Acts 16:25-34

Speaker 1: Well, good

Speaker 2: morning and welcome to our sixty six anniversary service here today. Let's go ahead and stand. Let's join together in song praising

Speaker 3: the Lord has no authority

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Speaker 3: verse three, read every book and read. Every tribe on this forest

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Speaker 2: All Amen. Good job opening up the service at this time, I have brother Jason Hylton come up and pray for our service here today. It's exciting to see everyone that is here today. Many wonderful things going on today. Looking forward to what God is going to do in our hearts today.

Speaker 1: Let's pray. Well, dear Lord, we just come to you this morning. We thank you for this day that you've given us. Well, we thank you for your love, Your Grace, and your mercy in our lives. Father, we just ask that you were just. Lord just put a hedge of protection around each and every person in here today, or we just ask for your your presence, the Lord, and we just ask for your guidance and everything we do. Holy Spirit, we just welcome you here. Pasticcio flood this place and feel the atmosphere. Oh, Lord, we love you. We asked you not let anyone leave here the same or don't let anyone leave here not knowing you. We love you and praise you in Jesus name, Amen.

Speaker 2: All right, thank you, may be seated. It is good to have you here with us today. And real quick, I wanted to welcome a very special guest that we have with us here this morning. Miss Animal Williams made the trip over from Stillwater, Oklahoma. And Miss Annemasse, Imogene, of course, charter members of the Baptist Tabernacle, part of the original five families that helped start the church back in. Well, sixty six years ago. Nineteen fifty five. And so we're so glad to have her here and praise the Lord that we're able to be together on this very special occasion. Many other guests here with us today. I see different family members and folks that grew up here at the church. And we're so glad to have each one of you here with us today. Hopefully, you received one of our weekly bulletins as you came in. It's got a special cover on the front for the sixty six. And if you are a guest with us, either the first time or the first time in a long time, we would sure appreciate it. If you'd fill out the connection card that's inside of there, you can put whatever information you feel comfortable with sharing. We promise not to spam you or bug you in any way. We would just like to have a record of your visit and if you do fill that out, you can turn it into a welcome desk after the service is over. And we'll give you a gift to show our appreciation for you being here with us today. Let me give you some announcements, some things going on today and in the near future. First, since today is the anniversary service, we are going to do things just a little bit different. We had our normal Sunday school. Obviously, this service is taking place at the normal time and place. As soon as the service is over this morning, we're going to make our way over into the gym by way of the fellowship hall. And we have got all kinds. If you couldn't tell smoked meat out there in the gym. I mean, the church smells like a restaurant. It's so yummy. I don't know how any of you are going to pay attention today. But anyways, I mean, we've got smoked brisket, smoked pulled pork. We've got smoke, baloney, smoke, sausage. I mean, everything is out there. And of course, to baptize all of it, we have had country barbecue sauce from right here in Oklahoma. And but there'll be some great cobbler out there from, I think, a famous bakery in Claremore. What's it called, old Dutch Bakery, so we've got a bunch of that different flavors, and so you're going to want to stick around for the lunch and then as soon as we're done eating, we're going to go right into a prey's service, Thanksgiving service out there in the in the gym. We're not going to come back in here where we've got some testimonies from some of our members. We're seeing several songs. And then we're going to recognize several different groups of people who helped keep things going over the past year. One of the most craziest year that's not proper, one of the craziest years on record with the pandemic and everything, all the juggling and flexibility that we had to have to get through the year. We want to just kind of say thank you to some some folks who helped us during that time. And so it will not be a long service, but we will move straight into that service out in the gym, will not come back back in here, I was told to tell you that there will be child care from nursery to five years old during that second service. So you're thinking, oh, man, what am I going to do with my kids in the gym from nursery to five years old? They'll be able to go into their children's program while we have the service in the gym. So I really hope you'll stay for that. It's going to be awkward. You know, if we're eating and we start and you get up and leave. So just just hang out with us. I promise you it'll be good. It'll be worth your time, and then you'll have the rest of the evening to relax and do whatever it is, whatever it is you do. But anyways, that's all going on today. So No. Five thirty service tonight, but we will enjoy a good time out in the gym this coming Wednesday. We're going to hear from one of our veteran missionaries, the Jacobs missionaries, to Pakistan. The week after that, we'll have a new missionary to our church. The kitchens involved military missions and then June. Twenty third, there will be a camp meeting following the Wednesday night service. One last opportunity to give you some information about what to expect, what to pack, when to have your kids here, when to pick them up. After a week of camp, after a long trip home, those youth workers are going on to say goodbye. So anyways, please make plans to be in there on June twenty third after the Wednesday night service, we are retreads meeting June twenty fifth, ten to one in the fellowship hall games and a potluck lunch. And then camp will be June twenty eight through July 3rd. And our elementary and teen campers will be heading to South and Christian Camp in Ringgold, Louisiana. Right now we have how many people all going. Forty, forty seven. Forty seven heading to camp. And so we're super thrilled about that. Cannot wait to see what God is going to do in their life. Praise the Lord. He is continuing to work here at the Baptist Tabernacle. We obviously have a very rich history, a long history of faithfulness and God working, but we are not satisfied to just rest on what has been done. We are looking forward to what God is going to do. We're going to show a video in honor of the sixty sixth anniversary. And a lot of our videos on the anniversaries have focused on the long time history of the church. But I told the man I wanted to make a little bit of a pivot during the the middle years. You know, you make a big deal out of sixty five. We make a big deal. We're going to make a big deal out of 70. But in the middle, let's let's focus on what God is currently doing. And so what this is going to be is just a rehearsal of all of the things that took place over the last year and what God was able to accomplish. And don't make that very clear. It's what God was able to accomplish during that time. And you said, well, that's great. God did some things this past year know God still doing things. You look on the back of your bulletin, you can see that we are continuing to move forward with trying to invest in the property here and God is blessing those fundraising efforts. We had vacation Bible school last week with over 300 kids registered for VBS. Now, we never had three hundred all here one time, but over the course of the week, three hundred children came through this place, many of them getting say what do we end up with 20. Fifteen, fifteen kids getting saved, which is a huge blessing. And I thought it was neat one day we were we were dismissing and Miss Kathy Caite introduced me to a man that had brought his grandchildren to VBS and his first words were, I grew up coming to VBS here at the Baptist Tabernacle. And so we are a multigenerational church, but we're looking forward to what God will continue to do here through this ministry, both in the Collinsville community and truly around the world. So let's dim the lights up here on the platform and get that video playing for everybody.

