What Do You Do When You Want to Throw In the Towel?

Good morning, Springhouse.

I want to just reiterate about this.

One of the reasons why I love Operation Christmas

Child, this particular outreach for Springhouse,

is because this is something you can do on your schedule,

on your time, and with your family.

One of our favorite things is take our girls.

We'll go to Dollar Tree or Walmart or Target.

And they get to pick out the things that they put in there.

They're a part.

Their fingerprints are on there.

And we get to teach our kids what it is to be selfless.

And why we're doing this is to really give the gospel

of Jesus Christ across the world.

And we've had people--

I've had people that came--

we do this at the school.

We've had people who have come who share.

They were one of the kids who received the box

at another country.

And now they're living in the States.

And they're sharing how they know Jesus because

of this awesome ministry.

So you have an opportunity here.

It's real easy to do.

And you can do it on your own timeline.

I would love to see every family participate in this

as our Springhouse outreach.

Amen?

Amen.

OK, another outreach opportunity that's

coming much sooner than this is October 31st.

We will be doing our annual fall festival here

where thousands of people come and are

part of what the Lord's allowed us to put on here.

Guys, we need help.

If you're asking yourself, man, what can I do to serve here

at Springhouse?

What can I do?

How can I plug in?

We need your help.

Do we have a spot for you?

Absolutely.

Do we have vacancies that need to be filled?

Absolutely.

We need your help that night.

And so here's what I need you to do next Sunday.

We want to feed you a free lunch.

And we want to tell you about the event on the 31st.

It'd be about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes

after this service.

We're going to feed you.

And then we want to get you to sign up to volunteer and be

a part of it.

Now, if you have kids, I understand if you have kids,

you're going to want to walk with your kids

and participate in the event as well.

I totally get that.

Well, here's the thing.

The more volunteers we have, then we

can put a schedule together so where you can serve

and participate as well.

OK, so we have everybody signed up to help.

We have the capacity to do all of that.

But man, I'll tell you, one of my favorite things

about that night-- I said this last week--

is Springhouse--

--a presentation in here and gives the gift

to everybody who comes.

And so just similar to that Operation Christmas Child,

we have the opportunity to give Jesus to people on that night.

So it's going to be really, really good.

And there's going to be a lot of candy that night too.

And if you're bringing candy, there are buckets out there

that we would ask you to put those in over the next--

well, I guess it'd be this week or next Sunday

if you could bring candy.

After that, just drop it off.

My office is right over down the hall.

Anyway, God is good.

Last thing I wanted to say this morning,

I just wanted to tell you how not just proud

I am of Springhouse, but just how grateful I

am for this body.

I genuinely, as your pastor, I feel that for a majority of you

I could come to you and say, hey, I really have a need.

Would you be willing to serve in this capacity or do X, Y, and Z?

And so many of you have your yes ready to be put on the table.

And I can't tell you what it means to me as a pastor

to be able to know that when I need to call on somebody, man,

the yes is right there.

Yesterday we had a celebration of life service

for Alyssa Lockett's here in this place.

And everything turned around just last week.

We were just getting things together.

And man, at every juncture we were asking,

would you be willing to serve?

Would you be willing to help?

And it was yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

I love the heart posture of this church.

And can I tell you, that should be the normal thing.

That is what normal kingdom living should be.

And so I just want to tell you I'm so grateful.

I want to continue to be a place that loves big, lives truth,

and is a healthy family.

God is so good and He's on the throne.

Is He not?

Amen.

We are going to continue our series today, His church.

And I am super excited about the word

that's being brought today.

And I'm not bringing it.

Pastor Allen is going to come and bring the word today.

And I'm excited for what he's going to bring.

Would you guys welcome Pastor Allen Smith.

(congregation cheering)

- Love you.

- Love you.

(congregation clapping)

- Thank you, Michael.

Stay here.

I'm not trying to copy what happened in first service,

but I'm trying to be obedient to the Lord.

First of all, if somebody could fulfill Matthew 10

and offer me a cup of water,

I still have communion cracker in my teeth.

And I'm trying, if I'm not preaching, I don't care.

Thank you, brother.

(congregation clapping)

That's called obedience.

That's called having a yes on the table.

Thank you, brother.

I am echoing pastors.

I won't try not to cry for three minutes

like I did in first service.

It took me two or three minutes to get going.

I want to echo his sentiment about this house,

be the family, and how grateful,

how grateful I am that you're my family.

