Joy Week 4: "Joy in every circumstance"

Music.

Us that joy isn't tied to our situation. It's anchored in our Savior.

Let's discover how we can live with that same kind of unshakable joy.

And now, here's today's message.

This morning, if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to turn to the book of Acts chapter 16,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

and we're going to be talking about

how we can be joyful in every single circumstance that we ever go through.

How many of you know that life is full of circumstances,

ups and downs, there are mountaintop experiences, and there are valleys and

deserts and droughts and floods, but in Christ,

you and I can have joy in every circumstance.

Every circumstance. I want you to say that with me.

In every circumstance, right? Repeat after me. In every circumstance,

this is how repeating works. I'm going to say it, and then you repeat it.

In every circumstance, I will have joy.

See, that's so much better when we're all together. Let's try it again.

In every circumstance, I will have joy.

Man, it's almost like you believe it. Almost, almost.

I know you do, brother. I know you do. If you're looking for someone who's been

in some incredibly awful situations in scripture, you don't have to look much

further than the apostle Paul.

Paul had been shipwrecked. He'd been beaten time and time again. He'd been left for dead.

He'd been imprisoned on many occasions.

And if ever there was someone who, who the Lord could have looked at and said,

all right, man, I know what you're going through. I see it.

I'm going to give you a free pass. You don't have to be joyful in every circumstance.

If ever there was someone that deserved that free pass, it would have been Paul.

But Paul, more than anyone else, continues to tell us to be joyful in every circumstance.

Paul tells us to be content in every situation and have joy in the midst of life's struggles.

And so in Acts 16, we see a story about Paul and Silas, and it's being told

by one of Jesus' disciples, Dr. Luke.

And so follow along as we read this together. And we pick up the story in verse 16.

It says, once as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a

spirit by which she predicted the future.

And she made a large profit for her owners by fortune telling.

Let me pause there for just a moment.

Isn't it always when we're about to go and approach the throne of God that things start to happen?

Isn't it the times that we are getting ready to go to church.

That's when the kids start acting, or that's when I have car trouble,

or that's when I have issues with my spouse.

It's right when we're approaching the throne room of God that things like that begin to happen.

And so Luke says, we were on our way to prayer when a possessed girl met us.

That's no coincidence.

Paul and Silas encountered a slave girl who was possessed by a spirit of divination.

And because of that spirit in her, she was able to tell fortunes.

And Acts tells us that she made an incredible amount of money and profit for

her owners by fortune telling.

And let me remind you why we're told to stay away from psychics and fortune

readers and palm readers and anything close to that.

Because it's not of God. Now, there might be psychics out there that are just,

you know, they just do it for fun or whatever.

But psychics that have supernatural power like this, there's something going

on deeper, and there's a possession that's enabling them and empowering them

to work according to the purposes of the devil.

They are not on your side. They are not for you. They do not have good intentions for you.

And scripture strictly forbids us to inquire of them.

We continue in verse 17. As she followed Paul and us, she cried out,

These men who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation are the servants of the Most High God.

Almost sounds like John the Baptist here. Like she's, isn't this a good thing?

She's proclaiming that they're of God and they're proclaiming the way of salvation.

Verse 18, she did this for many days and Paul was greatly annoyed.

So turning to the spirit, he said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ

to come out of her. And it came out right away.

Isn't it interesting that a demon-possessed girl was pointing out that Paul

and Silas were servants of the Most High God and that they were proclaiming a way of salvation?

You know, in my mind, when I read that, it reminded me of a verse that talks

about the fact that even the demons and the devil, the demons, they know the truth.

They tremble at the truth.

But don't think for a minute that they were evangelizing and trying to help

Paul and Silas spread the gospel.

There's always something else going on when the devil is involved.

And sometimes the greatest tool is to closely mimic the gospel.

Look at all the cults that are out there. They look like they're great people.

But there's a little division or they're a little off from scripture,

just enough to lead people astray.

And so Paul was annoyed and he turned to the spirit and he cast it out in the

name of Jesus Christ. And it left her.

In verse 19, we continue and it says, when her owners realized that their hope

of profit was gone, they weren't going to make money anymore because she wasn't possessed anymore.

She had no ability to do this apart from the demonic influence and the demonic

possession that was going on.

They seized Paul and Silas and they dragged him into the marketplace to the

authorities, bringing them before the chief magistrates.

They said, these men are seriously disturbing our city.