Speaker 3: And.

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Speaker 2: Let's continue singing wonderful song here this morning, amazing love you are making.

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Speaker 2: And beautiful singing today, and I really appreciate the map putting together that video for us and just to be reminded of all that God did over the last year. It's really an amazing things. We praise him for it and that's for the Jimmy to come and, uh, pray for God's blessing on the offering. And, um, he got to wear his shirt. He told me proof that miracles. How's it go? Living proof that miracles happen and another thing that God did not only for, uh, the short family, but also for our church, and it's a little selfish, but, you know, when Brother Jimmy was there in the hospital, I talked to my wife and I said, what is our church going to be like if Jimmy Schwartz, not their. I'll let you ponder that one. Yeah, don't ask Willy. But we are so grateful that God spared Jimmy's life and that he is here with us on this special Sunday. But Jimmy, you come and ask God's blessing on the offering today.

Speaker 1: Let's pray father in heaven, we thank you today, we thank you for this good, uh, crowd this morning to celebrate our sixty six year here at the Baptist Tabernacle in Collinsville. We thank you for the witness and the testimony. This church has been over all these sixty six years. And Father, we just pray that you would continue to, uh, let that testimony continue and that it will continue to grow and that, uh, through our efforts here and through this giving that the faithful members of the church have been so faithful together that it will continue to be a beacon around the world and right here in our own backyard in Collinsville. And father, we just thank you again. We praise you for the for the love that you've shown us and for the grace that you've bestowed upon me and my family in this church. We just pray that you bless this offering and use every penny for your will and Christ precious name we pray. Amen.

