Suddenly | Pr Daniel Chong

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Worship is not an introduction.

Amen?

It is not. Now, if you feel convicted, that's the

Holy Spirit. Not me.

In the days of Acts, people were there getting ready

even before an event was supposed to take place. On

the ninth hour, the disciples went to pray. I'm just

giving you all some references. Their hearts were prepared long

before church started. If church started at 8.15, now this

is where some of you may feel, is Pastor Daniel

talking about me? Friends and family, I want to introduce

you a concept of my own life. I never look back.

I just stand here looking in front. I don't even

know who come in late, who come in early.

I don't know. I have no idea, no clue.

All I know is when I'm asked to pray over there,

then I will look in front, I will see you

with the faces. But again, I am not, I repeat myself,

I am not talking about you. But if you feel

that I'm talking about you, again, that's the Holy Spirit.

I want to encourage you this morning because if you

are coming here desiring for a breakthrough, then you have

to be serious about your encounter with God.

And when I say serious, I mean the preparation.

I'm not just talking about the arriving at church at 7.45

when we start our pre-worship prayer. I'm not just talking

about that. I'm talking about your preparation leading to the week.

How is your life? Really, how is your life? If

you follow the disciples of Jesus... when daily followers are

added to the kingdom of God, you will see that

their lives from a Monday to a Saturday, in fact,

in the days of Acts, church was on Saturday. That's

the day of the Sabbath. Their lives reflected the love

of Jesus.

Wherever did they go? Have you eaten? Have you.

Slept well? Have you had your daily resources that you need?

This is how the church operated last time.

That's why they gave everything that they had and each

and every one of them had no need. There's no lack. Amen?

How can you give everything that you have and yet

still have no lack? Ask yourself this question. So church

starts not at 8.15.

Church starts.

In fact, it doesn't start at all. It's a lifestyle.

Amen? The moment you accept Jesus Christ as your personal

Lord and Saviour, that's the journey that you're on, friends.

So let's break it down a little bit more that

if you are desiring an A in your subject, a

distinction in your life, you're desiring for your children to

listen to you.

Then you got to first show how desperate you are.

That's what the Lord is speaking to each and every

one of us this morning. I sense a heaviness upon

my shoulders to deliver this because I can sense that

there is a watering down of the church of the

living God in this day and age. It's almost unrecognisable

when we look back at the book of Acts. It's unrecognisable.

And even in my own life, it's unrecognisable. What would

Jesus say? What would Paul say? What do you think?

You know, Paul writes to churches, right? And if Paul

wrote to the Church of Acts, Kota Kemuning, what do

you think is the first sentence that he would say?

Come on, let me hear some sound.

What do you think is the first sentence that he

would say? Let me tell you the answer. The answer

is greetings to the Church of Acts, Kota Kemuning. I'm

not wrong, right? Grace and peace be unto you. He

always starts polite and then he will start. 8.15 church, start.

How many of you here 8.15? Paul, I'm talking about Paul. Again,

the word of God is like a double-edged sword. If

you feel it, now, some of us here, including myself,

this morning we were driving along to church and then

my wife said, I think we're late. I said, yeah, Yeah, maybe.

Right?

If that's you, you will start giving excuses. Oh, my

wife fractured her foot. If she fractured her foot, all

the more you should carry her to the pool.

All the more.

Let me break something to you.

If you are truly desperate, you will be here.

Amen? Amen? Because I've seen people line up the night

before for iPhone Pro 18. I have seen people line

up outside iPhone Pro 18.

Now this is Jesus, yeah? I had an argument with

my wife recently. Debate lah.

If Jesus was walking here on this earth, do you think,

if Jesus was invited speaker this morning, do you think

you all will come early?

If your answer is yes, think again.

Think again. Think again. Because Jesus can walk by you

and you don't even recognise who that person is. How

would you even know that it's Jesus? Clayton knows Kenta

because father-son relationship.

But if.

I know Kenta is a fantastic dad. And I see

that in Clayton. You know, that day, Kentai has been

such a help to me and my family. You know,

all your tongkat really help so much with her leg, right?

Professional tongkat.

Went to his house to, you know, he offered to

pass his kacang to me. And then I saw Clayton

and Cadence. I think Chloe was in Semenye. And Clayton

and Cadence came to greet me at the door. Wow.

I felt so warm. In my heart, it's like, wow,

these children must have been brought up well. Must have

been brought up well. It reflects Gendak. Because whenever I

go to his house, Gendak will greet me at his door.

You know, he will wait for me outside and Clayton,

from the depths of his room, from the dungeon of

Clayton's dark, actually it's not dark, quite bright, room, especially

a teenager that has his own computer now, Imagine the

revival that needs to take place. How can you detach

a growing teenager from his computer? He came out and

greeted me.

I said, Dan, how are you? He does also stand

up straight away.

How are you? I'm good, I'm good.

You don't have to stand up and greet me.

It's a reflection of how well Gendai has brought up

his children. Now, church, how are we reflecting Jesus? How

are we reflecting Jesus this morning? So the book of

Acts has all of these nuggets. It has so much

treasure that shouldn't remain treasure because treasure is meant to

be found. Amen. Treasure is meant to be digged up

and enjoyed. When you find treasure, you enjoy the treasure.

Amen. You don't just take the treasure and go and

hide the treasure again.

No.

What's the point of finding a treasure?

That's why it's called treasure hunt. It's not called treasure keep. Yeah?

So today, I'm not going to go in chronological order.

