Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist and it came to pass as we went to prayer, Acts chapter 16 verse 16 can't take her money because they were making money by doing something that wasn't even working.

There's a lot of people like that out by the way nowadays, and be careful of this all soothsaying and fortune telling and all this stuff and I'm not here to preach against everything. I've always wanted to go into a fortune teller and walk up to her and slap her in the face. And I would tell her you should have seen it coming. you should have known it was coming.

And have her give me $15, no just that. Notice verse 17, the same followed Paul and us and cried saying these men are the servants of the most high God which show unto us the way of salvation. So verse 16 these guys realized that they're making money off this woman and then they realized that Paul and Silas were coming through as missionaries and they were trying to reach this woman and it bothered them because they were gonna lose money about this. And as these men came through and taught her the way of salvation, these soothsayers, these guys got very angry. Look at verse 18, and this did she many days.

But Paul being grieved turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and he came out the same hour. And when her master saw that the hope of their gains or making money was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers and brought them to the magistrate saying these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city. Now these guys that were making money by doing nothing apparently were no trouble to the city but guys that came and did something that worked for free were the trouble. It always bothers me that you know what, there's a lot of things that's just never a problem but bless God you let somebody, a Christian, get on a street corner or something start preaching God's word, all of a sudden now they're a problem.

Now there's trouble. Notice if you would, verse 20, and brought them to those magistrates, verse 21, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates ran off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, Paul and Silas, they cast them into the prison charging the jailer to keep them safely. Who having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed.

And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here. Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized he and all his straight way. And when he had brought them into his house he set meat before them and rejoiced believing in God with all his house. And when it was day the magistrates sent the sergeant saying, let those men go. And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, the magistrates have sent to let you go now therefore depart and go in peace.

Great story isn't it? Lord we need your help today. We love you. In Jesus precious name we pray, amen. Number one this morning I want you to notice the place of praise.

The place of praise. Now this begins in verse 19 and it kind of goes down to verse 24. But I want you to notice this in verse 19 we know what was going on. This girl was demon possessed.

These men obviously weren't helping her but they were taking all of her money. And Paul and Silas they come in and they do what God had called them to do. He cast the demon out of her. He shared with her the word of God. These men got mad, grabbed them, captured them, brought them in and notice if you would what the Bible says verse 22. The multitude came against them, took their clothes off, beat them, verse 23 and when they had laid many stripes upon them they cast them into prison. So the place of praise, where was it? That they are found later on praising God. Number one we see persecution.

All they were doing is what God told them to do and they were persecuted for this. They were beaten. The Bible says they laid many stripes. That word stripes means wounds. It wasn't just a bruise. This was a cut.

This was a severe cut in the back, on the shoulders, even on the face, the neck. And they literally were lashing them and after they had beat them up and caused many wounds on them then they put them in the prison. So we find that they had persecution and then they find that they put them into prison. Now, what makes this story so incredible is not necessarily the two men that praise God. What makes this story incredible is where they were when they did praise God. Now, what is the place of persecution?

Are you listening? It was God's perfect will. They were in the middle of God's will.

They did what God told them to do and because of it they suffered persecution and ended up locked up in the middle, in the inner part of the prison. Now, listen to me, dear friend. I want you to get this. It doesn't seem to make much sense. We think if I do what God wants me to do then he's gonna take care of everything else.

And he will. But sometimes God's will might involve some persecution. I don't know about you, but sometimes I find it hard enough even with no reward or no retribution, it's hard enough sometimes to be such a Christian that you just obey the will of God.

But I'm gonna tell you when it's really hard is when you obey it and bad things happen. Cameron that just gave you testimony, I told him in the office after we got done praying, I said, now listen, buddy. I'm just gonna let you know, I've been in this a while. You watch out now. Satan hates this. You are a good person. You knew good things.

You knew good people. You've tried to do things right, but that didn't make you saved. And now you're saved. And Satan hates this. And he is gonna unleash everything on you to discourage you before you can even start growing.

And I saw Cameron just a couple days ago and he said, dude. If it could go wrong, it's gone wrong. Job, everything. I said, I know it and I told you, but I said, if you just stay straight through this phase, it's gonna change. I said, but Satan hates it. Dear friend, I'm gonna tell you something. Sometimes you can do exactly what God's called you to do and sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes bad things happen. And I want you to know that sometimes you're gonna have to praise God in a place that you were not planning on being at. Sometimes you are gonna have to praise God in a situation or in a trial that you really did not want to happen in your life.