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Speaker 2: Hey, man, thank you so much for that special mystery. I was a blessing, and I appreciate all of you being here today. Thank you for taking time out of your weekend to join us here this morning. And especially thank you. Those of you that have children and had to get them ready and in the car and here on time more and more, um, you know, you realize how much you take for granted when you're a child and you just. Put your clothes on, hopefully, right? Get in the car and go, and then when you're the parent and you've got to get everybody ready and get them in the car and get them out the road, and Alicia's sitting there thinking, you came early. You only brought Titus, but anyways, glad I am glad that you're here and I don't ever want to take it for granted that people would come out and be a part of the services here at the Baptist Tabernacle. A couple of the things I want to tell you about. As I've mentioned before, we did have someone that has committed to matching all of the donations that come in during the month of June for the new playground. So that's that's a huge blessing. We're very excited about that. And I asked them, does that include VBS? And they said yes. And so this past week, the VBS kids raised over two thousand dollars towards the new playground. So that is exciting, spoke with a local commercial playground designer in the Tulsa area and they're going to be sending us an initial design for handicapped, accessible playground. And so we will be hopefully be able to show that to the trustees soon, begin to make changes and suggestions and work our way through the process of getting a very nice playground to put out for our children and our preschool to take part again. I did invite you to stay for lunch. And when you get out there, we've got these special Collinsville Baptist Tabernacle route. Sixty six sixty six anniversary cups. I hope that you'll grab one of those and I hope you won't throw it away. Take it home, use it at home, bring it to the office, put it in your garage, whatever. I mean, you put pins in it, you can put bolts and nuts and screwdrivers in it. So please don't take these and throw them away. We did our Mothers Day thing and had those prints that we paid for and after it was over, I was emptying the trash cans, unlike there's like 30 prints down in the bottom of this trash can who would throw this away? So I pulled them out, one of them off, the rest were clean. And so I have them in my closet. But anyways, take them home, use them, give your kids whatever you want to do. I think they're really cool looking. So we'll have these out there and I hope you'll be able to get one. We should we should have enough for everybody. All right. What else did you say? Oh, that's what it was. I'm so glad to have my family here with me today, my mom, my dad and two of my brothers and their lives here. And Jimmy met Mike, and he's like, oh, your mike is that you need a name tag that just says, I'm the mike. And so I actually have yeah he's got I had the label printer in my hand, so we made it up real quick and he's proudly wearing that. But anyways, Mike has been the source of many of my illustrations throughout the years. Most of them are true. But anyways, take your Bibles, if you have them, turn to X, chapter number 16 acts, chapter number 16. We are going to pick up where we left off last week. And those of you that are regular attendance here, that's no surprise, except number 16, if you find your place, you would mind join me in standing in honor of reading God's word. We're going to begin reading in verse number twenty five acts, chapter number 16, verse number twenty five. And we'll read down to verse number thirty four. The Bible says in verse twenty five that midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises and to God the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundation of the prison was shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed, and the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice saying. Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light, you sprang in, came trembling, fell down before Paul and Silas brought them out and said Sirrs. What must I do to be saved? They said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved and house. Speaking to him concerning him, the word of the Lord, all that were in his house. He took them the same hour of the night, wash their stripes and was baptized. He and all his straightway. When he had brought them into his house, he set me before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. Let's pray or I ask that you would help us. Now, as we look into your world, I pray that you would give me the words you'd have me to say. You talk to folks that are here to listen and apply here to their lives for us in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Nineteen fifty five, that was a couple of years ago. A couple. How many of us how many of you were even alive in nineteen fifty five? All right. Less than half of the congregation. I didn't do a whole lot of research for this, I just pulled up a website, but I wanted to share some information with you just to show you how much things have changed and what was going on in nineteen fifty five. The minimum wage. In nineteen fifty five. One dollar. For our. Average monthly rent in nineteen fifty five. Eighty seven dollars. Aren't seeming very surprised by this, this is. Black and white TV, ninety nine, ninety five. Average cost of a new car. Nineteen hundred dollars. Average cost of a new house in the United States, ten thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars. I won't even get you in the new car. The average cost of gas. Twenty three cents a gallon. Average yearly income. Four thousand one hundred and thirty dollars. A couple of things happened in nineteen fifty five, the United States launched its first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, in nineteen fifty five sacks. Polio vaccine was approved in nineteen fifty five. The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC in nineteen fifty five. It was in nineteen fifty five that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. Nineteen fifty five, the TV show, the game show, the sixty four thousand dollar question first aired along with Gunsmoke. Nineteen fifty