Acts: Responding Biblically to Suffering

I tell you, if that doesn't get you ready, I

don't know what we'll aim in. If you have your

Bible's turned with me to Act sixteen, Act at sixteen

this morning, we are going to start in verse twenty five.

So if you're turning your copy of God's Word, there

taught on my sermon this morning, responding biblically to suffering.

Respond biblically to suffering.

Now, a few weeks.

Ago, as most of you may or may not know,

I was on a trip to Central Europe with our

mission team from our church here and we had the

privilege of caring for some Kurtish children.

And when we got.

There, we realized that there were only a few translators.

There were only two translators basically could speak to these

children the Kurdish language or the language that they understood.

And so a big question as we begin to start

thinking about how we're going to minister these children, we

were thinking about how can we communicate. I mean, if

there's only two translators, there were twelve of us altogether,

there's no way to people could be with all twelve

of us at every single moment. So we had a

big conversation of what are we gonna do? How can

we care for these children? How can we can communicate

to themmen. On the very first day, I believe, I

believe it was Sunday night, or maybe even Monday morning,

I said to our team, you know what, you may

not can communicate in their language. You may not can

speak to their language, but love is universal. And you

know they may not be able to understand your words.

You may not be able to understand their words, but

love is universal. And I just show a few pictures

of them. I think we will pop those up on

the screen there. Here's a few of my favorite pictures.

This is one of my favorite memories of ten one

of our church members here, and this little boy came

running up to him. In one of our favorite memories

is after a second day there, the little boy ran

up to him and he jumped in Tim's arm and

he kissed him on the neck.

Love Love is universal.

And one of my other favorite pictures is Katscha is

one of our team members from here.

One of the one of these the boy here is.

Named Yusef and he was one of the kids that

were want of the hardest ones for us to reach.

But he would as much of bad behavior he may have.

He he would sit there as still as he could

be and receive Katcha feeding him.

Love is universal.

Another favorite picture is this one is Devon, our children

family's pastor, Devon connect.

I forgot his name. I think it is. I forgot

what it is.

I don't but sure if I tell you what it

is Rahim maybe, but he was caring for him and

playing games with him and different things, and they connected.

And as we were leaving on Thursday, Raheem came to

the door of the bus and he Devon was in

the back of the bus and he was trying to call,

trying to call, and he said, what is your name?

I want to know Devn's name. Didn't want my name,

and Devin says, my name is Devon. And as we're

leaving on that bus out of that village, Raheem was

running behind the bus saying, Devn, Devon, Devn.

Love is universal.

You know what else is universal? And I told them

this maybe a few days later on as we saw

the suffering of these children, pain is universal. Just as

you and I all know what love is and have

experienced that, so also have we all experienced pain. Whether

you're here in America, whether you're overseas somewhere, we've all

experienced pain in some way. As we come to Acts

chapter sixteen, we see pain is not just something that

we deal with in our society, but pain was something

they dealt with in the Bible. And we see Paul

and Silas and they being beaten by a mob. They

see them beat them with rods. We see them strip

them up their clothes, and we see this early early

apostles experience pain.

And what had they done?

What had they done to receive this pain and this

affliction that they had experienced. They had simply told someone

about Jesus. They had simply delivered a demon possessed girl.

And what did they receive in return for sharing the

gospel and for casting out this demon and and healing

this girl?

What did they receive?

They received persecution?

And what is that? That is? That's pain? Do you know?

In this life we experience pain in two parts. We

experienced pain and suffering and suffering as many times? Is

this defined as pain experience innocently? What do I mean

by that? That's when we experience pain in our life

and we did not do anything to bring the suffering

upon ourselves. I think of an example of this as

some may experience a view, some may experience physical health issues,

some may experience mental health issues, some may experience death.

And you experience the.

Pain of those different things, and you didn't do anything

for that pain to come upon you. You suffered innocently.

