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Welcome to the live big broadcast with Derek Greer. We believe this teaching from God's Word will empower you to live a full, impactful life in Christ. Let's dig in.
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We're going to be in Acts chapter 16, beginning with the sixth verse. The writer of Acts says this. Now, when they. Now Luke uses the word they here. And in a couple verses, it's going to matter. Now, when they had gone through Phrygia in the region of Galatia, after preaching to these cities, it would have been very logical for them to continue on to the province of Asia. Asia. By the way, when we speak of Asia today, we're really talking about Asia Minor. We're talking about the area around Turkey. We're not talking about, you know, China and those other parts. But he wanted to go east. And in the region of Asia, what the Romans called the region of Asia were cities like Pergamum, which was actually the capital, Ephesus, where at some point you'd have the largest church in the world established there. Smyrna and Philadelphia. And all those cities, all of these cities, we're waiting to be won. But I want to make a point here. What is spiritual doesn't always at the moment, seem logical. And this is not because God is irrational, but because he knows what we do not know. He sees what we do not see. He hears what we cannot hear. And he's already been where we cannot go. And we must learn to trust his judgment. So they were going through these regions and watch this. And they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia. Here's a question. Isn't preaching God's Word a good thing? But just because something's good to do doesn't mean it's a good time to do it. Proverbs 27:14 says this. If anyone loudly. How many of y' all ever been interrupted out of your sleep? Loudly. If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning before your first cup of coffee, no matter how pleasant the greeting, it's going to be taken as a curse. What that proverb means is a good thing at the wrong time becomes a bad thing. In fact, yielding to God's timing is really at the apex or the peak of all spirituality because it requires all nine qualities of the fruit of the spirit. It starts with love, joy, goodness, peace, da da da. But it ends with self control. And the ninth quality, self control, is really the most important when it comes on God's timing. Now, as I hinted at later, Paul would go through the province of Asia and He would establish a church at Ephesus, and the churches in Revelation would be established and all this thing, and there would be great results. But as I often say to you, trusting God always includes trusting his timing. And learning to wait on the Lord will save you a whole lot of pain. Acts 16:7 after they had come to Mysia, they tried to go to Bithynia. But watch this. The Spirit did not permit them to go there either. So Paul was not allowed to minister in the east. So he tried to go north to Bithynia, and God didn't let him minister there. Now this may surprise you, but often God's will is discovered by trial and error. This is sometimes one of my challenges when I start working with committees. Cause they expect everything I do to be a word from the Lord. And the reality is, faith is spelled risk for me, just like it's spelled risk for you. And sometimes I just gotta use my best judgment to move in a direction. But stay sensitive enough to let God veto what I think is the best thing to do and then take a shift to move in another direction. And often what happens, because I'm a pastor and my job is to hear God, they look at me and say, is he a little bit confused? No. The reality is that often God leads us through trial and error. God does not bless lazy. Let me put it this way. You cannot steer a parked car. It has to be in motion in order for you to turn it. And many of us, we want to get all the plans and everything laid out before we take off. But the reality with God is you have to move with the cloud. And when he says right, he says right. If he said back up, back up. And that's the way often it operates. I love it when I have a word from God. Cause I'm super confident. I know, but much of the time I am trying to sort it out. I have a hint here and a hint there. And I'm trying to put it all together. Acts 16 and 17. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not again permit them. Sometimes faith is trying until you succeed. So passing by Mysia, they came to Trios. So since we don't live in this time, we don't really understand the map here. But what I want to say to you is both of these cities were in the province of Asia. So what Paul had to do was travel through Asia silently. This was probably very, very hard for the apostle. He had a God given passion to reach souls. And when God Was telling him not to preach, not to say anything. It was probably just a little bit confusing. If it was me, I'd be like, lord, is there something wrong in my life? Did I miss something? Where have I gone wrong? But here's the deal. Following God requires self discipline. And somebody said it's better to wait on God and let things fall into place than to rush and watch them fall apart. