In the Midnight Hour | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

All right, all right, all right.

Church family, I'm so glad that you are here worshiping with us today.

And we're going to continue in our time of worshiping um by getting into our message.

I'm really excited about what I believe God wants me uh to share.

But before we do that, um I want to go ahead and dismiss our middle um and high school students.

We have an incredible service that is geared just um for them.

We have incredible leaders that would love to connect with them, other students would love to engage in them, and I really believe it's gonna be a great atmosphere for them to grow and can also connect um with others.

While while they're heading out, would you mind helping me welcome our online audience as well as those who are listening to us on our podcast and also those who are in our family lounge?

We're so, so glad that you are with us today.

Um, if you're new to our church, um my name is Keith.

My wife Megan and I have the privilege of serving as the lead pastors here at Celebration Orlando, and and we truly are so glad uh that you are here with us today.

I believe that the God orders all of our steps and you are here for such a time as this.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me in the book of Acts, chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

The book of Acts, chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

And while you're turning, I'll give you some brief context and then we're gonna get into it.

But ultimately, um Paul is an incredible apostle.

Maybe you're familiar with his his work, but but he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament.

If you if you follow his journey, you just see that this is a a regular man.

I think sometimes when we mention people in the Bible, we think that they're superhuman, but he's just a regular man who put his faith in an extraordinary God and this and God did some incredible things through him.

And and I believe the same is said of us.

So Paul is on his second missionary journey.

He's been called into ministry, and he's now in this responsibility of ultimately bringing the gospel to the Gentiles.

Salvation is of the Jews, so our whole faith system was built off of Judaism initially, and then it's revolved, it's the revelation of Jesus in that context.

So there were people in other parts of the world that had no frame of reference on what it meant to follow Jesus.

So Paul's assignment was to be what we would say as an apostle to the Gentiles.

So he had this incredible uh gift set that he could understand Roman culture, he was fluent in Greek, but he also was Jewish.

So he had the ability to kind of go in different environments and present the gospel to his audience in a way that they could receive it.

While he's on this journey, he he has a desire to expand the gospel over an area that they called Asia Minor, but God had other plans, and so he ends up going to this area called Philippi, where we get the book of Philippians, the church, and Philippi was birthed as a result of it.

While he's there, he literally disrupts the city in such a way with the gospel that he ends up getting arrested for it.

And so now him and Silas find themselves in jail.

And it is here that we enter into the moment that I believe God wants me to speak to us on.

Starting at verse number 25 in Acts chapter 16, it says, About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all of the doors were opened, and everyone's chains came loose.

To give you a little bit more of context, Paul and Silas are in jail, and at this time Christianity doesn't have notoriety, it's not protected.

They're in a place of the world where they didn't quite understand what it meant to be a follower of Christ.

They weren't sure if they were trying to shut down Roman rule and influence.

They also weren't sure if it was trying to suppress what it meant to express your faith through Judaism, so they didn't understand what it meant.

So to be locked up as a Christian often meant that your life was going to be taken because they wanted to make sure that they shut down the access of it.

But it's in that context, it's in that moment that Paul at midnight decides to go into a time of worship.

I believe that many of us are in a midnight season ourselves, a season where it's dark, there's a lot of uncertainty.

But I also believe it's in moments like this that we have an opportunity to respond the way that the Bible encourages us to, so that we can get the results that the Bible talks about.

I feel like my assignment today is to talk around this subject that I've entitled In the Midnight Hour.

Let's pray and let's see what it is that Lord wants to speak to us today.

Lord, we thank you so much for your presence and we thank you for the privilege of being able to gather and worship in your name.

Lord, it's with uh heavy hearts that we that we're worshiping while also acknowledging that yet another mass shooting has taken place in our country, that there's families that are grieving, that are that are trying to navigate through what this moving forward looked like after losing family members that they had planned on going on vacation with, celebrating holidays with, that these lives are completely disrupted.

Father, our heart breaks after this.

God, we continue to see the chaos that's taking place over in the Middle East and in Israel and Palestine.

