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Acts chapter 16.
I want to speak to you tonight on
the subject from prison to praise.
From prison to praise.
Acts chapter 16.
Beginning at verse 16 through verse 25, we'll
read.
I'm reading King James Acts 16 verse 16,
and it came to pass as we went
to prayer a Certain damsel possessed with a
spirit of divination met us Which brought her
master's much gain by soothsaying The same followed
Paul and us and cried saying these men
are the servants of the Most High Which
show unto us the way of salvation In
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 What else would you
expect?
when when Paul commanded in the name of
Jesus and When her master saw that the
hope of their gains was gone They caught
Paul and Sinus and drew them into the
marketplace under 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 to observe Being Romans and the
multitude rose up together 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 the
prison charging the day jailer to keep them
safely Who having received such a charge thrust
them into the inner prison and made their
feet fast in the stocks and at midnight
Paul and Silas prayed and Sang praises unto
God And the prisoners heard them I Want
you to remember that last little phrase as
well It'll become significant a little bit later
on and the prisoners heard them And then
of course God heard them as well in
verse 26.
We'll hear about that a little bit from
prison to praise You know some years ago
there was a best-selling Christian book entitled
from prison to praise And it seems an
appropriate title For what happened to Paul and
Silas when they caused a riot in Philippi
and they were busted Arrested as a result
Now there were three different categories of persons
who went from prison to praise First of
all is of course Paul and Silas and
we'll look at their experience but also remarkably
and Miraculously also the jailkeeper The jailkeeper went
from prison to praise Although he was in
a prison of another kind and thirdly the
other prisoners were set free and They were
the benefactors of the prayer and the praise
and the singing of Paul and Silas Now
the scriptures do not definitely tell us that
the prisoners were saved But listen, you can
draw your own conclusions Look in verse 26
as a result of the earthquake it says
and immediately all the doors were open and
Every man every prisoners bands were loosed Now,
can you imagine the surprise?
but delight of the prisoners to see the
prison doors open and their chains fall off
and the opportunity for escape and Yet the
prisoners did not flee in verse 28 Paul
cried with a loud voice to the Jailer
when he saw what had happened he assumed
that there had been a prison break and
so he was going to take his own
life and Paul said to him do yourself
no harm for we're all here We're all
here Now, how else can you explain the
fact that the prisoners?
Given a chance to run out the door
of the prison and yet they did not
do so How else can you explain that
by them except by the fact that they
also were changed?
They were also changed by the praises and
the prayers of Paul and Silas You see
when a revival breaks out on the prison
not even the prisoners want to go Now
we'll come back to the prisoners but first
I want to look with you want you
to look with me at the main characters
of this story Paul and Silas There are
three things about the events which took place
in the in this jail That deserve our
attention tonight and I want to go through
them First of all, the reason why Paul
and Silas were there in the first place
Now there are bad reasons for getting into
trouble and there are good reasons for getting
into trouble and Paul and Silas made trouble
for good reasons and They were thrown into
jail as a result verse 20 says It
was said of them these men being Jews
do exceedingly trouble our city Now what these
evangelists did was to expose the devil and
Cause some evil doers to suffer financial loss
They didn't make trouble because they were Jews
they made trouble because they were Jesus people
and because they had made a public show
of the devil's works and Casting out the
demon put the demon out of this young
lady Now at first Paul had an interesting
and unsolicited testimony It says in verse 16
that a certain young lady Who was a
King James says that she was possessed with
a spirit of divination Another translation of it
is that she had a Fortune-telling demon
and She kept following Paul and Silas and
she became as it were a welcome wagon
Greeting them as they came into the city
and Followed them all all around now She
was what was called a a Pythro That
was a name taken from their gods And
it was a person who would give oracles
or would give speeches regarding a person's future
like you see the signs of Around the
city where you can go in and have
your fortune told but she was demon-possessed,
of course but the people of the ancient
world called such a person mad and They
had a strange respect for such persons Because
they believe that the gods That it was
the gods who had taken away their wits
in order to put the mind of the
gods in them and therefore people would come
they would flock to a person like this
and So this poor desperate demon-possessed girl
had fallen into the hands of some unscrupulous
men Who used her misfortune for their own
gain?
