Paul and Silas Imprisoned (Acts 16:19-34)
Introduction
World – Unknown Absolute Problem
Answer
Mental, Drugs, Shootings, Addiction
Worker – Work of God’s Kingdom
Work of the devil’s kingdom
Sin – Devil
Civilians have to pay taxes to a nation, and it’s the same for the kingdom of heaven. When someone lives for the work of the Kingdom of God, God takes care of everything for them.
Angels, Hosts
The moment you say you will be God’s worker, God gives everything to do His works.
Authority, With
It doesn’t matter how young you are; hold onto the covenant of 237 and Temple Construction then God will do it.
Don’t Be Deceived
My daughter thinks I’m strange, and my daughter doesn’t understand. Should she say that I’m weird? She would get stuck in that. All of you must change your thought to think, “There is a rightful reason for this person to think this way,” but most people think, “Why are my parents like this?” That is the extent of their vessel. When you go to school like that, you’ll wonder, “Why is my school like that? Why is my friend doing this to me?”
You get a job and wonder, “Why is my job like this?” That becomes a very big problem. You come to church and wonder, “Why is the church like this?” That is no ordinary disease. For all remnants, there are things happening in your family that you cannot understand. You have to change your thinking to realize, there’s a reason my parents have no choice but to be like this, then you won’t be deceived.
Instead, ask God, “What are You trying to do? Why did You send me into this family?” Then when you find God’s plan regarding your situation, you will be someone who overcomes your family and saves your family. If you teach your kids legalism, they will spend their entire lives determining who is right or wrong, and then they will die. From their perspective, they say words that are correct. Their parents say words from their perspective. That is being a slave to the devil.
You should not think of yourself as a young child. Think of yourself as a young Joseph or Daniel and acknowledge this. If you cannot, you will come to church and wonder, “Why are the adults like this?” You can tell, they say the same words to their parents and their friends, that kind of vessel cannot save unbelievers. You cannot even communicate with nonbelievers. Even successful nonbelievers have a big enough vessel to consider the other person’s perspective, but even when you believe in God, your vessel is so small.
First of all, with just your vessel, you cannot compete with nonbelievers. You say your faith in God is great but your vessel is so small. At the very least, you need to have a big enough vessel to understand your family members. Everyone says, “I’m right,” you can never see anyone fighting with God’s Word. It’s always, “My perspective, I’m correct,” that is why you have to be able to understand the other person, they have spiritual problems and overcome that. If you get deceived by that, you may make excuses for yourself, “I received a scar like this,” but you will never be able to save your family or the world.
Self-Deceived, Benefit
“Is this helpful to the Kingdom of God? Is this helpful to the church?” Most people go to church for their own benefit. That is not aligned with God, that person cannot do world evangelization. I must make my decision for the sake of the church, world evangelization, and God’s Kingdom. If your vessel is not formed this way, no matter how much you want to do world evangelization, your vessel is so small so you can only do a small thing.
Ask, is this a benefit to the other person? I’m a pastor so I’m able to put this into practice, because what a pastor thinks about is, is this helpful to the church or is it for myself? If you do something for yourself, it may seem beneficial at first, but that is actually the path towards destruction. Satan holds onto us and deceives us so subtly. “There are a few people who want to come to my church, so I want them to come, because it’s helpful to me,” but that’s how people are seized. If I run a business and make decisions based on what’s beneficial to me, that won’t work out. This is ultimately how I help myself.
Schools do not teach you this. Receive correct and accurate training in the church to do world evangelization. The real issue is not whether they come to church or not. You need to receive an answer before you come. Something is not beneficial to me just because it helps me; it might actually cause more problems. That is why it must be by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and of help to the Kingdom of God to help both of us.
Satan controls the world by making people move towards their own benefit. It must be a benefit to the other person. You guys are going to have boyfriends and girlfriends, and you have boyfriends or girlfriends now, right? Why are you dating them? They’re so good looking, they’re beneficial to me, and just thinking about them makes my hormones act up,” but what happens if that person looks at you and says, “I lose my appetite every time I see you”? You have to like each other; you can’t be in a relationship just because you like them.
Is this meeting a meeting God desires for the Kingdom of God? Without that, you say, “I like them,” that’s Gen. 3. What is your standard of liking them? “I like them and I want to.” “Is that right? Do you just do whatever you want? What will you do about what God wants?” Pray, you know what I’m saying, right? You will suffer because of yourselves.