If you think, let's open to the book of Acts

Acts 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. No. Wherever the Holy Spirit leads, that's where

we're going to go. That's how Paul went on his

journey as well. Wherever the Holy Spirit leads, So Paul

and Silas was.

On this journey.

They did not know where they were supposed to go.

They asked God, reveal to me where we are meant

to go. So today we're going to study about Paul

and Silas.

Many of us here heard of this story.

I'm going to try to paint a different perspective that

perhaps you have not encountered before and if you have,

then I pray that the God of the Most High

will speak to you this morning and He will convict

your hearts, He will encourage you.

And I know that He will.

The Word of God today will encourage you, but He

will also convict you. Amen?

So again, X God of Good Morning is a church

that loves God.

I pray that upon each and every one of us

because the day that God comes to this church, I

pray that He will not pass us by. There won't

be any life worth living if God is not with us.

And if God is with us, who can be? Amen.

Who can be against us? So let me start with

a question.

How many of you here ever had a plan? How

many of you are planners? Who's the planner here? You

can't live without planning, right? You must know exactly where

to go in Shenzhen. You must know exactly which hotel

to stay in Yunnan.

You must. It's a must.

How many of you here had a plan and then

God interrupted it? How many of you here had a

plan and then God interrupted it? You desire to go

to this school so much. But then the answer is no.

How many of you have been interrupted by a no before?

Business deal come your way. Everything looks nice. Everything looks perfect.

And then at the end of the day, no. Why?

Why no? Because in order to secure a business deal,

you need to give some kacang. Word of God says no. No.

Don't bribe.

Don't fall into the ways of the wicked.

No, no, no. But, but, but God, it's just this

one time, you know. You will forgive my sin, right? Well,

you already did. But that doesn't mean that we have

to continuously live in the life of sin. Man, when

you are set free, what does the Word of God say?

You are now forgiven. Go and sin.

No.

It does not say go and sin again.

Because some of us here think that grace means that

we can continuously live in the life of sin and

yet get forgiven.

No, that's not what grace means.

It's not. When God forgives our sin, He wants, He

desires us to go and sin no more.

Praise the Lord.

Amen?

Are we getting somewhere this morning? Are we getting somewhere?

So Paul Silas had a plan.

In fact, they don't have any plan.

They prayed. And this is how Paul operates. He receives

visions from the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit revealed

a vision about this man from Macedonia saying, come. Come

over and help us. That's the only vision that he got. Now,

no inkling of what is about to happen, yeah? Because

some of us operate in a way that if you

do not give us details, we won't go. How many

of you are ready to receive a vision like that?

Just a vision of a man needing help from Macedonia.

That's all he knew. Let me break it to you again.

That's all the details that Paul had. But sometimes in

our life, we demand for details like how much is

the salary? Is it above the minimum wage? Is it

going to satisfy the needs of my children? Is it

going to satisfy the needs of my spouse? Is it

going to be comfortable? Yes, I'm willing to sacrifice this

but I'm not willing to sacrifice that. We need to

know so much details but the Word of God says go.

The Word of God says come.

Amen? So that's all he had, a vision about a

man from Macedonia saying, come and help us. If you're

still confused which book I'm talking about, I'm talking about

the book of Acts chapter 16, all right? So Paul

Acts 16 · chapter mention

and Silas received the vision. Paul, in fact, received a

vision and they went. So they were obviously led by

the Spirit. So they ended up in this place called Philippi, yeah?

That's how the book of Philippians was wrote, the Church

of Philippians. Now, so they ended up in Philippi, And

did you know the story? You know where I'm going, yeah?

Acts chapter 16. Paul and Silas ended up in a dungeon.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

You know that, right?

You know that, right? This is ex-kid story, Sunday school.

Paul and Silas ended up in a dungeon. But did

you know that Paul and Silas ended up in a

dungeon not because they disobeyed God? They were right smack

in the middle of where God wants them to be.

Sometimes we view life like that. God, why are you

punishing me? What did I do wrong? The moment your

pastor calls, you don't pick up because what did I

do wrong? Come on, I just want to have tea

with you.

That's all. I just want to play pickleball with you.

That's it. That's it. You didn't do nothing wrong.

Yeah? But sometimes we react that way. We react that way.

We think that, oh, God is calling me. What did

I do wrong? No, I think we need to understand

that sometimes when God calls us and bad things happen,

it's part of His plan. Amen?

So Paul and Silas had no idea they're going to

end up in dungeon.

Yeah? No idea. He just went because the men from

Macedonia needed help. And that's good enough reason for them

to go. So they ended up in this book and

we're going to start reading, yeah? We're going to start reading. Now,

it happened as we went to prayer. Someone say prayer.

Wow, everything starts in prayer.

Amen? They started their journey in prayer. They didn't know

what to do. They only knew they had a vision

and all they did was pray. So they went to

prayer and a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit.

Of divination, menace. Who want to volunteer becoming that girl today?

Please don't. Yeah?

Who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling.

Even in the first verse.

That we are reading this morning, by the way, it's 1616.

We already see the motivation behind the evil people in

this world. Greed. Money. That's why the love of money

is the root of all evil. Not money itself. Because

money placed in a faithful man can go the distance.

It can go the distance in the form of there

won't be any lack.

Because money placed in the hand of a faithful man.

Will go back towards the church, will go back towards God,

and when it goes back towards God, everybody's needs get met.

Amen? Praise the Lord. So this girl brought her master

much profit.

