Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:44 — 28.7MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | TuneIn | RSS
Acts 16:6 – This is a message about a great God among ordinary people. We as Christians have a constant “Macedonian call.”
Often what we dream and what reality ends up being are very different. We plan our lives one way and then the unplanned comes along and changes things.
This lady named Lydia was ready to hear and open to accept the message of the Lord. Things seemed to be going really well, there is an open door, there is lodging, there is meals. What more could a missionary ask for?
Then there was a “snag” that came along. This often happens in our lives as well. We can learn to walk the walk and talk the talk but not really live the life of being a Christ child. If we find ourselves in this place there is a way out, there is a way forward.
Paul addressed the problem of this woman, he commanded the demon to leave her. We don’t know what all happened to her after this, perhaps, hopefully she became a real voice for God in the kingdom.
In casting out the demon Paul not only tangled with the powers of darkness, but he also tangled with some evil and corrupt men. They had been using this demonic bondage that the woman was under and the casting out of the demon really didn’t sit well with them.
Paul and Silas were quickly hauled to a magistrate and stuck in jail. They weren’t out looking for trouble, they didn’t plan to be against the prison wall in shackles. It was however the place that God had taken them.
We will find ourselves in places that we’d rather not be, it will happen to us as children of God.
2 Corinthians 12:8 – It may be something that God wants to use to show his own greatness. When we are weak then God can be our strength.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17 – When we are crushed we can give off the aroma of Christ – an aroma of Christ at work.
It seemed like a huge cost to Paul and Silas. But what God put on the record about the situation is that, at midnight they were singing and the rest of the prisoners were hearing the gospel.
He brought them to hope even in their cell. God is still doing this in us today… bringing hope in our hours of trial.
Revelation 12:7 – There is no battle, there is no trial that is to great for our God. Let us maximize our dependency on God. There is strength and grace for us when we immediately look to Christ for help in our time of needs.
We are not alone. God is with us.