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Faith Passed Forward exists to present scriptural content that will serve to glorify God and edify the body of Christ. This is a ministry of Bible Baptist Church that features the teaching and preaching of our Pastor, Stephen Cox and others who fill the pulpit of our church.
Welcome to Faith Passed Forward, where we present scripture based content that edifies the church and glorifies God. This is a ministry of Bible Baptist Church and we feature the teaching and preaching of our pastor, Stephen Cox. We hope you are encouraged and helped by today's content.
Speaker 2:Good morning, church family. Grab your copy of god's word. Join me in Acts chapter number 16. Acts chapter 16. It is an honor to be back with you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for allowing my family to get away for a few weeks really. Eleven days, something like that and we thoroughly enjoyed it with time with our children and just a great time together and we missed our church family immensely but we enjoyed our time and what a blessing it was to be here. We of course are having Vacation Bible School starting really starts after our morning services. It it'll begin the work and preparation right after. There's already been a lot of work.
Speaker 2:As you could see, a lot of decorations and so pray for that if you would that will go from tonight or this evening through Thursday and so pray for that if you would. That would be a blessing and also it's not too late. Get these kids registered and invite people, maybe some neighbors, different things like that. That would be just a huge blessing. Friday, we are having the memorial service for miss Marguerite Umfers in this auditorium at 11:00.
Speaker 2:I realized it's in the middle of the day or in the morning rather the late morning but still if you can try to come to that as we honor Marguerite and her daughter Lisa of course has been coordinating that with us and so we will be doing that this coming Friday at 11:00 right here at at Bible Baptist and so we're looking forward to that memorial service and the life of miss Marguerite Umfres. It is a joy to be with you and as you just saw the screen, this summer, this kind of officially kicks off June, July, August. I sometimes take a break from our preaching series especially through the book of Acts as we go verse by verse through Acts and we have been now for quite some time about a year and a half going through this book and we are a little over halfway. So, we still got a ways to go through the book of Acts but we will in the summertime, people take vacations as you can see. They they get away which you should by the way.
Speaker 2:You should get away and and take some time just to reset a little bit. Sometimes a vacation is just staying at home and not answering your phone. Can I get an amen? That's a good vacation some days but then sometimes we do need to get away. It it's good just to reset and and do those things and so we realize during the summertime, that is the case.
Speaker 2:But with that, I like to sometimes break up the the the preaching series and just encourage our people through some other text, expositional text that we can be encouraged by. Last year, if you remember, the earthiness of the Psalms, we took some Psalms and we encouraged and the lord blessed that and used it in my life. I know and and and helped others as well and so this year, we are this summer, we're going to really preach a sermon series called Come On To Me and it's rest in the lord where rest, true rest is found and it's only found in the lord Jesus Christ. I can't think of a text to to begin this series in what I'm going to kind of accomplish two things at once. Acts chapter 16 is where we're at but I want to kick off that series in Acts 16 as I told you two weeks ago that the lord had given me not a sermon.
Speaker 2:He has given me a message and it's a message in my life that I believe can also help you rest in the lord during the midst of midnight. Resting in the lord in the midst of midnight or I've entitled this lord, teach me to sing in the darkness. I've read Acts 16 many times as you have. I've heard lots of messages preached out of Acts chapter 16 and I want us to begin in verse number 16 where we somewhat left off Acts chapter 16 and verse number 16 and it picks up with a or actually let's begin in verse number 14. That's where we officially left off a few weeks ago.
Speaker 2:Acts chapter 16 and verse number 14. The Bible says in a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped god, heard us, whose heart the lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul and when she was baptized in her household, she besought us saying, if he have judged me to be faithful to the lord, come into my house and abide there and she constrained us and it came to pass as we went to prayer, certain damsel, a young lady, possessed with the spirit of divination, met us which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying or professing or fortune telling is what soothsaying means. The same followed Paul and us and cried saying, these men are the servants of the most high god which show us unto the way of salvation and this did she many days but Paul being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and he came out the same hour and when her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they saw Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers and brought them to the magistrates saying, these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe being Romans and the multitude rose up against them and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them and when they had laid many stripes upon them they cast them into prison charging the jailer to keep them safely Who having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in stocks but at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto god and the prisoners heard them and suddenly, there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately, all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed and the keeper of the prison awakened out of his sleep, Seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been fled but Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here.