So much profit. by fortune telling. This girl followed Paul

and us and cried out saying, these men are the

servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us

the way of salvation. Now, pause for a moment, friends.

Have you ever read this verse and asked yourself what's

happening over here? Have you ever paused and asked yourself

what's happening over here? Because if Rochelle or some random

dude were to be following me and saying like, hey,

you know, he believes in Jesus. He believes in Jesus.

He believes in Jesus. Few days, you know. Few days,

by the way. Not few minutes. Few minutes until you

get annoyed. Yeah.

So imagine, when you read the Bible, I want you

all to have imagination.

Imagine.

Yeah. Few days. Few days. followed around long time, you know,

long time, to proclaim, these men are servants of the

Most High God who proclaim us the way of salvation.

And she did this, she did for many days. Have

you ever wondered why? The next sentence reads, but Paul,

greatly annoyed. Why would you get annoyed about this statement? Why, why, why, why, why, why?

This girl, It's a girl that practices.

There's something that is in her spirit that is causing

her to be like that. And you know and I

know that what she is doing does not come from God. Yeah?

Fortune telling does not come from God because only God knows.

And when you start becoming God, when you start bringing

this about, we know that there's an evil spirit and

we know that there was a spirit that was within her.

But I want you to allude you to the word the.

Servants of the Most High who proclaim to us the way.

Now if you go to the Greek word for the way,

it's actually this word called dobos. Hodos. And hodos in

Greek literally translates to a way. So what this girl

is saying or what this thing within the girl is

saying is that these people proclaim a way, not the way,

a way. That means you can follow them and receive

your salvation but you can also follow me and receive

your salvation and remember who is the deceiver?

Who is called the great deceiver?

Satan. And his role is not to tell us that

Jesus does not exist. No. His role is to confuse

us so much so to a point we don't know

who to believe. So he's offering you different options. You

can believe in Jesus. You can believe in this person.

You can believe in that person. You cannot love him

this day. You can love him on a Sunday. But

on a Monday, you can ask him to go and

fly the kite. That's what the deceiver will ask you

to do. And that's why Paul was greatly annoyed. Who

are you to say that? You mean that, yeah, okay,

Jesus is the way to salvation, but He is the way.

And when we read the Bible and we read it

in English, God bless the translators. You know, there's a

documentary on Netflix or YouTube showing how the Bible is

the authenticity of the Bible. And there's so much nuggets

in that. But if we just read it in its blankness,

we will not realise that this girl is actually talking

about something that is not true. Because English says the.

But small letter, small letter, the lah.

You know? So she's saying that there's ways, there's ways.

Yes. And the devil just wants to confuse us, saying

that there's ways. So that's why Paul was greatly annoyed.

Turn to this girl and say, I command you in

the name of Jesus Christ, because all authority has been

given to me, says Jesus. Therefore, go into this world,

make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe everything that.

I have taught you.

Amen?

So Paul.

receiving the authority, spoke in the name of Jesus and said, go,

get out of her. The evil spirit left that very hour.

First point, all in S, this morning, all in S.

Can I have the next slide? All right. How many

of you here work hard Given the responsibility to clean

toilet at home. How many of you have cleaned toilet before? Yes, John,

that's me.

Hey, the rest don't clean toilet. How many of you

have cleaned toilet before?

Come on. Yeah? You all love cleaning toilet? Nice or not?

This toilet very clean, you know. Can I just do

something with you this morning? You work so hard to

clean the toilet. You work so hard to clean. I

repeat myself.

You work so hard. And then Mr. QAQC comes in.

Why got one spot there?

You never open your eyes to see that spot over there.

But you tried so hard already. All I want from you, Mr. QAQC,

is to say thank you. I appreciate you. How many

of you here feel that you are not appreciated? How

many of you here think that you have served very

hard as parents and yet your children do not appreciate you?

How many of you here feel that your pastor does

not appreciate you? please put up your hands so I

can see your face. So I can appreciate you more.

Because there's this word called appreciation that's going around, you know.

Do you know that? There's this word, not to say

that the church shouldn't appreciate. I tell you what, the

one thing that we talk about the most is how

to appreciate you all.

Ask Michelle. She loves appreciating people because she's an amazing person.

Yeah.

She always thinks about people, you know, always.

Always.

Even though today is her birthday. Happy birthday, Michelle. And Sanjeev, yes.

Appreciation is an amazing thing and we should continue to

appreciate one another. Amen? Okay, so please appreciate one another.

There are sacrifices that are made left, right, centre in

this church.

I appreciate.

But when that becomes the one thing that we are

chasing for, then we are missing the point.

So we are hoping to receive the appreciation. And I

tell you what, one.

Day you will get that appreciation, which in the form of,

well done, my good and faithful servant.

One day, one day, one day. And that's from God.

So Paul and Silas just command the spirit to get

out of this person.

And it was successful.

Successful. How many of you here been in on the

receiving end of a successful miracle? Have you given glory

to God? We praise Him because only through Him that

it's made possible.

Amen?

After a great worship session, we will go up to

Rogers and say, well done, Rogers. Thank you for faithfully

leading this congregation in worship. But imagine if nobody said

nothing to you. Maybe today, one day is still okay,

but you worship that for 15 years. Every single day,

busting your voice, giving your best to God, and nobody

came to you. In fact, the only thing they say

to you is that, why are you like that? Why

are your thighs crooked? Even though your thighs are so

nice this morning. Imagine with me for a moment. So

the first S that I want to bring across here

today is the word service. Service.