It's not a result of your sin. It's just a

result of suffering. I think of for me in my life,

one of the examples of that, I thought I experienced

as very as a teenager fourteen year old boys, my

parents separated and were divorced. In my parents divorce at fourteen,

I didn't cause the divorce. I didn't sin and cause

their separation or their eventually their divorce, but I experienced

the pain of that their divorce. You understand that that

was innocent suffering. You too experience these different things in different,

many different forms. But there's always pain of innocent suffering.

We see that in paul Is Silence. Here they're gonna

they're experiencing pain innocently. They didn't do anything wrong. They

just simply share Jesus, and they were inflicted with beating,

with putting in being put in prison. But there's also

pain from sin right, we experienced pain in our life

and this result of our sin. Another example of in

my life I can think of as that same teenager.

A few years later, I think I was sixteen years old,

and I really had angry issues at sixteen. I know

it's kind of hard for you maybe imagine this, but

I did, and I had a habit. Maybe it's a

bad habit, but I had a habit of when I

got really angry, really upset, that I would punch things.

And don't do that anymore, by the way, but when

my parents.

Separated, the weekday separated, I punched.

The wall and put a hole through the wall.

A few years later, I was playing the basketball game

and I lost the basketball game, and I was so

upset that I lost that I punched the floor and

I broke my hand as a result of punching the floor.

The floor won, by the way, but I experienced the

pain of my broken hand and had to deal with

the suffering of the pain of that. But that pain

was not a result of something that was done to me.

It was something I did and brought upon my own life.

Do you see that.

So there's pain, there's a result of sin, and then

they're suffering.

That we experience innocently.

As we come to this passage of scripture to that,

I think it's very important as we set this up

and as we look at here this passage, we see

Paul and Silas and they're experiencing suffering.

They're innocent.

All they've done is share Jesus. They delivered a demon

possessed girl. And what have they received? Persecution, beating, flogging,

thrown in prison, falsely accused, embarrassed, They've restricted their clothes

and they are innocent. And this morning, as we look

at their passage of scripture, I want you to see

this morning, we see how they respond biblically to this suffering.

I think it's a question for you and every one

of you. I promise you, in this life you are

going to face suffering.

You will.

You're not going to escape it. You're going to face suffering.

So it's very important for us to examine this morning,

how did they respond biblically to this suffering? And how

am I how are we responding biblically to suffering that.

We will experience in this life.

So let's stand and let's read God's word together, and

let's see how to respond biblically to suffering. It's Acts,

chapter sixteen, and we'll start in verse twenty five, and

the Bible says about midnight, Paul and Silace were praying

and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening

to them. And suddenly was a great earthquake, so that

the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all

the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. And

when the jailer woke, he saw the prison doors were open.

He drew his sword and was about to kill himself,

supposing that the prisoners had escaped, but Paul cried out

in a loud voice, do not harm yourself, or we

are all here. The jailer called for the lights and

rushed in. Trembling with fear. He fell down before Paul

and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, sir.

What must I do to be saved?

And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you

will be saved.

You in your.

Household, and they spoke the word spoke the Lord of

the Lord to him and the all in his house.

And he took them in the same hour of the

night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once,

and he and his family then he brought them all

up into the house and set food before them, and

rejoice all along with his entire household, that he had

believed in God. Let's pray together, Father, we thank you

Lord for this morning. We thank you Lord for this passage.

Lord.

We all have experienced pain, we have all experienced suffering.

Lord.

Today, as we look at Paul and silas example of

their suffering innocently, Lord, as we look how they responded biblically, Lord,

I pray that we would examine our hearts in the

ways that we're suffering pain today, and Lord, we would

examine how we were responding Lord to this suffering. Lord,

as you led Paul and silas in that prison that day,

may you lead us in this sanctuary this day. Lord,

we look to you just as they look to you.

May you give us wisdom, May give us your word.

May you lead us by your spirit. May you feel

our heart's Father. Lord, I pray that you would move

into this place in a way.

That all you can. God, this is your word.