They are Jews. You find out later in the chapter, that's not correct at all. they weren't Jews.

Verse 21, and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.

So they seize the potential earnings of this girl's owners and they retaliate

and they drag them before the authorities and they accuse them of promoting

customs unlawful for Romans to adopt.

Verse 22, the crowd joined in the attack against them and the chief magistrates

stripped off their clothes and order them to be beaten with rods.

I mean, this isn't just a little tiny retaliation.

This is all in like they're going after him.

They strip them naked and they beat them all because Paul cast out a demon from a young girl.

They were attacked, stripped down naked and severely beaten.

After they had severely flogged them, verse 23 says, they threw them in jail,

ordering the jailer to guard them carefully.

Receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

You know, I started to look at this passage. And as you look at,

what is the difference between the prison and an inner prison?

And so I studied it and I found this, you know, it wasn't like being thrown

in Andy and Barney's jail cell, like Otis for the night to sleep it off.

They were thrown in something called the inner prison. Listen to this description

of what the inner prison was.

The inner prison in Paul's time was a grim and for biding place designed not

for rehabilitation, but for maximum security and often psychological and physical punishment.

The inner prison was typically buried deeper within a larger prison complex.

And access required passing through multiple levels or gates.

They're getting the book thrown at them here. They're taking it to the nth degree.

It goes on and says, There were rarely any windows, and if any existed,

they were small slits or high openings, offering no view and almost no light.

The absence of natural light meant days and nights began to blur together,

contributing to a sense of complete despair and loss of time.

The environment inside was damp and moldy.

Stone walls would be sweating with moisture from the ground,

and it created a clammy, suffocating atmosphere hard to breathe.

The floor might be dirt or rough stone, but it was littered with filth and vermin,

that's animals, and human waste, as sanitation was almost non-existent in the prison.

Foul smells from bodily fluids, rot, and unwashed prisoners clung to the air.

Prisoners were often chained or placed in stocks.

And the Roman stocks were not simple wooden devices. When I hear this,

I just think, you know, they were chained up.

They were sitting there chained up. But that's not the picture that we're given from Scripture.

The Roman stocks were not simple wooden devices, but could be adjusted to incredibly

uncomfortable positions, stretching their limbs and causing cramps and incredible pain.

These stocks were meant not just to restrain, but to inflict suffering.

Paul and Silas would not have been lying or sitting comfortably in prison.

Their feet were likely forced apart awkwardly, causing great pain and ongoing agony.

Rats and insects would have been common, adding to another layer of misery,

along with the ever-present threat of infection and disease.

Their injuries, even minor ones, could become life-threatening due to poor hygiene

and a lack of medical care.

And in terms of psychological conditions, the inner prison was designed to isolate

you, not just physically, but emotionally and in your mind, and it would degrade you.

Prisoners would feel completely cut off from the outside world.

The darkness, the silence, and physical suffering were intended to humiliate

and break the person's spirit.

When we read Scripture and we see that Paulus, I guess if you combine their names,

Paul and Silas were there together in the inner prison, that's a more correct

view of what we're finding them in, in their situation.

And I think it's important that we read that because it gives us a true picture

of what we're going through.

I love that God is a God of detail and description because whatever situation

you find yourself in today,

I promise you it's not as bad as what Paul and Silas were going through that

night stripped naked beaten bloodied put in the inner bowels of this inner prison

bleeding from the wounds all over their bodies.

For what? For trying to preach the gospel and for casting out a demon from a girl.

Verse 25. It's incredible. After everything we just heard, everything that we

just thought about, the picture that's painted of that prison,

about midnight, Paul and Silas, what were they doing?

They were praying and singing hymns to God.

That's where we find them, in the midst of pain.

And being bloodied and being tortured and being in darkness.

We find them singing and worshiping and praying to Almighty God.

And it says this, and the prisoners were listening to them.

It may be midnight right now in your life, and you may feel as if you're in an inner prison.

You might be in bondage, and you may feel like there's no hope to ever see daylight

again. You may feel like you're stuck, and there's no hope of getting out of

the mess that you find yourself in.

Maybe you caused it because of your consequences of sin.

Maybe you've been greatly sinned against by someone else.

Maybe it was a spouse or a child or a grandchild.

I don't know where you find yourself today, but I do believe that there are

two incredible principles that we need to take out of verse 25.

And the first one is this, the time for joy is now.