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. Now again, I love it if God just spoke to me all the time. But that's often not the way God works. I know with me, he often gives me pictures and then I have to step. Use my faith to kind of step into that picture. Even the property we're in now, it wasn't a word from the Lord. It was a sensing from the Lord. And it's like, derek, can you see it? And I was like, lord, yes, I can see it. And because I could see it, God enabled me to do it. But often there's a seeing before a doing. Do you understand? And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. And a man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with Paul, saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. Now, Paul was in Asia, but Macedonia was in Europe. You see, Paul was trying everything in his power to stay east, but God wanted him to go west. Paul wanted to reach new cities in Asia. Nothing wrong with that. That's not an ignoble desire. It's a noble thing to want to reach a certain community. Paul and his team wanted to reach new cities in Asia, but God wanted him to reach a new continent. You see, it may not make sense in the moment, at the moment, but God is working out a plan and we have to learn to trust him. Now watch what happens as Paul begins to move from Asia right before he moves right, he crosses the Aegean Sea into right before he crosses the Aegean Sea into Europe. Watch what happened now. After he'd seen the vision, immediately we the they turned into what we, which means on their way to Europe, they picked up a doctor named Luke. And this doctor would write the Gospel of Luke. And this man would also write the book of Acts that we are now reading. So if Paul did not listen to God, we would not have 28% of our Bible. Immediately we Now Luke is part of the number sought to go to Macedonia. But watch this next part concluding God did not specifically say for Paul to go to Europe, but because of the vision and God saying, no here and no there. Their conclusion was really Europe is the only way forward. And you must understand this all our decisions in life will not be the result of a direct word from God. Many of them will be based on our best conclusions. Faith is still spelled risk. And here's the deal with risk. An opportunity of a lifetime only lasts the lifetime of the opportunity. And when God shows you something, you have to step into it in that moment. And if you don't. If Paul didn't step into that moment, he might not have met Luke. If Paul didn't step into that moment in a moment, he might not have met Lydia. When God speaks, he knows what he's doing. And we need to have an urgency about the moment and not see. At some point, you gotta make a conclusion. They had a vision, but a vision was not enough. They came to a conclusion after the vision. And when they came to the conclusion, then they took a leap. Faith requires a leap immediately. We sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us there. Didn't say God said it. It was their conclusion to preach the gospel to them. Don't be so scared to make a mistake that you never take a chance. What I've learned is God will correct me. And God knows how to protect me even when I'm wrong. It was not immoral that Paul wanted to go this way and wanted to go that way, and the Holy Spirit stopped him. He had a desire to do something good. The problem is we're human and we're not God. We only know what we know. And like I said, God often doesn't guide us until we step out. And when we step out, that's when he turns that wheel and he directs us and moves us to the place he wants us to go Immediately. Again, they sought to go to Macedonia. They were like, well, you know what? God must want us to preach the gospel to them because there's no other direction that we can go in. You see, a person who never makes a mistake is probably a person who never tried very much. And here's the deal. God is never surprised by our mistakes. Only you and I are. Verse 14. Now, they finally made it to Europe, and a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple. She was a rich woman. Purple was more expensive than gold in some places. I mean, the rich people. You knew rich people by what they wore. And if you had gold dye in your clothes, which was made from some oyster things, some shellfish, it's super expensive. And if you were handling that, you have resources. So there's nothing wrong with being rich and loving God and coming into the kingdom. She was A seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God. She was a proselyte, and the Lord opened her heart to heed things spoken by Paul. Now, if Paul had not listened to the Lord's no, he would not have been part of Lydia's yes. If God says no to you, it's always because he has a better idea. There must be something bigger and wiser down the line. But watch. 