{"id":8362,"date":"2015-09-03T13:59:29","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T17:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=8362"},"modified":"2015-09-05T11:28:18","modified_gmt":"2015-09-05T15:28:18","slug":"the-original-jailhouse-rock-81615","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=8362","title":{"rendered":"The Original Jailhouse Rock (8\/16\/15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going through a rough time?\u00a0 Having a bad day?\u00a0 Maybe you’re wondering where God is in all of this; when will He show up?… will He show up?…\u00a0 Pastor Jim took a look at these questions during his sermon of August 16, 2015.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Due to a problem which forced us to rebuild our website using a backup file, the following post was restored from a draft version and is not complete. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the audio file is complete (so sit back, relax, read what is<\/em> here, and listen to Pastor Jim…)<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n

Click on the following “Play” button, scroll down, and follow along (this recording is from the 9:30 service)…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Our scripture was the book of Acts, chapter 16.\u00a0 A familiar passage about Paul and Silas in prison.\u00a0 Click the drop down box to follow along with Dr.\u00a0 Luke’s description of what happened…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Acts 16<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

Acts 16:16-34\nOne day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a demon-possessed slave girl. She was a fortune-teller who earned a lot of money for her masters.\u00a0 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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

19 Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace.\u00a0 “The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials.\u00a0 “They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.”<\/p>\n

22 A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.\u00a0 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.\u00a0 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.<\/p>\n

25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 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!”<\/p>\n

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?”<\/p>\n

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”\u00a0 And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

35 The next morning the city officials sent the police to tell the jailer, “Let those men go!”\u00a0 So the jailer told Paul, “The city officials have said you and Silas are free to leave. Go in peace.”\nHoly Bible, New Living Translation \u00ae, copyright \u00a9 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

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\u00a0So You’ve Had a Bad Day…<\/span><\/h3>\n

Have you ever had a bad day; a really bad day?\u00a0 We all have.\u00a0 No one is immune to bad days. Thankfully, not many of us have had a day a bad as Paul and Silas’ in this text.\u00a0\u00a0 Their day could be summarized by that wise old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.”<\/p>\n

You might be saying to yourself, “I not only have had a bad day, I’ve had a bad week… a bad month… a bad year… a bad decade, a bad….”<\/p>\n

Paul and Silas were definitely having a bad day!\u00a0 But this text gives us some basic advice on how to handle life’s most difficult times.<\/p>\n

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In a 1957 movie<\/a><\/span>, Elvis Presley made prison look like a rip roarin’ time when he sang “Jailhouse \"Jailhouse<\/a>Rock.”\u00a0 But there are similarities between this staged “Jailhouse Rock” and the “Original Jailhouse Rock” that happened in Philippi way back in 52AD.<\/span><\/p>\n

In both Jailhouses, music brought redemption; it changed the situation.\u00a0 In the movie, the warden “threw a party,” but in Philippi, it was God who through a party.\u00a0 And God didn’t just “throw the party for Paul and Silas (or for Elvis)- He threw it for everyone involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And it WAS a party; it wasn’t just about singing the blues.\u00a0 Music connected them to something higher than their dismal circumstances.<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Paul, Silas, the other prisoners, and even the jailer were all in dismal circumstances.\u00a0 The text tells us that Paul and Silas were “Cast” into the inner dungeon.\u00a0 This word literally means:<\/p>\n

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“to throw something with no concern for where it lands.”\u00a0<\/span> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

No respect, no appreciation for the good they had done.<\/p>\n

It couldn’t get much lower for them, but they’re not singing the blues!\u00a0 Instead they’re praying and singing hymns of praise.<\/p>\n

Hymns of Praise?!?\u00a0 It’s easy to praise God when things are going good, but what songs do you sing when your world is turned upside down?<\/p>\n

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1:\u00a0 God Comes to Our Prison…<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"chains-19176_640\"<\/a>When we prepare by worshiping, praying, and even by singing… God will enter our prisons.\u00a0 He will help us to rise above our circumstances.<\/p>\n

The ancient church Father Tertullian said,<\/p>\n

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The legs feel nothing of the stocks when the heart is in heaven.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It might be hard or impossible to find any joy in difficult circumstances.\u00a0 If you look to the chains around our feet, it’s not likely that you’ll be thinking of anything joyful.<\/p>\n

But Joy isn’t in our circumstances- Joy is in the Lord!\u00a0 Paul and Silas were looking to God- singing songs of praise.\u00a0 God gave them the power to live above their circumstances.<\/p>\n

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When you think about it, some of the most beloved hymns of the christian faith were composed in dungeons and darkness.\u00a0 Fanny J. Crosby was blind.\u00a0 But she later testified that withthe loss of physical sight and moving around in darkness, Got turned a light on in her soul.\u00a0 That though she was in darkness, she sat down one day and she penned the words:<\/span><\/p>\n
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“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.\u00a0 Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.\u00a0 Heir of salvation.\u00a0 I’ve been purchased of God.\n<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in His Spirit, and washed in His blood.”<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She also wrote the words “Jesus keep me near the cross.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Because she learned how to sing in the dungeon.<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Have you ever felt so low that you couldn’t see your way out?\u00a0 Have you ever felt that nobody cared?\u00a0 You’re not alone!\u00a0 Fanny Crosby probably felt that way at times. Elijah did too:<\/p>\n

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1 Kings 19:3-6<\/span><\/p>\n

3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there.\u00a0 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”<\/span>\nElijah was in a dungeon,\u00a0 but God broke through…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!”\u00a0 He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water!<\/span>\u00a0<\/div><\/div>\n

Even in life’s dungeons, God never leaves us nor forsakes us and He will never allow us to be defeated.\u00a0 He makes a way of escape where there seems to be none.\u00a0 He watches over us as the apple of his eye.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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