The time for joy in your life is now.

I love this quote by Rick Warren. It says, the ultimate test of faith is not

how loudly you praise God in happy times.

Because isn't that easy? When we're happy and life is good and there's food

on the table, there's plenty of money in our bank account, the cars are running

good, everyone's healthy, our relationships are good, I'm in a happy marriage.

Life is good. It's easy to praise him when we're on the mountaintop.

He says, the ultimate test of faith is not how loudly you praise God in happy

times, but how deeply you trust him in dark times.

If you're in a dark time, how are you doing trusting God right now?

Takes no faith to praise God when things are good.

It's a whole nother story when life is hard.

I mentioned this verse a couple of weeks ago, as we've been in this series for four weeks on joy.

Habakkuk 3, 17 to 18 says, though the fig tree does not bud and there is no

fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls.

Yet I will celebrate in the Lord.

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

Some of us, we need to tattoo that on our hands or on our arms or put it in

the mirror or put it in our car.

Yet I will. Those three words.

Where do you find yourself this morning? Yet I will.

And maybe you're doing good and maybe everything's great.

But it's well known that you're one of three places this morning.

You've either gone through a storm, you're in a storm, or a storm's coming.

We're not immune to the storms of life.

Listen to me. If your eyes are on your situation rather than your Savior, joy will never come.

In week one, we said that joy is the presence of God.

It's literally doing life face-to-face with God in every aspect of your life. It's that journey.

So if you want to have joy in your

life, you have to keep your eyes on the Savior and not your situation.

Keep your eyes on the Savior, not your situation. When we keep our eyes on our

situations, it's easy for us to get down.

It's easy for us to get depressed and to think we have no hope.

Have no joy. But if you keep your eyes on Jesus, you will always, always have joy.

Keep your eyes on the Savior, not your situation.

That's why Paul could pen the words of 1 Thessalonians 5, which says, rejoice always.

It doesn't just say in the good times. It says always, pray constantly,

Give thanks in everything. Why?

Because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

You want to know what God's will for your life is? It's to have joy right now.

It's to be thankful right now. It's to do life with him in every moment.

Philippians 4, he says it again. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say rejoice.

I'm sorry. I just hear little children say.

I'm ADD. That's all right. But if you've experienced salvation from eternity

in hell and you have the Holy Spirit within you, you have a reason for joy.

No matter what circumstance you go through, the time for joy is now.

The second thing I want you to see from verse 25, is that as Paul and Silas

were praying and singing, notice what was going on.

It says the prisoners were listening to them.

You see, whether you know it or not, your response to trials always influences others.

The way you walk through suffering is a testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness or your disparity.

What are your trials telling those around you?

The way you walk through trials and the attitude that you carry through trials

throughout your day amid the hard stuff, it's a testimony to those who see you,

to those who hear you, to those who observe you.

So I want to ask you this. If your response to trials, pain,

and hard situation is speaking to others, what do others hear when you are experiencing suffering?

Are they hearing complaining?

Are they hearing blame? What is your testimony in the midnight hours?

What do others see you doing?

Do they see you rejoicing? Do they see us praying?

Do they see us leaning on the Lord for strength? Do they see us worshiping through the pain?

Do they see us getting angry and lashing out?

Do they see us wanting to get even at those who did those things to us?

Always testifying to others. In the good times, we're testifying.

In the bad times, we're testifying.

What are you testifying? I hope you're testifying of God's goodness.

I hope you're testifying of God's faithfulness, even in the midnight hour.

Others took notice.

See, faith under pressure speaks loudly.

Your faith, when it's under pressure, speaks loudly. You may invite people to church and get a no.

You may try to talk to people about Jesus, and they may just be like,

I don't really want to talk about it.

But when you walk through a painful situation,

and you're able to glorify God, and even more than that, you're able to have

joy in the midst of what you're walking through,

they're going to notice, they're going to hear your life, and they're going

to respond, what's different about this person?

How can they walk through this and still have joy?

And sometimes the greatest testimony that anyone will ever see from a friend

or relative is when they're walking through pain and they're able to have joy in the midnight hour.

People hear when your faith is up against the wall. Now watch what happened.

Verse 26, suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations

of the jail were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains came loose.

The jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open.

He draw his sword and was going to kill himself since he thought the prisoners

had escaped. Now watch this.

But Paul called out in a loud voice, don't harm yourself because we're all here.