And God, I I don't propose to be an expert on it, but but I feel my response is the same that I've seen in the Gospels where the people declared, Hosanna.

Lord, save us, Lord, we need you.

I I don't have the political answers, I don't have the ability to know what you should do this and that should do that, but God, I do know that you are the solution.

So God, I say, Hosanna.

God, we need a move of you in our country, Hosanna.

God, we need a move of you in the Middle East, Hosanna.

Israel needs a move of you, Palestine needs a move.

God, we need a move from you, Lord Hosanna, Lord, save us, save us from our own flaws, save us from our own mistakes.

Saul, save us from our own sins, save us from our own brokenness, God.

Hosanna, Lord, we need you because in our own strength, God, it just seems as if we continue to get further and further away from who you are and what you will have us to do, Lord Hosanna.

So, Father, over the next few moments, I just pray that you speak to us.

I ask that you give us open eyes that we can fix our eyes upon you.

I pray for open, I pray for open ears that we can hear your truth.

And Lord, I pray for open hearts that we can receive what you have but be transformed in what you want us to do.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

And amen.

You know, I I've been sharing with us as a community that um over the past, I guess we're into like week three now, I I've really been battling just this crazy um sinus infection.

Uh and and for me, whenever I'm I'm not feeling well, I kind of go through these moments of like, okay, how bad is it going to be?

But sinus infections, particularly for me, it's it just sticks with me for a while and I don't know what it is about it.

So there's days I feel good, there's other days where I don't.

I literally we were in a meeting um on Tuesday, we had a great meeting.

I felt, man, I feel amazing today.

And then immediately I just said, I'm going home.

They're like, what happened?

I'm like, I don't know.

I got hit with a sick dart.

I gotta go home.

Like it's just it just comes out of nowhere.

And one of the things that I love whenever I have these moments where I'm not feeling well is that varying people in our community will reach out to me and share with me their their their ideas of home remedies.

You know, people everybody has like, you know, that that their PhD in something, and so people are reaching out to me, hey, have you tried this?

Have you have you done that?

You gotta use garlic, you gotta eat it whole.

I'm like, no, I think that's for vampires.

Like, I'm not doing that.

Like, there's, you know, we you get a lot of different suggestions on things that you should do, but there's something that I noticed that whenever um I'm not feeling well, that that Megan does for me that completely changes everything.

We went out yesterday and I thought I was feeling good.

I got home and I just started feeling really blonde.

She looked at me, she's like, Are you okay?

I'm like, I don't know.

She's like, you know what you need?

I'm like, no, tell me.

She said, You need some tea and you need some chicken noodle soup.

And I felt the spirit of the Lord move in that moment.

I said, Hey, I was like, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.

That's the spirit of the living God.

That is absolutely what I need.

And so she gave it to me, and I was sitting there, and as I began to watch the football game, and I saw what Georgia did to the gators.

Okay, let's move on, let's move on, let's move on.

We're in the household of faith.

Everybody's gonna get through this, it's gonna be okay.

So I'm I'm I'm I'm there and I begin to eat the chicken noodle soup, and I genuinely begin to feel better.

Now I am a person of faith, but I'm also a man of science.

So I begin to ask myself, what is it about chicken noodle soup that really, really does make me feel better?

Is this just something that's psychological in my head that you think that you feel good?

And so you just kind of manifest it, so to speak, like I feel great.

So I began to go on this deep search to understand the origin story of chicken noodle soup.

I'm bringing y'all into the journey of what your pastor does on Saturday nights.

This is what I'm doing.

Y'all like, is he praying and fasting?

No, he's Google searching.

Like, I'm I'm like, what is the story with chicken noodle soup?

And I found something so fascinating about it.

It dates all the way back to like ancient Egypt, where a doctor had found that the nutrients that are in it and he began to prescribe it to the patients that were there.

And then in the early of 19th century, the Jewish immigrants had come into the country and they brought with them the recipe for chicken noodle soup, and it began to get some traction.

And then, y'all didn't know y'all getting a lesson, and then in World War II, when people were, it was dreary times in our country, and so Campbell soup found a way to monetize that, and that's why we still have Campbell's soup to this day.

