Why Throw a Praise Party Here? (cont'd)

These people are in the worst condition of their lives. They are wounded. They are hurting. They are bloody. They are bound.

And what do they decide to do? They said, let's start singing. Let's start praying. Hello and welcome to this Friday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. In Matthew 5 verse 44, Jesus said, But I say to you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you and persecute you.

That's what Paul and Silas did inside the confines of this prison in Ephesus. And today, Pastor Paul encourages us to do the same. Today's message is straight ahead, but remember, you can always visit pastorpaul.net to listen to any of Pastor Paul's recent messages on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

And also, be sure to subscribe to the Destined for Victory Podcast at Spotify or at Apple Podcast or wherever you get yours. But right now, here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message, Why Throw a Praise Party Here? Acts 16 verse 16. It happened as we went to prayer. A certain slave girl, possessed with a spirit of divination, met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, and proclaim to us the way of salvation.

And this she did for many days, many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And he came out, the spirit that is, that very hour. Now, I realize a whole lot of y'all don't know about spirits, and some of you don't believe in spirits. The Bible teaches that they're real. I know they're real. Some of y'all know they're real. And even if you don't, that doesn't make them not real. Well, I don't believe in them. Well, they believe in you.

And they will attack you at every opportunity. I suggest you get to believe it. But that's on you, boo. Do you? I don't believe in spirits. Demons, that's mythology. Well, no, I've cast them out. I've had them talk to me.

They've told me all kinds of things. It's very unpleasant. They don't like folk who know them and have authority over them. I've had a demonized person. I just walk in, and the demon looks at somebody who has authority and gets agitated.

What's he doing here? I'm here to send you packing. We have authority. Read your Bible. Luke chapter 10, he sent them out.

He sent the 72 out two by two. They came back saying, even the spirits were subject to us. They know you if you have authority.

I've had many a demon look at me through the demonized person. You don't have any authority. You don't have any power over me.

See, I beg to differ. See, you want me to read you the scripture? I've read the Bible to demons who told me I didn't have authority over them.

Said, well, turn in your Bible, devil. I got authority. It's not because of who I am.

It's because of whose. Y'all got to know we don't have authority because of who we are, but because of whose we are, we have authority. You don't have to be a preacher to have authority. You don't have to be a preacher. None of that.

No title. It has to do with your spiritual awareness of who you are in Christ. And the demons know when you walk in authority. Have you ever read Acts 19? You ever read where these sons of Sceva saw some people ministering to demonized folk and thought it was exciting? And they said, oh, that's good that in the name of Jesus, you can get these demons thrown out. And so the sons of Sceva went found a demonized person, which is never hard to do.

They're all around us. And they went up to him and said, and here's their mistake. In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches.

And it's downright funny. The Bible's not supposed to. They didn't write Acts 19 to make you laugh, but it does make you laugh. And the demon looked at all seven of them and said, now, Jesus I know, and Paul I know about. He used two different words for know in the Greek. Jesus I know, he used the word that means I know personally, I know directly. I have intimate knowledge of who Jesus is. Every demon knows who Jesus is. And the spirit said, and Paul I know about, different Greek word. It meant I don't know him personally, but I heard about him. Jesus I know directly, Paul I heard his reputation that demons don't want. All my buddies, they said, look, well, whatever you do, if Paul show up, you all better get out of there. Jesus I know, and Paul I know about. And then he said, but who are you?

I tell you, you better not play with stuff you don't know what you're doing. Who are you? I heard your words trying to rebuke me, but no authority is coming through to me when you speak. Do you know what that means? When we speak in the name of Jesus, they recognize that we know the authority that is in that name. So anyway, this girl was demonized, and her masters made a lot of money off of her spirit of divination. And then she decides she's going to try to placate these apostles who were in town.

Really dumb strategy. Say, maybe if we compliment them, they leave us alone. So they say, these are servants of the most high God. They proclaim to us the way of salvation. The demons are even telling the sinners, they're here to get you all saved. You know them some scared demons. Anytime they're helping to promote the gospel, they're scared to be cast out.

Because demons will do anything, Lord, that you don't dislodge them. And so they did this for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said, in the name of Jesus, come out. Now, look at verse 19.

When the masters of this girl saw that their hope of profit was gone, that's all they cared about. They seized Paul and Silas, dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates and said, these men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city. And they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. No, they didn't. They came sharing how good Jesus is. Nothing unlawful about that. But they lied on Paul and Silas, tried to use ethnicity against them.

What else is new? And people will use any old smoke screen to try to get you off their scent. And so they are mad that their money making operation has been shut down.