Many of us here serve.

Amen?

Not just in church. When you give birth to your child,

you serve your child.

Yeah? You're a servant. I hope you're not a servant

of your child, but okay. It's a service, right? It's

an act of service. It's even a love language. Service.

Whatever you do, work heartily.

Says Colossians 3, as for the Lord and not for men,

we serve an audience of one. Another version says, you

are serving the Lord Christ. So many of us here

want to be appreciated. But can I say that the

reward of what Paul and Silas did was not appreciation.

Today's message might end very quickly. You know that it

won't end quickly when I say that.

Alright? So, Paul and Silas, let me repeat the process.

They just prayed, casted out this evil spirit from the girl.

It left and the girl was set free.

Thank God.

In the name of Jesus. The issue here is not

the girl. We should celebrate this because a little girl

was set free. Amen?

A little girl was set free.

So now, what happened next is the direct aftermath of

what just transpired.

Can I get the next slide?

Verse 19, but when her masters saw that their hope

of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas. So

they begin to realise, you know, because remember, it took

an hour for the spirit to leave the little girl.

So in that hour, perhaps they were still reaping the benefits.

I don't know. It was not directly stated, but We

can only imagine that when they realised, because they realised, see,

they saw that their hope of profit was gone. This

is their reaction, direct reaction. Because many of us here,

when we lose something, sometimes the most logical thing is

to ask ourselves actually what went wrong, right? What did

I do wrong? But over here, it's not about what

did we do wrong. Immediately, they looked at who was responsible.

So they looked at Paul, they looked at Silas, dragged

them into the marketplace. Now, there's a resemblance over here

of what happened with Jesus. So Paul and Silas was

dragged in the marketplace. I don't know how else to

picture this or make you picture this, but to say

that it is very, very, very, very sad.

Rogers, come and stand over here. I'm not going to

drag you because I don't think I can. Because you're

very muscular.

I don't think I have enough strength to drag you

But he just led in worship. To all of you here,

he did a good job. Amen? I just realised, I'm

not a pastor now. I just realised that he just

messed up my plan. And what I'm going to do

is I'm going to drag him in front of all

of you. I'm not just going to drag him. I'm

going to take out his clothes. No, you are not

going to take out your clothes for me. I'm going

to tear your clothes off. Not because I want.

To see you without your clothes, but.

Because the rod will not have as much impact on

you with the clothes than without.

It will hurt way more.

So not only he was dragged, dragged, by the way, dragged, dragged, Not, hey, hi, come,

let me escort you out of this church because you

did such a bad job. Yeah, yeah. Well, well, nice.

On your way out, grab some tea, alright? Alright, good night.

No!

Thank you, Rogers. You can take your seat.

He wasn't escorted out, yeah? He was dragged, yeah?

Dragged, yeah? Both of them, yeah?

Can you imagine while being dragged, Paul and Silas hit

each other? Eh, this is not, this is not, this

is not some light, nice exit plan, you know? This

is literally after giving your best for God, you know,

Can you imagine? After giving your best for your child,

your child turns around and says, I tell you that

I don't appreciate you. Get out of my face. Can

you imagine that for a moment? So they were dragged

out into the marketplace to the authorities and they were

brought to the magistrates, which is the ruling party, the Romans,

and said, this man being Jews, you know they had

an issue with Jews.

Back then, being a Jew was good enough to be persecuted, right?

Being Jews, accidentally they were already troublemakers in the city.

And they teach customs which are not lawful for us,

being Romans, to receive or to observe. That means we

are not supposed to receive, not supposed to observe them. Now,

they had no problem with Paul and Silas, except them

being troublemakers, except them being Jews, before they took away

their source of profit. But when you touch something that

is important to them, this is when they will start

to react. And this is how the world is. Nobody

has any issue with us being Christians.

Do you all know that?

Majority of people have no issue with us being believers.

But when we start taking away the thing that matters

to them, then they will have an issue with us.

And did you know that the gospel is that? That's

why many of us are afraid to preach the gospel.

Because the truth shall set people free. And some of

these people don't want to be set free.

That's the danger.

So they were dragged, and the multitude rose up together

against them, and the magistrate tore off their clothes. See,

it's biblical, yeah?

I didn't want to take out your clothes, Rogers, yeah?

The magistrate wanted to take out your clothes because they

wanted to beat you.

And there was peril with Jesus.

So many, many, many pictures, I don't know, many pictures

paint Jesus, paint the disciples, when they are being tortured,

they still give them the loincloth.

But I don't know.

The Bible did not say that they left the loincloth

on Paul and Silas. No.

They were naked. That means what? They were humiliated.

Yeah.

They were humiliated, you know.

Not just you didn't receive an appreciation. Not just you

didn't receive a thank you. Not just you didn't receive

a well done my good and faithful servant. After serving God,

two services, worship leading, giving your all, losing your voice.

Not just you didn't get a thank you, but yet

this is what you give me?

God, are you even watching? And plus you asked me

to come here.

Because sometimes we think that, oh, we are getting punished

because we are not following where God wants us to go.

But the Holy Spirit led us to this place. And

when he was led to this place, Paul and Silas

did what was in front of their eyes, casted out

the demon, freed a little girl. You would expect claps.

You would expect at least appreciation. Thank you. Thank you

for being part of the teens ministry, helping my little

one grow up. Sometimes when I get messages like that,

my heart flutters a little bit. But I always remember

that the glory belongs to Jesus and Him alone. Amen.