They were able to monetize, like, how come we didn't have an idea to monetize something like that, Megan?

We missed the mark.

So they were able to use it and then expand it, and then it goes from there.

But the question remains does it really work?

The fact of the matter is, it really does.

And here's why it's because like the broth actually gives you hydration, the chicken gives you the protein, and then the vegetables that you mix into it actually help you to feel better.

So it literally is uh a home remedy that actually does work.

And so as I'm taking this and I'm eating it, I genuinely feel that myself is getting better as I'm about to cough.

Because I need chicken noodle soup right now.

Megan didn't get it this morning, she missed the mark.

But there is redemption at the end of this service, Megan.

So so I'm I'm I'm eating it and I see that it works.

And what I love is that everybody has their different takes on it.

You diff you look you look at different cultures, and people are like, oh, I add a little bit of lime to mine, I add cilantro to mine.

Like I all of my Latino people know what I'm talking about.

Y'all, y'all add the different flavors to it.

I love my Italians, and they add like the pasta and the other things to it.

Everybody has their own take on this home remedy that is tried and true and has withstood the test of time.

We have these things that we lean on that we know that works when we're not feeling well, and we have these nutrients that even if we don't always like the way that it tastes, we know that it's good for us.

What if I were to tell you that in the same way that our natural body gets sick and we have these home remedies that can make us feel better, that spiritually when we're going through things, that God makes some things available to us that's supposed to nurture our spirits.

There's some things that God makes available to us, and here's what I've learned about things that are good for you.

You may not always like the way that it tastes, but it doesn't mean that it's not what you need.

God makes a lot of things available to us, and there's some key ingredients that He's provided for us that is meant to nurture our spirit so that we can be vibrant in the things that God has called us to do.

That the first thing that God makes available to us is the word of God.

The Bible, the living word of God.

And the reason why I say the word of God is because a lot of times when we think of the Bible, we think that this is man's opinion, but it's the word of God.

When we think about the Bible, we think that it's a self-help book, but it's the living word of God.

That the Bible helps us to understand that this is an incredible book that that all points to Jesus and has over 40 different authors and different narrative styles, but it all points to Jesus and allowing us to know that He is the hope and the redemption.

And it's in the Bible that I can have a confrontation with truth where it reveals to me my flaws, but it also reveals to me what God is doing in me.

And as I begin to look at what God's word says about me, and I begin to acknowledge that I got some shortcomings in my life, and I begin to race to the standard of God's word and not reducing God's down to my standard, then I actually begin to get strong and I get healthy.

What I want us to understand that God's word is available to us to actually give us strength.

But there may be some aspects of it that we don't like, but it doesn't mean that it's not good for you.

What the Bible tells us about itself in the in 2 Timothy chapter 3, it says that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for what God is calling him to do.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

I want you to hear me.

If you engage God's word and you never feel challenged, then you're not allowing God's word to get in your heart.

Because it's impossible to read God's word and not find areas of our lives that we feel challenged in.

And what can happen because we become the type of Christians that are either one of two things.

We're either cultural Christians or we're kingdom Christians.

A cultural Christian is when I reduce the Bible to fit what the culture is so I can feel comfortable and it requires nothing of me.

A kingdom Christian acknowledges that Jesus' word has the final say, and I'm going to raise the God's standards and not lower God's standard to meet my comfort and my brokenness.

What we understand is that when I am a kingdom Christian, that I will be confronted with the words of truth, but the truth shall set us free.

And I understand that there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.

And I acknowledge that God is calling me to something greater because I'm engaging his word, and it may not always taste good to me, but I know that it's good for me.

We got six people excited.

We're gonna get there by the time we get done.

Here's the next thing: God's given us the ingredient of prayer, he's also, or of worship of his word, but he also gives us the ingredient of prayer.

The Bible says this about the power of prayer.

It says, Is any among you suffering, he should pray?

Is anyone cheerful?

He should sing praises.

Is anyone sick among you?

He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

God once again is inviting us into this intimate relationship where he says, I want us to have a conversation.