Speaker 2:Then he called for a light and spring in and came and trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and they spake unto him the word of the lord and to all that were in his house and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized he and all his and all his straight way and when he had brought them into his house, he sat meat before them and rejoice believing in god with all his else. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for the reading of god's word. Lord, thank you for the story, these stories, many stories found in just a few verses, so much going on in Acts chapter 16 but lord, I pray that you will help us focus on what exactly you have for us today and lord, where it seems like you close some doors of opportunity, lord, you open prison doors.
Speaker 2:Lord, so that a Philippian jailer could be saved. Lord, we thank you that closed doors or sometimes just open doors of opportunity for us to share the gospel with someone else. Lord, in the midnight hour, may we never lose our joy and our song. I pray that you help us today as we examine this text and we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 2:Philippians chapter four and verse number four, it commands us to rejoice in the lord always and again, I say, rejoice. I've read that verse. I've quoted that verse. I've even sang songs with those words in it but what does that mean? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:Rejoice in the lord and again, I say rejoice which by the way, Paul wrote from from from the prison. He's writing about rejoicing in the lord and again, I say rejoice. He's writing that from a jail cell and he is in the midnight hour. What does that look like for me when the midnight hour comes in my life? Was that, what does that look like for me when things seem to be unraveling, things that seem to be falling apart in my life.
Speaker 2:This passage before us answers those questions in one of the most arresting scenes that I've ever read in the New Testament. I I said this a few weeks ago and I think I say this about every chapter but Acts 16, if I had one chapter to preach in this book, it would be Acts chapter 16 because again, we see so much going on. We see the gospel advancing. We see god shutting doors. We see god opening prison doors.
Speaker 2:We see people being saved. We see Paul as an example of a believer singing in the midst of midnight. I believe the central theme of this text that I'm going to preach and god arrested my heart. I really have no points which is unusual for a message. I I I told Zach that today will be unusual in the sense of I don't have a one, two, three point and some sub points.
Speaker 2:I don't have anything like that. The lord would not allow me to put this into an outline form. We're just going to walk through the text and I want to show you what the lord put upon my heart and as the lord had laid this passage upon my heart, it's a simple prayer born from a simple challenge. Lord, teach me to sing in the darkness. Not only when the blessings are easy to count, it's easy to sing when things are going well.
Speaker 2:It's easy to sing when things are going your way, when bills are paid, when everybody's healthy, when everybody's got a good you know, doctor's report, when everybody's doing well, when you get a job promotion, when things just seem to be going your way. It's easy to burst out in praise and sing but it's hard to do that when things are not. Before we can appreciate the miracle of midnight worship. We have to understand the weight of the darkness and what surrounds it. Now, who's writing this text?
Speaker 2:A man by the name of Luke. We've said that numerous time. Luke is a physician. He's also now the traveling companion of the apostle Paul and Silas. He's joined them on what we call the second missionary journey.
Speaker 2:Now, I want you to notice we I sometimes will put a map up here fellas. If you would put this map up here, this is a I hope that you can see it, that we've already covered the first missionary journey a few chapters ago. This is the second missionary journey. Down at the very bottom right is Jerusalem. That's where they would have left in Acts chapter 15 called the Jerusalem Council.
Speaker 2:They would've went up to Antioch which would have been the church that Barnabas would have been a part of in Acts chapter number nine and eleven and they go to Antioch. They read the report of the Jerusalem Council. The Christians rejoice mainly Gentiles would have been in the Antioch Church. They go from Antioch to a place called Tarsus which Paul would have been from. They would have went up to Derby, Iconium, Lister.