Whenever Megan successfully does a counselling with a person of

the opposite faith, when it comes to Timmy, I believe

that she also gets a sense of joy when she

successfully counsells someone and helps someone. That alone is enough

to keep us going, but sometimes it's nice to get

a thank you, right? Sometimes it's beautiful, thank you, Megan.

By the way, you know, Megan keeps this place in

order most of the time. It's all her. It's clean

because she arranges the cleaners. She observes the cleaners. Yeah?

She doesn't like to receive this, but I think the

church should know that there's someone in the background, you know,

doing all the background work.

So, thank you, Megan.

Yeah?

Thank you, Megan. She's going to kill me. She's going

to kill me. But that's not what she's after.

Yeah?

No, I'm doing that because In our hearts, we like

being thanked lah.

Yeah? Yeah? But it's not about that. It's not about that.

It's not about that.

So imagine, right?

Rather than being thanked, rather than being appreciated, bam!

And what happened?

Stripes on them. I don't know how many stripes. Many.

Many stripes. What does many even mean? Can count lah.

Many means can count, right? Much is cannot count lah, right?

English lesson.

Yeah? If you know stripes, you can count the stripes

on the back. Doesn't mean it's little, you know. It's

a lot. All those Korean dramas, you know, when they

start taking out their shirt and then the girl look

at the guy, oh, behind got like 10 stripes. You

all know which Korean drama I'm talking about, right? They

go like, wah, this guy's so, you know, so yaoyeng,

got 10 stripes at the back, you know? I would

say Hong Kong drama, I don't know. Okay, so, they

had stripes on them. Yeah? Haha.

You all don't know, right?

The Korean hunk always got the all muscular body one,

you know? All this.

Okay, never mind. We're going sidetracked here.

Okay. So, they were thrown in the prison. Yeah?

So, they were hurting. They were hurting. They were humiliated

for doing something of the Lord.

Yeah?

Commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

And having received such a charge, she put them in

the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks.

You know what stocks are? Not chicken stock.

Stocks.

Can I have the next picture? Yeah, that is stock.

But I don't think that is the actual representation of

how they look like because they didn't say they gave

them their clothes back. And you know those kids' pictures,

they have Paul and Silas in calves as well. I

don't believe that because Bible does not say so. So

I think that their feet was fastened. Now, where I'm

trying to get at is this. Did you know the

spiritual armour of God.

We have the helmet. Is there?

It's so small. There's the helmet of salvation. There's the

breastplate of righteousness. There's the shield of faith. There's the

belt of truth. There's the sword of the Spirit. You

know that each and every element, the top five, is

all about.

Your upbringing, your upbuilding. Your spirit man. Protection for you.

Word of God to fight your battles.

Yeah? Breastplate of righteousness.

Do unto the Lord.

The only one that has the word go or to

do is the feet. Because the feet is short with

the preparation of the gospel of peace.

That is what its purpose is for.

When you put on the sandals of the gospel of peace,

you are reminded that when you wear the spiritual armour,

put on the entire armour of Christ, when you put

on the armour of God upon you, when you wear

these sandals, you remember that your purpose on this earth

is to go. Amen?

Amen?

And when you have these sandals, you go, the gospel

of peace goes with you. God is with us. Amen.

That's why you don't go evangelizing alone.

You don't go by your own strength.

For you shall receive power from the Holy Spirit.

And when you receive power, you shall go.

Amen. Into all of Judea, into all of Samaria, into

all of Jerusalem, wherever that you are at.

The gospel of peace.

And sometimes the enemy, most of the times the enemy

just wants to keep you stagnant.

You can have all the armour you want, but it's

useless if you do not move.

Amen? You can have all the Bible knowledge you want,

but it's useless if you don't go. Amen? That's why

they wanted to constrict them. You say all you want,

But if He gets you stagnant, then that's what the

enemy wants us to do. He wants to stagnant us.

Stagnate us. He doesn't want us to move. He would

rather you, yeah, preach from afar. Preach from the sky.

Be the shining light that you are. But if I

can constrict your feet, I constrict the gospel. And that's

what He is worried of. He's not worried about your faith.

If you want to believe in Jesus, go ahead. I

don't need to win you. I just need to win one-third. Amen?

I convinced one-third of the angels to follow me. You

think I can't convince one-third of humanity? Oh.

Oh, getting somewhere today?

One-third lah. Do you think the devil is happy he wanted?

I tell you, he will keep going. The more, the merrier.

He wants a big party in hell. Well, sorry to

break it to you, devil. There won't be no party lah. Amen? Amen?

There won't be no party Eternal suffering, God.

Yeah?

So, kept in stocks. Unable to move. Left at night

to reflect.

How many of you, after a long day of work,

you go back home, the only thing you want to

do is, don't speak to me, wife. Don't. Just let

me be by my lonesome and let me watch my

Formula 1. Tonight, Manchester City playing Liverpool, 12.30am. Don't talk

to me. Just let me watch my Liverpool and let

me sing You'll Never Walk Alone alone. Just let me

do it.

No, no.

You don't have to say okay.

Just example. Example. Long day of work, right? Let me

put another scenario.

Long day of ministry. Long day of prayer.

Long day of acts of service. Yes. Long day of discipling,

disciplining your children. How many of you would want to

be left alone and the first thing you want to

do is to go and sleep?

You just want to rest. That's it.

Don't touch me. Don't talk to me. Let me do

what I want to do. Because let me break to

you what happened. Let me break to you what happened.