Is there something going on in your life?

Talk to me about it.

Are you having some areas where you're struggling?

Talk to me about it.

I think a lot of times we spend more time overthinking and underpraying.

That we end up talking to everyone else before we consult and talk to God.

But God is saying, I want us to spend time together.

If you got burdens, if you got sickness, if you have brokenness, let's have a conversation.

And remember, it's a conversation that you talk, but then there's a moment where you listen because that's what happens in any healthy relationship.

And what happens when I cast my cares on God, I stand still and I wait for him to respond.

And you know how you know that God is speaking?

Because it matches up with his word.

But if I don't know what God's word says, then I can hear something speaking to me and I don't have anything to discern it by, and then I end up saying that God told me to do something that conflicts with his spirit.

God will never contradict what his word says.

You can't imagine the amount of people that come to me and say, God told me, fill in the blank.

And I'm like, are you sure that was the Lord?

Here's what I'm saying: the Bible says we have to try every spirit, we have to discern whether or not that's God that we're truly hearing from, because it's possible.

The scripture says this that eight that Satan can transform himself into an angel of light, and that people can be deceived and believe that it's God and has nothing to do with him and it's actually leading us further away from it.

We have to have a moment where we engage God in prayer, but we have to listen and measure it with his word to ensure that it's God that is actually ordering our steps and not our flesh.

But here's the third ingredient: worship.

Worship is another ingredient that's in this spiritual home remedy that God has made available for us.

Worship is the expression of our faith.

And it takes on many different forms.

It takes form of worshiping God in our giving, it takes form in worshiping us coming together collectively, lifting our hands.

But worship is also just in the life that you live.

That when you go to work and you're living a life that you're expressing your faith through, the way that you interact with people, that's a form of worship.

That when you're going to school and you're operating with integrity, that that's a form of worship, that worship is the expression or the demonstration of your faith.

And what I love about this narrative in Philippi is that we see all of these things come in a moment of crisis that I think it gives us insight to how we can engage at these hard moments that we may find ourselves in.

Now I'm gonna be real with y'all.

I got 13 minutes and 45 seconds.

I got a lot to say and I don't got a lot of time to say it in, so y'all better buckle up and get ready.

Y'all ready for this?

Let's start here.

They're finding themselves at a place called Philippi.

Paul and Silas and his team had no intentions of going to Philippi.

That Paul had a strategy with sharing the gospel that was going to allow him to go to an area called Asia Minor.

And he had a strategy.

He he had outlined the strategy, he shared it with the team, and they actually began the journey.

But as they're on this journey, the Bible says that they were prevented from going by the Spirit of God.

That means that they had a strategy, they had ideas, they knew what they wanted to do, and as they were trying to walk into it, it said that God prevented them from doing it.

What I've learned in life that sometimes we have a strategy, but God has a plan.

And what do you do when the resistance that you're feeling is not coming from the enemy, but it's God shifting your direction because He has an assignment that He wants you to fulfill.

I believe that some of us are at a place where we're saying to ourselves, God, I thought through this, this is how I see it working out, and I'm going to step in it.

And we're feeling some resistance, and we think that it's the enemy, but maybe it's God shifting our direction because we don't have goals, we have an assignment.

And sometimes that assignment is a little uncomfortable.

So Paul and his team, they get shifted in a different direction.

So they land in this area called Philippi.

He has an assignment there.

So Paul gets there with the team and they're walking and they're going on their prayer walk and they have an encounter with this lady named Lydia.

Lydia ends up receiving Jesus.

She takes Paul and the team into her house.

She's a very successful businesswoman.

She actually ends up resourcing the first church plant in Philippi.

So this is a woman that God has sent Paul to to establish the kingdom work in that region.

That if Paul would have gone with his plan, the church of Philippi would have never been birthed, and then we would have never gotten a book of Philippians, and we would never have been able to anchor ourselves in Philippians 4 13 that I could do all things through Christ that strengthened me.

I want you to understand how God can shift some things so that we can benefit from it later.

But I digress.

While they're on this time and they ask him to stay, they're on this journey, and then behind them is this young lady.

