Sunday Morning Worship Service September 13, 2020

Good morning. See on this Lord's Day, beautiful day. Thank the Lord for his blessings this week. We've had showers of blessings through the course of the week. Someone mentioned to me the other day that they checked, they emptied their rain gauge and it had six inches in it by the time they emptied it.

That was before the additional rain that came after that. What we've missed the previous weeks, the Lord has sent us this past week and today, he's opened the skies and see the beautiful sunshine. That lifts the spirit after a gloomy week, doesn't it?

Well, I trust also you've come today, not only in the joy of the sunshine, but in the joy of the Lord and the joy of worshiping the Lord together. A few things I just want to emphasize in your bulletin, if I may.

Tonight in the evening service, be going back to the Psalms for these songs in the night, be looking at Psalm 27, which is the song of the confident believer. If you remember how that song begins, the Lord is my light and my salvation, then whom shall I fear?

Lord's the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? I'll be looking at that Psalm this evening. Then this week on Wednesday, we get back to the midweek ministries format with like a youth type program for young people up to single young people up to age 23.

And then also the kids clubs for children age four through grade six. So those meet at 645 and then here in the auditorium, adults meet for Bible study and prayer service. So that's Wednesday night, getting back to that schedule that we haven't had since what, middle of March, I think it was, something like that.

Also, it seems that the restrictions on missionaries from writing prayer letters during COVID has been lifted. I'm kind of kidding, but for our missionaries, everything was like the same. I mean, they weren't able to do anything for months.

So a lot of that has changed for them as well. And so we're starting to hear more regularly from them. And since we put this in the bulletin about the prayer letters from the Hammermeisters and this should be the Stroops.

Sorry about that, Jim. I don't know if you saw that typo. And the Williquets, the Slobodians also have a prayer letter and those are all available on that missionary wall in the hallway. I encourage you to pick up a copy of those and catch up with our missionaries in this particular time.

The Missionary Psalm and Worship Service Opening

Well, we've come together today to worship the Lord and we begin with Psalm 57, verse five. Before I read that, let me just remind you of the Coelho's ministry with us today. Heard from them in the Sunday school hour and just was blessed by hearing how the Lord uses a missionary from a most unassuming place to go to a foreign country and work in an unassuming place, reach someone with a gospel and then that trickles down and multiplies many, many times over.

And the result of that trickle down and multiplication are both Roberto and Patricia Coelho who are with us here today. And so a good challenge in the Sunday school hour. Roberto will be bringing the message in the morning service here today.

Well, Psalm 57, verse five says, be exalted above the heavens, O God. Let your glory be above all the earth. We'll open our service this morning, exalting our Lord Jesus Christ. So Jim, please come and lead us.

Thank you, pastor. Number 50 in your hymnals, number 50, be thou exalted. Let's stand together please and sing all three verses. Be thou exalted, number 50 in your hymnals. Be thou exalted.

Father, again, we thank you for your goodness to us this past week, your mercy, your grace. And Father, we do thank you for his family being here. We're thankful for that story that was shared, Father, how you work in individuals' lives, sending them throughout this world to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And Father, be with brother Roberto as he brings your word, Father. Help us to be open and attentive to it today. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

For our psalm reading today, we wanna read the 67th psalm. It's often been called the missionary psalm. And as we read it, you'll understand why. Psalm 67, first seven verses, just follow along as I read here in the back of your bulletin.

Psalm 67, the first verse. God, be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God.

Let all the people praise thee. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For thou shalt judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth. Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee.

Then shall the earth yield her increase and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word and may the reality of this psalm come to pass soon that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Our next hymn is in your song supplement book. Jim, we're gonna come and lead us here in just a moment. And just to remind you, this is a, you look at that, it's number 20 in your supplement book. There's no music to that.

It's a song that's to the tune of Church's One Foundation. Right? Yes, Church's One Foundation. Except for the chorus. The chorus has its own little tune. You'll remember it as soon as we get to sing it.

So Jim, please come lead us.