May we honor it, May we receive it, and may

we respond to it. And your name we pray, Amen,

you may be seated. Responding biblically to suffering. First, we

respond biblically to suffering. We respond biblically with prayer. The

Bible says that you can imagine your Pau and Silas

they had been taken. That Bible says, they have brought

before the magistrates as we sold last week, and the magistrates,

this mob brings them out. These owners of this demon

possessed girl, bring false accusations against them. The Bible says,

this mob of the people jumped upon them. They stripped

them of their clothes, tells us that they took rods,

and they begin beating them. And after some time the

magist should stop the beating. They take Paul and Silas

and they put them in prison. You imagine Paul and

Silasts are now in that prison, and they have experienced

just great humiliation. Can you imagine being stripped from an

entire city of your clothes, The humiliation of that, Not

only the humiliation of that, but then to be beaten,

to be beaten so bad the magic should have had

to stop in to stop it before it went too far.

And then in all that unjust persecution, now to be

sitting in prison. Their bodies must have been aching. Their

hearts and their emotions must have been broken. Their spirits

must have been broken. Their minds must have been full

of worrying, anxious thoughts of what's next? If this happened today,

what will happen tomorrow? How will we get out of

this prison that we're in? And how unfair We just

simply told them about Jesus. We just simply cast out

this demon, and this girl is free today. And now

look at what just simply telling people about Jesus delivering

this woman from demon possession, and look.

What we have received.

All kinds of different thoughts must have went through their

mind and their hearts. And the Bible says, in this

prison about midnight that night, the hell that they respond,

the Bible says, they begin praying. Can you imagine in

a prison cell, it's probably cold, dark, there's a noise

that's heard from the prison cell that they're in. And

what is the Bible says that those into prison heard,

and what did they hear?

Listen to? What says the verse.

Twenty five About midnight Paul and Silaces were praying?

What did Paul?

How did Paul and silence. Respond to this unjust suffering

that came upon their life. They responded in prayer. You know,

as you think about this passage of scripture, you think

about Paul and Silas, you would think, what is the source?

How did they have this strength? Where did this get

this motivation to say, in the midst of this suffering,

I'm going to go to the Lord. Well, I think

for Paul and Silas, the reason why they had such motivation,

such determination to seek the Lord in prayer, is because

this had been modeled before them. They had seen this

in the early Apostles. They had seen this modeled before them.

The Bible says in Acts chapter one, the very first

thing do we see about this early church that started

in Acts.

As we've been studying the.

Book of Acts of the last year, now, the very

first picture we see of the early church that Acts

chapter one, verse fourteen, as we see the early church

just after the sension, after Jesus sended, gathered.

Together, and what are they gathering to do?

And they're praying, Lord, we don't know how we're going

to go forward without you now. But Lord, what we

know we're to do now more than ever, is we

come together and pray. It's all the early church pray.

The Bible says Paul, I mean Peter. If you remember,

Peter and John also had kind of the same situation

early on in ministry that were going in the temple.

You remember there's a lame man that was laying by

the gate, and Paul and Sila says Siller on gold,

I do not.

Have, but what I have I'll give you in the

name of Lord Jesus.

Rise up and stand. The man rise up, and he's standing.

He was healed, and he began praising Lord. And you

remember the Jerusalem Council, Caiaphas and all the religious leaders

brought Peter and John before them, and they demanded them,

they charged them, they threatened them, do not speak in

the name of Jesus again. And after they released them,

the Bible says, Peter and John went back to that

same church and began their ministry praying.

And they gathered together, and.

They rejoiced that they have been received worthy to suffer

as Jesus.

And what did they do together as a church? They prayed, the.

Bible says Stephen, as he preached the gospel, as they

were throwing stones at him and they were stoning him,

and he receiving the punishment, the innocent suffering and dying

there of being stoned to death for preaching the gospel.

What did Peter do in the midst of suffering?

He prayed?

Peter, I mean Stephen says, falling to his knees in

Acts seven sixty. Falling to his knees. He cried out

with the Lord with a loud voice, Lord, don't hold

the sin against them.

You see.

Paul and Silas was in prison and they're praying, and

they're praying because they have seen the faithful prayers of others.