And the scripture describes her as being this woman who is under demonic oppression.

As Paul is doing ministry, she's walking behind him and she's saying, These guys right here are servants of the Most High God.

Yes, they are.

And they're they're preaching to you a way of salvation.

Day after day, after day, until Paul gets to this point where he turns around and he rebukes that spirit and casts it out of her.

Now, I'm gonna be real with you.

For years when I've read this passage, I never quite understood Paul's frustration.

Because Paul is doing this kingdom work.

You have this lady that's in the community, and she's she's essentially affirming what Paul is doing.

And so I'm thinking to myself, why is that a problem?

Why is it an issue that she's that she's declaring the activity of God?

But then you have to go beneath the surface to truly get an understanding of what's going on.

Buckle up.

It says that she was under demonic influence.

That ultimately means that it says that she was possessed with the spirit of Python, when you look at it in the original Greek.

With the Python spirit, was it was connected to Apollos, and he was a demonic spirit that gave people the ability to have foresight.

Now I know as I say these things, depending on your context, you may hear these things that okay, that's weird, or that was back then.

Because in the West, we've done a really good job at putting makeup on demonic activity, and we don't even realize that God is against some of the things that we're seeing and engaged in.

But I digress.

She is known for being a person who can foretell the future.

She's operating in what we call witchcraft or occult activity.

Let me tell you what witchcraft and occult activity is.

Witchcraft and occultism is when we're trying to manufacture supernatural results without going through God.

Anything that we do that we're trying to produce divine results without going to God is actually witchcraft.

So if we're going to tarot cards, if we're going to astronomy, if we're burning sage, I know that those things may seem harmless, but those things have nothing to do with God because I don't need to do those things in order for me to have an encounter with the living God.

I can simply declare the name of Jesus.

Furthermore, when she's walking behind them, she is saying that these men are servants of the Most High God, and they are showing you a way of salvation.

Let's back up.

Jesus is not a way of salvation, He is the way to salvation.

I think what can happen in our culture is we say, Oh, it's cool that you're going to church.

There's many different pathways to peace.

No, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus is the only name by which men shall be saved.

Jesus is the only name that demons tremble at when you say it.

You can say in the name of something else, and the demons are moved by it.

But something happens when I say in the name of Jesus that it begins to shift the atmosphere and freedom begins to take place.

So she was confusing people because they were thinking it's possible that they thought that Jesus was just another pathway to enlightenment.

So Paul turns to her and he rebukes it and he silences that spirit because the messenger was distracting the message.

This brings me to my third point.

If you get to a place where the messenger is taking away From the message, then maybe God's not in it.

Camera zoom in on me.

We love Jesus.

I love that our church loves me.

But if you walk away from this church talking more about me than you are about Jesus, either I've done it wrong or you saw the wrong thing.

The messenger should never take precedence over the message.

We're going to do everything we can do to reach people.

We're going to get creative.

We're going to have bounce houses.

We're going to do everything we can do to reach people.

But let's be very clear that we are a church that's all about Jesus.

He's going to be the one that we preach on.

He's going to be the one that we talk on.

He's going to be the one that we lead people to.

And she was distracting from the message because the messenger was too loud and it was leaving a mess.

So the Bible says that Paul rebukes it and literally casts the spirit out.

Now, as a result of that, the slave, the that she was a slave girl.

So the owners of her, they no longer saw that she was profitable.

So because she was no longer producing profit for them, they had Paul and Silas thrown into jail.

Now you would think that a girl that's under demonic possession, under demonic influence, that you would think that when she gets set free, that that is something worth celebrating.

But she had people in her life that benefited from her brokenness.

Somebody's not catching that.

Don't be surprised that when God starts doing things in your life, that people don't celebrate you because maybe they benefit from your brokenness.

There's sometimes we have people in our lives and we're un we're trying to understand why are you so upset that I'm going to church now?

Why are you so upset that I no longer drink?

Why are you so upset that I made some adjustments in my life?

Because maybe they celebrate your brokenness, but your deliverance reflects something they didn't need to do in their own life.