I know some of you deeply.

I know some of you well.

And then there are those of you that I know a little,

and there's some of you that have not had the pleasure

to meet and get to know yet,

and my harsh desire is to do that.

So here's, there's 400 of us between the two services.

Find me.

Hey, let's go get coffee.

Hey, Pastor Allen, I'm Bill, I'm Joe, I'm Sally, whatever.

'Cause I want to know you.

A week ago, I had the joy of taking my adult children,

and I took our kids to the beach and just got away,

and somebody said, "You're an idiot.

There's a hurricane coming."

And I said, "I rebuke that thing in the name of Jesus."

'Cause I paid for this back in April.

Now don't get me wrong,

my parents survived Hurricane Hugo

in Columbia, South Carolina.

That's 162 miles inland, and it destroyed their property.

So my heart grieves.

I've lived through a tornado in my childhood.

I understand devastation.

So don't get me wrong.

My heart weeps for those people,

and there are, there are, in fact, let me brief plug.

If you've seen a white trailer out here,

there's a brother in the house

that if we will keep filling it up with supplies,

he'll keep taking it to East Tennessee

and Western North Carolina.

It was supposed to be back today, I'm not sure if it is.

He's working a 40 and 50 hour week

and driving on Saturday to drop those supplies off

and come back so that it's here on Sundays.

So I challenge you, if you got water, if you got things,

it takes a while to recover from that.

So let me get forward.

We're with my adult kids.

We had a wonderful time of fellowship.

Pastor Kevin went with us on the trip.

[congregation laughing]

Some of you know him, talk him out.

Don't worry, I know the guilty party

that papered my room when I came back.

I haven't forgot you.

He'll get yours over the course of a year.

Anyway, we were so relaxed, so refreshed

that we were coming home, we watched the service,

Chelsea and Renee and I were in the car

and we got to hear what a powerful word

he brought last week in the worship.

There were tears, we were singing,

there was worship in the car.

We had great, great, great, great.

I don't mean this in the profane way,

but anyway, I had all hell break loose in your life before.

So you know what I mean.

I don't mean just, I'm talking about where the kingdom

of darkness comes against you and tries to destroy your faith

and rob you of your joy and take your rest

that comes from only God.

We say, come unto me, all who are heavy laden

and take my burden for his light and I'll find rest.

And the enemy wants to just steal, kill and destroy

and take that from you.

We get home Sunday, or Saturday, sorry.

We watched on Sunday, you weren't with us.

I have to correct Sunday.

She had to fly out Sunday morning early

and Renee goes out to the van and is dead.

I just bought a brand new battery the week before.

Mike Dennis is trying to figure it out.

So that's going on this week.

I get a text at 6.20 on Monday morning

about Alyssa's tragic, tragic story.

And I'm just crushed at spirit.

The Locketts were a precious family in this house

and I was torn up.

I only knew him five years.

Some of the people in this house

have known him their whole time.

And it just ripped my heart.

And then I get a call from one of my biker friends.

And he says, "Hey, Donna's about to go home.

She's in hospice, can you come and pray?"

So Monday evening, I sat there and I talked to the family.

I said, "Are you ready to let her go?"

'Cause they were tired of seeing her suffer.

She's incoherent, she doesn't in the physical

know what's going on, but I know in the spirit we do.

And they said, "Yeah, we just wanna see her suffer."

So we prayed.

I grabbed her little hand and gnawed her head

and I said, "Father, she's yours.

And I just ask you, Jesus, in the name of Christ Almighty,

that you would make it swift and peaceful."

She passed away early Tuesday.

So now I've got another funeral this Saturday.

And then all kinds of chaos is going on in my life.

I had to do something as a pastor

that I don't like to have to do,

but I had to bring correction and an incident.

And I prayed for days.

I asked Pastor Kevin, I even reached out

to Pastor Bruce for wisdom.

And I sent an email that I had bathed in prayer

and asked the Holy Spirit to help me to write.

And then I get an email back that's pages long.

And it's just full of stuff.

And even an accusation of a lawsuit in small claims court.

And I'm going, "God."

But rather than go, "Whoa, it's me and one,"

I began to praise and sing songs of worship

and cry out to God, "You're my Deliverer.

You're my rocking shield.

You're my defense."

He just said, "Keep silent.

Stand still and see my salvation."

And I tell you in the midst of all the grief

and all the heaviness and the woe,

I had such a joy yesterday that couldn't be expressed.

