Worship Your Way Out - Leaders' Talks

Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Road at Chapel Hills.

This is the Road Podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

My heart is to empower you to change the world.

I hope this message impacts you.

Here now is our guest speaker.

I was asking the Lord, you know, kind of as a final, you know, for this term, a final word, and this is this is the sermon that he gave me for you guys and I think for the church today.

It's called Worship Your Way Out.

Worship Your Way Out.

And it reminds me of a lady that was in my school of worship back in California some years ago.

And she came up to me and she said, She said, Brian, I heard about your worship class, your worship school.

She said, and I don't really sing, but I felt like I needed to join.

And so we had, I think, about 30 in that school.

And I just watched her.

And when she first came in, she was just real kind of, you could tell that she wasn't used to the environment, and but she was trying and she was learning.

And I I was teaching on the book of Psalms, uh, and I was teaching about David.

And I basically made this statement, I said, you know that church is the most lioness place in the whole world.

And everybody's like, huh?

I said, yeah, wait, we're a bunch of liars.

I said, we walk into church with all of these facades and masks on, and even if hell is breaking loose in our life, even if our life is a wreck and our life is a mess, we still show up with a happy face, and we might even lift our hands and we sing all, you are good, good, oh, and I said, we just lie.

And everybody was like, huh?

I said, I said, have you ever cussed in worship?

And they said, no.

I said, well, me neither, but I'm not advocating it.

I said, but I have known a few people that that have actually gotten super honest in worship with God.

His name was David.

And if you read through the Psalms, you actually learn that this guy wore his feelings on his sleeve.

He would say stuff like, There's a lion coming, it's gonna eat my guts out, and we're all gonna die.

But I love you, Lord.

And I thank you, you know.

But he would actually voice reality.

He worshipped honestly, he worshipped God with an open heart, fully, and God loved him, loved him for it.

In fact, the Bible says that he was a man after God's own heart.

And so I'm teaching this to, and and and I I saw I saw the lady kind of perk up, and she's and I knew something was hitting her, and she came up and we we had a little worship time after I gave that teaching, and she said, I think that's the first time I've really been honest before God.

She said, because I played the church game my whole life.

She said, Brian, I I I just feel like I need to tell you this.

She said, eight years ago, my son left the house, drove to a lake, and killed himself.

He was 18 years old.

And she said, I have been in a cave ever since.

She said, I still come to church, but I'm just a hollow shell.

She said, I I I I I literally have been living it in darkness and despair for the last eight years.

She said, when when it was announced that you were starting this worship school, the Lord told me I had to sign up, and now I know why.

Because what he said was, he said, the only way you're gonna get out of this cave is to worship your way out.

There is something that happens when you really get honest before God and you decide that you're gonna worship and you're gonna praise him and glorify him and sing to him, even in the midst of adversity.

But but a lot of people don't do that.

If life's good, then they their worship is happy, and if life's bad, then they just kind of show up.

Can I tell you that the best time to worship God is when things are bad?

The best time to worship and to praise God is when everything's wrong, and life is difficult, and life is tough.

And some of us, that's where we've been the last year and a half.

And can I tell you, you gotta worship your way out.

Here's what it says.

This is the beginning of the story.

We know that it ends with Paul and Silas in jail.

But uh this is how it happened, and I'm just gonna kind of take you through the journey.

Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.

She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling.

She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are the servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved.

Can I ask you a question?

Were they, what was she telling the truth?

Was that statement true?

Yeah?

But but can you sense the sarcasm in it?

Can you sense the heckling?

Can you sense the mockery that she's look here?

Look at the man of God.

And here's what I've learned in over 20 years of pastoral ministry, and my dad was a pastor, um, of dealing with people.

I have learned, number one, not everything people say is the truth.

Have you learned that as well?

Yeah, yeah.

I remember my first my first counseling session.

I was just green.

And I said, so how can I help you?

Let me just talk about the Lord and talk about what's going on in your life.

And I got about halfway through that conversation, I thought, this person is full of baloney.

I mean, what I've learned through the years is that it's it's pretty rare actually to find the real version of somebody.

