What to do when you don't know what to do | Sunday Sermon

Well, I wanted to just give you a quick quick summary to get you back up to speed and remember to remember exactly where we are and how Paul and Silas got to this position inside of a prison cell this week.

So what had happened is they had gotten to Philippi last week and they went down to the river where there's people met to pray and they met this group of women down by the river.

And so they started sharing the gospel with them.

And Paul sat down next to this group of women.

He shared the gospel and they believed.

Lydia believed, her whole household believed, they were baptized, and she invited them to come and stay in her home.

And so most likely they were using her home as a home base as they went into the city evangelizing.

So they're walking around sharing the gospel, Paul and Silas, and they come across this demon-possessed girl.

She's a little young slave girl, we don't know what age, but she has this spirit of divination.

Okay, this is what she does.

She tells does fortune telling, she gives prophecies, she divines spirits.

And so she's following them around and saying, These men are servants of the Most High God.

They come to tell you the way to salvation.

But she's doing it over and over and over again.

And Paul finally decides, you know, I don't think I really need any advertising from demons.

And so he gets irritated.

He turns around and he tells the spirit, I command you to come out of her in the name of Jesus.

And it says, the spirit came out in that very hour.

But see, the problem was her slave owners were not very happy about this.

Because what that meant was they were not going to make money anymore.

Because what they had been doing is taking the slave girl and they had been making her give fortunes to people and tell their future and whatever they were doing with her.

But they were charging people money and they were making a lot of money and getting rich on this poor girl.

And Paul and Silas had set her free from demonic oppression.

And so now she no longer had her demon-inspired gift anymore, and they were angry.

And so they dragged them into the marketplace and they began to strip their clothes and beat them with many blows, and they threw them into the prison.

And it says in verse 23, when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into the prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

I want to take a moment, I want you to take a moment with me and just imagine with me what they must have been feeling.

It says they received many blows.

Okay?

And so what had happened is they had gotten the crowd stirred up and they came and stripped their clothes off of them.

In public, in front of everybody else.

They stripped them of their clothes.

So they humiliated them.

They did this to humiliate them and expose their skin to be able to beat them.

Then they beat them and then they imprisoned them, but a standard cell wasn't good enough for them.

And so they threw them into this inner cell.

They put them in the high security wing.

Okay, and then they not only that, but they fastened their feet in the stalks.

And so they're sitting here in the cell, they'd just been beaten.

They're probably cut and bruised and hurting.

And their feet are fastened in stocks.

They probably can't, you know, when you can't like get a comfortable position and they couldn't move or turn over or anything, their bodies were hurting.

So they're wounded, they're humiliated, they don't know what's going to happen, they have no promise of whether they're gonna get out next week or if it's gonna be two years from now.

And so the question I wanted to answer today was this this is the question we're asking.

What do you do when life gets hard and you don't know what to do?

There's a story in 2 Chronicles of a king named Jehoshaphat.

And Jehoshaphat was one of the good kings.

He was one of the kings who tried to steer the people of Israel away from their idolatry.

Because what they had done is they had fallen into idolatry.

They stopped worshiping the Lord God, and they had built these high places up on the hills around there.

And so they would go up on these high places and they would practice idolatry.

They would worship demon gods, they would practice idolatry in the city.

And so Jehoshaphat was a king that had removed the idols, he had taken down some of the high places, he had sent teachers with the word of God around Judah to teach the people the word of God.

And so he did his best to turn the people back to the Lord his God.

But one day he gets terrible news.

There's an overwhelming army that's coming against them.

And it says in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 2 some men came and told Jehoshaphat, a great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea, and behold, they are in Engedi.

2 Chronicles 20:2

Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord.

And so there's this massive army that's coming against them Moabites, Ammonites, Meonites.

And he looks at that army.

He realizes the massive size of this army, and he just realized, we can't win this.

There's no way we can stand against what is coming against us.

And so I like what it says here.

It says, Jehoshaphat was afraid.

It doesn't, I love that.

It doesn't, it doesn't hedge.

Jehoshaphat was afraid, but he sought the Lord.

He set his face to seek the Lord.

And I want you to think about what he prayed.

Listen to what he prayed.

He begins, so I don't have to read the whole prayer to you.

He begins by remembering who God is, his greatness, his power, his majesty, his might, his ability, like what we did today.

He remembers the way that God's been faithful to Israel over generations.

He remembers all the ways that he has kept his promises for his people.

And then he says this in 2 Chronicles 20, 12, he says, we are powerless against this great horde.

He's praying to the Lord.