Sometimes we got to be careful of who we allow to be around us, but I digress.

That's not what I came to talk to you all about.

The Bible says that Paul and Silas are in jail.

It's about midnight.

And as they're there in this midnight hour, this is symbolic of the darkest time of the day.

It's also symbolic of saying, when the calendar changes, but my situation remains the same.

I'm moving forward, but still somehow I'm still at the same place.

I'm at a standstill and days are moving, time is moving, but I'm still here.

For Paul and Silas, they didn't know what the next day was going to be for them.

They still have whelps on their back.

And then the midnight hour, they decide to break out into worship.

Their hands were still locked up, but they decided they were going to worship.

They didn't know what was going to happen when the sunlight came, but they still decided to worship.

Their feet were still connected to the other prisoners around them, but they still decided to worship.

I believe there's a proof, the principle that God is trying to help us to understand that a lot of times we're waiting for our breakthrough before we start worshiping.

But what if our worship is the thing that leads to our breakthrough?

What if it's when I worship I actually begin to experience the freedom that God has for me?

Paul and Silas decide to worship.

Jesus knows it's Larry.

Thank you.

Paul and Silas, they begin to worship, and it says that the prisoners are listening.

They're listening to them worship in their darkest hour.

They're listening to them worship even when they don't have clarity.

They're listening to them worship even while they're in the seat of their struggle and their oppression.

I want you to hear me right now, friends, that when we're going to work, people are listening to the way we talk about the boss.

That when we're at school, people are listening to the way that we interact with one another.

The people are listening.

But what they heard from Paul and Silas was faith being demonstrated in the form of worship.

The Bible says that as they began to worship, that the ground had begun to shake.

That it began to shake.

Now, from their perspective, they didn't know what was going on.

They were in the midnight hour, backs are still hurting, they're deciding to worship God, and then there's an earthquake.

From their perspective, and quite honestly, from mine, I've never been through an earthquake, but I know that it's incredibly uncomfortable because what happens is everything under your feet becomes unstable.

It's hard to even stand when you're in the middle of an earthquake.

I may be describing what your life feels like right now.

Lord, I've started coming to church and now my ground is shaking beneath my feet.

Lord, I've started giving and now my finances begin to shake up a little bit.

I've begun to pray for my spouse and all hell is breaking loose in my household.

Why is it that as I am worshiping and trusting you more, it seems like things are getting more chaotic?

But I submit to you, maybe we have the wrong perspective when it comes to ground shaking.

Maybe the shaking is the precursor to chains being broken off of us.

Because when I look in the Bible, I see a lot of things happen as a result of earthquakes.

The Bible tells us that when Moses met God on a mountain, there was an earthquake.

The Bible tells us that when the Israelites went into battle against the Philistines, there was an earthquake.

The Bible tells us that Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones was an earthquake that actually brought the bones together and they rose up as an exceeding great army.

The Bible tells us that when Jesus died on the cross, there was an earthquake.

The Bible tells us that when Jesus was resurrected, there was an earthquake.

And what did all these things have in common?

Victory, freedom, and breakthrough.

Maybe there's some things in your life that are being shaken up right now, but maybe God is shaking some things off, He's shaking some things loose, and He's shaking you free.

And you're asking yourself, why does it seem as if everything under my feet is not stable?

Because there's some things that have gotten comfortable on your body that God is saying, I gotta shake some things off of you right now.

There's some things that are in your marriage, I gotta shake some things off of you right now.

There's some things you've allowed in your house, I gotta shake some things off of you.

And so he's shaking some things up, he's shaking some things off, but ultimately he is shaking us loose.

So what do you do when things are shaken?

You lower your center of gravity and you hold on to the horns of the altar and you say, Lord, I know you're shaking up my family, but I'm holding on to you.

I know you're shaking up my kids, but I'm holding on to you.

I know you're shaking up my job, but I'm holding on to you because we belong to a kingdom that shall not be shaken.

So God, shake it off of me.

If I got anything on me that's not like you, shake it off of me.

If there's anything in my family, shake it off of me because I believe that there is more that you have for me.