Because without the spirit of divination, that girl couldn't tell anybody's fortune. And so they are mad, they tell lies. And as a result, the multitude joins in. And the multitude, verse 22, rose up together against them and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Now understand this. As a result of these lies and this trumped up charges that were nothing more than people mad that their money making operation has been shut down by the gospel, by the power of God, they get these guys beaten. They are stripped naked. This is what happened in Roman provinces.

This is a Roman colony. This is what happened when you were going to be flogged. They stripped you naked to embarrass you, to humiliate you. And then they beat you so people could see you beaten until you were a bloody mess.

That was the norm. And so that's what happened to Paul and Silas. Stripped naked, beaten until they are bloodied and wounded severely. And after that, then they throw them in jail with the command to secure them. And this means that it's like maximum security prison would be today.

Like, you're not getting out of this. They put this commander under severe threat. You better keep them secure.

And so when he got that word, he said, tell you what, I'm just not going to keep them in the regular cells. I'm going to take them into the inner prison. This is the Dungeness-like area of a prison in that day. And so not only do they put you in the Dungeness area in the inner prison, they fasten their feet to the stocks. In other words, you inside the inside of the jail.

And they fasten you to the stocks. And you're beaten. You don't have clothes.

You are bleeding. There is no medical attention. I need you to understand the place this is happening in.

That's why the question, why throw a praise party here? These people are in the worst condition of their lives. They are wounded. They are hurting. They are bloody. They are bound.

And what do they decide to do? They said, let's start singing. Let's start praying. Now, if they were praying and singing, every now and then they'd stop singing and say, God, we pray for these magistrates, these people who are trying to persecute us, thinking they're going to shut up our mouths. Help them to understand that you are so powerful, that you are so alive in us that they can't shut us up. Help them to see the power of your name is too great for them to possibly shut our mouths. Oh, God, I'm sure they were praying for the persecutors.

Let me ask you a question. What you doing with your persecutors? Have you prayed for them lately? Have you said, Lord, get a hold of them? Lord, help them to understand who you are and how good you are. Help them to understand that no matter how they mess with me, it's not going to work, because I'm more than an overcomer.

I'm more than a conqueror. Up next, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepherd. We want to thank all of you whose prayers and financial support help Pastor Paul share the gospel all over the world. Your donations do make a difference, so as God leads, would you prayerfully consider making a generous gift to Destined for Victory? You can give online securely at pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500. Again, the online address is pastorpaul.net. When was the last time you prayed for those who persecute you?

Think about that question as you tune into the second half of today's message, Why Throw a Praise Party Here? Once again, here's Pastor Paul. Some of y'all got to learn to pray when you're mad, when you're upset, when you're frustrated, when people have done their best to dog you and do you wrong.

You got to learn. You don't just drop Jesus off until you get back to church. Church is designed to help you take Jesus into the worst places of your life. So when your enemies are working your nerves, when temptation to catch a case is all around you, come hold somebody. See, y'all try to look. You know sometimes your prayer got me, Lord, help me. Because it's not going to be a great witness when they see me dragged off to jail because I hurt somebody because they pushed me once too hard. Don't catch a case, saints. I don't want to have to get y'all out of jail. You up in jail, like, I'm going to call my pastor. Shh. Oh, Lord have mercy.

It's not like I haven't been called. That's why I'm telling y'all. Look at where the praise party is happening.

I'm wrapping it up, but that's all I want to tell you. You can't praise only when you show up at church. You can't praise only when you're watching on streaming. You can't praise only when Joy Hill is leading and Aaron Shepherd, my son, is helping her to lead.

That boy is learning to be a worshiper and a worship leader. You can't just wait till your bills are paid and your kids are behaving and your husband and wife acting right. You can't wait till circumstances are good.

You got to learn in the good times. You can't praise His name, but in the bad times do the same. Let everything. And everything give the King of Kings all the praise.

David said, I will bless the Lord when? At all times. At all times. That means it's not an emotional thing. Emotions can assist you in praise when you want to praise and all that dance and all that.

That's great. Emotions are not your enemy, but emotions can't be your Lord. Emotions can't drive whether you worship because how many know there are going to be days when the last thing in the world your emotions want you to do is worship? Job was having the worst day of his life. Ten kids dead.

Wealth taken away. Worst day literally of his life. Tears, no doubt, streaming down his face. Worship isn't always a happy exercise. Sometimes you worship while you're crying. And he said, the Lord gave. The Lord hath taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's worshiping in jail. That's worshiping in the inner sanctum of the jail.