Can I tell you if if the discipline of prayer

was the go to for the Early Church, the early

Church leaders. When we face suffering in our life, and

is it suffering? When and it's suffering comes upon us,

may our first response not be God, Oh why, oh God,

I don't deserve this. Oh God, how am I going

to fix this? We just fall to the Lord and

said God, I need you, God, I need you every hour.

I need you.

This week we just this weekend, we went to North Greenville.

It's where I went to school, in North Greenville University.

And there in that university, they have a prayer chapel.

We took three students from.

BCA who were seniors who are looking at going there,

and we were just about to leave and one of

the girls says, Hey, before we leave, I'd like to

go by the prayer chapel one last time. Went in

there with some of our seniors and there's kneeling altars

where you can kind of prayer, and little stations and

little places where you can write and have little notepads

where you.

Can write your prayers.

And there in the middle of the prayer garden and

the prayer building is a waterfall.

It's beautiful.

And I tell you, walk in that place, and I

know this sounds super spiritual, but I'm telling you, walk

in that place and there's a spirit of God in

that place like nothing you could ever imagine. I began

walking by and seeing the little things where people had

wrote down, and I saw just read the prayers or

different students that were at from North Greenville and students.

I read three.

Different students who said, God, I'm struggling with anxiety, I'm

struggling with worry.

God, I need.

You, you know. I think it's so important for us

to see that Paul responded, and Silas responded biblically to suffering.

They responded with prayer.

You know what Philippians four, and we've been reading this

just a few weeks ago, and now Bill we're reading, says,

rejoice the Lord always Again, I say, rejoice, Let your

reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand.

Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer

and supplication. I love what Da Carson said about this

passage and his devotion called the Love of God. He says,

either worried drives out prayer, or prayer drives out worry.

You know, if Paul and Silas gathered in that prison

floor that night suffering innocently, probably were worried. They got

on their knees before the Lord, and they let prayer

drive out their worries. Today, are you suffering? How are

you allowing prayer to drive out your worry? How are

you taking your persecution?

Somebody?

You may be facing persecution in your school or in

your workplace for your beliefs and the Lord? How are

you responding in prayer and listen to the other see

you pray. Maybe you're suffering physically, maybe mentally. How are

you driving out your worry in prayer? How are you

responding biblically to your suffering in prayer?

What you see?

Secondly, they not only respond to biblically to suffering with prayer,

but we respond biblically with praise. Boy, this is such

a beautiful passage. Scripture Bible says at verse twenty five

about midnight policized for praying. But it doesn't stop there.

It says they also were singing hymns to God. You

imagine that the jailer's probably heard them. And it was

dark in that prison. It's midnight, no lights, and their

scripture says when the prison doors are open, the jailer

calls for the lights, so it was dark. The other

prisoners are in there, and they hear Paul and Silace praying.

After the prayer, next thing you know, you hear a sound.

They're not praying.

Now, it's something else they're doing.

They hear them singing.

Scripture says, they're singing hymns, the hymns that they would

sing most likely, which probably psalms. We know psalms were sung.

By believers and Jews.

Oh this is my interpretive imagination, but I wonder if

they it's dark, and you hear them praying, and there

was this silent sound, and next thing you know, you

hear a song.

I will lift up my eyes to the heels. From

where does my.

Help come from? My help comes from the Lord who

made heaven on earth.

He will not let.

Your foot be moved. He who keeps will not slumber.

But old who keeps Israel will not slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade

at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you

by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will

keep you from all evil.

He will keep your life.

The Lord will keep your going out, And you're coming

in from this time.

Forth forever more.

Maybe that was him, the paw and silace song in

that prison, bound, chained, broken, beaten, suffered, and their prayers

still on their lips, and praise is still on their tongue.

Charles Spurgeon said about singing in this passage of scripture.

He said, any fool can sing in the day. It's

easy to sing when we can read the notes by

the daylight. But a skillful singer is he who can

sing when there's no ray of light to read by

songs in the night. Only come I mean come only.