Usually we what we meet is we meet the version that they want you to see.

And this is what this is what is happening.

She's saying the right things, but something else is going on in her heart, right?

She kept this up for many days.

Finally, Paul became so annoyed.

Did you know the word annoyed was in the Bible?

I didn't know that.

She was he was so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, now he's not talking to the girl.

Who's he talking to?

The demon, right?

She's demonized.

All right, so that's why she's that's why she's uh you know giving this heckling and mockery to to the man of God.

Said to the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.

At that moment, the spirit left her.

Everybody say, Hallelujah! Which leads me to point number two.

Sometimes doing what's right won't end well for you.

What was it a good thing that Paul cast the demon out?

Do you think she was better for it?

I I think she probably was pretty tormented.

And all of a sudden she's free now.

But just because you do the right thing doesn't mean you'll always end up in a good place.

Anyone experienced a little bit of that in the pandemic?

By standing for what's right or standing for what you believe in?

And sometimes it's actually hard.

How many have ever have ever prayed and really just worked hard at trying to get that unsaved loved one to find Jesus?

And what happens?

They get mad at you, they get worse.

A lot of times it gets they get worse before they get better.

The Lord has to kind of take them through this path of misery, maybe to even to reach rock bottom.

But you're standing for what's right, and you're telling them the truth.

And you're you're you're doing what's right.

Have you ever felt like you're doing what's right and you're not being rewarded for it?

This is exactly what Paul and Silas are encountering.

He does what's right, he frees her from the spirit, and this is what happens.

When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities, they brought them before the magistrates and said, These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.

Isn't it amazing?

Even back then they were using the law for their own good.

You ever had anybody try to use the Bible against you?

It doesn't make you mad, but it says, you know.

And this is exactly what they're doing, which leads me to point number three, or you could say back to point number one, which is not everything people say is the truth.

Sometimes they use the truth against you.

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas.

And the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.

Now I know it's been bad for some of you, but has anybody ever been beaten with rods?

Okay?

For your faith.

One little wise guy over here has.

Did that happen at school?

I'm just kidding.

I don't think we have it that bad, honestly.

I mean, listen to what happened.

He's sharing his faith.

Do we agree that Paul was in the will of God?

He was doing exactly what God wanted him to do, and here's what happened: stripped, beaten with rods, severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in stocks, which leads me to point number two or point number four, however you want to see it.

Sometimes doing what's right.

Can we say this together?

But this is not where the story ends.

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like it's impossible?

What was their response?

What were they gonna do for doing what was right, for being in the will of God, for standing for their faith?

They were beaten for it, and then they were put in an impossible situation with no way out.

This is what they did.

Verse 25.

About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns.

Everybody say hymns.

I wonder if it was then sings my soul.

Because that's a hymn, right?

All right, is that anybody's favorite hymn?

It's one of mine.

All right.

Um, I don't think it was how great thou art.

But but let me just tell you a little bit of the Bible speaks of three songs, three different kinds of songs.

We study this in our academy.

It says, speak to yourself in psalms, hymns, and do we know what the third one is?

Spiritual songs.

Okay, let me define those real quick.

Psalms are songs based on scripture.

Okay?

So um, have you ever been singing a song and you're like, it's like they just put music to the scripture.

Okay, that's a psalm.

That's a psalm.

But they weren't singing psalms here, they were singing hymns.

And the definition for hymns is are songs of human composition.

Okay?

Can I give you an example of a hymn?

Okay, I will make room for you to do whatever you want to.

I don't think there's a scripture that says it just like that.

But somebody in their time with the Lord, in the presence of the Lord, made a song, a hymn, saying, I want to make room for you, God.

Shake off, shake, what does it go?

Shake up the ground of all my religion, break down the walls of all my tradition, or something like that.

Okay.

All right.

I I don't know what what hymn they were singing, but okay, so that that that's hymn, the hymns, human songs.

And then you've got spiritual songs, and the definition for spiritual songs is od pneumaticus, which is the spirit, of course.

And uh have you ever been, you know, in the middle of worship and the the the song ends, make room for you, do whatever you want to, do whatever you want to, and then the band keeps playing dun no, and you're like, what do I do?