And I'm gonna tell you something. My wife and I have learned that we have got to be willing to praise God in a waiting room just as much as we try to praise God in a church building. And some of you have found out that you gotta praise God sitting there in the doctor's office with the report you were just given as much as you praise God right here in an altar. And I'm here to tell you sometimes the place where you praise God might not be the most enjoyable place, but he deserves the praise anyway.

God's will took him to persecution and then to prison. And here they were praising God in the middle of a prison just because they did what God told them to do. The place of praise. I want you to notice secondly the process of praise.

Notice how this whole thing takes place. If you'll notice in verse 25 the Bible says, and at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. Now notice the whole process that we went through here to get them to the point where they were praising God first was their problem. Here they were, they were beaten, they were persecuted, they were given wounds, they were ridiculed, the multitudes came against them, they were literally shamed, they ripped their clothes off in front of everybody. They not only ripped their clothes off, then they beat them and shamed them and threw them into jail and all these things. First they have their problem.

And what is the next thing you find them doing after all that problem? They were praying. Look at verse 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas complained. At the midnight Paul and Silas began to think is it really worth serving God?

And at midnight Paul and Silas began to feel that they're the victims. You know what happens in this whole process to get them to that point? There was problems, yes, but the first thing after those problems was prayer. Oftentimes you and I, that's the last thing we go to in problems.

We have problems, we try this, we go to this person, we go to that person, complain here, complain there, blame, get angry, get frustrated, whatever the case might be, try to read a book, try to watch Oprah, try to do anything we can do. Then all of a sudden when nothing else has worked, we try to pray. As soon as they got the shackles on these guys, they began to pray. Look at me, they prayed before they ever praised.

You know why? Look at me folks, if you're not praying and you're not getting strength from God and you're not staying close to him, you're not gonna praise him in a prison. Notice there was the problem and then there was prayer and then there was praise. They had persecution, they had prison, they had problems and then they prayed and then they sang praises unto God.

I don't know about you but you and I have a lot to learn from this process. I'm gonna tell you something, something happens in your life, something happens to one of your family members, something you go through, you know the first reaction ought to be get down on your knees and you pray. Let me tell you what'll do it to you is when you find yourself and you got a youngin sitting there in ICU and you've just gotten a bad report from the doctor and things aren't looking good and we're gonna have to take him right back into open heart surgery. Let me tell you something, there's not a whole lot to do sitting there in that room but get down on your knees to say God please, would you spare his life?

The problem is we have it so good and we have it so comfortable that when problems end up coming in our life or what we call problems, we do everything else except go to God. First thing they did, now listen can you imagine it? Man they're beating, they're bleeding and they hadn't even been washed off yet. We find later on in the passage that the jailer after all this haps and takes him into his house or takes him to a creek or a river or something around there and he finally cleans them but here they are, rip their clothes off, they beat him, they had blood, they had dirt in their wounds and they're thrown into the innermost part of this prison. Listen, they're sitting here, blood's running down their face, blood's running down their body, they're aching, they didn't have a band-aid, they didn't have a wrap, they didn't have anything and they're sitting there on a cold concrete rock floor dungeon somewhere and as soon as the men put those shackles on them and they walk outside of the door, they bow their heads, don't complain one second and begin to pray. Wow.

Could you imagine what would happen in my life, in your life if that's what we did? The first thing is to pray. Notice the next thing in the process was praise. You see as they prayed I'm sure you say well why did they pray immediately preacher? Well probably because they knew themselves and they knew they were in great danger of becoming bitter and angry. So the first thing they did is they prayed. You say what did they pray? I don't know, God didn't tell us what they prayed. All God did is he said that they prayed but I have a feeling it was something like this, now Lord you brought us here, Lord you've allowed this to happen and Lord we're only human and we're only flesh but God we need your help right now and we need your strength and we're hurting and we're bleeding and we're in pain, we did what you wanted us to do, we know you're still real, we know you're still sovereign and we know you're God and we wanna serve you and God you're gonna have to do something and somehow what could have been a bad situation, what could have given them a bad spirit, what could have made them bitter and angry not only at men but at God.

Once they got done praying what the next thing they do they begin to sing praises to God. Wow! Anybody else here impressed with these guys? Anybody else here wanna say I don't have that? Oh I'm sure there's a few here that do. Unless God, brother, I'd have been praising as they were beating me, sure you would.

Sure you would. I'd like to see that. Number three, I want you to see the power of this praise.

Now this excited me. I want you to look at verse 26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake. Now once these guys were beaten and bloodied and persecuted, nothing had happened. Then they're grabbed and they're brought and thrown into jail, nothing happened. Then they were put into the innermost part of the prison and they were shackled in the center where it would be the hardest place for them to get out.