The first is the service. Remember, the service is important.

When you serve God, you serve Him with all your heart,

with all your mind, with all your soul, with all

your strength. You serve God and Him alone. That's who

you serve and He is God. And with the service

comes the suffering because those who desire to live a

godly life with God will undergo persecution. 2 Timothy 3.12

With the service comes the suffering. To die to me,

to live is Christ, to die is gain. Sometimes we say, God,

we have suffered enough, it's time to... What's the next S? Snooze?

It's time to sleep? No, let me introduce the third

S to you.

It's to sing.

It's to sing.

It's to sing. It's to sing.

Next slide, we'll give you the verse. Let's continue reading

the Word of God this morning. But at midnight, does

it say in the morning, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, got crew

in the morning, then only you start reflecting on your life? No,

this was right after they were beaten, you know, just

put into prison, just put in stocks. And the first

thing that they did at midnight, 12 a.m., they praised

the God of the Most High. How many of you

will do that? How many of you, even myself, I

don't see myself doing that because I am maybe one

of little faith and a triad. This is what the

book of Acts is here for, to encourage us and

to show us how to live. This is why I

say the church has been watered down because when we

ask you to come up with a shield of prayer

at 3am, at 4am, we say that no, that's an

ungodly hour. All the more it needs God, amen? Stop

saying that that place is God forsaken lah. Because if

it's God forsaken, all the more you should go and

be that presence of God there. That light. A city

that's set on a hill that cannot be hidden. That's

all more that you should do. But at midnight, friends,

at midnight.

This is the church of Acts.

Amen?

After all your problems, after all your trials, after all

your persecutions, in naked, no clothes, and stripes on your back,

being dragged through your friends, your family.

Nobody helped you.

Nobody stood up for you. People laughed at you. People

scorned at you. People mourned. People talked to you, mocked you.

Sounds familiar?

Their first response.

Their first response was to sing and to pray hymns

to God.

Now you wonder why Paul was so successful in his ministry.

And I tell you what, Paul doesn't feel that way.

He doesn't feel that he has any success whatsoever. He

just lived to please God. And Paul and Silas were praying,

were singing hymns to God. I would imagine, I don't

know the hymns that day. Maybe as the deer pens

for the water is one of them. Because it was

a hymn that David wrote to his chief musician, right?

Just as the deer is panting, Jesus, I long for you.

I don't know.

That's our version. But back then, I know how he sings.

And did you know that this is what the devil

doesn't know? The devil forgot about this. He thought that

as long as I restrict them, I achieve my purpose,

my goal. But he's forgotten that we have hands.

He forgotten that Paul and Silas have hands? All of

you have hands? And what's those hands for? It's to clap.

It's to praise. It's to lift it up. Did you

think Paul and Silas in prison worship.

And praise God like that? Am I teaching you how

to praise and worship God? Are you feeling convicted in

this place? Come on. It's not that Jesus look at

you and your hands are folded and he says, nah,

I don't want to receive that worship. No, that's not

how it works. It's not about what we want, it's

about who he is. Does he deserve your hands being

lifted up? Hey, we are not even being tortured lah.

We're not even being, we're not even being, you know,

we're not even being persecuted to the level where Paul is.

But we lift our hands. Now, this is scriptural. It

says in Psalms 47, Oh, clap your hands.

Oh, you people. Does it say, Oh, you?

Only Eden?

Only Eden clap hands. Eden, clap your hand.

Clap lah. Yeah. No, it says, Oh, clap your hand.

Does it say, Oh, clap your hand?

Without the S? How can you clap with one hand?

Slap your face. That's how you clap, right? But did

you know that if Paul only had one hand, that's

what he's going to do? He's going to slap his

face to clap? Praise the Lord.

Now, I told you I'm going to get personal.

I told you I'm going to get personal because I'm

convicted with this story.

I'm convicted with the book of Acts. We are called

Acts Church. What a reminder.

Go clap your hands, all you people. Shout to God

with a voice of triumph. Do you think that Paul

and Silas, that's what they knew? That's what they had?

That's all they had? They just performed a miracle. They

just followed after the voice of the Holy Spirit, but

yet they were beaten.

They were beaten. They were mocked.

Not for our transgressions because Jesus did that. But they

followed after Jesus so much that they, you know, they

just followed. They literally followed after Him. This is what

you do, okay, come, let me do it for you.

Let me do it with you like that. That's how

following is. Following is, it's not that, come, come, come, Albert, come, come,

come here. Come, Albert.

Following is not just, come, Albert, here, here. Don't worry,

I'm not going.

To do anything humiliating to you, yeah. I just want

to illustrate something. Following, come, just walk straight, walk straight,

walk straight, walk straight, yeah.

I can't do that. Just walk straight, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is this following? Is this the definition of following? Now,

following means whatever he does, I does. I do. I

only say I do to one person. But if he

start digging his nose and eating the booger, how? Do

I follow? Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. But following means that. Amen?

Follow me as I follow Christ. That's what following is.

You don't selective following. You don't see Paul jumping into

the ocean and say, nah, not for me. I can

do everything else.

But when you, when I.

See a single ounce of blood come across your shoulders, nah,

I'm done.

I'm done.

Albert, you go and do that alone. God loves you.

God loves me too. But this is not for me.

Sometimes looking at where Pastor Kenneth is going, it's a

bit challenging for me, you know. Because his faith is like...

