Episode 5: Acts 16 Part 1

Lord, we come to you now. This is actually a really small portion of a very long day, but we want to dedicate this time to learning more about you. So we ask as we read your words, your Bible, that it changes our hearts and minds. I believe that your word is powerful and that it makes a difference in people’s lives.

So I ask Lord that your Holy Spirit would just speak to us, that you would cause us to ask questions, to wrestle, to find out what this story about Paul and Silas means for us in our lives. Be with us now, Lord. Teach us. We thank you. We love you. We worship you alone. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

There is a story in Acts that I absolutely love. It is actually going to be in Acts chapter 16. I’m going to read Acts verses 16 through 34.

It is a story that Paul and Silas went through. There’s so many points about the story that I really want to bring out and encourage you with. But I try to keep these podcasts around 8 to 15 minutes, which I know was a broad range. I don’t want to take up too much of your time with my own talking. I would rather throw an idea out there, throw out a Bible verse, and then you have time in your day to read it yourself or to study it or think about it. You ask the Lord what this story means in your life. So I try to keep these podcasts kind of short. So let’s get started. 

Acts chapter 16, verses 16-34 

16 One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future. She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.”

18 This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her.

19 Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace. 20 “The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials. 21 “They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.”

22 A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. 23 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. 24 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. 26 Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! 27 The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. 28 But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.” 32 And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household. 33 Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. 34 He brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.

He and his whole household! I love this story. I really want to talk about so many details in the story, but for this podcast I’m going to talk about two things. The first one is right at the beginning of this story. It is actually in the first verse that we read in Chapter 16, where Paul and Silas were headed to a place of prayer. I want to encourage us today to let us always be starting at a place of prayer with the path that we’re on. They were headed to a place of prayer. Day after day, the Bible says, and this woman was taunting them. Don’t you know that every day there will be someone, something taunting you from your enemy? Our enemies are not flesh and blood, right? The Bible says that in this story, the enemy used a woman slave. Paul said to the spirit in her be gone. When we talk about your enemy I don’t even really want you to put a face on it because it’s not the people. It is the enemy fighting against you every day to get your eyes off the Lord. And that’s why we have to start in a place of prayer.

What does that mean, what am I saying?

Do you need to wake up every morning at blank time? Do you need to get your Bible and get in a prayer closet? Do you need to spend an hour every day? I don’t know. Not necessarily. Not everybody is like that, right? God created us all differently and unique. So that’s not what starting a day out in prayer looks like for everybody. If it is that’s awesome. But let me talk about just a couple of other ways that you might want to start your day off a prayer. Prayer is just talking to God, right? Not every prayer is a production. So I’m talking about maybe as your alarm goes off, you’re saying, Lord, I’m going to need you today.Maybe as you’re making your cup of coffee, you’re just thanking the Lord for his provision in your life. Maybe as you’re fighting with your children in the morning to get ready for school in your head, you just thank the Holy Spirit that he lives in you and can guide your words and your actions. Maybe you’re in the car on the way to work or on the way to school or on the way to somewhere and you just sing a little song of praise to the Lord. You don’t have to have a good voice singing as a prayer to the Lord. Or maybe you just tell the Lord in the car what your hopes are for the day, what you hope will happen, and then just let him know that you’re going to submit to whatever his will is for you, for your life in that day. Like I said, not every prayer is a production, but we should all just try to get in the habit through obedience and reminders from the Holy Spirit that we need to talk to God first thing in our days.

Because friends, I know, you know, the enemy is real and he will every day taunt you with something. That’s his job. That’s what he plans on doing every day. He plans on that every day. He is calculated in taunting you every day.

So we as followers of Christ need to be calculated in in prayer first, talking to God first before the taunts even come our way. So I just want to encourage you to do that every day, put prayer first. Just talking to God. It’s not a production. If it can be first thing for you in the morning there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s cool, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s just talking with God first thing every day. All right. So that’s the first point I want to encourage you with. Let’s start out in a place of prayer every day. All right. 

The second thing I want to talk to you about today is there is going to be days, times, situations when you feel publicly stripped and beaten like Paul and Silas were. I’m guessing it happens a lot if you are following God and if you have strong convictions in what you feel like, the Lord has given you a passion for what he has asked you to talk about. You are going to feel publicly stripped and beaten. I want you to know that doing good does not protect us from harm or pain. Paul and Silas, were doing amazing things for the kingdom at this time, but it didn’t protect them from being stripped and severely beaten.

In fact, I want to say that if you are getting in the way of Satan’s work here on earth, you’re going to have all sorts of enemies coming out, but I don’t want you to despair because that’s not the end of the story for you. Being publicly stripped and beaten is just another way for you to bring glory to God’s kingdom. I know it doesn’t feel like that. I know that it hurts. I know that it can be isolating, embarrassing. There are a lot of human emotions that come with being physically stripped and beaten.

But I’m asking you right now, when you feel like that to remember this story and Act 16 and know that this moment that you feel these emotions, this physical hurt that it’s not the end of the story. What Satan wants to use for bad the Lord turned to good and he will do that in your life too.

I promise, that if you give that pain, you give the taunting, the beating, the publicly embarrassed, if you give that to the Lord and say use it for your kingdom there will be victory in your story, too.

So, friends, first I want to encourage you today to start off in a place of prayer. Second thing I want to encourage you with in this story is if you are following God, you have strong convictions, you have strong actions for His kingdom there will be many times where you are laid out publicly and it’s going to hurt. There will be emotions, sadness, and pain.

God is with you and he will use it for his kingdom if you give this to him.

When I come back with the next podcast of Acts, Chapter 16, I’m going to talk about some of those victories that the Lord will have in your story. If you’re curious about it, before I get my next podcast recorded, which is possible, I hope it is, think about some of that, read Acts Chapter 16 and and rejoice in what God has for your story. I hope you guys have a great day.

A heart, maybe a hard day, but a day that depends on the Lord.

Thanks so much for listening.

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