five. July of nineteen fifty five, Disneyland opened its doors for the very first time. And in nineteen fifty five, the United States began its involvement in the Vietnam conflict. A lot going on in nineteen fifty five. A lot has gone on since nineteen fifty five. My point for sharing all of that with you this morning is because through all of the major world events from nineteen fifty five till now, the Baptist Tabernacle has been here in Collinsville doing exactly what a church is supposed to be doing in sharing the gospel. Now, those of you that have been alive since nineteen fifty five, you raised your hand, have there been some good times between nineteen fifty five and now? Certainly. Have there been some difficult times since nineteen fifty five. Yes. Both in your personal life, in our country's life, in the history of the world. Since that time, over sixty six years a lot has gone on. And yet for every change, every major event, every catastrophe, every global outbreak of whatever Baptist Tabernacle has still been here preaching the gospel to our community and sending missionaries to preach the gospel all around the world. The point of the message today is very simple in the good times and in the bad times, we have a responsibility to share the gospel. As was saying earlier, we preach the word. When it's easy to preach the word, we preach the word, when it's difficult to preach the word, we preach the word pastor, it's your responsibility to preach the word now. Preach just means to declare. We all have a responsibility to declare God's gospel to every being on this earth. We pick up our story and verse number twenty five. Why it's not a story that's happened. This isn't a legend or a fairy tale, but we pick back up in the lives of Paul and Silas as they have been freshly imprisoned because of what had taken place in the previous verses. Last week we learned about how Paul and Silas, along with Luke and Timothy, were in the city of Phillipi and they were being harassed by a demon possessed girl or lady. The Bible is not clear on how old she was, but who was following them around, proclaiming that these men are servants of the most high God? And they declared to us the way of salvation. We talked about some of the grotesque nature of these words coming out, how it might have looked by this demon possessed girl. It was it was not a reputable messenger of God. She was causing confusion. She was causing a distraction. And so Paul was grieved and he turned around and he, in the name of Jesus, cast that demon out of this woman. Well, this woman had handlers. She had managers who sought to profit from hurt her pain, her enslavement to the forces of darkness. And they made a lot of money off of her. And with their source of income gone, they took Paul and Silas before the rulers of the city. They they they lied about them, they said made false accusations. And they caused Paul and Silas to be beaten with rods and thrown into prison. So our verse starts off at midnight of that evening as they're there spending the night in the innermost part of the jail. And Paul and Silas turn their prison cell into a worship service. Now, I have no doubt with as many Christians are here this morning, that you've probably had some worship times in some odd places. Right. Like your car. So my car's not odd. I've seen the inside of somebody else's cars. It's an odd place. It's like. Stuff hanging from the headliner. I don't know if there's something living in the floorboard, but you worship in your car. Maybe you've been out on a deer stand worshiping God as you are surrounded by nature. Maybe it's while you're fishing, you just can't get over the beauty of God's creation. Maybe it was while you were at work. As you sit there in your cubicle or at that workstation where you are and you are meditating on what you read in your Bible, you're meditating on the abilities that God has given you, the fact that you are able to work with your hands and be able to earn a living for your family. And you just praised God in that moment. We can have a worship time with God any time anywhere. In any condition? Here's Paul and Silas. They're in prison, they are bleeding profusely, I mean, they are at the point of death not exaggerating the point of the beating was to bring them as close to death as possible. They're in a strange city with barely any friends, and so you might look at them and say, well, what do they have to sing about? What do they have to praise God for in this moment? And that's exactly what we find them doing, singing, praying and praising the Lord, why? Well, I'm glad you asked. If you have confidence that God. Can change your eternal destination. If you can trust that, God can wash your sins away. As heinous as they might be. Is it really a stretch to think that perhaps in a prison cell, God still got your back? It's not a stretch. Sometimes we think it's a big stretch, but it's not. The God who made your spirit alive. Can watch over you in jail. Paul and Silas are there and they're singing, they're praising God and Jesus told his disciples, hey, if they hated me, they're going to hate you. But when you face persecution. It's a blessing. You should count it, Joy, when you face trials and prosecutions for my namesake. And so here they are experiencing that very thing going through a very difficult time, I mean, emotionally, physically, things haven't looked much worse. You know, throughout the history of the church. Throughout the history of the gospel, throughout the history of Christianity. There have been innumerable numbers of martyrs whose dying breaths were spent praising Jesus. As the flames consume their body, they praise God. As the sword from the executioner came down on their neck, they praised God. Really incredible. It doesn't make sense. I've never been in that situation. But I hope if that time ever comes that I'll be praising the Lord to. Now, here's something interesting, first number twenty six. The God that they're singing to. Interrupts their praises now, from time to time, we'll have somebody something interrupt our praises. Usually it's our sound system. Not some, but sometimes. Sometimes it's a child. I'll never forget on Wednesday night, Brother Mat's in the back working with the teens, I'm here leading the singing, and here comes Jackson, my son, down the center aisle. I'm looking at him.