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

He escorted them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

See, there was that testimony, right? He's watching them. He's hearing them.

They had character and they had integrity. They could have bolted,

but they didn't. They stayed there. And here was their response.

Excuse me. They said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

You and your household. He's saying, this message isn't just for you.

It's for your household. It's for everybody you know. And he took them the same

hour of the night and washed their wounds.

Right away, he and all his family were baptized. Verse 34, he brought them into his house.

He set a meal before them and rejoiced because he had come to believe God with his entire household.

Number three, God desires to use your circumstances to spread the gospel.

We believe it's all about the

gospel. and God desires to use your circumstances to spread the gospel.

As Paul and Silas were praying and worshiping through their circumstances,

the other prisoners were listening, and the jailer was listening too.

God supernaturally brought about an earthquake, and instead of running,

they had character and integrity, and Paul and Silas stayed.

I don't know that I would have stayed. I would have wanted to run for freedom,

right? I want to get out of here.

Have character and integrity in

the midnight hour, because it will be a testimony to those watching you.

That jailer was about to take his own life, but the actions of Paul and Silas

spared not only the jailer's physical life, but it saved him spiritually as well.

Our actions in crucial moments can be the very thing that God wants to reveal

himself through you to others.

That jailer could have heard priests his whole life, could have gone to the

temple his holy life, or through his whole life.

Was through painful circumstances of true believers that chose to have joy that

led not only to his salvation, but to the salvation of his entire family.

And that jailer, he brought them to his house and he cleaned up their wounds and he bandaged them.

And verse 33 says, right away, they were all baptized.

I love it. They didn't wait for a class on baptism. They believed and they were baptized.

There is power in having joy in all of your circumstances.

There is a testimony and a witness that will only be received from people a

lot of times through your testimony as you suffer.

I want to encourage you, whatever you're going through, wherever you're at,

suffer through the trials with joy, with joy.

They weren't worshiping God because of their circumstances.

They weren't praying and worshiping because they were in prison.

They were praying and worshiping because they know who God is and how great

he is. This life is temporary.

You will get through what you're going through.

What will it say to others around you?

Will you speak things that result in people coming to Christ or people being turned off to Christ?

The way we walk through trials matters. The way we suffer in such a way that

brings us joy, brings glory to the Lord.

I read the story of a third century man who was anticipating death. He was dying.

And he penned these last words to a friend. And this is what he said.

He said, it's a bad world.

An incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and

holy people who have learned a great secret.

See, he'd been living his life and he'd been watching Christians being beaten

and being killed and being scattered abroad.

He said, I've discovered in

the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret.

They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life.

I mean, isn't that what life is all about? how people are looking for pleasure

through different types of sin, thinking that they're going to find joy,

but that joy never comes.

He says they are despised and persecuted, but they care not.

They are masters of their souls.

They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians, and I am one of them.

If you know Christ, you've overcome the world.

You're victorious. And when you walk through the valley and when you find yourself

in the darkest place of life and you think that you're alone,

remember that people are watching you. They're going to see how you respond.

They're going to see what you do. They're going to see if your faith is real.

When the rubber hits the road do they really believe in their hearts that God

is good that God is faithful that God is love that God cares about them,

and your reaction and your response to

worship in the midnight hour to have joy in spite of your circumstance could.

Music.

Lead them to the knowledge and to the experience of having a relationship with

Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

Father, we love you. We love your word.

Thank you for the examples in scripture. Thank you for inspiring Luke to write this in great detail.

So that we know and understand that we can face things in our lives that aren't

half as bad as what Paul and Silas went through that night they were arrested and beaten,

and yet they sought you and they rejoiced and they worshipped through it all.

Pray that when we suffer, when we walk through painful times,

the message we send to those in proximity to us would be that God is good, God is faithful,

He's with us, and we can have joy because our joy is not centered around our circumstance.

Our joy is centered around our Savior who gave his life for us.

Father, thank you for sending Jesus, your only begotten son,

to die and to take our place.

To rise again on the third day, to be victorious so that we too can walk through

life victorious with our eyes on you.

Help us to speak and to pray and to worship,

an incredible testimony of who you are in the midst of our suffering may my

friends leave this place encouraged this morning in their spirits we trust you,

we trust you,

thank you for allowing us to gather together this morning Would you be glorified

in our hearts and lives As we leave this place today In Jesus name Amen.

Music.