I was reading about those cells. They said the inner prison, it was cold, it was dark, it was cramped quarters, and it was smelly and unsanitary. You know you couldn't just get up, hey, I need to go to the bathroom. And the guard let you out and he'd take your nice toilet.

Are y'all understanding me? Cold, dark, cramped, smelly, unsanitary. And they're worshiping. You got any smelly stuff going on in your life? This just stinks.

Welcome to Paul and Silas' world. It stinks. Life stinks sometimes. Circumstantially, life stinks sometimes.

Listen, God is good all the time, but he's not going to put you in good circumstances all the time. In fact, sometimes your witness is going to get you in trouble. That's what happened with them. Why are they in jail?

What'd they do wrong? Didn't nothing but help a girl get free? But the free hair made other people mad. Sometimes you help other people and you PO others.

I just figured to spare y'all. You ever POed people? All you were doing with the right thing? They just as mad as they know how to be? You ever walked in a room and you see people's attitude, you just run straight into that? You haven't even said anything to them. They just don't like you, what you stand for? You have a same thing. You just look over at folks. Their eyes rolling all the back of their head. Life stinks sometimes, and they'll make sure it does, your enemies.

What do you do? Start a praise party, not because you feel like it, but because God has a way of showing up at praise parties. Look at verse 26 of Acts 16. Suddenly they're in there praying and praising in the dark, smelly, cramped situation, unsanitary.

They in there praying and praising. God said, oh, shoot, I got to get in on this. He shows up. Verse 26, suddenly there's a great earthquake. So the foundation of the prison shaken.

Immediately the doors open. Everyone's chains loosed. Keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners have fled. He draws his sword and is about to kill himself. He like, oh, Lord, they got out of here. Before I let the magistrates get ahold of me, I'm taking myself out. And he came ready to kill himself, and Paul cried out, Paul knew it, and Paul cried out with a loud voice, don't do yourself any harm.

We're all here. Then he called for a light, ran in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, and he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? See, sometimes y'all preaching to folk who are tired of hearing your words, but what they need to see is the power of God at work in your life. This dude said, earthquake freedom, and they sitting there? And you know they were sitting there, all the prisoners stayed, because all the prisoners knew this was a move of God. Sometimes people don't know God, they just know this had to be him. You ever seen that? Some folks say, I don't know who did this, but I know it wasn't nobody from around here. So all of them scared, just out of reverence, they just sitting there, all the other prisoners.

They didn't do a prison break. They said, if he shook these guys loose, he don't mean for us to take advantage of this. And they all sitting there, and the jailer said, oh, I got to know this God. He gets saved, his family gets saved when you read the rest of it.

Gets baptized in the middle of the night. God breaks out revival in Philippi, because folks in a smelly, dark, dangerous situation don't dare to worship anyhow. I came to tell somebody, it's time for you to worship anyhow. It's time for you to know God's liable to break into your praise party.

You remember he did that to Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, don't you? Jehoshaphat and them, and God said, now look, this particular battle, you're not going to have to fight. He said, tell you what, put the praisers ahead of the army. Let the praisers just praise their way there. And the army is behind the praisers. And the praisers are giving God, they're getting ready to go to battle as far as they know they're going to be killed, but they dare to praise. Only to find out God showed up in the praise. And by the time they got to where the enemy was, the enemy was all dead. God killed them before the army even got there. Let praise into your situation. I know it's smelly.

I know life stinks in some area of your life. I dare you to let God have his way in your life right now, as bad as it is, as sick of people as you are. Get your mind off of them and get it on Jesus. And say, Lord, I'm going to give this mess, I'm going to give it to you. Be able to show up in your praise party and get the glory for himself. We all need to learn to pray for our enemies, for those who are doing their best to do their worst. Jesus modeled this for us as the Roman soldiers drove nails through his hands and feet, and he is asking us to follow in his steps.

Jesus told us something else. Before he ascended into heaven, he told his disciples to go out into all the world and make more disciples. A great way for you to do that today is by praying for the Destined for Victory ministry and supporting us financially. Your gifts will help Pastor Paul share the gospel all over the world. In appreciation of your generous gift today, Pastor Paul will send you his DVD message, Influencers for Christ. We live in an ever-darkening world that needs the people of God to shine his light upon it.

And as Jesus said, we his church are that light. In this message, Pastor Paul encourages us to make it a priority to show others the goodness of God, to tell them all about his love for them and their need for him. That's Influencers for Christ, a DVD message from Pastor Paul, and our gift to you by request for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. Please call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Again, that address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. That's all the time we have today, but join us Monday when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message when you're perplexed. Until then, enjoy your weekend, and remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.