Now why was that? Because the Bible says that this jailer, if you'll notice in the verses before, was charged with the responsibility of guarding them. And the Bible says after receiving such a charge, I found out that in these days that when a jailer was charged with the safe keeping of obviously very important prisoners, if anything happened where those prisoners got loose, first thing that happened was that jailer was abused, he was beaten to a pulp and then killed. He had to receive pain first and then he was killed and then I found out anybody in his family was killed.

Now you know why after that earthquake when the jailer thought everybody was gone, he's getting ready to kill himself. So here Paul and Silas are put in there, nothing happens. Then they begin to pray to God, nothing happens. But when they began to praise, something started happening.

Now you look at me dear friend, I'm here to tell you one thing. Prayer is one of the most valuable resources that we Christians do not use. But let me tell you number two is praise. Nothing influences people more than when you praise God in spite of a horrible circumstance. All of a sudden they prayed and when they began to sing praises to God, notice this, and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundation of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loose.

Now I want you to notice the power of praise. Number one under this, listen to this, the prisoners heard it. Notice if you would, verse 25, and at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. Now why did God put this in the Bible? And the prisoners heard them.

Listen, what does that mean? Let me tell you how powerful the praise was of Paul and Silas in the midst of a horrible circumstance. All the other prisoners in the jail heard it. All these guys are in jail too, but all they know is that these guys were bloody and beaten, they hadn't even been washed off clean, they weren't given anything, they were brought in to the most secure part of the jail and they were thrown in there and they could not have been treated any worse than they had been treated and they were thrown in there and at midnight they began to sing praises unto God and all them guys heard it. You say, preacher, why is it so important that they heard it?

Well, listen to me. They knew that these two men had something that even freedom from jail could not give them. Now, say, preacher, what do you mean? Do you notice here that the Bible says that the foundation of the prison was shaken. Notice verse 26. Immediately all the doors were opened, everyone's bands were loosed.

Everybody could have walked right out there at that point. Every prisoner's bands were loosed, every prisoner's door was open, everything was open. But notice this, I don't know if you've seen this, hopefully that you have, but I want you to notice something here that was very interesting to me. Look at verse 26. Immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed and the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, seeing the prison doors open, he just assumed at the end of the verse everybody had been fled. Notice verse 28. But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm.

Why? We're all here. Now, I don't know why, but for years in my mind when Paul said that, we're all here, I thought he's saying me and Silas are still here and for some reason I envisioned in my mind that all the other prisoners got out of there and left, but Paul and Silas because of the character of their hearts, they said we're still here, but that's not what it means, that's not what it says.

Look at me, I want you to get this. All these prisoners that would have gotten out of that jail the minute they could have, when this earthquake came and all the shackles were loosed and all the doors were opened, none of them left. They were all still there.

Why? What kept those guys in that jail when they had a free ticket out? The praises of those two men.

Now, you look at me, I want you to get this. When those two men were praising God in that jail, them prisoners right away knew there's something different about these two guys. There's something special about these two guys. Man, they're singing and they're praising for a circumstance like this and they realize those two guys have something that I don't have. In fact, once that earthquake came and those shackles were loosed, those guys could have gotten right out of that jail but they knew that those two guys have something that I couldn't get even if I left right now.

If I got out of here free as a bird, I still wouldn't have what those two guys still sitting in their jail have. Secondly, these two guys were praising and all of a sudden the power of that earthquake, they realized that the God, the God that these two men were praising was real and they were afraid to move. They realized immediately those two guys were right, they serve a living God, they serve a powerful God and I wanna find out what they have.

The prisoners heard it. Do you know that's how powerful praise is? Look at me, folks, you might have people at work or job or family, whatever and they ridicule you or they have nothing to do with church and even if they don't ridicule you, you say I wanna reach them and I wanna make sure that they're just hard as can be. Let me tell you something, you just get down and you pray for them and you ask God to give you an open door to that neighbor or to that coworker, whatever the case might be but I'm gonna tell you something that could eventually reach them is if they see you go through a trial and they see you have some hard times in your life and you still praise God because he's real and he's living and because he's good and you get a bad report and you have something bad happen to you, you still say God is still good because he saved my soul, he's a wonderful God and I love him, let me tell you something, they'll see something's different.

They'll realize immediately they have something that I don't have. The prisoners heard it, number two, the prison keeper heard it, the power of this praise. Look at verse 29, the Bible says after all this happened and Paul and Silas obviously they yelled and said hey we're all here, you don't have to kill yourself. Verse 29, then he called for a light and sprang in.