So shake it off of me in the name of Jesus.

He's shaking some things up, he's shaking some things loose, he's shaking some things off.

He's shaking some things up, he's shaking some things loose, he's shaking some things, he's shaking some things up, he's shaking some things off, he's shaking some things loose, he's shaking some things up, he's shaking some things off, he's shaking some things loose, there's some ups that I've been holding on to some things that God is saying it's time to let it go.

There's some relationships we've been holding on, that God is saying it's time to let it go.

There's some places that we're going into that God is setting it is time to let it go.

I'm shaking some things up, I'm shaking some things up, I'm shaking some things loose.

I'm talking to some people that are tired of being bound.

I'm tired of being limited because God has more for me.

So, Lord, shake it up because I know that there's more.

God shakes it up, and the beautiful thing, y'all gonna have a seat.

We're not done yet, we're not done yet.

Give me two more minutes, we're gonna wrap this thing up.

Watch this, watch this.

As they're shaking some things up, the Bible says that everybody was set free.

That only Paul and Silas were worshiping, but all of the prisoners were set free.

That only Paul and Silas were worshiping, but everybody was set free.

This is the power of community because there's gonna be some times that you walk into the household of faith and you don't know the lyrics to the song, and you don't even have the strength to lift your hands up.

But there's something powerful that takes place when two or three are gathered in the name of the Lord that maybe when you begin to worship, it inspires me to worship.

The people at home begin to worship, and next thing you know, we create an atmosphere of freedom.

Real quick, I remember a couple of years ago, I was going through a really tough season because my plan of what it meant to be a lead pastor had vastly changed.

My vision, my plan was man, it's gonna be great.

Great community.

We love Orlando, it's where we're supposed to be.

And then the global pandemic, and then our church DC was in crisis.

So Megan and I are leading two locations at the same time, uncertainties all around, and I just kept saying to myself, I didn't see it going this way.

I came home and quite honestly, now that I have better understanding, I was I was depressed, and I did everything I could do to remedy it.

Retail therapy.

Doesn't work, but I got some amazing TVs as a result of it.

Uh I was just spending money like crazy, hoping that was gonna make me feel better, but it but it actually didn't work.

So there was one day that I came back from DC, and literally in one meeting, I had 11 people quit because they were unsure about what the future of the church was, and we're in the middle of a pandemic, they don't even know if we're gonna gather, so they're gone.

So I come back home, and I remember walking into my bedroom prepared to share with Megan, like, yo, I don't I don't know if I got to send me anymore.

And when I walked in, I saw her worshiping.

She had worship music playing, and when I walked in, she didn't even see me.

She was just over in her own world with her hands lifted up, and I just watched her for two minutes, just looking at her, and then all of a sudden, the joy that was in her spirit, all of a sudden, the freedom that she was walking in, I began to say, Lord, what's on her and what you're doing in her, I need that for me.

Because right now, God, I'm going through a difficult time, and this is not what I envisioned.

But the Lord said, the same way that she's worshiping me right now, I need you to begin to worship in the midnight hour.

So I began to lift my hands up.

I began to declare the name of Jesus, and what I felt was something snap off of me.

A new faith had been anchored in me.

And it wasn't because I did it on my own strength, it's because I saw my wife worshiping when I didn't have the strength to, and it brought freedom into my family, it brought freedom into my calling, and I never looked in the rearview mirror since.

I want you to understand that when you choose to engage the presence of God, it has the ability to set other people free.

Your worship is a ministry that everybody gets set free as a result of what Paul and Silas did in that moment.

What if, what if your worship was the very thing that someone sitting in the back needs to see that invites them to engage the presence of God the same way that you are?

This is why community is so important.

The Bible says that after the chains are broken, everyone set free.

That that Paul and Silas, they don't immediately leave.

You would imagine they would, because if it's me, I'm dipping.

I'm out gone, hopping on the first ship, and I'm gone.

But but for them, they understood that that church was a new church.

And if they kept their freedom hidden, the church would have never had the influence that it needed.