From God, and they are not the power of men.

Can I tell you today?

It's easy to sing during the day, isn't it. It's

easy to sing during the good times. It's hard to

sing in the bad times. It's easy to sing in

the church services and the pews in their condition.

It's easy to sing when we're in.

The car by ourselves and kay love is going on.

It's hard to sing in the darkness. It's hard to

sing in the dark times of our life. It's hard

to sing in the times of suffering. I love what

he says here. But a skillful singer as one who

could sing where there's no light at all. Just ask

you today, are you're a skillful singer?

You know?

I encourage you today. Think about this for a minute.

Prayer is a discipline. It takes discipline for you to

pray daily in the good times and the bad times.

Can I challenge you today? And not only is.

Prayer a discipline, but so is praise. You know, the

Bible encourages us, even Paul instructs us to know only

that we are to pray at all times with every

need right, But we are also to praise the Lord.

Scripture says in Ephesians five nineteen, addressing one another in

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody

to the Lord with your heart. Class As three sixteen says,

let the words of Christ dwell and you richly teaching

and amonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and

hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Last year, I got to interview a pastor and we

were talking about different disciplines in his life and things

that he does in his ministry. And one of the

things I talk about is when when I interviewed, I

asked him about his spiritual walk with the Lord and

what he did to keep his his heart refreshed being

a pastor. And he said, one of the disciplines he

does is a discipline of worship and praise. He said

that it was really difficult on Sunday morning to worship

as a pastor. And I understand what he means. You

may not understand that, but he says, as a Sunday mornings,

I'm getting ready and I'm we're going through songs. He says,

my mind is constantly thinking about the sermon and what

I'm about to say, and different things, other things that

are going on that day, and sometimes get I get

lost in what the preparation that I lose opportunity for

my worship on Sunday morning.

So he says that I.

Find it very important that during the week that just

as much as I take time to read my boss,

go and pray, do I take time in my week

just to get along with the Lord and just praise him.

He says, I'll get my headphones in and I'll get

my praise and worship music, and I just nobody's around,

and I just spend some time praising the Lord. You know,

I was really moving challenged by that, because sometimes we

focus so much on the devotions and the reading and

the prayers, but how often do we seek to grow

in our praise?

Just challenge you, how are you.

Growing in the discipline of praise and today? As you

are suffering today, maybe innocently, as you have faced different

things in your life, how are you responding and praise?

How are you growing? And God, even in the darkness

of this day or this period in my life, God,

help me praise you in this storm.

I ask you today, are you.

Suffering today persecution for being a believer, maybe your school,

your work, your community, your family. How are you seeking

to find praise in the midst of that persecution. Maybe

you're suffering physically mentally. Maybe you suffered in this life

innocently of many different things. Maybe you're suffering today of loss,

you've lost a loved one. How are you praising God

in the midst of your suffering? I want you to see thirdly,

here this morning, when we respond biblically with prayer, we

spaed biblically with praise, but we spaned biblically with compassion.

Look at what happens in this passage. The Bible says

in verse twenty six, and suddenly was a great earthquake,

so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And

immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bond were unfastened.

And when the.

Jailer woke, he saw the prison doors were opened, and

he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,

supposing that the prisoners had escaped. The Bible clearly tells

us that about midnight they were praying, and they were singing,

and the Bible says, an earthquake came about it that

around that time or just after, the earthquake shook the

foundations of the prison so much so that it opened

up all the doors of all the prison cells. But

not only opened up all the doors of the prison cells,

but everyone's shackles were unfastened. The Bible says, the jailer

wakes up and he sees the prison doors are open.

Now again, the imagery what we've told here in this

past scripture is dark because he calls for the lights

in just a little bit. So all he sees is

the doors are open. He doesn't see that the prisoners

are still inside. He understands as the jailer and as

having the responsibility to have oversee the imprisonment of all

the prisoners. If they are set free and they escape,

he will be killed for their escape. Now understand in

this passive scripture, he is innocent a fault. What has

caused the prisoners to go free was did he have

the key and unlocked all the doors and up and

them and none? And did all the shackles know? The

earthquake calls the doors to open. The earthquake calls the

shackles to be opened right. He did not do anything.