Speaker 3: Daddy, Daddy. Like, what are you doing?

Speaker 2: Now, one or two things can happen. I can stop singing, or at least you can stop playing. Which would you prefer? But there they are, they're singing, they're praising God and God interrupts them and the Bible says and he sings a great earthquake, not a little earthquake or a somewhat earthquake. A great earthquake suddenly begins shaking the foundations of the prison, waking everyone up, causing a huge amount of noise. And in addition to all that, the Bible says verse number twenty six, that all the doors were opened and everyone's bans were loosed. Now. I don't believe perhaps you do believe, but that's OK, you can do that, I don't believe that the earthquake caused all the doors and all the shackles to come loose at the same time. I think the earthquake was just a byproduct of God moving so powerfully in this prison that God is going through and opening the doors, he's releasing the shackles, he is setting these prisoners free. It's something God's pretty good at. That was corny. I'm glad you invented the. I believe God miraculously set Paul and all of the prisoners free in that moment, the earthquake was just a happenstance thing that happened because God was moving. Well. The earthquake wakes everyone up. I've told you the story about when we first lived in an apartment, after we had just gotten married and our neighbors were known for we lived on the third floor. They were known for stomping up the stairs and shaking the building. Well, one day I was home by myself, I don't know where I was spending my money or shopping or something, I don't know, not likely, but perhaps that's what she was doing. And I felt the building shake. I mean, this is weird. I've never felt a shake this much. They must really be stomping hard today. So I get up and I'm in a bit of a mood, so I yanked the door open to tell this person, you know what, I really think about them and there's no one there. Like what is going on? The frames are shaking on the wall. It was an earthquake. Never felt an earthquake before. I come from Texas. We're very grounded and stable. I should have now moving to Oklahoma. There would be some shakiness going on. But this earthquake wakes up a very specific person. The Bible says that the keeper of the prison awakened out of his sleep. Probably the earthquake woke him up. Well, he goes and he rushes to check on the prisoners to make sure that, you know, that they're still where they should be. And as he comes out to look, all the prison doors are open. Now, I want you to get something in your mind for just a second, if you could. I want you to imagine probably a six foot walled compound, OK? So large courtyard, two separate buildings within the world section there is the prison. And then over here is a house, OK? They've done archeological digs. They found that this was the common method of building the prison in those days. And you would have all the prisoners in the prison separated by a courtyard where there would be perhaps a fountain or source of water, maybe some kind of pump, and then there would be a house over there. The jailer lived twenty four seven on the prison site with his family. Now, there would have been other people who had been contracted. They would come in, but there will always be a jailer on site. He lived there. And so here's this earthquake. And over on this side, you've got the prison where all the doors have just come open, all the shackles have been loose. And over here is the prisoner with the prisoner. The jailer and his family are there asleep. Now he wakes up. He's probably got his family laying on the same mat as he is, OK? I mean, sons, maybe some daughters, wife, they're all sleeping on the floor. And this earthquake, wake them up. If he was me, his wife would have woke him up and said, hey, there's an earthquake going on. But he gets up, he rushes outside because he wants to make sure that nobody's gotten away, because that's the very first thing we'll talk about a moment. And when he gets out to look at the prison, he sees all the doors are open. Now, what would you think had this happened to you? What would you think was going on if you stepped outside and the prison doors were open? They're going. They are gone now, you've no doubt heard this, but there were severe consequences for a prison guard who allowed an inmate to escape a single escape could cost the jailer his life, definitely his position and income. Now, just imagine if you oversaw a totally empty prison. You went to bed and everybody was locked up, you woke up, everyone was gone. This man is in deep trouble. So he pulls out his sword. Isn't the intention of ending his life? Paul speaks up in number twenty eight, Paul cries with a loud voice, This man is probably in the courtyard. He sees this this prison is all open and so he pulls his sword out and he falls to the ground and he is about to run himself through. When Paul calls from the prison window, maybe Paul could see out, I don't know. But anyways, he says, do thyself no harm. We are all still here. You can imagine the shock this man must have felt. You know. When, when, when things happen in the world. It should be. That people around us are shocked by the way Christians respond. And Christians ought to approach things differently than someone who doesn't know Jesus. Unfortunately, all too often we we fall right in line and we march lockstep with the rest of the world, everybody else is panicking. We're panicking. You know, I'm also afraid, we're afraid. Don't we have something more sure than them? I mean, aren't we secure and Jesus, don't we have a a definite knowable end to what our lives are going to be like when this life ends? We know exactly what's going to happen. If you don't to fear death, what