16. Paul's doing everything right. Silas is with him. We're gonna hear his name in a moment. They're doing everything right. They're going after God with their whole heart. Now, what happened is they were going to the club. No, as they went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of Python, literally met us. Divination, who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling. Now, because of time, you're gonna have to read that story at home. But the way this narrative ends is this woman was saying truthful things about Paul, that he was a mighty man of God and he was a vessel of God and all the rest. But she was saying it with the wrong spirit. And it irritated Paul so much. How many know? Some people that know the scriptures, but it's just not the right spirit. I mean, just great Sonia scratches you on the inside every time they use the Bible. In fact, remember Jesus, when he was being tempted, didn't the devil come in with a scripture? The right scripture with the wrong spirit is a dangerous thing. Make sure your speech and your truth is seasoned with grace. So Paul got tired of it eventually, and he commanded the spirit to come out of the little girl in the name of Jesus. And when it did, all hell broke loose. But here's the big point, and I got to do this quickly. God loved Paul. God was clearly guiding Paul. But what we're about to see is that despite the fact he's in the perfect will of God, he not only faced conflict, he experienced great pain. You see, God puts every situation in our lives on a scale, and he weighs them and he ensures the pain we are feeling cannot be compared to the joy that he has coming. You know, weeping may endure for night, but joy comes in the morning. But what I'm learning is the more it hurts, the greater the blessing God must have in store. Because God's already weighed that thing and decided it's worth it if I get through it. Stay with me. Verse 22. Then the multitude rose up together against them and the magistrate. All they're doing is doing the right thing. And all these people rise up and try to hurt him and harm them. But watch the first indignity. Now, these were jewish boys. They didn't walk around naked. They had no naked beaches. This was not Europe. They're from the middle east. And you covered up and you made sure you had a sense of modesty about you. Watch the first indignity. All these men did was follow God. And they tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. These men were publicly beaten, not with a belt, with sticks, all because they decided they wanted to set a little abused slave girl free. And when they had laid many stripes on them. The reason why the text says that is because many of the readers at that time were Jewish. And jews limited beatings to 39 stripes. But the romans had no limits, which means they beat Paul and Silas mercilessly. These men were in the right place at the right time, but they found themselves beaten like runaway slaves. So here's the question. Where is God? How could God, who knows the future, knows the end from the beginning. Why would he send these men into a situation where they're gonna be beaten within an inch of their life? Why would a loving God ever do such a thing? But then it goes on. It says they threw them into. After being beaten, they threw them into prison. I mean, their wounds are open, and they're placed in this foul, aired, rodent, infested, diseased, breeding prison. And the crowd commanded the jailer to keep them securely. Having received the charge from the crowd, he put them in the inner prison. I mean, going to prison was enough. But they were not just put into prison. They were put in the worst part of the prison. And scholars say that the inner prison was basically just a hole in the floor that you were dropped in, and there was no possible way of escape. And then, I guess the warden took a ladder and went down there
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then fastened their feet. You know, after the beating, entering the prison, you think it could not get worse. But then their feet were placed in adjustable torture devices that would force their legs into painful stretched positions. And when their legs cramped, they could not move them to get relief. How many have ever had a cramp in your leg? Yeah. So these apostles have been beaten. They're bloody, and their legs are cramping up. There's no natural way of escape. Excruciating pain. If we were in their situation, we would be saying, God, if you loved us, God, if I was following your
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Something like this could never happen. I must be wrong. Or maybe, God, there's some darkness in you. Maybe there's something evil in you. Oh, God. But not with Paul and Silas. Because the Bible says midnight. And I don't care who you are, how long you love Jesus, how often you read the Bible, how long you sung the songs of Zion. We will all experience midnight at some
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in our lives. At midnight, while it was still dark, at midnight, while it still hurt, at midnight, while they still could not see a way out, Paul and Silas were praying. This is why you need good friends and good companions in your life. At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying. But the Greek says a little more than what we read in English here. What the Greek tells us and the tenses that are used says they were still praying and praising at midnight. Can you still worship? Can you still praise when it hurts? Can you still worship and praise when it's not fair? Can you still worship and praise when there's no sign of God's help? What I've learned is I must pray the hardest when it's the hardest. Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. The songs we sing here on Sunday are songs you should be taking home and singing in your prayer closet, singing when you get that phone call. Singing when your mind feels like it's going to slip out of your left ear and you about to lose it. Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. Did you know that the singing part of the service is as important as the preaching part? And people might ask, well, why do you sing? Well, I sing because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. I sing because his eye is on the sparrow. And I know and I know and I know despite what's happened, I know he watches over me. Give God a hallelujah. If you can sing in a strange land, if you can sing when things are going wrong, if you can sing when it hurts and life does not make sense, watch the next part. And the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly everybody wants to suddenly. But nobody wants to worship when it hurts, no one wants to give when you have just a little left. Nobody wants to stay close to God when everything inside you says run. But like how the orange makes orange juice, when life squeezes us, what's truly inside of us surfaces and comes out. And when the squeeze would put on Paul in a silence, it wasn't cursing and bitterness. It was praise and worship to the living God. And when you go through your midnight, may you two be so full of God and his spirit that all that comes out of you is, Lord, don't you slay me. Lord, I don't understand. But I do understand this. He who's begun a good work in me will complete it. Father, if it's not good yet, you must not be done yet. You are faithful, and I will trust you. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake. Now, here's the question. This. This the question today. Why did the earthquake come after they were beaten, after they were put in prison? Why did an earthquake come? To stop the beating. That's the God I'd like to. Why. Okay, maybe I'll take a little bit of a beating. But the stocks. God, you could have sent the earthquake before they put those stocks on me. But, Lord, why did you not stop it with the earthquake? And only after the pain the ground. Shakespeare, it says, suddenly, out of nowhere, there was an earthquake. But the earthquake only came after they proved their faithfulness. You see, for those who really got it, God is not afraid to let us prove it. You see, God knows what he placed on the inside of you. You may not know it because there's many times, lord, I can't take this. I can't do. God knows what he put on the inside of me. And he has a right to allow life to call upon that thing, to prove that thing. I mean, what's the use? Sometimes I wonder about these cars that go 300 miles an hour. But. But we can't drive that fast. What's the point? But sometimes in God's wisdom, he's like, I'm going to make this engine purr. Everything on the inside of you, I want. I want to put my foot down the pedal to the metal. And everything that's on the inside of you is going to manifest and show itself strong. So there came the earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison was shaken. Our worst beatings often precede our greatest breakthrough. And sometimes God lets our nest be shaken so we can learn to fly. Other times, things are shaken so we can hold on more tightly to things that can't be shaken. But Paul and Silas didn't fully understand the reality of what was working on the inside of them. And only when they were put in the fire did they realize this is real gold. It's not consuming me. It's not burning me up. In fact, my fire for God is only getting brighter. And immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains were loose. Now, this is the important point today. God's timing. Pay attention to me. Is not only about you. His timing is sometimes also for the people around you, the people watching you. It wasn't that God was weak. And that was the reason he didn't move earlier. God didn't move earlier because he was wise. God understood. God knows how to flip a thing. The very thing the devil is trying to use to destroy you is the very thing God will use to promote you and give you credibility that you could get no other way. When Paul and Silas got out of that prison, people were saluting them. They respected these men. They weren't just good preachers, they weren't just good talkers. These were men who lived out their faith. And the keeper of the prison, waking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he supposed that the prisoners had fled. And. And when you guard prisoners, whatever their death, whatever their sentence was, if they escaped, you'd have to take that sentence. So there were people in there with death penalties. So he's like, listen, the Romans are brutal. I'm gonna kill myself instead of they kill me. So supposing the prisoners had fled, they drew his sword and he was about to what, Kill himself. This was probably the very man who had beaten Paul. But watch Paul. Paul with a loud voice said, arriva Darchee. Sayonara, Deuces. I'm out. No. So Paul still had a heart for this man. Blessed are you when people revile you, use you, talk all manner evil against you. Bless them. Here's a man that was responsible for some of Paul's pain. Everything in