Speaker 2:That's where they pick up a young man by the name of Timothy in Acts chapter 16 and Timothy joins the party there and it's Luke and Timothy and now Barnabas or or rather Paul and Silas. You remember Barnabas and John Mark depart and there's some tension there and so they leave and so now, they go up to Antioch, Pasidian. They were going to go up to the very top which is Bethenia and they're going to just continue to to take the gospel into areas that they had not but then the holy spirit said no. So, they tried another place and again, the holy spirit says, no and so they go over to a little place called Troaz. Troaz is about 10 miles from another place called Troy.
Speaker 2:We would have been very familiar with Troy in in history and so Troaz is just 10 miles below a place called Troy. There at Troy, Paul has a vision one night and there's a man who is we call it the Macedonian call and he's calling for someone to come and bring the gospel and so they had to sell from Troy or from Troaz rather over to a place at the very top left called Philippi. That's where basically this story begins. We're on the second missionary journey of the apostle Paul headed to a place called Philippi and is that Philippi that you know, Paul when he would get to the city first, being a Jew, he would go to the synagogue first. He would take the gospel to the Jews but now, they're in territory where there's there's really very little Jews.
Speaker 2:Matter of fact, when he reaches Philippi, there's no synagogue there because in order to have a synagogue, you had to at least have 10 Jewish men living in your city. So, there was no synagogue for Paul to go and and proclaim the gospel and try to preach Jesus to these religious Jews and so therefore, he goes to the river on the Sabbath day and according to verse number 14 of Acts chapter 16, there's a woman there by the name of Lydia. Look at verse 14 again. The Bible says in a certain woman named Lydia, seller of purple, the city of of the city of Phytira, which worshiped god, heard us, whose heart the lord opened and she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. Notice the the divine sovereign way threaded in that verse just in verse number 14, the lord opens Lydia's heart.
Speaker 2:There's no there's no synagogue to preach at. So, so he goes to this place. There's some women there and he he's just him and and and Silas and probably Timothy and and and Luke, they go down to this river because again, they're there to worship the lord. They go in nature if you will. The lord leads them to the river.
Speaker 2:There's some women there, business women, a seller of purple, a woman who made money by the the talents that she had and the Lord prepared her heart. That's what that means. The Lord had prepared her heart to meet this preacher by the name of Paul. God opens her heart and the Bible says that that she and her household were baptized and she became really the first pillar of what we would what would become the church at Philippi. She was the very first convert on European soil and and I I I found that very fascinating because the very church to whom Paul would write one day in Philippians chapter four.
Speaker 2:This is the church that would be established. It started with one convert by the name of Lydia and Paul would later write about contentment in Philippians chapter four and he said, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. He goes from this convert baptizing her and leading her family basically to the lord. Then, we find in verse number 16, if you'll keep your copy of god's word open, the Bible says and it came to pass as we went to prayer a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. So, this young lady has a spirit of divination returning to this place of prayer, Paul encounters a second woman.
Speaker 2:By the way, I find it interesting in Acts 16 that the first two people that Paul witnessed to according to our text is is women. The Holy Spirit doesn't put anything in in there an accident. One is delivered. One is liberated by the freedom which is found in Christ. She and her family is saved.
Speaker 2:The other is full of demons or a demon. The text tells us it's a specific demon. I want you to look at this. Don't look at me. Look at your Bible.
Speaker 2:The spirit of divination. What what is that? The spirit of divination. The the Greek is the word Puthon which is where we get the word python and it would been a Greek word Greco Roman culture, prophetic spirit associated with the oracle of Delphi. So, meaning that this woman, this demonic woman produces counterfeit prophetic utterance.
Speaker 2:So, she is what we would call in our modern day a fortune teller or a palm reader. Now I just want to warn you that that spirit of divination still exists today. If you have encountered that in your life, if you've used that at some point in your life and you've went there and you've done that maybe before your conversion, hopefully not after your salvation but before your salvation and and then you've done that, then listen, even if it's been after your salvation, repent never do it again because that's not from god. That's right. That's from Satan.
Speaker 2:The spirit of divination still exist and we gotta be careful because his devices are very very cunning and very crafty and sometimes people want to talk to their mother who's passed away and they want to talk to somebody. They want to know the future. They want to know what happens here and there and you you may even laugh at that and think that it's silly but it's really real. Lot of that exist today. Paul encounters this.