Now for several days, however, she followed Paul
around Paul and Silas verse 17 look at
it again and She cried saying these men
are the servants of the Most High God
Which show unto us the way of salvation?
Now that's quite a testimony and Everything that
she said was true there was absolutely nothing
unscriptural or untrue in her endorsement of Paul
and his message and Yet she had a
devil She was she was demon-possessed and
Paul ignored her Now here is proof that
the devil knows how to witness.
Oh Yes, he can And he also goes
to church And it said and she did
so many days For many days Paul didn't
do a thing Now, can you just picture
her?
Shadowing Paul as he was ministering in the
marketplace and there she is saying a man
Paul preach it Paul That's right brother that's
right brother Listen to this man.
He's telling you us the truth.
He's showing us the way of salvation and
there she is all along Amen, amen Now
this should not surprise us the devil goes
to church He goes to the altar He
believes in trembles but Why is the devil
through this through the demons that possess this
poor slave giving Paul such a glowing?
advertisement and endorsement I Tell you why because
the devil likes to be on both sides
of the issue He feared that Paul's message
would be received So he pretends that he's
on the side of the gospel, so he'll
not lose any credibility because the devil knew
that if he opposed Paul and There's any
people were converted to Christ that he'd lose
out and so he tries to work both
ends against the middle Course he did lose
out But we learn from this as I
read this There is a warning that comes
in my heart and it says this to
me beware of certain praise Beware of certain
praise not every testimony is a true one
Not every witness is from God Bob Bob
said it to quoted the scripture Sunday morning
and that again the message that we pastors
are still Feeling that it is a plumb
line for this church for you and I
to be able to discern what is going
on today But one of the verses that
he quoted was that we are to try
the spirits to see if they be of
God You see I am weary of some
who come with words of praise for the
church or for the preacher or for the
message and Holy Ghost discernment tells me sometimes
that the person giving the praise May be
full of the devil and is trying to
cover up.
And so they pretend to be on the
side of truth.
I Remember when I was a young preacher
in my dad's church There was there was
a gentleman there Used to I was just
very young I started preaching in dad's church
when I was about 16 or I started
actually preaching in David's church David was the
first one that gave me a chance And
then I think he called dad and said
said dad he did all right and so
dad gave me a chance And so when
I was 16 17 years of age even
before I went off to Bible school I
was preaching and that's why when I went
to Bible school, I thought Bible school needed
me And I couldn't understand why the president
of school wasn't asking me to preach in
Chapel But there was there was a man
in that church who boosted my ego all
the time He every time I got finished
he come right for me.
He said Donnie They called me Donnie and
that's I don't let anybody call me that
anymore, but That
slipped out Only my wife was allowed to
call me that But if you start doing
it then I'll start calling him Davey and
Bobby and And Gwenny And
I took care of that that I hope
that I'll let that rest But this brother
would come up to me all the time
and Always he would every time I preach
he'd make a beeline for me and he'd
say my name And he'd say wonderful message
wonderful message He said preacher.
I'm with you preacher But you know, I
look back now and I realized I didn't
have enough discernment back then but now I
Looked back in retrospect and I put two
and two together in the Holy Ghost and
I realized that this man was living in
sin and He came up to me in
order to make it look like he was
on the side of truth But it was
an endorsement from the devil Like the like
the testimony of this girl a Way of
praising the truth in order to avoid it
And all sometimes it happens here.
It happens in other churches After you preach
a message immediately and these pastors know what
it is.
Somebody immediately comes and they want a Clarification
of the truth.
They want a clarification of the message You
see when truth hits the heart sometimes it
hurts when it causes a wall in the
soul, not just a wow in your emotions
and True convictions pains the heart and sometimes
it makes you want to hide and not
even see the preacher But here in Acts
Satan spoke the truth in order to counteract
it to put Paul inside us and The
possessed woman in the same church in the
same pew on the same platform as if
they were in agreement and if Paul and
Silas had received or accepted such testimony and
Appealed to it or played out to it.