In the midst of this gathering with family,

my heart was broken, but yet I was full of joy.

I was full of hope.

I will tell you this morning,

I don't know what your chaos is.

I don't know what your cell is.

You were gonna talk about being in a prison cell today,

just like Kevin a few weeks ago.

I don't care what it is.

Can I tell you there is a name that is above every name

and that name is Jesus.

And at that name, the darkness trembles.

At that name, he solids his fears.

And at that name, hope and deliverance can come to you.

Father, thank you that you have given us a name

that we can cry out, "I love Father."

And you hear us and you watch over us

to perform your word in our lives.

So be with us, Lord.

For those in this room, I cannot be the only one

who's gone through a week of hell, literally, in this room.

And some in this room may have been going through it

for weeks, but Lord, we're gonna speak the name of Jesus today.

And we're gonna see darkness tremble.

We're gonna see fear silenced.

And we're gonna see freedom in these situations

in Christ's name.

Amen.

I had a rag.

There it is.

Y'all stop, I'm getting old.

I'm gonna do it one more time

because the Lord won't let me go.

Laura, are you in this room right now?

You met me in my office this morning at 8.25.

Are you in the room?

Okay.

God, she's yours.

Alrighty, let's try to get this thing done.

You ever wanted to get the back end of something so quick,

like at a birthday party?

You just wanna get to the cake so quick.

But you gotta do the games and the balloons

and all the other stuff to get to the cake.

That's today.

I wanna get to page four so bad,

but I gotta give you the first couple of pages.

So I'm gonna read and set us up and get us there.

And then I'm gonna try to be obedient to God.

So we've been walking through the book of Acts this year.

And in that, the beginning, we talked about setting it up.

We had a few weeks talking about his word.

And then we were talking about his life, talking about Christ.

And now we're talking about his church,

as it was in the book of Acts.

So in that process, we realized that

the things that were individuals who encountered

struggles and trials and difficulties,

no different than what we just go through in our lives,

but they had the empowerment

of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

And we see how God moved in the early church

in the first century.

Can I tell you today, he still moves today

just like he did then.

They said when the apostles died,

that the Spirit and all that was, that's not true.

That's a lie.

God still is looking to perform his word in our lives today.

He's still active.

He still speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.

It might be a gentle nudge.

It might be a whisper.

Sometimes, like me, he has to hit me with something

to get my attention, but he is still speaking,

are we listening?

I said listening.

We hear, but are we listening?

And there's a difference.

One of the misconceptions we have in the Western culture

is this, especially in the Western church.

We think that being a follower of Christ,

it's all rainbows and roses.

It's all just blessing and favor.

We are exempt from all the hard things that come in life.

Can I tell you that is not true?

That is a misconception.

That is false teaching.

Now there are blessings.

There is favor to be had in the name of the Lord,

but we are not exempt just because I call Christ my Savior.

Scripture says the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

We are all in this world together.

If I walk outside and there's a blackened sinner

walking with me and there's a storm coming out,

if we don't carry an umbrella,

we're both gonna get soaking wet.

It's the same for you.

We think that we can just pray

and God will just make it all go away

and it's all gonna get better.

It can.

Most of the time it does,

but sometimes we still have to walk through.

He didn't say go around the valley of the shadow of death.

He said we gotta walk through sometimes.

I'm gonna use some examples and I know they won't mind.

I can tell you this couple right here

almost four years ago would have liked to have walked around

a valley of the shadow of death,

but they had to walk through it literally

and their testimony shone through that

to those around them and God was with them.

He never left them forsaken.

He walked through the valley.

Sometimes we have to walk through it.

I'm gonna save y'all the 18 verses of Scripture

to make you stand and read.

I love when Pastor Ronnie and sometimes Pastor Kevin go

and we're gonna read the whole thing

and it's like oh Lord my legs.

Y'all been standing.

Acts 16, 20.

16 through 30 says this.

Once as we were on our way to prayer,

a slave girl met us who had a spirit of prediction

and made a large profit for her owners by fortune telling.

As she followed Paul and us, she cried out,

"These men are the slaves of the most high God

"who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."

And she did this for many days.

And Paul was greatly aggravated.

Do you know that you can be aggravated as a believer?

That's not a sin.

Show of hands.

You might have been aggravated.

Spiritually aggravated and I know you flesh.

There's a difference.