Speaker 2:It's a spirit of divination And for many days, look at what the Bible says. It says that she follows Paul and his company, and here's what she's crying out. These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. Now, that sounds good, doesn't it? There's a problem.
Speaker 2:Several reasons why this is a problem. The first that I could discover in verse number 17, Paul had to do something. Maybe the reason that he had to do something was this Greek article suggest that maybe she had been proclaiming that word the way of salvation could be in the Greek change to a way of salvation. If that's the case, Paul had to stop her because there's only one way of salvation. So, Paul might add to say, you know what?
Speaker 2:The the we're not proclaiming a way of salvation. It's the way of salvation. The second thing that I see a problem with this young lady following and hollering out is this first century Greek culture when they hear the most high god, they would not have associated god, Jehovah god. They would associated Zeus and so basically, what they would have been hearing in their ears is follow this these men are are servants of Zeus and this would have created confusion. Paul had to do something but here's what I believe.
Speaker 2:I believe she was just simply distracting and I believe that she was so annoying to Paul that Paul had to do something because just listen, can you imagine someone doing that even today? Let let's just say that that the the Chick fil A right here. I have to pick a Christian company. There's not very few of em but the the Hobby Lobby or or Chick fil A is basically our our shots this morning but can you imagine somebody out here at Chick fil A every day just maybe in the morning, they get out there and someone says, hey, come eat at Chick fil A. It's the best chicken in town.
Speaker 2:Hey, come eat at Chick fil A. It's the best chicken in town. Hey, come eat at Chick and they just do that for hours and hours and they're saying it. Do you do you believe that the owner of Chick fil A would be okay with that out there in the parking lot? They're saying good things.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't want somebody standing out here in our parking lot. Hey, come to Bible Baptist. It's the best church in town. Hey, come to Bible. I'd say, okay, you need to be quiet.
Speaker 2:We are the best in town but you need to hush. I think Paul was saying, hey, this is distracting. What she's saying could have been true but it was distracting away from the gospel and so, the Bible says that Paul, if you look at it with me, the Bible says that Paul was grieved. It means that he was troubled. He was bore burdened or really what that word means is he was worn down.
Speaker 2:Paul was worn down by this young lady and finally, he turns and he commands the spirit and he says this, he says, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. In verse 18, And the demon left. Notice the authority. And soon as Paul says it, that demon left that very hour and that was the moment of liberation for this young woman who had been definitely enslaved to this demon. And once that demon demonic the the demon leaves this girl, the the the masters, these cruel masters come after Paul.
Speaker 2:Notice in verse number 19, her owner's reaction. The Bible says and when her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone. So, they were making money off of her fortune telling and when they see that their gains were gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them or dragged them into the marketplace unto the rulers. So their economy was affected. Any wonder that wherever the gospel truly penetrates a culture, powers, and principalities, they resist it.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you, she wasn't the only one that had a demon. These men that owned her also had demons in them, and they hated the fact that now their money was messed up. So what they do? They drug Paul and Silas before the magistrates and they charge on an anti Roman sentiment and they deliberately do something that is really against the law. They begin to beat Paul and throw them in prison.
Speaker 2:They they beat him with rods. Not even a trial. Now, listen, they they did something without checking in to further investigation. They they did something that is so against the law. You you could not do anything.
Speaker 2:You could not falsely accuse a Roman. You could not beat a Roman and unjustly throw a Roman into prison. It was just against the law. You had to have a fair trial. There had to be, you couldn't do any of that and you could get in big trouble.
Speaker 2:Paul, though being a Jew, had a Roman citizenship. And so did Xalas and so later on, you could see that in verse number 37 that that kind of comes into issue later on in the text but they're doing things here. They laid many stripes upon them. Look at verse number 23. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who having received such a charge thrust them into the prison, in the inner prison, and made their feet fast in stocks.
Speaker 2:Now, here's an important thing that we sometimes overlook and I just mentioned it but an entire proceeding was an illegal act under Roman law. Both Paul and Silas being Roman citizens, the status Paul invokes in verse number 37, beat and imprisoned a Roman citizen without a trial was a crime and they later are very fearful for what they have done to Paul and Silas. But nonetheless, we come to verse number 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas, what'd they do? They prayed and they sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them.