Satan would have had or made a great
gain and The devil has used this very
tactic in the church today to get acceptance
of all kinds of foolish and ungodly things
you see there is a Pythian The spirit
that was in this woman what they call
this one that same spirit is in the
church today You know that the devil confessing
Christ is in fact more dangerous than the
devil denying Christ He only confesses to confuse
he confesses to oppose he confesses and Misrepresents
so that he makes the gospel of Christ
something one time and something another time but
anything but what it really is and Sometimes
it's he that says Christ requires this of
God or that of God and something else
but always it's a distortion and When the
church has lost the wisdom of Christ and
Holy Ghost discernment Then the spirit of this
woman runs rampant in the church and people
are giving endorsements to things that are not
of God But Paul grieved over the condition
of this woman as I believed he would
grieve over the same spirit in the church
today look at verse 18 and This she
did many days but Paul being grieved Now
Paul, of course came against the spirit But
he did not do so until he grieved
for the young damsel who was possessed and
deceived by the spirit But you know, I
wondered why did Paul take so long?
It says that she followed him many days
Many days she said listen to him.
He is a servant of the Most High
God.
He will show us the way of salvation.
I Believe he did it finally Finally he
turned and he rebuked that spirit, but I
believe it was an order to allow as
much attention as possible to be drawn to
her and to her false testimony So that
when Paul did rebuke the demon that all
might know that it was the power of
Christ He did it in order to to
let her show her hand.
Let the enemy show his hand and then
finally finally Paul letter the Holy Spirit rebuked
it and cast it out and Everybody knew
then who had the greater power But that's
not really though that's just a preliminary to
my message As a result of this confrontation
with the devil Paul and Silas were put
into prison and I want you to know
then this is really what I'm aiming at
tonight.
I Want you to know what they did
They turned a prison house into a house
of praise They turned a jail cell into
a joy cell verse 24 and 25 who
having received such a charge And it was
quite a charge they received they were beaten
with many stripes Who receiving such a charge
thrust them into the inner prison and made
their feet?
fast to the stocks But you see what
the jailers did not realize is that when
your feet are shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace and The gospel is
joy peace and joy in the Holy Ghost
and you're put in prison Paul and Silas
said it don't matter It don't matter because
at midnight Paul and Silas prayed Ignored the
situation ignored their stocks ignored the environment and
at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang
praises unto God and the prisoners heard them
Now, how could they sing at such a
moment?
I'll tell I give you a few reasons
first of all Powell and Silas were in
trouble and in prison for the right reason
They were suffering because they opposed sin not
because they were partners in sin You see
there are prisons tonight of our own making
There are prisons and there are bands that
are around our feet and our hands Because
we willingly go almost like this and we
invite the devil as it were to put
them on us and we have to know
better and We voluntarily stretch out our hands
and they're put in the stocks and so
we find ourselves in a prison But Paul
and Silas were not in a prison of
their own failures or foolishness or sin they
were in trouble because they were doing God's
will and they were being a witness for
Christ and We've been preaching that this is
the message that God's lately put on our
heart for this at this particular time in
our church And that is that you would
break out of the prison the prison house
of your own sin or Your own self
made prison or that devil made prison in
order to get in trouble for good reasons
instead of bad reasons We Have a prison
minister here in this church And Kenny and
the team go to real prisons That have
real bars and cells and walls and barbed
wire and guards with guns But we have
people in prison in other kinds of prisons
that are just as confining and justice binding
and Some of you were exactly there constantly
You were a part of our prison ministry
And every night where I saw some of
you come to this altar I see some
of them singing in the choir now and
I rejoice because I used to see certain
individuals Come time and time again.
I could see it in their face.
I could see it in their eyes that
they were in a prison But now like
Paul and Silas you're ready to make trouble
for the devil instead of be in trouble
all of the time Hallelujah But you know
one of the prisons that I still see
I still see Christians in What prevents them
from being used of the Lord and reaching
out to others is that prison of self
-pity?