But it's not about his faith. It's about his faith

in God. And I desire to follow God. So all

clap your hands, all you people. Shout to God with

a voice of triumph. You know there's something about clapping

that does something to our spirit. You all agree? Let's

say someone from Ex-Scholar Kemuning joins an Olympic sport called

pickleball one day in the future.

Smashes the winning point. Tight, 14-14, sudden death.

Will you all clap? Will you all clap for that person?

It does something to the atmosphere, you know. You clap

so loudly that Lee Chong Wei receives the motivation and

Lin Dan will start to shake. You clap even though

you are watching in some hawker restaurant when he has

no idea you are clapping for them but you are

clapping anyways.

Clapping does something to the atmosphere.

So if you can do, clap, if you can understand that,

then understand that clapping does something to the atmosphere.

Singing praise, shout to God with a voice of triumph.

What does triumph mean? Means the battle has been won.

Amen. How can Paul and Silas even clap and sing

to the Lord with a voice of triumph if they

didn't already know that Jesus has already resurrected from the grave?

So whatever has happened to you, friends, remember this. Jesus

already resurrected from the grave. Your sins have been paid for.

You do not need to continue living like as if

you are still under bondage. No, because Jesus has already

set you free in His name. Amen? Amen. He has

already set you free. So stop living like prisoners. Can

you all do that? Can you all start living victoriously?

And a victorious living will show. We're going to close

very soon. Can I have the next slide? So hands

were for clapping, feet were locked. And remember this, when

they were singing and they were clapping, can we reverse

one slide?

Yeah.

The prisoners were listening to them. People around you are

interested to see your response. In fact, they are waiting

to see you fall. They are waiting to say that, hey,

He's one of us. But when we rely on the

power of the Holy Spirit, Because the world will say, Rochelle,

you have done enough. Why not you just take your slumber, rest,

and rest. Next morning, you can continue fighting this battle.

No.

The Word of God says, when you are in desperation,

cry out to Him. And He is the God of peace.

When the peace of God is upon you, it will

surpass all of your understanding. Amen. Amen.

He will guard your heart.

He will guard your mind through Christ Jesus. Amen? Church,

are we getting somewhere this morning? So Paul and Silas clapping, singing.

The prisoners were listening to them. And when they heard

them clapping and singing, this is what happened the next

very verse.

Can I have the next verse?

The next slide, sorry. XTV still don't know where I'm going.

There should be a next point. Yeah.

This is.

If there is a title of this message, I will

actually title it The Suddenly. But it's my third point

and it's actually the most important point that I want

to get to.

The Suddenly.

And I'm going to explain something that I pray touches you.

I may... You may have not seen it this way,

but this is what the Lord revealed to me.

This is the most important point. So if you... need

to take home anything at all. This is it.

This is it. Okay? Next slide. Verse 26. Suddenly there

was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the

prisons were shaken.

You know that.

And immediately all the doors were opened.

Everyone's chains were loosed. You know that.

You know that. You know that.

But I want you to focus on the word suddenly.

What is suddenly? Is suddenly something you predict? Did you

all predict the haze in Malaysia? Suddenly?

Just came out of nowhere.

Schools closed, lungs being congested with all these particles of dust,

not just dust, but burnt ashes and it's everywhere and

it's not good, it's not healthy. So if you are struggling,

I pray God's healing upon you. Wear a mask.

It's serious, it's serious. Another verse in Acts says this.

Acts 2 verses 2 says, And suddenly there came a

Acts 2:2

sound from heaven.

You all know where this verse comes from? Chapter 2.

And the rushing of a mighty wind. You know where

I'm getting at? And it filled the whole house where

they were sitting. This was the upper room. They were

filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. They started

ministering in tongues, tongues that nobody understood and it just

became a moment in which the Holy Spirit filled them

and from that moment onwards, daily people added to the church. Thousands,

hundreds were brought to the church. Hundreds experienced their healing. Suddenly, God,

I want to encourage you, God is the God of

the suddenly. God, I repeat myself, is the God of

the suddenly. What do I mean by that? He is

the God of order, yes. But we will have no

idea what His order is. We may know the signs.

We may know the seasons by looking at Israel.

Of His second coming.

But only He, only my Father know the time, the

exact time in which He is coming. Amen? Amen? God

is the God of suddenly. Now, where I'm trying to

get at is this. We pray. Imagine, you have been

through the service, you have been through the surrender, you

have been through the singing. Now, you are in a

place where you are praying and you are praying and

praying for your breakthrough. I can easily rewrite this story

where Paul and Silas were never set free from prison.

And that is easily happened because there are many disciples

in the same book that we will cover one day

that they died. They died. Stoned to death. Persecuted.

Killed.

Hung.

On an upside down cross.

I don't know. There were many, many, many occurrences in

which good people done good things, prayed and were killed.

People that were not even mentioned in the Bible.

People that translated the Bible into English were killed for

the gospel. That's where we get the King James Version.

Recently learned also.

What's his name? What's that guy that translated the Bible

into English?

Tyndale?

William Tyndale, yeah?

Tyndale? Yeah, go and Google it yourself later. I can't

remember the exact name. God is the God of the suddenly.

And we pray and we pray and we pray and

we hope that God will answer our prayers.

But can I ask you a question, friends? What if

He doesn't? What would your response be? Really, church?

What would your response be if He doesn't answer your prayers?

Next slide.