Speaker 2:I want you to notice the word midnight, The darkest hour. The word means the middle of the night or the darkest part of the night. The same word appears in Luke chapter 11 and verse number five when Christ his parable of the friend who comes knocking and he uses the word midnight. It is the hour of deepest darkness and at this hour, the scripture tells us two things about what happens simultaneously. They were praying.
Speaker 2:The Bible says they're praying and they're singing. We don't need to rush past either word. To sing a hymn means that the word singing in this text would be the word which means to sing a hymn or to chant or to celebrate a sacred poetry or music directed toward God. So that's what they're doing here. They're praying.
Speaker 2:We understand what prayer is. We we know what prayer is, but they're also doing something other than praying. The prayer part I understand. Doesn't crisis seem to bring prayer out into our lives? Doesn't when when you hear a a bad thing or bad news or you receive a maybe a scary doctor's report or you receive something that just oh, you know what?
Speaker 2:You you you're in, I mean, all of us are inclined to pray when something tragic happens to someone else. Hey, I'm praying for you. Crisis can bring prayer out of us. But I want you to consider what else is happening. It's not only prayer, they were anybody can sing in desperate or pray in desperate desperation but singing in the dark is the overflow of a relationship with god.
Speaker 2:Singing in the midst of midnight is a relational thing. It that is hard to do when things are unraveling, when things are falling apart, when things seem to be in disarray. You burst out in praise? That's exactly what they do and and notice, the prisoners were listening. Notice what the Bible says in verse number 25.
Speaker 2:It says, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto god and the prisoners heard them. So, so sometimes god puts his people in impossible places so that the impossible people might hear the gospel through impossibly joyful witnesses. Sometimes, god puts us in things so that others who don't believe will see god through us and believe. Paul and Silas, what what made this possible for them to sing at midnight? They're not denying their circumstances.
Speaker 2:In a physical sense, Paul and Silas are in a very dark place. They're they're not just in prison. I want you to notice what the Bible says. They were thrown or thrust into the inner prison. The worst of the worst, the darkest of the dark.
Speaker 2:They were in the inner prison what we would call today maximum security. And here they are praying. Joy. The darkness was real. It wasn't just physical.
Speaker 2:I I believe mentally, maybe Paul and Silas mentally was in the dark. Maybe in a spiritual sense, they found themselves, hey, this is the way it's going to end. Think about this church. Acts chapter 12, there's two apostles, followers of Jesus who were also thrown in prison. Their names were Peter and James.
Speaker 2:God also calls them a great earthquake. He delivered Peter but James was beheaded. Maybe Paul and Silas sitting in this jail cell alone thought, well, this is the way it's going to end and you know what that can do to you. You know what that could do to your mental state. You know what that could do to you spiritually but here's what they did.
Speaker 2:They instead of complaining if it was me. If I were sitting in that inner cell, I would have found a sharp rock and I would have been scribbling something on the wall to my wife. Help. What was real about this? More real than just prison walls.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what was more real than that was the unchanging character and nature of God. Amen. I I love to read the the minor prophets. One of them was the name Habakkuk. Habakkuk wrote this in Habakkuk chapter three and verse number seventeen and eighteen.
Speaker 2:He said, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit in the in the vines, the the labor of the olive shall fail, the olive tree shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the field and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet, I will rejoice in the lord. I will joy in the god of my salvation. When did Habakkuk write that?
Speaker 2:He he wrote that prophet Habakkuk wrote those words as the Babylonian armies in in May was was coming into Jerusalem and their gates and the economy had collapsed and they were the crops had failed. The livestock was gone. Everything visible, everything was a disaster and yet, here's what Habakkuk says, yet I will rejoice in the lord, my god. Where does that come from? That's something otherworldly.
Speaker 2:I want to read to you Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 15. He said, by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise. To god continually, that is the fruit of your giving thanks to his name. Notice the phrase sacrifice of praise. A sacrifice cost something.