And again, that's in page number 20 in your blue supplement books. Does everybody have one of those? Anybody not have? Okay, we need a couple up here, at least one. Okay, we're gonna be, there's four verses, but we're gonna combine verses one and two and then sing the chorus.

And then three and four with the chorus. So we'll get an introduction to give you a familiarization of this tune. And we'll, again, one and two chorus, three and four chorus. So Facing a Task Unfinished.

["Facing a Task Unfinished"]. Facing a task unfinished

We pray together today. I want to remember our missionary of the week this week, the Barillas, Rachel, Mark and Rachel Barilla serving in Cameroon. Remember, Mark returned, they were home on furlough for about nine months or so.

Mark returned to the field as soon as he could back, when was that, late March or something like that, before seeing lived out in technicolor every day is sin. And it's the need of the gospel expressed right in front of us, right on the screen.

We see not only a hatred expressed toward fellow men, but hatred toward you and toward your word, toward our savior. How desperately people need the gospel of Jesus Christ. How unfinished indeed is this task.

And fathers, we're reminded today of the power of the gospel. We were in the Sunday school hour. As you send forth laborers into your harvest field and they go and they preach, the power of the preached word is able to convert sinful, dark hearts, open eyes that are blinded, unstopped ears that are deaf, so that people will believe and they will call upon the savior to save.

So we thank you for the power of the gospel and we pray that in this day of an unfinished task, you would indeed thrust forth laborers into your harvest field. Father, we think of the Burillas just recently resettling in Cameroon.

We pray that as they resume their work, that you would just bless those laborers. Pray that you would protect them in that country that is also marked by unrest, part of it expressing animosity toward Western influence, other parts of it appreciating it and then the consequent violence.

Father, we pray that you would protect them and the believers in that ministry there in Cameroon. We pray for all of our missionaries in this regard. Father, all of them have experienced great limitation because of the fears of COVID.

And I just pray that you'd continue to give each of them a grace and opportunity to continue to proclaim the word. Father, we pray for Kathy today as she faces this procedure tomorrow. We pray that it would be effective.

We pray for her recovery to be swift. The therapy that she receives to be effective as well. Lord, just be gracious to her. She's been frustrated with a lack of progress and understandably so. And I pray that she would see a definite improvement very soon.

Pray for Bob, continue to be gracious to him and meet his needs and Jerry as well. And Harold, bring healing to him, to his shoulder. Father, bless your people. Bless your people with health and with a prosperity of soul and spirit and mind and wellbeing.

Father, we do pray for our nation today. We pray for our president and for his protection. We pray for this election season. And Father, it seems like every four years when we get into this season, we are discouraged by the rhetoric, the inability to trust.

So Father, we have to rely on you and we should anyway. We should not be relying upon the outcome of election. Of an election, we need to rely upon you. But Father, what we desire more than anything is that you would use the challenges of our day to bring people to their knees in humility, in brokenness, to cry out to the Savior to save.

Lord, I pray that you would use all of the division and the violence and the hatred, even the catastrophes of fires in the Western states. Those, some set deliberately by those who are just anarchists and who are fomenting hate and others just spontaneously erupting, but wreaking so much havoc, so much damage, loss of property, loss of life.

And Father, catastrophes like this need to turn people to the Savior, turn people to you. Get us to stop and think soberly about our sinfulness and our need of a Savior. And to realize our accountability and responsibility before you.

Use these things in the life of our nation, we pray. Father, I pray particularly this morning for these two police officers in Los Angeles who were so maliciously and violently shot and to be left for dead.

Oh Lord, I pray for swift justice. I pray for their lives to be spared. And Father, what a travesty when men and women who've given their lives and taken up a career to help and protect people are so vulnerable and so targeted by malicious, hate-filled individuals.

Father, I pray for our police officers, our first responders in this nation, that you by your grace would protect them and that the powers that be, governors, mayors, would do everything in their power and authority to protect these servants of their communities.

Lord, we pray work in a wonderful way, in a miraculous way, in a powerful way in our land. So Father, we pray today that you would work in these things and we commit them to you and we ask your blessing upon us, your people.