Left hand if you've been in your flesh.

Right hand if you've been.

Both hands.

Everybody should be like this in the name of Jesus.

I see those hands.

He was greatly aggravated.

In other words, he wasn't just a little tit.

He was upset.

He'd had enough.

It's different.

I'm reading from Harlem and y'all got NIV.

So excuse the words.

And turning to the Spirit, notice he did not call her out.

He did not demean and provoke and chastise her.

He recognized there was a Spirit.

You do realize, Pastor Justin's been teaching it

on Thursdays, we are in a spiritual battle.

It ain't us against us.

It's the kingdom of light against the kingdom of darkness.

A third of the angels fell with Satan,

Lucifer when he fell.

That means that two thirds are still on Jehovah's side.

I think that means he's outnumbered, right?

Just saying.

He turned to the Spirit and said,

"I command you in the name of Jesus Christ

"to come out of her."

And it came out five days later.

What's yours, what does it say?

Thank you.

In that moment.

God is an on time, in that time moment kind of guy.

When her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone,

they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them

into the marketplace to the authorities

and bringing them before the chief magistrates,

they said, "These men are seriously disturbing our city,

"for they are Jews and are promoting customs

"that are not legal for us Romans to adopt our practice."

When you stand up to do the right, wait a minute.

What's the title again?

Do What's Right.

When I first read the sermon schedule,

I thought it said do the right thing

and I went, why are we talking about Spike Lee in 1989?

Do What's Right.

When you stand up to do what's right in the name of God,

guess what?

You gonna get some stuff.

You gonna create a situation

because the enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy

and he ain't gonna sit there and go,

"Okay, Curt, do what you gotta do."

No, he's gonna buffer and do everything he can

to make that guy give up on his faith in God

and put obstacles in your way so that you'll give up

and not do what's right.

But Paul was not operating in the spirit of Paul.

He was operating through the spirit of God,

through the Holy Spirit.

And when you walk with the power of the Holy Spirit

in your life, according to Acts 1 and 8,

you will be a witness and you will have a boldness about you

to do what's right.

The mob joined in against them with attack

and the chief magister stripped off the clothes,

ordered them to be beaten with rods

and after they inflicted many blows on them,

threw them in jail, ordering the jailer

to keep them securely guarded.

After receiving such an order,

he put them into the inner prison

and secured the feet and stocks.

Now today, to get stripped ain't a big thing.

There's such a, we live in such a society,

a world where people just run around half-naked

and stupid anyway.

But in that time, if you were pulled out in public

and stripped, that was a humiliation.

It was demeaning, you were degraded,

you were less than, you were looked down on

and you were shamed.

All because they were doing what God had told them to do

and that created the chaos in the community

and they pulled them together and stripped them.

Then it says it beat them with rods.

Everybody over 50, y'all remember in mama's house?

I ain't even gotta finish, y'all know where I'm going.

It was my mother who was mom, mommy,

I'm 60 years old and I call her mommy, shut your mouth.

Her mom was mother because she always called her mom mother.

So my grandmother was mother

and my great-grandmother was mama.

If mama Barfield wanted to tan me,

give me a switch.

And I knew that if I go to that bush

and pull off that switch, I better do two things.

It better be thick and I better pull the leaves off of it

before I give it to her.

And then I'd get tanned.

These guys didn't get switched.

They got beaten.

The custom in the time were rods

that were about a meter long.

As you know, they're all meters, they're not feet.

So anyway, 39 inches, whatever.

And they were as thick as your finger

and they bundled them together, about nine to 10 of them

and put a rope around them and all this up

and the leaders, they walked around with it

like a bow and arrow thing over the shoulder.

They walked around on it, just looking.

Boy, I'll whip you.

The Jews had a custom that was against the law for 40 lashes.

So everywhere in Scripture you see where the Jews did it,

it was 40 minus one or 39 lashes

'cause they didn't wanna break the law, the Mosaic law.

Romans didn't care.

I'll beat you 'til my arm gets tired.

So it says after they had induced many lashes.

How many is many?

Wasn't just one guy beating him either.

So imagine the picture.

See, we make the Bible so septic and so clean.

Come on, Kurt.

Come here.

Me and Kurt, Paul and Silas,

we're walking around declaring the gospel.

We call that spirit out.

They bind us, they strip us,

and then they beat us to within inches of our life.

We're stripped, we're welted, we're bloodied, we're bruised.