And he says, Lord, we're powerless against this great horde that is coming against us.

And we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.

See, his prayer includes this confession.

He's not lying, he's not pretending, he's not like, I'm gonna stir up enough faith.

No, Lord, we can do this, no problem.

He's saying, Lord, we are powerless.

There's no way that we can defeat this army.

We don't have the soldiers, we don't have the weapons, we don't have the power to stand against them.

And then he says, We don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do, I don't have the answers.

But then he says this but our eyes are upon you.

Now I remember when with with actually all of our kids, but I remember specifically even way back when my oldest Miranda was little, and whenever she would go to a doctor appointment, a dentist appointment, and she was afraid and they were gonna do something that she was scared about, she would look at me.

Her eyes would be like this, and they're doing whatever she's doing, her eyes would get big, but she was staring at me.

Because if I was calm, then she was okay.

If I'm looking at him telling her, we're good, you're good, I'm right here, you know?

She was okay.

With Avery, it's mom, okay?

We had to go to the hospital one time with her, and she got a little IV, and she's just mom.

You know, she's on mom, but she's looking to the one who makes her feel safe.

She's looking to the one that makes her feel secure, she's looking to the one who protects her, who provides for her, who is her safe place.

And Jehoshaphat says, God, we don't know what to do.

The situation is scary.

This army is massive, they're powerful, they're mighty.

We can't defeat them.

We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.

Our eyes aren't on the approaching army, our eyes aren't on our own ability to meet them, our eyes aren't on the number of our swords and spears, our eyes are not on our bank account.

We're not gonna go running to some other nation to try to pay them off to come and save us.

Our eyes are on you and see, church, so often this is our problem.

Our problem is our eyes.

That we fix our eyes on the wrong things.

We fix our eyes on the problems, we fix our eyes on our pain, we fix our eyes on what someone else did to us, we fix our eyes on the injustice of our situation, we fix our eyes on the unfairness of it all, on our fear of what might or might not happen.

And the longer we stare at those things, the bigger they become in our vision, in our mind, in our hearts.

And the thing is, it's not that those things aren't legitimate concerns.

See, Jehosaphat wasn't in denial about his situation.

He said, God, the army's massive, they're huge, they're big, they're mighty, they're coming, we can't do anything.

He was he was speaking the reality.

But having faith in God doesn't mean we have to deny the reality of our situation.

It means that we fix our eyes on the one who is greater than our reality.

Amen.

The one who can bend reality to his own will.

And so Jehoshaphat lifted up his eyes above his problems, and he placed his trust in the Lord his God.

And I want you to see God's response to the prayer of Jehoshaphat.

He said, Thus says the Lord, the prophet is prophesying to Jehoshaphat here.

He says, Thus says the Lord to you, do not be afraid, do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

Then in verse 17, he says, This you will not need to fight in this battle.

Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.

God responds to the faith and trust of Jehoshaphat with a promise.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be dismayed at that great horde, at that overwhelming situation in your life that you have no power over, because the battle's not yours, the battle is God's.

Stand in faith and see the salvation of the Lord.

But faith is more than words, isn't it?

Faith is more than words, isn't it, church?

The question we ask today is what do you do when life gets hard and you don't know what to do?

Well, Jehoshaphat gives us the answer to the question.

You trust in God.

You turn to him with everything, and what better way to express our trust in God than to defy the fear and the anxiety of our circumstances, to defy the injustice of our circumstances, to defy the enemy who's doing everything he can to take us down, defy them.

And right in the middle of our fear, right in the middle of our anxiety, right in the middle of recognizing this is too big for us and we feel overwhelmed and we don't know what to do, right in the middle of the injustice and the unfairness of it all, right in the middle of the enemy trying to bring everything he can to take us down.

We worship God in the middle of it.

See, Lord, I'm not gonna look at those things, I'm not gonna focus on those things, I'm not gonna worry about those things, I'm not gonna fret about those things, I'm gonna lift my eyes up to you, and I'm just gonna worship you.

You take care of that stuff.

Because I can't handle these things, but you can.

And so I'm just gonna give all of this to you and worship you.

And watch what Jehoshaphat does.

He says, And they rose early the next morning, and they went into the wilderness of Tokoah, and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, Judah, and in the inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established.

Believe his prophets, and you will succeed.

And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire as they went before the army and say, Give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever.

Do you see what he did here?

Do you see it, church?

They wake up on the morning of the battle, and the armies of their enemies have arrived and arrayed themselves on the battlefield.

There is this just horde of human beings over there with their chariots and their horses and their swords and their shields.