We ask your blessing upon the gospel as it is proclaimed. We ask your blessing upon the remainder of this service. Meet with us again, we pray, in Jesus' name. All right, we will have another hymn before our message today, Jim.

That hymn is on page number 130, 130 in your hymnals. The Love of God. Let's stand together, please, and sing all three verses.

Thankful to have the Coelhos with us this morning. If you were here in the Sunday school hour, you got to be introduced to them. On their way out right now is Mr. Roberto Patricia and Andrew and Sophia and Isabella.

So we're glad that they could be with us today. Patricia and the children are helping in Children's Church this morning, so they're gonna have a good time together back there. But what a wonderful testimony of God's grace we heard in the Sunday school hour, how God in his grace sent forth a preacher to Brazil, a missionary to Brazil, 70, 80, 90 years ago, something like that, and then through that ministry, led, shared the gospel, and Roberto's father came to faith in Christ, and then Roberto came to faith in Christ, and here he is today as a missionary to Brazil himself.

So we're so thankful that they could be with us today. Asked Roberto to share the message this morning, and so he'll come and give us what God has laid on his heart for us. So Roberto.

Good morning. It's a blessing to be back with you. Thank you so much, Pastor, for inviting us back. It's been many years since we were here. It was just me and Patricia, and the Lord has added to our family Samuel, Isabella, and Sophia, who have been serving in Brazil since 2006, and the Lord has allowed us to plant a sister church of yours, Faith Baptist Church, Igreja Batista da Fé.

I think you can pick out which word is the word faith, and we started a ministry there in 2006, and the Lord has allowed us to reach some. You can come to our display table, and you'll see the banner of those we've been able to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's a privilege to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a privilege to be used of God for people to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Lord is not slacking concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but God is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God is not willing that any should perish. He is willing that all should come to repentance. Let me invite you to open your Bibles with me this morning to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 16. God sent his son into this world to save souls from their sin, amen?

He sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have a very lasting life. God is not willing that any should perish, but he is interested in seeing the salvation of souls.

I wonder exactly what God is doing through this worldwide pandemic. I don't know that all that God is doing. I do know some things. He is not willing that any should perish, and he is willing that all should come to repentance.

Perhaps God is using this to save souls as people come to realize their limitations, and they come to wonder what's gonna happen with them. The Lord has given us and our church in Brazil many opportunities through this pandemic, and we praise him from that.

God wants to save souls. In Acts chapter 16, we will see exactly that, God saving souls. In Acts chapter 16, we see God sending Paul, the missionary, this is his second missionary journey, along with three companions, Timothy, Silas, and Luke, and the narrative changes from they, excuse me, to we, as we see these four men preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing souls saved through the preaching of the gospel.

In Acts chapter 16, we see an illustration of God saving souls, souls that lived in the city of Philippi, Philippi, which is modern day Turkey. It's an Asia minor. So again, we see Paul and three companions on his second missionary journey, going to the town of Philippi because God wanted to save souls in Philippi, God saves.

We're gonna begin reading the narrative, Acts chapter 16, verse six. Acts chapter 16, verse six, read with me. Now, when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia.

Let me stop right there. Think about those words. The Holy Spirit did not allow them to go to Asia.

Why?

Verse seven. And they would come to Mysia, and Assaid attempted to go into Bithynia. Notice again. But the Spirit suffered them not. The Spirit did not allow them to go to Bithynia. Why not? And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he, Paul, had seen the vision, immediately we, Paul, Timothy, Silas, and Luke, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia.

Why?

Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, losing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Symethracia and the next day to Neapolis. And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony.

And we were in that city abiding certain days. God wants to save souls. And in Acts chapter 16, we see an illustration of that. God moving, orchestrating events, orchestrating people, making sure that the people are in the place he wants them to be, because he wants to save people with the good news of Jesus Christ.

As we have read verses six through 10, notice that God is sovereignly sending his servants to fulfill his purpose of saving souls, and he's placing them where he wants them. God is sovereignly sending his servants, and he's sovereignly placing them where he wants them to fulfill his purpose of saving souls.