Probably in the dirt, face down.

No, I'm just kidding.

[audience laughing]

See the picture.

We read the page and we just flip the page.

See the picture.

Then they grab 'em up and drag 'em to jail.

Roman prisons weren't a nice place.

It ain't like going down the metro, is it, Justin?

>> It ain't nice here.

[audience laughing]

>> See?

At least he had air condition.

This says if it ain't going to jail bad enough,

General Popp, they put 'em in the inner cell,

similar to an isolation situation

where there is darkness, there's poor ventilation.

What food you did get,

you probably wasn't wanting to eat anyway.

Rats, vermin, not a good place.

That's bad enough, but now sit down

and we'll lock your feet in the wooden stalks.

And there's not a wall to lean on

'cause we won't make this as uncomfortable for you

as you can be in.

'Cause at least you got a wall I can lean back.

No, we want your back to hurt.

We want your thighs to cramp.

We want you to suffer.

[audience laughing]

They didn't do anything wrong.

They hadn't broken a wall.

What they did was obey the Holy Spirit

and speak deliverance to somebody that was bound.

But the world was against it.

And it created a stir because let me tell you,

when you do what's right,

it's gonna draw conflict in your life.

There is gonna be a spirit of antagonism against you

because you're trying to be righteous,

sanctified and justified in Christ

and bring freedom to other people.

Guess what?

Lucifer, Satan, the enemy does not want that for them.

And he will do all that he can to shut you up.

Here we are, we find ourselves.

I am so far.

Often those who figure it out.

Did I skip all of them?

There we go.

Crowd joined in the attack against Pylosallos.

Magisterous Orleans, stripped, beaten rods,

severely flogged, thrown in prison.

Received the orders, put them in the inner cell,

fastened their feet.

Anybody been in a prison?

Pastor Kevin just preached about it a few weeks ago.

Most of the time, not all the time,

most of the time, we build our own prisons.

When it starts caving in and life starts happening,

we implode, we go to dark places in our mind

like that inner cell.

We captivate ourself in our own cells.

We put our own cells in shackles and stocks

because we get so full of fear and anxiety

that we imprison ourselves.

We have a choice.

We can whine and complain,

which is in our DNA if you read Exodus.

Some of you read your Bible.

Or we can do what Pylosallos did.

The scripture says at about midnight,

I'm a night owl.

I usually see 1230, 1245, one o'clock before I fall asleep.

This last week, my poor wife,

me flip flopping and moaning and crying out to the Lord,

about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying.

What is your first response when you're in prison,

when you're in a dark place, when you start imploding,

when you're captivated, when you have done the right thing?

Hear me, if you're walking in sin

and following after the desires of the flesh

and you become imprisoned, guess what?

Guilty.

You put yourself there because you're walking out

to fulfill the lust of the flesh.

But if you are genuinely trying to walk

to fulfill the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit

in your life and you're doing the right thing,

but yet you still find yourself in prison, pray.

Don't complain.

This is a saying, hymns to God.

Some translations it says hymns of praise.

They weren't in the prison singing songs of lament

and woe is me, they were giving praise to God.

Songs of David.

How great and marvelous are you my God,

the creator of heavens and earth.

You have given me favor.

They sang songs of praise and worship to God.

Big line there.

And the other prisoners were listening to them.

Oh, I'm in here by myself.

I'm in this struggle all alone.

Nobody cares.

There are people in your life listening

to how you respond to what's going on in your life.

They are watching what you're gonna do.

I'm a believer in Christ.

I go to church.

I this, I that, all those good little,

I got the bumper sticker, the fish, the t-shirt.

I got the whole package.

Does your actions line up with your appearance?

Do your words reflect how you walk or vice versa?

They were listening to them.

Here's a good word.

I love the book of Mark.

If you go read the book of Mark,

I used to be able to tell you the number.

So many words immediately, suddenly, at once,

at that very moment.

Do you know we serve a God that is a suddenly,

at once, in that very moment kind of God?

You can sometimes have to go through it.

Look at Joseph, three years.

Felt like God forgot him.

He literally was in prison too.

But God is also a God of in that very moment.

But how do you respond to him?

Can influence the way he will respond to you.

Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake

that the foundations of prison were shaken.

It didn't start from the top down.

God shook the earth and that prison fell apart

from the bottom up, from the roots up.