Speaker 2:There are moments when praise does not come naturally though the worship requires an act of the will and and when the song must be chosen before it's felt, that is when it becomes a sacrifice and the writer of Hebrews says, I'm going to sacrifice praise. God of course responds in this praise. The Bible says in verse 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed. I mean, this was a seismos. This was an earthquake and it came without warning, without human arrangement, and the prison doors open.
Speaker 2:What this is what praying and singing could not accomplish in the natural. God did this to deliver Paul and Silas. The more remarkable than the miracle is what happened next. Paul and Silas did not flee. The Bible says that when the jail was awakened and he saw the open doors, he drew his sword.
Speaker 2:What was he going to do? He's going to take his own life. He knew that, well, he was going to die anyhow for letting Paul and Silas go under his watch. And what did they say in verse 28? Do thyself no harm for we are all here.
Speaker 2:They stayed. They had freedom and they what they do? They they surrendered their freedom for the soul of one man. You go on down in the text in verse number 30, it moves this man so much that he sees god through their lives and their praise and he says this, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And their answer has crossed every ocean and every century and landed on every ears and it's still what we must do today.
Speaker 2:Believe on the lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Before we reach this story's glorious conclusion, I want us to sit for a moment in an honest challenge. I found myself in preparing this message several weeks ago and then looking over it again this week genuinely convicted. Sometimes I'll preach a message and I'm not convicted. I'm not always convicted about the text and and the work, the spirit of god does the work in my heart but I never felt or at least I I I don't think I'd felt like this in a long time especially in approaching a text Beaten and imprisoned, bloodied, uncertain of tomorrow, what I sing?
Speaker 2:What I sing? We we have to approach the text that way. Would would I sing if I was thrown unjustly into the middle of prison? I've done nothing wrong except serve Jesus. Would I sing in midnight?
Speaker 2:I've been gripped by this simple prayer that I want to invite you to pray with me. Very short. Lord, teach me to sing in the darkness. Lord, teach me to sing in the darkness. Teach me to sing when things are not going well.
Speaker 2:Teach me to keep my song. Lord, we we see the disciples who had asked the lord to teach them to pray and that's great and we ought to. We we ought to be men and women of prayer. We ought to be young students of prayer. We ought to be young adults of prayer.
Speaker 2:Prayer changes things and I understand that god here and we put lots of emphasis on prayer and we should but very little emphasis on singing when things are falling apart. Most of us know the hymn It is well with my soul. Far fewer know the full story behind the hymn. I'll give you a synopsis of of that. Many of you have have heard how the hymn was written.
Speaker 2:If you've not heard, I'll give you this little brief synopsis. Horatio Spafford was a prosperous Chicago lawyer who lost his real estate investments in the great Chicago fire. He was very good friends with the pastor and preacher DL Moody. Two years later, he sent his wife Anna and four daughters across the ocean. He was, they were going to go to France and just to get away from the chaos and from some of the noise, god had blessed his business but he had lost a lot.
Speaker 2:So, while he was here in The States in Chicago, he had sent his family over just for some rest and he was going to join them shortly after. He had four daughters, Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta. Starting at the age of 11 all the way down to the age of two. On 11/21/1873 that vessel collided with another ship in the Mid Atlantic and sank within twenty minutes and all four daughters drowned. Anna Spafford was rescued.
Speaker 2:She was unconscious and they found her floating on a piece of debris. The telegram that she sent to her husband contained only two words, saved alone. Horatio, when he received this telegram from his wife, he immediately boarded another ship and he asked the captain to notify him when they pass over the approximate location where his daughters had perished. And when that moment came, Horatio Spafford went below and he began to write, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well. It is well with my soul.
Speaker 2:That's a man singing in the midst of darkness because he knew the lord of the dark. He knew the lord in those dark places and this was not denial. This was a great declaration that we just sang a few weeks ago in here and a lot of people sing it. I I think it's probably the loudest our church ever sings. Very little people know that that came from a midnight hour.