Paul had wanted to go into Asia. He had wanted to go into Bithynia, but God had a different plan for him. God wanted him to go to Philippi.

Why?

Because God wanted to save souls in Philippi. God, who is interested in the salvation of souls, wanted Paul, Timothy, Silas, and Luke to go to the city of Philippi, because he had people there he wanted to see saved.

God is sovereignly sending servants to fulfill his purpose. Perhaps you can just think of the words, God sends. He sends those he wants, and puts them where he wants them to be. Paul thought he was on his way to Asia.

He tried to go into Bithynia, but clearly God wanted him in Philippi. He had a vision. In the vision, he saw this man from Macedonia, perhaps by his accent or by his language, I don't know, but he could tell that this man was from Macedonia, and in the vision, this man was saying, please help us, and that gives us an idea that people need help, and the help that they need is clearly seen at the end of verse 10.

God was calling them to preach the gospel. God wanted them in Philippi, and God was making sure that they would go to Philippi. He did not allow them to go to Bithynia. He did not allow them to go into Asia, because he wanted them in Philippi.

Notice that they said that their gathering, they concluded that God was calling them to preach the gospel. Let me tell you this. The best part about being a missionary is the opportunity to share good news with those who only have very bad news.

The very best part about being a missionary is the opportunity to share good news with people, and it is good news we have to share with them, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life, that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him, say it, might be saved.

Great news to share with people, people that without the good news only have bad news, and this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, but man loved darkness rather than light. He who has the son hath life.

He who does not have the son does not have life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. People without the gospel.

Only have very, very, very bad news.

They're condemned already. The very best part about being a missionary is being able to proclaim that God loves them and has sent his only son to die for them, and that whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ as their savior, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord as we heard earlier today will not perish, but have everlasting life.

God called them. God sent them exactly where he wanted them to be. Now, we believe that God has sent us to Brazil, to the city of Sao Paulo. If I were to choose myself, I would have never chosen the city of Sao Paulo as my target.

It's a city of 23 million souls, about twice the size of Chicago. It's a very crowded city. It's a very busy city. It's a very polluted city. There's traffic problems everywhere. On Sundays, it takes us 12 minutes to get to church Sunday mornings.

Any other time, it takes us between an hour and an hour and a half to go six miles. It's a nuisance. Every time you go to the grocery store to buy groceries, you have to wait four or five carts ahead of you.

Everywhere you go, lines of people. You wanna go to McDonald's, 20 people in line. Yes, McDonald's is a delicacy in Brazil. I would have never chosen Sao Paulo. I probably would have chosen Honolulu as my target.

Don't they need the gospel? Beautiful city. I don't know how effective I was gonna be, but that's would have been my choice. But we believe God placed us in Sao Paulo. When I was in seminary, I actually thought that God was gonna send us to East Timor.

It's the second half of Indonesia, a Portuguese-speaking country. We started praying towards that end, but God sent us to Sao Paulo because he wanted to plant Igreja Batista da Fé, Faith Baptist Church, in the western side of the section of Sao Paulo.

Notice that God was sending them to Philippi so they were, first of all, submissive to God's sovereign call.

God called them, they went.

They were submissive to God's will. Immediately, they went. They were submissive to God's plan. Go to Philippi. So they went to Philippi. God was placing them where he wanted them to be. Perhaps you've wondered why God has placed you in Sterling, Illinois.

God has placed you here because he wants you here. I assume it's not because you like the weather here. I assume it's not because you like the view from here. But God has placed you here because he has a plan and a purpose for you here.

God sent Paul, Luke, Silas, and John. And Timothy to Philippi.

Why?

What did God want to do in Philippi? Let's keep on reading. On the Sabbath, we, Paul, Timothy, Luke, and Silas, went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. There was a group of people who were gathering by the river.

And we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted tither. There was a group of women who were meeting there. Perhaps this town did not have a synagogue where men met. So they went there where these women were praying.