do you have to fear? If you don't have to fear death, what do you have to fear nothing. I mean, here you have these these prisoners, they're not responding the way this jailer thought they should respond. I don't know if any of them were saved, but we know Paul and Silas were. Why didn't they all leave, probably Paul and Silas were like, don't move. Now, if you got two guys that are bleeding out their backs like crazy and a Northway quake comes while they're singing praises to their God. Kind of like, yeah, yeah, we won't move, we're good. I heard about what you did to that demon possessed girl on. Not to mess with you. Loosed from their bonds, still hurting from the beating they had received, Paul and Silas immediately go right back to what their mission is. They've got a mission accomplished, whether it's good times, they're down by the picturesque river leading Lydia and all her servants to the Lord, things are going great. They've got a mission to accomplish in the bad times. And the blood is coagulating on their backs, it gets stiff, they can barely move. Do myself no harm. We're all still here. The prison guard calls for a light, rushes into the cell, no doubt the rest of his family is starting to wake up. Little Johnny Jailer is coming out and he says, Johnny, grab me my torch. Johnny goes and grabs his dad's torch and he's lighting it and he brings to his dad, the dad doesn't mean to yank it out of his hands, but he's just so worked up, you know, so he he grabs that torch. And the Bible says that he spring in. You know, like a ha. Sprang into the jail cells. Came trembling. This guy is this poor dude, he's got some massive mood swings going on right now. Kill myself, run in here, they're all still here, he's trembling, he falls down on the ground before Paul and Silas, we don't know this, but it is possible that this man would have been involved in the beatings that they would have received earlier that day. He goes from someone who is inflicting pain upon them to a person who is now laying prostrate at their feet. He asks them. To share with him the way of salvation, their testimony through this entire ordeal has led this man. To now ask them. How can I be saved? Thirty one. A verse that many of us have memorized, they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Not just you, anyone in your house, I will believe they'll be safe to. Leave on the Lord Jesus Christ believe, what about the Lord Jesus Christ, believe that you're a sinner. You're a sinner, and Jesus Christ came to this earth as the son of God lived a perfect life. Died on the cross to take your penalty and my penalty for my sins. Buried. Rose again, the third day conquering death. You believe on him? And you'll be saved. Message that is applicable to him and his whole house, Paul and Silas are there in the prison cell sharing the gospel, sharing the word of the Lord with all the people of this gaolers house and any of the prisoners that were listening. Verse thirty three after hearing. This message, the jailer brings them to a place with water to clean their wounds, probably that water source that he had there in the courtyard. Could have been a nearby river. Paul and Silas's wound's needed to be cared for. What happened with Lydia when Lydia got saved? She immediately began serving, Lydia got saved, and she said, hey, I don't know you guys. I've never seen you before, but you can stay in my house. Don't go pay for a hotel. You come stay with me. I've got room. Immediately jumps to service, you go back and look at the rest of the Book of acts that we've been studying for the last year, some some some some length of time. Every time somebody gets saved, they immediately start serving others. Why? Well, because when you've received the grace of God, you want to show the grace of God. And so here he is, he is living it saved there in the prison, and he immediately starts trying to minister to somebody says, come on. Let me help you clean those wounds. They look pretty bad. Remember, they were bolted to the floor. Paul and Silas were. They're probably thrown in there. On Migros. But the Migros. There's dirt. Gravel rocks embedded in their skin. It's nasty. Look, I don't dispute. Blood doesn't bother me that much, at least not in the blood. She handles the puke. We're a good team. He's there and he's cleaning is cleaning them up. He's having to scrape some of it off his wrapping them in new bandages, putting some ointment on their wounds. After they're cleaned up. Miles, as Paul and Silas baptize the gaoler and the rest of his household. She said they all get saved well, first time thirty four, it kind of seems like they did. Into the verses, believing in God with all his house there were united in their belief in Jesus. Perhaps it was the same water, maybe there was a wash basin there, a large animal trough feeding and kind of like what some of some churches are doing these days where they bring out the stock tanks out on the on on the platform. We might do that one day. They'd be fine. I'd love to just do that to somebody. Bring them right back up, but, you know, this looks cool, it's so they're there, they got a big bucket of water and they're they're dunking the gaoler. Here comes his wife and they're dunking her and they're giving the kids. They believed in Jesus, too. And they get baptized. Just like a. Funding, you know. It's a fun thing, really, to be silkily. It's a fun thing. This ends, they get baptized. And the first number, thirty four, what do they do? They start eating. Aren't you ready for dinner and lunch? Me, too. I'm going to wrap this thing up. That smoke man is calling my name. I don't know, maybe he had some smoked me, probably smoke go, but, you know. Some people like that. He says food in from the front of them and they start