Whatever is holding you, whatever is binding you,

whatever place you put yourself in,

if you will cry out to God and pray,

sing songs of deliverance and praise,

and trust in him that others will see you,

he will shake it from the foundation,

and he'll bring freedom.

Gets better.

There's that word again.

At once, a few of the doors, Paul and Silas' door.

All the doors flew open, and every once,

changed, came loose.

You had the capacity, you have the ability,

in your worshiping, in your reaction to life,

to bring freedom that will open other people's doors

and release them from the chains they're in.

I got people I love.

And I want my reaction to bring freedom to them,

but guess what?

There's people that hate me too.

And I can't be a man of God if I go,

I only want it for the ones I love.

God said, whosoever will,

call me, shall be saved.

So I gotta walk it out in front of everybody.

I can't walk it out just in front of you, that's easy.

Can I do it in the marketplace?

Can I do it at the ball field?

Can I do it in emails where people are persecuting

and threatening lawsuits?

Can I be that guy then, to bring freedom for them?

The jailer wakes up.

I guess so.

'Cause if you're one, I think,

well, Renee, say earthquake, can't wake me up.

The earthquake shaking and rattling the timbers

and everything of a prison,

probably enough to wake that guy up.

Let's say there's 20 or 30 prisoners and they're bound up.

You think their chains fall off,

they just gonna sit there going, wow, that's pretty cool.

I got a feeling that even unbelievers were freaking out

and going, what is happening?

What are y'all doing?

How did this happen?

So there might have been a little Pentecostal prayer meeting

happening in the prison cell.

And it wakes the jailer up.

And he's in a panic.

'Cause he was told, you guard them,

you put them in the inner prison.

And now this happens and he's freaking out 'cause,

duh, if I'm locked up and it breaks free,

I'm leaving.

But they had to do what was right.

Paul and Silas all of a sudden become

the wardens of this jail.

Those that were bound for doing what was right,

stripped and humiliated, beaten,

and put in the darkest part of this prison,

now they're running the asylum.

And the jailer is in fear of what's about to happen to him.

Says he's about to kill himself.

'Cause he thought the prisoner escaped.

But Paul shouted, y'all do see the word says shouted.

Paul didn't go like, whoa, wait a minute, it's all right.

Paul realizes there's a need.

Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait.

We're here, it's okay.

Nobody's left, we're all here.

There are people watching.

There are people in your life that operate in fear,

that are living in fear,

and you have to bring a word of the Lord

that will bring life.

The jailer called for lights,

rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

Why was he trembling?

Because he had experienced the power of God

through an earthquake, through the praise and worship,

through the bonds being broken.

He recognized and experienced the power of God

in that dark setting.

And it says, he then brought them out

and says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

"How can I have what you have?

"How can I have what gave you freedom in this bondage?"

They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus,

"and you will be saved."

But not just you.

You and your household.

His household ain't there, he's in the prison.

But Paul, one, brought the word of the Lord,

which was life and liberty and deliverance,

and then he prophesied over the jailer

and said, "Not just you, but you and your household

"will be saved."

Can you bring the word of the Lord?

Can you have the boldness?

You can if you're filled with the Holy Spirit.

At that hour,

Paul's Roman citizen,

they didn't realize that.

They accused him of being Jews, which he was.

Throw him in prison, all this happens.

This Roman jailer takes them out,

washed their wounds, and immediately,

he and all his household were baptized.

The jailer brought them into his house

and sent a meal before them.

Psalm 23, come to mind.

A table in the presence of mine, enemies.

He was filled, who was?

The jailer was filled with joy

because he had come to believe in God.

There are people that are bound and lost in darkness,

and when you bring the word of God to them,

and they experience freedom,

they will be filled with joy

because they have what you have.

Because you've given it to them freely.

He and his whole household.

Worship team, y'all can kinda come this way.

God has got a restoration.

They took them in the broad of day,

stripped them and humiliated them

before the crowds of people.

In the middle of the day, beat them severely.

In the middle of the day, put them in prison.

God does his thing, the jailer and his family gets saved,

word comes about what's happened to the chief magistrates.

They find out that they're Roman citizens and went, uh-oh.

Uh-oh, 'cause that means trouble for them.

'Cause I've done this to a Roman citizen.

And he goes, hey, just kinda take them out the back

and give them some bread,

just get 'em on, move 'em on away.

Here's where the boldness of God comes in your life

with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Paul said, no, no, uh-uh, woo, uh-uh.

You embarrassed us and humiliated us in public.