And they talked to them. What do you think they talked to them about? What do we talk to people about? We've talked to people a lot about masks. Perhaps we talk to people a lot about the weather. Half of the news is talking about the weather.

Who cares?

It will be what it will be, what God has designed.

Live with that. Sometimes I find it depressing to watch the weather forecast, don't you? They try to make it gloomy all the time. They advertise rain, for rain is good, snow is great. It's a great reminder of what God has done to our hearts.

Brazilians have never seen snow in their lives. It doesn't snow anywhere in Brazil. They have no concept. We tell them to open their freezers and get the little icing from the back of their freezers to have an idea of what snow looks like.

What a wonderful reminder of what God has done to our darkened hearts. He has made it whiter than snow. Snow is lovely. If it falls, it covers the ground. By the way, we're gonna get a lot of it this year.

So they went to Philippi and they're talking to the women. Let me volunteer with you that they are sharing the gospel, speaking about the most important topic there is, Jesus Christ. He's the way, the truth, and the life, and that there's no way to the Father, but through Him.

Him. That's the best conversation topic of all. Why do we spend so much time talking about sports? The Bulls haven't won in 25 years. The Bears, should we go there? Cubs, White Sox, Red Wings, is that the name of the other team, hockey?

Blackhawks. Why do we keep talking about those things and not about Jesus Christ? We have purposed as missionaries that any time we can direct the conversation,.

Any time we can direct it,.

We will direct it to the topic of topics, Jesus Christ. So we try to talk to as many people as we can, and we try as much as we can to direct the conversation. We wanna talk about Jesus Christ. It's the best topic because we have good news to share with them.

And we're mindful that without good news, all they have is horrible news. The wrath of God abideth on them, and they're condemned already. So they went to the river, the riverside, and talked to the women.

Verse 14, and a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, probably a Vikings fan, she's from the city of Tythira. She worshiped God, and she heard us. They're preaching the gospel. She heard it. Notice, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of all, and she was baptized, and her household, Lydia and her household heard the gospel preached to her.

She believed that gospel. She heard the message.

The Lord opened her heart. She believed, and she was saved, and she got baptized. One of the best things that we can do as missionaries is baptize believers. The last time I had the opportunity of doing it was last December.

I baptized a lady named Corinna. Corinna is a mother of one of our members. Her daughter was saved early in 2006, and for 14 years, we prayed for Corinna. For 14 years, we tried to reach her with the gospel.

She was a practicing spiritist. She owned a bar, and I think it's safe to say that she really hated us because she hated the message. For 14 years, we prayed for her, shared the gospel with her. Last year, we were able to complete the bottom level of our building.

She came to check it out. She was curious about it, and as she came in, she sat, she heard the gospel preached again, and the Lord opened her heart, that she listened to the things which were being spoken of, and she believed, and the Lord completely transformed her life.

Through her, her sister came to know the Lord. Last month, her grandson came to know the Lord. Her other daughter has been doing Bible studies and has been coming to church. It was a blessing to baptize Corinna and to hear her saying, I fought this off for 14 years.

I wish I had believed before,.

But I am so glad that Jesus saved me. Every time the doors are opened, now she's there. She's 71. She's part of that dangerous group that says, I don't care. If I die, I'm gonna go to heaven anyway. I see no reason not to be in church.

So she's there every time, every time. She's not afraid of dying. Believers should not be afraid of dying. It's the best thing for us because we'll be able to see the face of our Lord and Savior. We should look forward to that day.

Sometimes we're grasping to this earth too much, living in fear. Lydia was baptized. God saves. He saved Lydia. He saved her household. So middle verse 15, she besought us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there.

And she constrained us. So they stayed with Lydia for many days. And it came to pass, verse 16, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination mad us, which brought her master's much gained by sooth saying, demon possessed girl.

The same followed Paul and us and cried saying, listen to the words, these men are the servants of the most high God which show unto us the way of salvation.

Very true. Very, very true.

Now, how many would like to go witnessing and have a demon possessed person following you around? Saying these very words, these people are servants of the most high God. We're gonna show unto you the way of salvation.