Speaker 2:But very little people know the rest of the story. The Spafford story doesn't end there after returning to Chicago, Horatio and Anna had more children but they also had a son who died of scarlet fever at the age of four in 1881. They moved to from Chicago with 16 other people. They moved from Chicago to Jerusalem. And they started what what is now known as the American Colony.
Speaker 2:Right outside the Damascus Gate and what they began to do with this this charitable thing is they began to pouring out their lives among both Jews and Arabs primarily children. And then their home turned into an orphanage that then turned into a hospital for children that still exists today called the Spafford Children's Center. Several of Horatio Spafford's great grandchildren are still on the board of the Spafford Children's Center right outside the Damascus Gates in the old city. They turned their tragedy into gifts for generations because a man sang in the midnight hour. David said something from the pit.
Speaker 2:I preached last summer out of Psalms 40. David said, I waited patiently for the lord and he inclined unto me and he heard my cry and he brought me up out of the horrible pit and and out of the miry clay and he set my feet upon the rock and he established my goings and he had put a new song in my mouth. Even praise unto our God many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. My prayer for you today is the same prayer that God has gripped my heart. Lord, teach me to sing in the dark.
Speaker 2:May I rest in Jesus. Let's close our eyes and bow our heads this morning. I want to ask if you would just do the best you can to listen in this invitation. Who in here would say, pastor, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am saved by god's grace. I know that the lord has saved my soul and I'm born again.
Speaker 2:Would you raise your hand this morning? I know I'm saved. Praise the lord. It's a beautiful sight. Thank you.
Speaker 2:You can lower your hands. Who in here would say, pastor, I was unable to raise my hand. I do not know for sure. We see salvation. In Acts chapter 16, full blown salvation, several occasions.
Speaker 2:First, in the heart of Lydia which god had opened but secondly, in the prisoner, the the prison keeper. We call him the Philippian jailer whose household came to Christ because of Paul's faithfulness. Maybe you're sitting in here this morning and you say, well, pastor, would you please pray for me? I'm not sure that I know that same Jesus. Who set those individuals free?
Speaker 2:Please pray for me. I'm not sure that I'm saved. Nobody looking but I would love to pray for you. Would you just slip your hand up and say, pastor, pray for me. I'm not sure that I know the lord Jesus Christ as my savior.
Speaker 2:Would you raise your hand this morning? I'm not sure that I know Christ as my savior. Anybody like that at all? Pastor, pray for me. I'm not sure I'm saved.
Speaker 2:Here's my final question then this morning would be this, Lord, teach me to sing in the dark. Teach me to sing in the dark. Some of you are going through some dark places and let me just say, if you're not in a dark spot right now, either you've just come out of one or you're about to go in to one. Because the darkness will come to everyone. Cancer death abandonment unfortunate circumstances that can change in a matter of seconds You find yourself in the inner prison staring at walls with no light, no hope inside.
Speaker 2:What are you going to do? I've asked myself that question for the last two weeks. Would I have sang in the dark? And I have to be very honest with you. Very transparent.
Speaker 2:There's times where I know I would not have sang. I would have complained may we challenge and have that relationship with the lord to say, lord, I want to love you so much that I would be willing to sing in the darkness of my life. Lord, help me to sing when things are unraveling in my life. Help me to sing. Help me to keep my praise.
Speaker 2:Could I pray for you this morning? Simple prayer. Lord, teach me to sing in the dark. Would you raise a hand this morning if god has touched your heart? Let me pray for you and over you if you would do that.
Speaker 2:All over this building this morning. You can lower your hands. As I pray for you, would you join me in prayer? Lord, we're thankful this morning. That we could see a testimony of Paul and Silas.
Speaker 2:Lord, just in the inner prison. Worshiping Lord, they, the other prisoners heard them, but lord to them, they didn't. It was just important that you heard them. Lord, I I'm I'm sure that if there was more detail given through the spirit of god into this, we would see how many prisoners probably heard that and thought, wow. We've never heard that before.
Speaker 2:Who who is that? And what are they doing? And I'd like to hear more about that. May our lives reflect your goodness and may we never lose our song in the dark. Lord, we thank you for all you do and we ask these things now in Jesus name.
Speaker 2:All god's people said.