except for Paul is Paul.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he does some some funny things.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because it really doesn't lead.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that Luke gives us so much information because it doesn't lead to the conversion of anybody in this moment or anything.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like Paul's going to stand on some principle.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And make those magistrates come and apologize.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they were fearful.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think that that's really interesting too.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you see the the collision here of like cultural identities, religious identities, because what the thing that happens is they're Roman citizens.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: So then it's kind of a big deal, like, because they were like, these are Jews because they're talking about this other thing.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then when the officialists find out, oh, that you're Roman citizens' whoops are bad.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Whoops.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's a whole thing.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that that then gives Paul the standing to say, no, no, no, we're not gonna sneak out.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're gonna publicly admit you're the uh riding the injustice of all of it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Paul for sure is uh that's important to him.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I but I think it is it just is it's funny.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Also, that Paul just he just stands on business.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, nope, I'm gonna make these guys come and which could have uh also gone really bad for him, but it doesn't in this moment.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Also, have you noticed how good they are at due process in the Bible?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're just really, they just want everybody to they're on the up and up.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Their their legal system's on the up and up.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Where's Luke in all this?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Luke didn't have to get beaten, thrown in jail.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know it is interesting.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says we, but it is like they went to break.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not, I don't know that I'm all the way in.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: This was my first uh first trip.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna lay back here.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is kind of funny because he says we uh uh but they go to to jail.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe because he's not preaching, because he was just my companion, he's just writing everything down.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't preaching.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a right, yeah.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: But y'all tell me how that jail thing went off.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, so when we take a step back and look in general, like you said, a lot of a lot of sections, a lot of uh interaction here.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: God's clearly making all of this happen.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you see the beautiful fruit of it and and people's lives that are changed and the birth of the church in these areas, and Jayl's really stoked about everything.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know his life has changed and his family.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: What what to you um do these people have in common?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: That they that they responded.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that the gospel was presented to them and they had a response.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're not gonna have our place in the greater story if we don't participate in the greater story.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: We have to have a a part of it and we have to use a response.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: But also none of them had anything exceptional.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh or Paul didn't seek them out because of their thing.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: We know that Lydia goes on and she likely and we see it even in Philippians.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would encourage everybody to go and read all of Philippians, it's three pages.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: You you can do it.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh we we see that she likely uh funded all of Paul's missionary journeys.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever it is that we have or whatever situations we find ourselves in, if we respond with open hands to God, like whatever I have is yours, but whether it be my resource of my wealth, my home, both of the both the jailer they invite people into their home.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, his situation in the jail, it's uh our we are co-workers with God.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit works through God's people, yeah, and each one of them had a response.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: You should say that on Sunday.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I probably will.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll see.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: It could, it could God's alive and active word.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows what else I see between now then?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um thing too sticks out different people in such different parts, seasons, circumstances of life.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus comes and offers them freedom in so many different ways.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Why does that stick out to you, or how does that stick out to you as far as Jesus meeting people so differently each time?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, we say it all the time that God meets us right where we are.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it is our response that takes us to the next level.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think Scott says it a lot from stage, like we we love you enough to meet you where you are, but we love you enough not to leave you where you are.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um God uses Paul, but also all of the this begins the Philippian church and all of Europe, like not to leave these people where they are.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Lydia had a pretty awesome life being wealthy, but I'm sure that this put her at some kind of risk, but it it went on to be fruit for a whole ministry.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just think about like if you're whatever your resources are, the jailer too, both of these would have started a church in Philippi, and it is to the ends of um the earth that that that they help spread the gospel.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's pretty incredible that whatever our participation in God's story can can impact generations like they did.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to be able to talk to Lydia to know I mean, she like you said, she was doing very very well on her own.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you just wonder then how much more meaning her life took on at this point.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: You see the change and she's like, you know, welcome and and celebrate and be part of this community.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like you just wonder how much more than the meaning came to her life with this encounter.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think uh it's any accident that she was a dealer in purple cloth, which was a sign of royalty.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: But she uh becomes uh a piece of God's greater royal story, right?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're all heirs and and so that connection there.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: She could have been wealthy for a lot of other reasons, right?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: But it's really cool that she uh, you know, that royal line was a part of yeah became a part of her story in a more significant way.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like God's kind of working it all together.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's kind of like he sees the whole picture and uh you know, he works all these things together and we're co-workers.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's the cool part though, that God could do all of this without any of us.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: But we get to, I think, um, I hope that people take away from this series is that we get to be a part of the greater story.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to just sit on the sidelines.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking forward to it.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you're I I heard El Bertie tell me that you're gonna be leading worship too.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Back together again.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: About that.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: One night only.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if you guys can uh make it Sunday, joining us here in person or online.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Love to have you anyway uh you were able to connect and uh we're gonna be forwarded Sunday.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: See ya.