The earthquake calls it all. But although he was innocent,

he knows the ruler is going to hold him responsible

and he's going to be executed for that as a result.

As of now you look at this passive scripture, you

understand that Paul and Silace and our own only experiencing suffering.

But now this guard understands that he too, might is

about to face suffering, and he too is innocent. And

as a result, the Bible says, he is so listening

to this, he's so overwhelmed by what's coming ahead and

the suffering he's about to experience. The Bible says, he

seeks to take his own life. Scripture tells us in

this passive scripture verse twenty seven, did he take each

all's a sword and he's about to kill himself. Do

you understand that we see in this pastor of scripture,

here's someone who's so overwhelmed by the suffering that he's

about to experience. He doesn't believe that he can overcome

the suffering, so much that he feels like the suffering

is so insurmountable.

The only way he under he.

Believes he can escape the pain is to take his

own life. Do you know that there are people in

this world and they feel like their suffering and the

pain of this life is so great the only way

they feel like they can escape the pain is to

tate their own life. There's a book, a great book

by Steve Byers, he's a pastor. It's called Putting Your

Past in Its Place. In that book, he tells about

a girl named Jill. Jill at thirteen, her mom and dad,

her mom and dad had separated and her mom got remarried,

and I think around our teenage years, her stepdad begins

sexually abusing her.

It went out.

It was a long drawn out process, but she ended

up getting kicked out of the home. She went through

foster care systems, she went through counseling, but she suffered abuse,

sexual abuse.

From her stepdad.

It would cause her to really struggle with extreme bouts

of depression. And she comes to Steve's office. She's in

her twenties, I think maybe thirties. She has had such

severe bouts with depression. She comes to Steve in counseling

and she says, I need counseling to overcome my depression.

And if I don't overcome it. I don't think I'll

be here another year. You see, for Jill, she's a

lot like this jailer. She feels like the suffering and

the pain of the abuse, the pain of depression is

so insurmountable in her life. Her only way of escape

is suicide.

You do you?

I encourage you to understand that there are real people

suffering today and they have they believe there's no way

of escape. I think it's what's so powerful about this

passage scripture.

Listen to me.

This is very important that the Bible says that Paul

sees him, Paul sees him take the sword and he's

about to stab himself. Paul knows what's going to happen,

and the Bible says, look what happens in this passage scripture.

In verse twenty eight, Paul cried out with a loud voice,

do not harm yourself, for we are all here.

Now.

Understand something in this moment for Paul. Paul saw the man,

and Paul cried out. But by crying out, Paul was

jeopardizing his freedom. He was jeopardizing his the risk of

him not being able to get out of the suffering

that he was in. But listen, Paul did not put

listen to this his suffering above the suffering of others.

You see that.

Paul didn't say, you know what. You know, my back's

still sore, I'm still hurt, I'm still embarrassed and muliated.

I want to get out of this message I'm in

right now. And I know he's about that, he's hurting.

I know he's about to take his own life. But

this is my only way out. No, Paul put the

suffering of this man above his own suffering. And Paul, listen,

how is the third way we respond biblically to suffering.

We respond with prayer. Biblically with prayer, we respond biblically

with compassion. I love this passage scripture which you look

at this with me, Second Corinthians one three through six.

This is what Second Corinthians one three through six. This

is Paul, by the way right the church at corinth

He said, blessed be the Godfather of Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort,

who comforts us in our affliction, so that we may

be able to comfort those who are any affliction with

the comfort with which we ourselfs are comforted by God.

We share abundantly in Christ suffering so that through Christ

we might share abundantly and comfort to If we are afflicted,

it is for your comfort and your salvation. If we

are comforted, it's for your comfort with your experience when

you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. You

know what, Paul sitting in that prison, he saw this

man who was suffering, and Paul says, you know what,

he's suffering, just like I've suffered, and I have received

the comfort of God and my suffering. And right now

it's not about all woe is me? Oh this is awful.