to eat, what does the Bible says? Says and they rejoiced. They were having a good old time, why? Because Jesus had just entered their life. You see? What began as a near-death experience for both the jailer and the missionaries. It turned into an eternity changing run in with the gospel. Bad time. Was changed because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Bad circumstances. Didn't stop God's missionaries from sharing the good news. And even somebody that they wouldn't have thought really would have responded, did somebody you wouldn't think would have accepted the gospel. God saved what was Phillipi filled with? Crusty old Roman soldiers. Retired, hardened by battle. It's probably who this guy was. Yet. Gospel of Jesus Christ broke through that hard soil in his heart. That seed of God's word brought forth that night. No matter what the circumstances are around us. No matter the audience. God can use us. To spread his message. No matter what goes on, no matter how our country moves this way or moves this way, the Baptist Tabernacle has a mission that does not change. Things may be going great. The economy is doing well politically. Your favorite people are in power and it's great gods working. Economy may be doing poorly. Satan himself may be in charge of the political arena. Baptist Tabernacles mission doesn't change. God's ability to work through the Baptist Tabernacle doesn't change and fact history has proven when things look the darkest. Churches flourish. Sixty six years the Baptist Tabernacle has spread has been spreading the gospel through the good times and the bad thing through some of the world events that have occurred since nineteen fifty five. I can't go back that far, but even since nineteen eighty eight, I can think of some things that have been pretty incredible. Wars, economic difficulties, scandals, a pandemic. And through it all, the Babis Tabernacles been here. Distributing the gospel, preaching the word of God. Trying to help people. To get through this life. Trying to prepare them for the next life. Our church can't take a day off. Our church can't take a vacation, our church doesn't get a year off, we can't say, all right. Sixty six years is great. We'll see it the sixty seventh. We're just going to take this year off. As individuals, members of this church, maybe you're not a member of this church, but you're here and you're a child of God. Perhaps you're visiting from out of town and you've got a church that you're a part of as individuals that make up these local bodies. Our mission doesn't go away. Just because circumstances are unfavorable. I can look, being here now for a few years, I can look at different ones that are in this room and know that you personally, your family has dealt with some trials just since I've known you, some difficulties, some some less than favorable circumstances over and over. I've watched as God's people have continued to live and share the gospel, even when circumstances aren't necessarily favorable. That's what we should do. That's what God expects us, that's why God gave us the Holy Spirit to enable us to do those things. There are people out there. Who need the message that this church is trying to declare? There are people out there that need the message that your life is supposed to declare. So whether you're sitting in a jail cell or you're in the CEO's office. It's your mission to declare the gospel. To preach the word. Whether it's a. Boom year or bust year. You declare the gospel. Our mission doesn't change. We move forward into our sixty seventh year of mission ministry. Those of you that have known the Baptist tabernacles from the day that it started, those who have been there for 50 years, 20 years, one year. Our mission is the same. I'll never forget I share in the video when asked why those five families came here to Collinsville to start this church, Imogene said there were people there. We needed to know Jesus. That's why we're still here. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to celebrate. Sixty six years of ministry. Thank you for the faithfulness that we sang about earlier. To care for this church, to provide for this church. Thank you for the faithful ministers that you have gifted this church with for many years. Thank you for the leadership that has been at this church. Both of the officers and also the the men that you have used to pass through this church. We thank you for Pastor Kate in the 40 years that he oversaw the ministry here. Were the Phelps. God, I pray that you would continue. To use our church to declare the message of the gospel. Or that for the next. However many years until you return, this church would continue to be a lighthouse for you. Or the during the good times, we would not slack, we would not grow lazy and and fat off of our own wealth. Or we would keep our hands to the plow. Continue to minister and. Show your love and your grace to others. God, I pray that should things go dark. In our country and in the world. We would be no less committed to you. And the mission that you have tasked us with. We continue to spread your word everywhere we go. Or we we ask today. I hope as a united group for your blessing. Our church for your protection on our church. The members of this church. Or that she would use us to be a light for you. No matter what happens in Jesus name that I ask these things, Amen. Let's all stay and we're going to sing a song of invitation page to eighty seven, if God has spoken to your heart, there's a decision to make something you need to pray about. God has spoken to you, it's only right you would talk back to him. We have this part of the service just for that purpose. Let's not let it pass by. God has spoken to you. You respond to him. His brother Matt sings. I surrender all