This massive army gathers in Jehoshaphat, gathers his people together, and he speaks to the people and he says, Believe in the Lord your God.

In other words, trust him, and you will be established.

And then as he arrays the armies for battle, he calls those forward who are going to lead them into the battle.

And as he looks around, he doesn't call the spearmen, and he doesn't call the chariots and he doesn't call the mighty men of valor.

He looks to the back and he says, Worship team.

Come here.

And he says, This, I want you to go before the army and sing to the Lord in holy attire.

Give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love, endures forever.

So he says, I want you to go, and I want you to stand before the army, and I don't want you to put your swords on, I don't want you to put your shields on, I don't want you to put your armor on, I don't want you to take out a horse or a chariot, I want you to put your church clothes on and warm up your voice, and I want you to go out to the front, and I want you to lead us into this battle, and as you go, I want you to do this.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever.

That's the song, though, right?

That's the lyrics.

I'm pretty sure that's what they did.

And so as the army takes the field against an overwhelming force, they praise and worship the Lord who holds their destiny in his hands.

The end of the story is that they didn't need to fight.

God conquered their enemy.

And so back in Philippi, Paul and Silas sit in their cell, their feet fixed in the socks, and you know they were hurting.

You know how the pain starts to kick in, like something happens, maybe a car accident, or if you're a guy when you're younger, you get in a fight or something like that, you know, and while the adrenaline's going, you're kind of good, but like five hours later the adrenaline drains out, and you're like, oh man, I'm hurting right now.

So they're hurting.

This is midnight, it's the middle of the night.

They've been humiliated, they've been beaten unjustly, they've been imprisoned unfairly, without a trial, they're forced into this uncomfortable position and these stocks on their ankles, they couldn't adjust their bodies, they had no control over their fate, they didn't know when they might get out of this situation.

And if you just take a moment and imagine yourself in that position, what might you have been feeling?

Tell me, go ahead.

You're feeling bad.

Would you be afraid?

Probably be afraid.

What's gonna happen tomorrow?

Hopeless?

Pain?

Anger, how could they do this to me?

Bitterness, how could God let this happen to me?

But watch what they do in verse 25.

At midnight, Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

What are they doing?

The exact same thing Jehoshaphat was doing.

They were trusting in God, and their situation hadn't changed, and their wounds were still there, and their feet were still in stocks, and the injustice had not been made right.

But instead of giving in to fear and anger and bitterness and hopelessness, they just worshiped God.

They expressed their radical faith and trust in God by defying their circumstances.

Circumstances that would have tempted them to believe that God was not good, that he could not save, that he wasn't worthy of their trust.

But I feel like I want to pause and make a point here.

Because we might be tempted to think that they were worshiping because they hoped that by worshiping they would be delivered out of their situation.

But did you know that's not why they were worshiping?

Paul and Silas have no idea what's gonna happen.

Their worship's not something that they're doing to manipulate God into helping them, and it's important to say this because sometimes God opens prison doors.

Amen?

Sometimes he does.

Sometimes he delivers in powerful and miraculous ways.

And sometimes he walks with us through them.

And so, if that's the case, what was the motivation for worshiping God?

They worshiped it because God is worthy of worship.

They worshiped because their hope was set higher than simply getting out of a prison.

And again, sometimes our eyes, we have a hard time understanding this because our eyes are fixed on the wrong things.

We're focused often on our own comfort, our own well-being, our own blessing, our own supply, on our hopes and our dreams and all the things we want to get and go and do.

And we forget that our hope is not supposed to be in this life and in this world.

But in the reality that Christ is risen, that he conquered sin and death, that Christ reigns from heaven over his church, that Christ will return and gather his church, and the dead will rise and live again, and God will make all things new.

We don't worship because we believe that doing so will bring us blessings in this life.

We worship because of the blessings that we've already received in Christ.

And so Paul and Silas worship in the midst of their circumstances, and in that verse it said this the prisoners were listening to them.

See, sometimes when we're going through something like this, we think we're all alone.

We feel like no one sees.

But the truth is the people around us do see.

And especially for us Christians, they know what we say we believe.

They know what we say we believe.

Paul and Silas had been preaching around the town, they'd been sharing the gospel, they cast the demon out of that girl.

Lydia's household is saved.

So these prisoners might already know who these men are.

They know their testimony, they know what they've preached, but now they're watching them as they suffer and as they lift their fate up to God, their worship becomes a witness to these people.

In verse 26, and suddenly there 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 so Paul and Silas are in their cell and they're singing hymns and they're praying to God, and suddenly an earthquake hits, and the foundations are shaken, and the chains fall off, and the doors are opened.