You're gonna release us and apologize to us in public.

Don't believe me, read the scripture.

When you sweat and cry, you get blurry eyes.

When daylight came, the chief magistrates

sent the police to say, release those men.

The jailer reported these words to Paul.

The magistrates have sent orders for you to be released

so come out now and go in peace.

In other words, shh, go that way.

And Paul said, they beat us in public without a trial?

Although we are Roman citizens and they threw us in jail,

and now, now they gonna smuggle us out secretly, uh-uh?

Certainly not.

On the contrary, let them come themselves

and escort us out.

(soft piano music)

Can I tell you that God will have you escorted out

with honor from what the enemy did in shame

so that his name will be glorified?

Wasn't about Paul and Silas,

it wasn't about, oh, we're Roman citizens.

It was about they were believers in God

and they weren't gonna take it from the devil anymore.

And them being made a spectacle,

when they were escorted out, they were given honor

because they did what was right

and they suffered for it.

Sometimes we will suffer for doing what's right.

But trust me, God will always,

God will always be glorified.

For these light and momentary afflictions,

there are scripture after scripture

which says they counted themselves worthy to suffer

for the name of Christ.

I'm not saying go out and look for every opportunity

to be beaten down, whatever.

We do have a place of blessing and honor and favor

in the name of Christ.

But sometimes we have to suffer

because there are people looking

and they're gonna see how you respond.

And the way you respond, the way I respond

will bring life or death to them.

Four years ago, I should have died in November from COVID.

And I'm gonna tell you, I wasn't much of a Christian

that first three hours.

They're trying to shove air bows and air flows

and all this on me and it was causing pain

because the mixture was wrong.

And I was fighting my nurse, male nurse.

Let me clarify, it was a male nurse.

His name was Ryan.

But I was fighting.

I kept telling him, you're hurting me,

you're not helping me.

And once I got out of my flesh

and started praying in the Holy Ghost under my breath,

a precious lady named Kay came in.

And she, little gal, in the middle of all that chaos

came into room four, the whatever that is, the bad place.

I see you.

And she said, "Hey!"

And that room went quiet.

And she said, "What is going on?"

And I said, "He keeps trying to put this on

"and I'm telling you, it hurts, it burns.

"It's chemical, it's not heat."

She checked the gauges of the valves, adjusted it,

and said, "If you'll try it now, just try it."

Put it on and it brought relief.

But for the next 13 days,

I encountered 23 people in that hospital,

seven of them from that night,

and I had to repent to them.

I verbally told Ryan, "Brother, I am sorry

"for cussing and yelling at you and fighting you."

And he's like, "That's okay, brother, you hurt."

I said, "No, it's not okay!

"I'm a believer in Jesus and my response was wrong.

"And I repent, I am sorry, and I need you to forgive me.

"Can I tell you for the next 13 days,

"that man did anything I asked for.

"I got to pray with him.

"He's a veteran from Afghanistan War.

"He's a male nurse at the hospital at Stonecrest."

We became so close that by the time I was released

on the 29th of November, he cried when we hugged to leave.

I could have left it on my first three hours of response,

but I chose to repent and do what was right.

So here we are.

I don't know where you are.

I don't know what hell has unleashed in your life

in the last week, month.

I don't know what's ahead of you.

I know this, we are called to do what is right.

And if we will do what is right,

God will bring release for you,

salvation for those that are around you,

and he will be glorified.

Different altar call.

Stand, sit, kneel, come.

It's open.

Allow the Lord to work in your life this morning,

whatever it is.

Actually, yes, Lord.

There are some people in here this morning

that you need to profess it to somebody.

So I am gonna ask elders and those that will pray

to come forward.

(gentle music)

There's a few of you that do need to come and verbally

tell somebody what it is in your life

that you're believing for,

and I challenge you to come down.

This song, we're doing "Tremble Again."

Let the darkness be gone in your life this morning.

Would the elders and those that are gonna minister,

please come forward.

If you're feeling unction of the whole,

that's not your breakfast,

that's not some uneasy feeling,

that's the Holy Spirit that's working in your life.

I need to go forward, I need to tell somebody.

If that's you, come forward.

If you don't feel that, just speak to somebody,

but you need this altar space.

Come get before the Lord so there's no distractions.

If you can't get down here and you need it there,

just stand up and allow the Holy Spirit

to minister to you there.

Would you stand?

(gentle music)