The prison of self-pity self-pity consumes
you with your own problems your own needs
and your own struggles and some of you
it's about time for you to burst out
of that prison and begin Begin to be
used of God You see Paul and Silas
used Their troubles as an occasion to further
the gospel Philippians 1 12 and 13 says
but I I Would you would understand brethren
that the things which happened unto me have
fallen out rather Under the furtherance of the
gospel Oh If you could only reach that
point in your life and say what has
happened to me Let God get glory out
of it Let it be an occasion for
the furtherance of the gospel So that my
bonds in Christ are manifest in all the
places in all the palace and in all
other places Now when Paul wrote that he
was not specifically talking about the The Philippian
jail, but nevertheless it applies And I want
you to note what happened Paul and Silas
turned an inner prison into an inner sanctuary
You see true men of God know how
to turn adversity into adventure for God They
know how to how to sing praises at
midnight You see the Lord does not always
supernaturally Deliver us out of our problems But
he always offers Supernatural use for them Let
me say that again you can you can
take that home with you The Lord does
not always supernaturally deliver us from our problems
But he always offers Supernatural use for them
Paul made the best of the situation He
turned a dungeon into a prayer meeting.
He turned a prison cell into a praise
in You see the measure of our faith
Is not If we're able to sing at
noonday, but if we're able to sing at
midnight Anybody can sing or most anybody can
sing or shout or praise the Lord Or
preach for that matter when you've got a
choir like this behind you But I wake
up at mid time midnight sometime and and
sister Gwen ain't there Choir isn't there time
score isn't there The music isn't there Jesus
sang at midnight There's only one recorded more
time when it says It tells us that
Jesus sang And Bob often quotes it when
we take communion Because it was at the
midnight of his life The only recorded time
when the scriptures tell us that Jesus sang
was following the Last Supper Matthew 26 and
30 and says and when they sang a
hymn they went out into the Mount of
Olives And Jesus sang at the midnight hour
of his greatest trial because he was going
out to Gethsemane until Gilgatha Now there are
two kinds of there are two midnights in
which we ought to be able to sing
I want to I want to share with
you two midnights Where we ought to be
able to sing turn with me to Exodus
or go with me to Exodus chapter 11
And here's one of those midnights Exodus chapter
11 It was at midnight when the Lord
comes and he makes a difference and he
makes a show and Shows us the difference
between Egypt and Israel Let's read about it
in Exodus chapter 11 and the Lord said
unto Moses yet, I will bring one plague
more unto Pharaoh and upon Egypt and Afterward,
he will go he will let you go
hence when he shall let you go.
He shall surely thrust you out hence altogether
Speak now in the ears of the people
and let every man borrow of his neighbor
and every woman of her neighbor jewels of
silver and jewels of gold and the Lord
gave the people favor in the sight of
the Egyptians moreover the man Moses was very
great on the land of Egypt in the
sight of Pharaoh's servants in the sight of
all the people and Moses said thou sayeth
the Lord about midnight About midnight.
Well, I go into the midst of Egypt.
Oh I want I tell you this blesses
me Because this is exactly what's going to
happen at the end time When the judgments
of God and the plagues begin to come
at midnight Here's exactly what's going to happen
About midnight, I'll go into the midst of
Egypt and all the firstborn of the land
of Egypt shall die From the firstborn of
Pharaoh that sit us upon his throne even
under the firstborn of the maidservant that is
behind the mill and all the firstborn of
beasts and There shall be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt such as
there was none like it nor shall be
like it anymore But against any of the
children of Israel, oh Hallelujah, not even a
dog will be able to bark at you.
Hallelujah Not any of the children of Israel
shall not a dog that move his tongue
Against man or beast that ye will not
may know how the Lord doth put a
difference Between the Egyptians and Israel Oh Hallelujah
You see there is a midnight in Egypt
and there is a midnight in Israel There
is a midnight for the child of the
devil and there is a midnight for the
child of God It rains on the just
and it rains on the unjust but there's
a difference.