me would have been like, run for freedom, get out of here while the going is good. But Paul paused. He said, do not harm yourself, for we are all here. Paul was not willing to leave any man behind, even the worst man behind. Then he called for a light, this man, and fell and ran down, ran, fell down and trembled before Paul and Silas. You see the tables turn. And if you worship God, despite your wounds, despite your pain, God will turn the tables. You understand? Initially, Paul and Silas were probably physically trembling, not because they were necessarily afraid, but when you get beat that heart that long, your body begins to shake and quiver. But because of their faithfulness, God flipped the script and now they are trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Here's the big point and here's some of the explanation of why you're going through or have gone through some of the things you've gone through. Some people will not just be reached through preaching. They need to see it in our lives. Sometimes we're not going through what we're going through just because we did something wrong, but because people Are watching. Jesus is the greatest speaker, the wisest individual that has ever been. As incredible as his words are, it was the beating he took at the cross. It was him not coming down from that cross. Him enduring the shame that makes me salute him and respect him and recognize the reality of his love. Prophets may preach, but the son of God took up his cross. And because of how he lived out his love and commitment to you and I, I will worship him till the day I d care what nobody says. He is my Lord and my savior. More than a preacher, a prophet, My hero. Sirs. What must I do to be saved? God knew that this hardened man. If you're going to have a job like that, working in a prison, hearing the terrible things he heard, the cries he would hear every night. It was just horrible. In that place, there's a hardness that comes on your heart. And sometimes it takes a little bit more to reach that person. But God wanted this prison warden, this gentleman that kept the prison. He wanted Paul and Silas to show them a God who could be. Joy and pain. Sweet in bitterness, joy in sorrow. Hope for tomorrow. It's easy to sing it and preach it on a Sunday like this, but when you are at your midnight and you are bleeding and bloody, and when they press you, all that comes out is the worship of your God. You have done something that will. Will capture the attention of your family and anyone watching. So they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You see, everyone in the prison wanted a God like Saul, Paul and Silas. They wanted to know a God that could make them happy in the midst of the worst. You being happy without trouble is not a testimony. A lot of folks, you know, it's easy to whistle in the sunshine,
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when you got joy and pain, people understand that something else must be working on the inside. So they watched Paul and Silas and they realized that they worshiped a God that could get them out of any prison, remove any chain, shake any institution and pull you out of the most impossible pit. But I want to add, at some point in the night, they must have been thinking, just because God didn't do it yet doesn't mean it's not on his way. You said, lord, I cried out to you when they beat me with rods. Lord, I cried out to you when they put me in prison. On top of that, I cried out to you when they put me in the hole. I cried out to you when they put my feet in stocks. Silence. But what you may not realize is this is just a setup for A testimony that no one can naysay, no one can argue with. It had to have been 100% God to get you out of the fix that you were in then. He said you and your whole household as what God did with Paul and Silas and impacted the entire prison. What God did in the warden impacted his whole family. What you let God do in you in your midnight hour, especially with folks who know you, they knew you know you back then. And because they know you the best, they're the hardest to prove that you're any different. But when they see that you were doing what you would never do, you become what you can never become apart from God's grace. It's a living testimony that they can't deny and they cannot naysay. Sometimes God's timing is not just about you. It's about the people watching. He's waiting to get you into a spot where people look at you and say, that must be God in that person's life, because I know that individual and they don't have that in them. You and your whole household. God cares about your household. God wants to use you to impact your household. But the way all this happened was because at midnight, Paul and Silas continued to pray and continue to praise God. When you face your midnight, continue to pray and continue to praise your God. Give God a great big hallelujah.
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Thank you for joining us. Until next time, remember you have what it takes in Christ to live big. We also invite you to partner with Derek Greer Ministries in bringing the life changing and impactful teachings of God's Word to the world. Get started by visiting Derekre.com by clicking the link in the description.