The same God who moves in power by His Spirit

moves in power in a prison. His timing is not

subject to our schedules or our expectations. When we sing

and we praise the God of the Most High, we

do it because of who He is, not because of

what He will do. Amen? Whether He does it or not,

that's Him. I'm going to introduce you a term, the

term called the even if. Now you know this story, Shadrach, Meshach,

and Abednego. They were about to be thrown in the

fiery furnace. And they uttered these very, very famous few words.

They said that they believe, and I paraphrase, they believe

that their God, that they worship, will be able to

deliver them from the fiery pits of the furnace.

They believe. But they alluded to say that even if,

even if, do I have that slide? Next slide. Do

I have that verse up? in the book of Daniel.

Yeah, I don't, but here are 2, 3, 17 to

18s that you should know.

And even if.

He, God, does not come, they will not bow down

and worship. They will not bow down and worship, I said.

The danger of expecting God to move And responding based

on that expectation is something that I want all of

us to avoid. When we pray and when we sing

and we have an expectation, it's not wrong to have

an expectation. But when the expectation is not met, don't

make a conclusion that he is not listening. Amen? So suddenly,

nobody saw it coming. Not Paul, not Silas, not the jailer,

not the prisoners. But he came. So suddenly, let's go

back to the scriptures. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake.

The foundations were shaken and immediately the doors were opened

and everyone's chains were loosed.

Praise the Lord. What happened after this? Can we go

to the next slide? Next. Next.

My last S for all of us here is the sendings.

Or the egg balut. You all know egg balut? It's

not egg balut. It's the egg balut. yeah?

The sending is the Greek word ekbalo.

It means to be thrown out, to be driven out,

to be thrust out, to be sent out with force. Now,

as we close, I'm going to encourage you with this,

that there is another person, another character in these scriptures

called the jailer. Remember the chief jailer that fastened them

in stocks? That jailer was so alarmed by what's happening

that the first thing that he thought happened, because everything

was loose, you know? Chains were open. Remember there were

other prisoners as well. What is our first response when

we are finally given the not guilty verdict? What's our

first response? You already served 10 years in prison for

something that you did not do. You're already living a

life that is persecuted and finally someone looks at you

and says, I'm sorry. I misunderstood you. Finally your chains

are open. What would your first response be?

Go.

Flee. Flee. But what Paul and Silas did here was

so amazing. They not only decided to stay. You all

know this story, right? They not only decided to stay.

They stayed until the next morning. In fact, they said

that if you put me here, you come and take

me out. They refused to go. What they did here

was amazing because there was someone else that were listening.

Can I have the next slide very quickly? There was

someone here who was listening, the keeper of the prison,

awakening from sleep. See, he did not know what happened then.

Seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled,

drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But

Paul called with a loud voice saying, do yourself no

harm for we are all here.

Not just Paul and Silas here. Catch this, friends.

When you choose to live under conviction, people will follow.

Even though they didn't believe. Not just Paul and Silas,

but we are all here. Those that are guilty, those

that are, you know, in the prison for what they

actually did, they were all there. I would imagine Paul

formed a prayer group.

By the way, earthquake, you know.

Earthquake, you know. I'm sure you all will run. No.

They decide to stay. They may lose their lives. They

may get buried under the rubble, but they choose to

stay in a prison that has no more walls. That's

a sign of a man that is truly free. Amen?

He is not bounded by no prison. And he choose

to stay. Not just him, but he influence people around

him to stay. Everyone decided to stay. Do yourself no harm.

We are not going to cause you trouble. Do yourself

no harm. Paul and Silas' immediate response, To being set

free is not to run, but to remember that he

is a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Amen? He is bounded

and he say, he's shackled. I'm shackled to you, God.

You're not going to get rid of me. And I

remember my purpose. I remember my purpose here is to

share the good news of Jesus Christ. And this is

what I'm going to do. Amen?

This is what I'm going to do.

He called for light, ran in and fell down trembling

before Paul and Silas. This is what the word of

God will do. And he brought them out and said, Sirs,

what must I do to be saved? So they said,

believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and not only you,

your whole household shall be saved. Remember Joshua? It's for

me and my house. Tell you, the picture here is

so amazing. When you stay obedient and fastened, remember what

Pastor Kenneth told about the word fastness to us?

When we stay fastened, when we are fastened, fastened by

the Word.

Of God, we remain rooted, we remain grounded, and we

will not move, we will not be shaken. No earthquake

will shake us. Even though it breaks our chains, we

are set free. I remember my purpose that I'm brought

here to be. I'm going to share the good news

wherever that I am at. So much so that a

jailer that was about to lose his own life was saved.

And not only the jailer was saved, the whole household

was saved. So remember, we are all called to be Ekbalo.

We are all called to be sent out. Amen? Sent out,

launched out into the deep. The chains fell off. Paul

and Silas is my closing statement. The doors wide open,

they could have walked out. But they did not run

for their own freedom. The chains fell, not just to

free them. They fell so that Paul and Silas could

free someone else.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord. God is the God of the suddenly. Amen.

In His time, in His season.

Another day, if I have time, I will tell you

the story of how another person in the Bible, his

name is Jesus. when He yielded His Spirit, when He

let go a voice, when He spoke, the earth quaked.

So the earth will only quake at the name of Jesus,

at His voice, not because of who we are, not

because of what we did, but because of who we worship. Amen?

And only in His time and His season. So friends

and family, stop expecting God to move in your time

because He will move.

In His time.

And when He moves, in His time, it will precede

your understanding. It will precede anything that you can even

ask or imagine. Amen?

The joy of the Lord will be your strength. The

joy of the Lord will be your strength.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

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is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.