There's no words on the screen.

If they put the words up there, I'll sing it, but um, well, out of your spirit, you can actually sing these od pneumaticus.

And sometimes it might sound like I give you everything.

I love you, Lord, I worship you.

And and then sometimes it even goes further, where you begin to tap into what the spirit's saying and begin to have you ever had somebody singing, and it's like, oh my gosh, that's what I needed to hear today.

Spiritual songs, birth from the spirit, but they weren't singing those songs either.

Okay, they were singing hymns, and I wonder what it sounded like.

Can I can I can I take a guess?

It stinks in here, and I'm uncomfortable, and this really sucks, and I'm hungry, but I will praise you, Lord, because you are good and faithful, God, and I trust you even in the midst of a prison cell.

And I will praise you, Lord, for you are good, and your mercy endures forever.

And they start singing.

I mean, I'm talking about really praising, really worshiping.

And and and they're in the they're in the middle of a prison with no way out.

And let's see what happened as a result of their praise.

Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

At once, all the prison doors flew open and every chain came loose.

Isn't that incredible?

Not just for them, but for everybody.

What if your praise actually helps set others free around you?

And you're wondering why you have that job.

You're wondering why you're you're sitting in that cubicle or you're at that desk or you're sitting next to that person, and yet God has given you, and it feels like a prison.

You guys like, it feels like a prison every day, nine to five.

I feel like I'm in prison, and I hate it.

And could it be that God puts you somewhere that you're supposed to be for the sake of being a light for somebody around you?

Maybe that coworker next to you, maybe somebody around you.

They need the Spirit of God that you have that lives inside of you.

But this is what I'm thinking.

This is what I'm thinking.

Well, point number three or five, whatever you want to write down, is sometimes the only way out is to worship your way out.

Here's what happens as a result.

The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul shouted, Don't harm yourself.

We are all here.

Now, I'm thinking to myself, if I was in prison and I was singing some songs, and all of a sudden an earthquake happened, and the doors flew open, and my chains fell off, what would you do?

I mean, I would I would hightail it out of there.

But that's not what Paul did.

Sometimes we're called to stay in a difficult situation.

Sometimes God's asking you to stay.

Stay in that marriage.

Fight for it.

Stay.

You're like, are you so you're calling marriage a prison cell?

No.

Sometimes it feels that way though, right?

We're the ball and chain.

Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, sometimes we're called to stay in hard situations instead of.

And so point four, and I'm almost done, is this point four or point six, whichever.

Okay.

Point four is this.

You gotta know when to hold them.

No when to fold them.

Let me give my let me give my country twang.

No when to walk away.

No when to run.

I got a little bit, a little bit.

You gotta count your blessings.

Um sometimes you gotta know when to stay and know when to run.

And I really believe that that Paul heard from the Spirit of God.

And as a result, we know what the outcome was.

The whole jail was rocked, the jailer's house was saved.

And um of us I sense are in pretty impossible places, pretty tough places.

And I I think maybe the Lord dropped this word in my heart to just say, worship your way up.

Don't let it stop you.

Do you remember when uh Kyle shared the testimony of the young girl that he was able to help save and get her back to her family?

And uh and then he opened up the the front of the church and he just said, if you're fighting for somebody, somebody that you love, and he called us all up, and man, this place was just flooded.

I came up standing for somebody.

And then he began to sing about the victory of the Lord and about God fighting our battles and fighting on our behalf, and I felt something surge up in my spirit.

I felt like it was almost like a breakthrough moment for our church.

When when we when we were we were battling, we were battling in worship.

We were battling, we were declaring the goodness of God and declaring the sovereignty of God, and declaring, by the way, my whole family will be saved.

They don't have a choice.

I told my family this week, I I have declared since I was a young man over my kids, you will, you, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

It's a faith stance, and it's just a matter of time.

It's just a matter of time for you too.

If you can stand in faith and you can continue to just praise him and worship him and adore him and stand for your family.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.

It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.

And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.

My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

You know, the reality is that God is.

Has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to the road.org.

God bless you.