It's how can I bring comfort someone else is hurting?

Can I tell you listen.

To me today, God holds us in the midst of

our suffering to respond with prayer, to respond with prayer

I mean praise, and secondly.

To respond with compassion.

I wonder you today suffering, what you've experienced this life.

I have no idea.

I have no idea the intimate details of your suffering,

but I promise you this, there's someone around you that's

suffering in the same way. And God wants to use

your suffering and how he's comforted you to comfort someone

else who's in the same affliction of you. So today,

may you say, today, Lord, how if I'm suffering, if

I've experienced this in my life, God, how might I

show compassion to someone else? I wonder today, you facing

persecution in your work, face suffering of people saying different things.

Maybe it's in your workplace, your home, in your schools.

How are you looking to other people in your school,

your home, your community, your neighborhood who are suffering and

how are you caring for them?

You've been rejected. There's others being rejected at your workplace.

How are you caring for them?

I wonder today there's those of you who may have

suffered some form of abuse in your life. There's others

in this world, in our community and our church, in

our in your family, and your workplace, in your schools

who have also faced that.

How are you caring for those? Some of you face.

Health problems, physical problems, mental problems. There's others who are

facing the same health battles that you're facing today. How

are you trying to care and comfort those that are

facing the same suffering that you are. Some of you

have lost loved ones to death. You've been afflicted with grief.

How are you comforting the others who are grieving around you?

We responded biblically suffering with prayer, with praise, with compassion,

and then lastly we responded biblically with witnessing.

I think it's beautiful this passage of scripture.

The Bible says that that night and that midnight hour,

when it was dark, Paul was praying, silas was praying.

They began singing that jailer and knowing what was about

to happen, and he was listening to their prayers. He

was hearing the praise of their on their lips. Then

when that's earthquake came and he pulled that sword, and

he heard that same voice saying stop, stop, don't do it.

And then he realized in that moment, what they're still here.

He calls for the light, and the Bible says, look

at what the passage says of verse twenty nine. The

jailer called for the lights, and he rushed in, trembling

with fear, and he fell down before pauling silace. He

falling down is not to worship Paul in silence. It's

a it's an.

Act of respect.

You're the one that's been praying, you're the one that's

been praising, and now you're the one that shows compassion

to me. And then listen to the next words in

verse thirty. He brought them out and he said, sir,

what must I do to be saved?

You know I really believe today. Listen to me.

This is so important because we lose sight of this

in the midst of your suffering. Today, listen to this.

There's people who are watching.

There are people who are listening, and they're listening that

in the midst of your suffering, whether you'll seek the

Lord in the midst of your suffering, will you still

praise Him, in the midst of your suffering, will you

still care for others as God has cared for you?

And if they see you praying, if they see you praising,

if they see that you caring for them, listen in

that moment, in that time, God might give you an

opportunity to be a witness to them. It was after

the prayers, it was after the praise, it was after

the compassion. Then the man came to paul Usile and said,

what must I do to be saved?

Like you.

Oh, may we look respond biblically to suffering with praise,

with prayer, with compassion, that God might give us an

opportunity to be a witness and lead people to saving

power of Jesus. I'm glass the band to come up.

There was a story and I'm going to close with this.

There was a story about a man. His name was

true story. His name was Ira Shanky. Ira was a musician.

He actually traveled the world and was the He was

the one of the leading gospel singers and during the

time of the eighteen hundreds, because of Dwight elm Moody.

Because traveling in the world, he was one of the

greatest singers. Well, it's Christmas Eve and Ira was on

a steamboat. Ira was upset. He at Dwight elm Moody

had extended a revival and that trial it cast him

to delay coming home. And now he's on a steamboat

and he was maybe a day or so away from

getting home, and he was upset that he was going

to miss Christmas again, Christmas Eve again with his family.

On that steamboat, someone came up to him, I said,

aren't you Irah?