Oh, yeah And I'm glad I'm living on
the side that Israel lived on that's where
the Lord reigns That ye may know how
the Lord doth put a difference between hallelujah
You see people who sing at midnight People
in Egypt who sing at midnight Usually are
drunk Or they're partying and when they wake
up in the morning, they have a worldly
hangover and Death reigns on the side of
that land But people who sing at midnight
on Israel's side Do so because the Lord
is watching over them And the Lord makes
a difference and the Lord is able to
deliver So that when when you are on
the Lord's side you also wake up with
a hangover It's called a Holy Ghost hangover
the same thing that happened tonight hangs over
tomorrow morning.
Praise the Lord Psalms 119 61 and
62 sounds like Paul and Silas don't turn
there It says the bands of the wicked
have robbed me That I have not forgotten
by law at midnight I will rise up
to give thanks unto thee because of the
righteous judgments Do you know what the psalmist
means when he says he gives thanks because
of the righteous judgments?
He means God don't make mistakes He makes
right decisions regarding us and Even if I'm
in prison or thrust in prison I can
trust God because He put me there or
his hand is upon me and he's going
to make a difference between the outcome For
me and the outcome for the other fella.
That's why I can sing.
Hallelujah Somebody has said the bitterest cup with
Christ is better than the sweetest cup without
Christ If there's one reason why I would
say to anybody here tonight that doesn't know
Jesus Here's one of the reasons because when
you come to midnight, there's a difference There's
a difference when you're on God's side than
when you're on the other side And then
is at midnight When the marriage takes place
Matthew 25 and 6 and at midnight there
is a cry made Behold the bridegroom cometh
go you out to meet him You see
it's at the midnight hour of your walk
with God It's at the midnight hour when
you're thrown into some prison or some trouble
It's then that the bridegroom comes That's when
that's then that that bridegroom coming speaks of
a time of love It speaks of a
time of fellowship It speaks of a time
of being with the one that you love
and it speaks of being loved This is
the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over to
side This is never more precious to you
than your midnight hours now We've all had
what we call one of those days You
Know the expression you ask somebody how you
know, how was your day?
And sometimes they will say I just had
one of those days or I'm having one
of those days Well, I want to tell
you last week.
I had one of those weeks I want
to tell you I want to tell you
a little bit about the week I had
first of all Last Tuesday at about five
o'clock.
I mentioned it last Tuesday Prayer request we're
waiting for my mother to come to the
apartment for Lovely dinner and she comes in
and the end result of what happened to
her.
She fell into the elevator broke her wrist
and Wife and daughter had to go with
her to the hospital and that night after
the service about 12 o'clock She finally
they finally set her her wrist because that
happened to be the day that the nurses
were on strike and sister Marianne was there
and sister Gwen was there.
My wife was there and I got there
after the service was over and after I
had gone to have a bite to eat
because I thought she was all taken care
of and I find out that she was
still there and so That that was how
my week started How that Tuesday started?
Then in the service I was preaching and
came up against a wall like I'd never
come against in this congregation before And I
didn't blame myself and I didn't blame you
I just blamed the devil we just took
authority over in the name of the Lord
The next day my daughter getting ready to
go to Germany for a short-term missions
to a group missions Outreach that's the word
missions outreach She said dad I'm getting all
my papers together.
Do you have my passport and I said,
well, did you give it to me?
She says yeah I think I did because
I've looked everywhere in my in my room
and I can't find it And so I
went looking for and I couldn't find it
And that Wednesday evening.
I was looking forward to a nice evening
of study instead We took about six hours
and looked through every nook and cranny in
our apartment.
I never knew our apartment was so big
Our little apartment was so big we looked
everywhere Couldn't find the passport and here's my
daughter crying say I'm not going to be
able to go and we're praying and everything
and We just couldn't find the next day.
We started to prepare to try to get
another one and My daughter was just about
to go out the door to go get
it try to get a new one Another
one at the last minute when my wife
took one more look And she found it
Praise the Lord Amen, because she told the
Lord she said Lord.
I want you to lead me to it.