We praise the Lord that even though there's a lot of spiritism around us, spiritism is the idea that you summon the spirits to give you direction in life. There's a lot of spirit centers in our neighborhood where people get together, they drink, they drum.

And the idea is that the leader of that meeting will incorporate a spirit to give them direction. We call those spirits demons. We've never seen a demon possessed person. I came close to something like that.

One Wednesday night, a girl came into church saying, I need help, I need help. My brother is speaking in a strange voice. He's got both hands around his neck and he's trying to take his own life. Can you come and help us?

I wasn't really sure how to go about that. So I said, do you think he'd be willing to come over here instead? And he says, I can try. So about 10 minutes later, there came a very strange looking young man, 25 year old, strange look.

I kept my distance and asked him,.

Is it okay if I pray for you?

He says, yes. So I prayed.

I prayed for his salvation.

After I had prayed, he looked a little calmer. I said, is it okay if I read scripture to you?

He says, yeah, that'd be fine. Took him to John chapter three, read the whole chapter and explained it to him. He said, I had never heard this before. I said, would you like to hear some more? He says, sure.

So for the next year and a half, we had Bible studies in his home. He, his mother and sister got saved. God saves. So this girl is following Paul and his companions. Verse 18, this she did many days. But Paul being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I commend in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come out of her.

And he came out the same hour. And when her master saw that she had been released from the power of darkness, they rejoiced with Paul and Silas and praise the Lord for what he had done. Not how it always works.

When her master saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, drew him into the marketplace and to the rulers and brought them to the magistrate saying, these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city.

It's like the whole city had heard the gospel. And teach customs, verse 21, which are not lawful for us to receive neither 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 inner prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely who haven't received such a charge, trust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks.

Wow.

Wow.

Paul and his companions are obeying the Lord. They were called to preach the gospel. They're preaching the gospel. As a result of that, they were arrested, beaten, received many stripes. They were put in jail.

They were cast into the inner prison, a basement, a hole dug in the rocks and made their feet fast in their stocks. What is happening here? What is God doing with Paul and Silas? Weren't they obeying his will?

Why are they facing trials? Now imagine for a little bit that you got arrested for preaching the gospel.

By the way, quick question.

If they started arresting people for preaching the gospel, would you ever be arrested? They might be arresting some pastors in California pretty soon here. They were preaching the gospel and they got arrested, placed in jail, received many stripes.

Why?

Where is God?

What is happening? Don't we question God when things don't go according to plan? Don't we complain and whine? What is God doing? We're gonna find out. But remember, God is more interested in the salvation of souls than he is in our comfort.

I'll say that again. Because sometimes we believe that God is very interested in making us fat and wealthy and rich. That is not the case. God is more interested in the salvation of souls than he is in our comfort.

So what would you and I be doing if we found ourselves in jail? Have we received many stripes? Matter of fact, trials were commonplace in Paul's life. He went through a lot. He tells us in 2 Corinthians that he had to learn two lessons.

God's grace is sufficient. The power of God is made perfect in our weakness. So this is midnight. You're in jail. Your back is bleeding. What do you find yourself doing? Read with me verse 25, because it's a challenge to my life.

And at midnight, Paul and Silas, say it, prayed. I can only imagine what they were praying for.

Release?

Release the salvation of souls. If those were their requests, God granted them both. And at midnight, Paul and Silas, this is Acts chapter 16, verse 25. Follow with me. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and, say it, sang praises.

Are the rest of you with me still?

Okay. Do you hear this? They're singing praises in jail. At midnight, in the bottom of a pit, chained, bleeding backs, having been arrested for preaching the gospel, and they are praying and praising God.

I don't know what they were singing, but in my mind, this is how I picture it. Paul and Silas in this dark pit, humid in the middle of the night, bleeding backs, and they're singing. If peace like a river attendeth my way

If sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul It is well with my soul, it is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my soul

And the prisoners heard them. How many of us have praised God in the midst of COVID? How many of us have made praising God our priority in the midst of trials? And the prisoners heard them. Verse 26, and suddenly, there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loose.