And if that happened and you were them, what would you do?

Escape?

Run out.

Man, if that happened to me, I'd be out of there so fast.

I'd be running.

And I'm running, I'd be like, my chains are gone.

I've been set free.

Right?

You just go.

You just be out of there.

But what's crazy is Paul and Silas didn't run.

In verse 27, it says, when the jailer awoke and saw that the prison doors were opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

See, in this time, if someone was guarding prisoners and the prisoners escaped, it was possible that that person could be sentenced to the condemnation that the prisoners would have received had they not escaped.

And then their whole family would be dishonored.

They could lose their stuff, their home, their position.

And so the only way for a soldier to get honor back with something like that would be to fall on his own sword.

And so when the jailer sees the prison doors are open, he just assumes, like everyone else would, everyone's gone.

I'm dead.

And he pulls out his sword to fall upon it.

But in verse 28, Paul cries out with a loud voice, do not harm yourself, for we're all here.

And so the jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, and then he brought them out.

And he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And so as they're worshiping, and the earthquake happens, and their bonds fall off, and they stay seated.

And they waited.

The question is, what do you do when life gets hard and you don't know what to do?

What would have happened to the jailer if Paul and Silas escaped?

He probably would have died.

He would have died because he would have fallen on a sword, Paul wouldn't have stopped him.

But see, when the doors open, Paul didn't automatically assume that God just wants me out of here.

He realized that what his escape would have meant for the jailer.

And so he was ready.

He says, Don't harm yourself, we're all here.

And Paul's wisdom and courage in this moment opens up the door for him to lead this man and his family to Christ.

And so the point this makes for us is this don't miss your moment.

Paul and Silas didn't miss their moment.

They didn't know this was going to happen.

They have no way of knowing God's larger purpose in all of this.

They couldn't have foreseen that the jailer was going to be converted.

But remember what we said last week?

God is able to see further down the road than you are.

Amen.

They know God well enough to trust him in this moment.

And sometimes our instinct in suffering is just get me out of here.

But before we run from the moment, maybe we need to stop and ask the Lord, Lord, how do you want to use me in this moment?

What does it look like to be faithful through this trial?

And sometimes God will just set us free.

He'll open the door.

He'll lead us right out of the pain.

But sometimes God gives us the opportunity to be faithful through the pain.

But the good news is that God can redeem both situations, any situation, to serve his greater purpose.

And so the jailer falls on his knees before them.

And it's hard not to feel for this jailer, you know.

Imagine what this man must have been feeling.

He had thought his life was over, he thought he was gonna die, his family would be without him, his children and grandchildren would grow up without him.

How would they make it?

How would they survive?

What's gonna happen to them?

His life flashing before his eyes, but now he's alive.

And we know that he had seen Paul and Silas in their beaten and torn state.

He had shackled them himself.

We know the prisoners had heard them worshiping, and his house must have been right there because he knew when the earthquake happened, right?

So maybe he heard them too.

But whatever the case may be, what he understood was that whatever these two men have, that's what I need.

And so he asked them, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And in verse 31, they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved, you and your household.

And they spoke the word of God to him and to all who were in his house.

And he took them the same hour and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

Church, where are your eyes?

When faced with overwhelming opposition, Jehoshaphat trusted in the Lord.

He just said, Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.

When Paul and Silas are faced with injustice and unfair treatment when they're punished and imprisoned for doing good, rather than getting bitter, they chose to worship him in the midst of the injustice.

And maybe you're in one of those moments right now.

Maybe you don't know what to do.

Maybe you're struggling to understand what's happening to you.

Maybe you can't see how anything good could come out of your situation right now.

But remember our question: what do you do when life gets hard and you don't know what to do?

And the answer is number one, trust in God.

You trust in God.

You lift your eyes off the situation in front of you, you turn them to the one who holds the power over every situation, the one who has the power to deliver you from the circumstance or to redeem the circumstance to serve his purposes.

Number two, you worship him in the middle of your circumstances.

You defy your own fear, you defy your own anxiety, you defy the enemy who wants to use those things to bring you down and get you to walk away and turn from faith in God.

And number three, you don't run from your moment.

Don't miss the opportunity when something hard happens to be faithful in suffering.

God may open prison doors and he may not, but either way, Jesus is still Lord.

And our hope is not then that every prison door will always open for us.

Our hope is that Jesus Christ is risen.

Our hope is that Jesus Christ reigns and Jesus Christ is coming again.

So we don't worship because we know an earthquake is coming, church.

We worship because we know that Jesus is coming.

Amen.

Amen.