I'm not Asking you this is not witchcraft
or this is not wishcraft This is just
prayer and I want you to lead me
to it And so the Lord led her
to it and she found it praise the
Lord But my week wasn't over my car
broke did my car wouldn't start twice In
the midst of all this I got three
different phone calls all of them very distressing
phone calls at three different times three distressing
phone calls and then Finally Saturday, let me
see.
I can't remember there was something else that
happened.
I can't remember at all Finally came Saturday
night.
I Said the Lord I said, I'm sure
be glad to put this week to bed
And I had a good season of prayer
and I just felt victory in my soul
Saturday night went to bed and Said well,
thank God the week is over.
But God you're in control 240 in the
morning the telephone rings.
I Remember it because I looked at the
clock immediately and I and I thought Oh
240 in the morning and I said hello
and The answer on the other end was
my son calling me for the West Oh,
by the way, also my daughter Saturday came
home sick.
My oldest daughter came home sick.
Oh, yeah, that was the other thing And
now my son calls in and I thought
oh no Devil, you're trying to get one.
You're trying to shoot one more arrow at
me And I could I'm and my son
is on the other end and he's trying
to tell me something And I can I
can feel a little sniffle in his voice
and I said son what's wrong He said
dad.
He said I just had to call you.
I Just had to call you because dad
I just want to tell you how much
I love you Now I knew my son
wasn't drunk He said I he said some
of us were talking tonight and you know,
it's 1140 his time he forgets this 240,
you know, he just wants to call me.
He said dad.
I love you He said thank you.
Will you tell mom?
Will you just tell mom?
Thank you for the way that you raised
me and all that you contributed to my
life and and dad I just want and
I said well I will you talk about
something I Said thank you Lord, and I
thank my son we hung up But you
know something is just like Jesus to do
What my son did?
To call you at the end of a
long week and tell you son.
I love you.
Hallelujah Behold at midnight the bridegroom cometh go
ye out to meet him.
Hallelujah That's what that phone call represented to
me.
Hallelujah.
It was the Lord.
It was a Ministry of the Lord and
you see when Paul and Silas sang at
midnight It was a call from the bridegroom
Go out to meet him because when they
sang praises at midnight God heard them You
know why I know God heard them because
God sang back and when the Lord sings
You know what happened look at the next
verse when God sings here's what happens how
I know God sang 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.
Hallelujah Hallelujah You sing praises at midnight God
sings back.
Hallelujah With such power and such might that
will shake the bands off of you Hallelujah,
and you'll know that God's on the throne
glory to God Oh, hallelujah, that's right.
My God reigns.
That's right God was just telling Paul and
Silas I'm up I'm up.
I hear you.
Oh Hallelujah Finally finally the effect of the
prison revival While they prayed and sang praises
at midnight it says and the prisoners heard
them You know something our conduct at midnight
Is very very important Because of the effect
it has on others Someone is always listening
someone is always watching someone is always feeling
the effect of our behavior in our prison
and the prisoners Heard them You see what
are the prisoners in your life hearing?
Are they hearing praises or are they hearing
self-pity?
Are they hearing prayers or are they hearing
complaints?
Do you act like Paul and Silas?
Consider them they're in a strange city They
wanted to go evangelize in Asia, but the
Holy Ghost said no In a vision Paul
sees a man from Macedonia says come over
and help us and so he's obedient to
it and What does he get for his
obedience a violent reception They're seized and without
trial they're thrown into the inner prison It
was a gloomy and miserable place and might
have caused them to question if they were
in God's will some of us might have
said I'd rather have gone to Asia and
Men are known in dark cells to curse
and summon despair to kill themselves But never
had such a prison heard such singing reverberating
off its walls It was a lousy place.
Yes, but they made it beautiful You see
stone walls did not a prison make for
them nor iron bars a cage they sang
as if they were in the temple at
Jerusalem and Though they did not know it
Though they did not know it Paul and
Silas Were touching the spirits and the inner
prisons of their fellow prisoners It says and
the prisoners heard them Now you see they
sang because they didn't know they couldn't do
anything else.
They couldn't help but sing And but all
the time, although they were not even conscious
of it They were ministering unto others better
than they knew Making it easier for their
fellow prisoners to suffer the misery of their
own imprisonment and You see I see in
this a type of service and ministry That
we sometimes forget God has placed us in.