Speaker 3: Oh, Jesus.

Unidentified: I surrender all to.

Speaker 3: I really

Unidentified: I have a

Speaker 3: lot of love and trust, and it is Presence Day.

Unidentified: The Hudson River rose. Hi. Renderos. Oh, to

Speaker 3: thee, my

Unidentified: blessed savior, I surrender

Speaker 3: all in that second verse, all to Jesus, I surrender

Unidentified: humbly at his feet. I go, Whoa, the pleasure's

Speaker 3: all for sake and take me Jesus,

Unidentified: take me down. I surrender. I surrender all. Oh, to thee, my best stay before I surrender.

Speaker 2: Roll every head bowed, every eye closed. This pianist plays. Ayman. Well, thank you all so much for being here today. I hope that the service has been a blessing and a challenge to your hearts, and I hope that you'll be continuing if you're a member of the church. Definitely. But even those of you that our extended family and friends of this ministry, you continue to keep our church in your prayers as we seek to serve the Lord. Um, we're going to be dismissed a couple of directions, though. The is going to come close to some prayer. But if you don't mind asking God's blessing on the food, please, before you go out to the gym, go get your children. Get your children and we do child care for the second Thanksgiving service, but you have to go get them first, feed them and then you can take them back. So so go get the kids. And then if you will start in the fourth year and go in through the fellowship hall, all of the food is in the fellowship hall and then you can go into the gym and get a seat. Drinks are in the gym, but if you go into the gym first, there's no food in there. So you're going to want to go through the fellowship all the way to serving lines. And there'll be folks there to help you get that. We want to try and move you through as quick as possible. And so if you can help us with that, we've got Hawaiian rolls. And if you want to make a sandwich out of your meat, do it at your seat. Don't try to do it right there. Just throw it all on your plate and then you can arrange it after you've sat down. Um, speaking of myself there. So anyways, I hope you'll stay. We've got plenty of meat. We've got pulled pork brisket, smoke, baloney, smoke, sausage, all of it. So stick around, get some good food. And then I hope that you'll stay and join us for the Thanksgiving service that we'll have right after the meal is done being served. All right, brother Ani, you pray for us, and after he's done, you'll be dismissed.

Speaker 1: Let's bring in. Father, we thank you for Paul and Silas and their faithfulness to you in good times and bad to worship you to rejoice and be faithful in proclaiming the gospel. Thank you that through the ages, churches and. Pastors and your servants have done the same. We thank you for this church father that is dedicated to the same mission, help us to be faithful in doing the same, to continue to rejoice, to proclaim the gospel, to worship you in good times and bad. Thank you for this day, what it represents all the labor and sacrifice through the years. Thank you for those or present that have been here throughout all of it and there's varying degrees of time. Help us to be faithful to you. Blessed with time and fellowship today. Bless the food and it's our strength and guidance through this day. May we continue to rejoice and stand for the gospel in this place, in this time in Jesus name. Amen.

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