So instead of them escaping like prisoners, they walked out completely free.

They wanted to walk their freedom out in front of everybody.

Our freedom is never meant to be a secret.

Our journey with God is never meant to be a secret.

Paul and Silas, they walked it out in front of everybody because they wanted to send a clear message that in Jesus Christ, whom the Son sets free, it's free indeed.

It changed everything, it changed that region.

But quite honestly, when I look at this narrative, I've always looked at it through the lens of Paul and Silas.

These men who were redirected, they ended up in the Philippian church, they plant the church, they do these incredible things, and then they go on to do some other incredible work.

But remember earlier I said that they were shifted because they had an assignment.

I've learned that this narrative isn't about Paul and Silas, but it's about the people that God sent Paul and Silas to meet.

Lydia, who needed to hear the gospel message so that she can fund the first church in Philippi.

The demonic possessed girl needed to have an encounter with Jesus Christ so she could be set free.

And then the jailer, who was in a pagan environment, but when he saw the earth shaking and Paul and Silas set free, he said, What must I do to be saved?

Paul said, Receive Jesus.

He took that message home, he nurtured Paul and Silas.

His entire family gets saved, they get baptized, and then Paul and Silas leaves.

It's not about Paul and Silas, it's about how God used them to reach broken people.

And the truth of the matter is, we are not Paul and Silas.

We're Lydia, who needs a deeper revelation of Jesus.

We're that poor girl who still finds ourselves being influenced by culture.

Or maybe we're that prison guard who we're just in a world but we have no knowledge of who God is.

We all can relate to an aspect of this story and praise that the atmosphere for all of this to take place.

With every head bowed and with every eye closed.

I wanna I wanna pose this question.

The jailer said, What must I do to be saved?

The response was simple yet profound.

Jesus maybe you're in here with us today.

And at the anchor of every man and woman's soul is that question that we process through.

What must I do to be fulfilled?

What must I do to understand my purpose?

My response to you is the same as Paul's on that day of Jesus.

So if you're in here with us, and maybe you've had that question audibly, internally, or you don't even know that you've been wrestling with it, but you feel this is something going on in the inside of you that's looking for a solution that the world has not been able to provide, the answer is Jesus.

So if you're in here with us today and you're ready to respond to that uh to that beautiful invitation, on a count of three, I just want you to lift your hand up so I can include you in a prayer.

One, two, three.

The answer is Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Those joining us online, we celebrate with you.

Amen.

Church, we put our hands together for everybody here that is saying yes to this gospel message.

Here's the next thing I want us to do.

We're gonna go into a moment of worship.

And what I want us to do is I want us all to stand on our feet.

And the same way that we started this service is the same way we're preparing to conclude this portion of our service and worship.

And what I believe is gonna happen in this atmosphere, that as you worship and as I worship, and and those watching online are worshiping, and and those over in the family line are worshiping, it's gonna set an atmosphere so that for some of us that are still restricted, for some of us that are recognizing that there's limitations in our lives, it's gonna set the atmosphere that maybe it's gonna shake some things up, it's gonna shake some things loose, it's gonna shake some things off, but ultimately lead us to a place that we're closer to Jesus as a result.

Let's worship not only for us, but for those who need to experience what God is doing through us.

Lord, I thank you so much for what you're doing in this atmosphere.

And God, we celebrate your goodness.

And we recognize, Father, that in the midnight hour, in our darkest moments, that your grace is sufficient.

Father, I pray for every precious hand that went up to say yes to the gospel message.

Lord, I'm praying that you do a work on the inside of them right now and that you fill them with your spirit.

The raised hand is simply the first step of indicating our loyalty to Jesus.

They are next steps, and God, we're gonna help them with it.

And Father, I pray for every one of us, God, that maybe there's areas of our lives that we don't even recognize that we're not free in.

Maybe there's areas of our lives that we still feel restricted.

But Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, the name that's above every name, that as we worship and set the atmosphere like Paul and Silas, that the ground is going to shake, that chains are gonna break, and everyone is gonna be free.

In Jesus' name.

Let's worship together, family.

Thanks again for listening.

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