Oh Yes, there is a time to witness
by plan and by design and by Putting
it on your calendar and say yes, I'm
going to go to the upper room Yes,
I'm going to go on the streets There
is a time to witness by plan and
by intention When you go to somebody and
you tell them about Jesus But there is
also the time when if you are singing
praises at midnight Someone else sees it Someone
else hears it.
Someone else is blessed by it and you
don't even know it You don't even know
it You see there are prisoners of sorrow
there are prisons of prisoners of suffering There
are prisoners who are in emotional pain and
they need to hear you singing in the
prison house of your own troubles Because it
can become infectious Hallelujah, and because of your
praises their veins can fall off as well.
Hallelujah You see every one of us exercise
what I call an unaware ministry That's when
you touch somebody else's life and you don't
even know it.
Oh The people that have ministered to me
and they never knew it That ministry may
have just been a simple word It may
have just been a smile.
It may just been a phone call.
It may have been a letter It may
have been something else Or I've watched somebody
When another Christian reacts unrighteously to them and
I see them react righteously and all I
minister to Don't tell me that you don't
have a ministry Don't tell me that your
life does not count Everyone here tonight know
can sing praises at midnight Either your own
midnight or somebody else's midnight.
I Love the way David the psalmist put
it He said I waited patiently for the
Lord and he brought me up out of
the miry clay He set my feet upon
a solid rock.
He hath put a new song in my
mouth Many shall hear it.
Many others shall hear it and trust and
praise the Lord.
Oh How important it is for you to
sing at midnight Hallelujah, because there's somebody else
in a prison that can be touched by
your singing.
Hallelujah Hebrews 13 1 says let brotherly love
continue be not forgetful to entertain strangers For
thereby have some entertained angels unaware.
There it is The ministry that I call
the unaware ministry the unaware ministry Every one
of us has an opportunity to entertain angels
unaware You ought to sing at midnight because
of that You know when I get to
heaven You know what the Lord showed me
this afternoon when I get to heaven One
of the greatest surprises is going to be
That many of the sermons over which I
toiled Will never be mentioned in heaven but
certain ministries Which I knew nothing of Certain
people's lives that I knew nothing of as
I ministered here and there as I went
hither and There and went this way in
that way Those personal or individual sermons are
Going to awaken trumpets on the other side
I've seen many Christians and with this I'm
going to close.
I've seen many Christians who have been haunted
by fears Haunted by failure Guilt-ridden because
they're not doing enough for the Lord and
Some of them do far more for God
than they ever realized Because the prisoners hear
them singing and you know, sometimes if you're
walking in the spirit If you're just serving
the Lord faithfully sometimes you do more without
trying for God than when you try Sometimes
I know I do more without trying when
I'm just we're serving the Lord faithfully And
when I've got a song in my heart
And I'm in the place I ought to
be when Jesus is a center of my
joy Other prisoners here at hallelujah and without
me trying God uses me hallelujah And God
will do the same for you I've got
to read one verse in closing one one
one more verse Here's was Peter's in time
message.
Very interesting Listen to it First Peter 4
7 to 10 don't turn there He says
but the end of all things is at
hand be therefore sober and watch unto prayer
and Above all things have fervent charity among
yourselves For charity shall cover a multitude of
sins Use hospitality one to another without grudging
as Every man hath received the gift Even
so minister the same one to another as
good stewards of the manifold grace of God
Peter says above all things as we near
the end Let Jesus shine in your life
every day Quit thinking that you don't have
a ministry or you don't have a gift
He said as every man hath received the
gift so minister the same one to another
You say but pastor, I don't know what
my gift is.
Well, so what neither do I Or I
take that back yes, I do it is
to sing praises at midnight Hallelujah, so that
the other prisoners can hear it and their
bands are loose.
Glory to God Glory to God From prison
to praise that's the reason God wants to
bring us from prison to praise that others
might Hear it and trust in the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Let's stand together Thank you Lord, thank you
Lord