He said, yeah, I.

Am the lady said to him, would you sing a

song for us?

We've heard of you?

And he kind of like, you know, I just don't

even know if I want to do this.

I don't know if I want to sing right now.

It's just really down to discourage, just wanted to be home.

Finally, after a few moments, he said, yeah, I'll sing,

and they got everybody on the boat to gather together

around him so they could hear this great gospel singer sing.

He started thinking about what songs he would sing, and

maybe a Christmas carol too, maybe would get them to

sing with him. Finally, after a few minutes he decided,

you know what, I'm not going to sing that.

I'm going to sing a song that Lord put on

his heart.

And he sing a song and it's an old old

hymn by William Bradburn, and he this one goes like this,

as Savior, like a shepherd, lead us much.

We need thy.

Tender care and thy pleasant pastors feed.

Us for our use. Thy fold prepare.

Blessed us, Jesus, bless us, Jesus, Thou house brought us

thine we are. He sang all four verses and he

stopped and stopped singing and kind of went down to himself,

and suddenly there was a man who kind of came

out of shadows. He was had kind of a bigger man,

and he had a beard, and he asked, he said,

I recognize your voice. He said, did you happen to

serve the country? And he said, yeah, I was.

I was.

Then I served. And the man said, you know, I

serve too. IRA served in the Union Army. This man

served the Cafederate Army. He said, by chance, were you

in Philadelphia or Maryland and at this time? And he said,

actually yes, I was. Were you by the guard post

one night? He said, yeah, actually yeah I did. I

served as guard He said, I had came upon your.

Outpost that night. I had my sight sight down on you.

You had a blue suit on and he said, and

you were prancing around in front of that guard and

I thought you were foolish were being outside of the

guard post. And he said, and then suddenly listen to this.

Suddenly you began singing that same song you just sunk.

That was a song my mom used to sing me

as a little boy. And I put down my gun

that day, and I didn't shoot you. I was just

stood back in awe, and he said, would you take

some time and talk with me a little bit. Ever

since the war, I've never been the same. Ira stepped

to the side and begin sharing.

Jesus with him. Listen to me.

There are divine appointments in our life. There are divine

sufferings in our life. And God puts people in our path.

And may they hear us when those divine moments come

in that time of suffering in our life. May they

hear our prayers, May they hear our praise. May they

see a stop in the midstness of our madness and

our discomfort and our discouragement. And may they see we

are men and women of God, a compassion, men and

women of God who will be a witness no matter

the time, no matter the difficulty, no matter the suffering.

May we be people who biblically respond to suffering with prayer,

with praise, with compassion, with a witness. Would you pray

with me?

Lord?

We love you, We thank you Lord for this morning.

We thank you Lord that God we have suffered that

we might care for them others who are suffering. God,

I thank you for divine appointments. And Lord, it was

a divine appointment that Paul and Solace was in that

prison to save, to save the life of that jailer,

to tell him about you, Jesus and God, I pray

that you would lead us to look for opportunities, just

show others, to care for others who are suffering around us,

to be a witness Lord for you, even in the

most difficult situations and suffering of our life. May we

look to you today, Father, I pray you lead us

in this time of invitation. I pray it'd be those

who would come to this altar, maybe they're suffering today innocently,

or I pray that they would come to you in prayer.

Right now, Lord, we're going to sing as onng with

just some minute tenor is gonna lead us and Lord

right now now. There may be some that just says,

you know, what's hard for me to think right now,

But God, I pray to be those who say, God,

even in the darkest hour of my life, God, I

will praise you, Lord. However you lead us now, Lord,

I pray we respond.

God.

I pray that may be some that right now knows

someone that's suffering in this room and in this time

of prayer, might go and put their arm around them.

I'm and just spend some time praying over someone this day. Lord,

I pray Lord that you would look, help us, love

for opportunities to be a witness for you. Lord. We

love it, We love you. We thank you, Lord for

this moment to respond, Lord to your word. Lead us

now in your name, we pray Amen Jesus to