Now what does that mean preacher, I don't know. I don't know if he hopped in, if he jumped in, if he tripped and rolled in, I don't know. But he sprang in, he must have been a jumper.

Hopped like a gazelle or something, I don't know. He sprang in, notice this, I love this, and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, wait a minute, he is the jailer and he looks at them and says, sirs. That is a term of respect. Now listen, these two guys just a few hours before were being treated as bad as two guys could be treated. And now because God did something, now they're being treated with respect. This jailer says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Notice if you notice this, the prison keeper heard it, number one, there was brokenness. He was humbled immediately, he heard the praises, he saw what God did, he saw obviously that every prisoner could have gotten out of there, but they were still there and it was amazing to him and he couldn't understand it all and he realized that there's something special about Paul and Silas, he was there when they checked in, he was there when they stayed in, he was there when they could have left, but they chose to stay anyway and he humbles himself.

It breaks him, he realizes they've got something that I don't have, there was brokenness. Notice the second thing, there was Bible. Look if you look at verse 32, the Bible says that and they spake unto him the word of the Lord. You know what process it takes for a person to come to Christ, there must first be brokenness. They first must realize I don't have Christ and I'm on my way to hell without him. You know the hardest thing nowadays, salvation's not hard, it's just tough to get people to admit and realize that they are on their way to hell. They just don't believe it.

Just for some reason they're comfortable and they just don't think, they think death's so far away and I don't know if that's the case. Dear friend, let me tell you something, there must be brokenness, there must be the understanding that I am on my way to hell and I cannot save myself. Next thing was the word of God, the truth, notice the third thing after that was believing. He gave him the word, notice if you would, verse 31, and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

What is it, there's brokenness which I would term as repentance, there's hearing the word of God and then there's believing, putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Notice the next thing was baptizing. Now look at verse 33. And he took them the same hour of the night, washed their stripes, he finally gave them a bath, cleaned them up and was baptized, he and all his straightway.

Now I'm gonna tell you this, I don't know for sure. It is obvious here that this jailer's talking about his family and that word, his own, his family, his house is obviously in every Greek word that you find in here, it points to family unit and all these things. But there are some that believe when it says that the jailer and all his is talking about the other prisoners, that they got saved that night and they were baptized and after that, the jailer took Paul to his house, the Bible says, and then all of his family were there and he taught them the word of God.

I don't know what happened. I don't know, I do know this, that the jailer got saved and I know that the jailer's family ended up getting saved. I don't know if the prisoners got saved, but I do know this, they didn't go anywhere and they were interested. I do know this, if they didn't and they ended up in hell, they got no excuse because they witnessed the power of God. I like to think and I don't know, but I like to think the whole crew got saved.

That's what happens when God moves. Now notice this, they baptized. They cleaned Paul up and they're right there in the water.

So they went ahead and got it taken care of. First step of obedience. Once you've heard God's word, once you believe and put your faith and trust in Christ, now you get baptized. You don't hear God's word, get baptized and then believe. You hear God's word, you believe and then you get baptized.

Right away, I love it. That night, now Paul was tired. Man, he'd been beaten up, barely sat down, started praising God, earthquake. Now this happens, gets cleaned up. Now he's baptized in the middle of the night.

He just could have used a nap. You know why Paul did? Hey, this guy's convicted, he's given his heart to Christ.

Let's get it done. I want you to notice this. The prisoner's heard it, the prison keeper heard it last this morning. God heard it, the power of his praise. Verse 26, and suddenly there was a great earthquake. I want you to notice first, God responded to their praise.

God heard their praise so loudly that he responded. Now I want you to notice something about this earthquake. God doesn't always speak through an earthquake. In fact, the Bible says it's not always in the earthquake, it's not always in the fire, it's not always in this.

Sometimes it's just a still, small voice. But I do want you to know, God doesn't always speak through an earthquake, but sometimes he does, and he did hear. Sometimes God does it quietly, and sometimes God just takes over. And that's exactly what happened, God responded, notice secondly, God rewarded. You say, preacher, how do you say God rewarded? Listen to me, I want you to get this, and if you don't get anything else, please get this.

Put your thinking caps on, open up your mind, forget about lunch right now, we're almost done, just hear me out. Paul and Silas were free way before the chains ever fell off. They never were in jail. As far as they saw it, God was in control.

We're where God wants us, not where some jailer wants us. They didn't need the chains to fall off to be free. They had been freed from sin a long time ago. They had already given their faith and believed in Christ.

It didn't matter if they were shackled or unshackled, they were free. Amen. Listen to me, it didn't matter what happened, they knew God was in control before it did happen. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192, or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. We'll see you next time.