You think giving offering is a waste? You’re seized by finances. You consider offering to be an expense to you, but this offering is used for world evangelization, and that is for me. You don’t like serving the church, right? I understand, if you’re seized for a long time by self-centeredness, you think staying still is not to your benefit, then leave that person alone until they understand. Until they realize that whatever they are doing is for their benefit, but the devil will subtly teach you that is for your loss.
This person ultimately must live for them to help me. If this person dies, then it seems like initially I’m okay but I will be at a loss because of it. That’s why the church is different from the organizations of the world. You learn about the Kingdom of God inside the church. You must know that. Don’t be deceived, we’re called to do the Lord’s work.
Last week, Paul healed this absolute problem with the gospel, and even though he was doing the Lord’s work, he was sent to prison. Why do you think he was sent to prison? He didn’t just go for no reason, but someone sued him.
1. Success – Standard
1) Benefit, Material Possession – Skill
The demon-possessed slave girl was used by a businessperson, but the gospel went into that girl and the demon fled so they’re not able to make money in this business. Your peak is 18-20 years old. Past that point, you’re going down. But there is one way to overcome that. If the life of the gospel goes into you, you can even have health in your expression as a young person. What I’m saying is the benefit will always change.
2) Lie
People talk for their own benefit. They don’t lie for the sake of lying; they talk to get their own benefit, and lying is a result of their natural speaking. What do they lie, saying? When her owners realized their hope of making was gone, they seized Paul and Silas in Acts 16:22.
3) Majority (Acts 16:22)
People may say good and nice words because it’s for their benefit and they like it themselves. But one day when they no longer like you, they will say words they want to say; it is no longer beneficial to them so their words will change. Girls, be careful. Men lie since birth, but girls listen to those words and are deceived by them. That’s how most girls will get swept up by words. Does this person believe in Jesus Christ? Is this person’s mission the same as mine? That’s what you must confirm first. If you don’t confirm that first, it is a lie. When you’re no longer beneficial to them, you will start fighting. Even Senior Deaconesses who go to church, when the husband loses his job, they will get a divorce. “I no longer need this man<” and they kick their husbands out. What is their standard? The gospel is not their standard; they are running the standards of the devil and the world.
That’s not someone who doesn’t go to church, but if it is uncomfortable to them, they don’t want to live anymore. If a job is uncomfortable to them, they want to quickly die. Everything will align to that. Your individualism is not right. If you are your own standard, you will cause yourself endless suffering. Make God your standard to get peace. The news amplifies bad things. Have you ever seen the news talk about something good? They only report problems and incidences. But someone who doesn’t even understand the gospel yet, but they parrot the words of news stations. When politicians say words, it’s only because it’s beneficial to the politicians and it gets votes for them, but the masses say, “Yes, that’s right.” Those people cannot become leaders because they’re just following after bits of fragmented news they hear from others.
The words we read in the Bible are happening today exactly. You need to realize all the things you pick up on the internet is the same way. There’s a female student in jail, and she was drugged up so her eyes were so blank. She’s going to come out of jail under the condition of taking medication in a mental hospital for a year. How did this start? A guy at her school said he liked her, but she rejected him. Sometime later, the guy started dating another girl. They spread rumors that she was pregnant, and they spread this throughout the school.
Why does the majority speak like that? They spread rumors because they think it will be to their benefit, that people will like them, so they talk and spread rumors to the masses. These things must be revealed. If you don’t listen to this now, when it happens to you, you won’t be able to handle it. She couldn’t overcome, so she was filled with rage, she lost sleep, “What are people going to say about me when I go to school?” That’s when Satan takes over you.
She expressed her wrath on the internet. You should never say anything negative to someone and harass them over the internet because you may just type something on a screen but it kills someone else. Because she typed out words of online harassment, the police found her. She didn’t actually want to kill him, but because she was so full of wrath, the police asked, “Why did you type this? Did you mean this? She said, “Yes,” then what will happen? They didn’t want her to actually murder him, they put her in jail.
She confessed in the court that she said this .She didn’t actually want to kill him but the anger did not subside. She wanted to kill this guy but she can’t actually kill him, so she expressed her anger online. Your parents may forgive you and make exceptions, but the world will not. People in the church will not forgive you but in the world, you immediately are sent to jail and your entire life will be ruined. If the judge lays down the verdict in the court, you’re going to be labeled and you won’t be able to get a job or anything. Even in the jail, she has to take mental rehabilitation medication so she’s completely blank in the mind.
Then, what will her parents think? There are fellow church members around them, but they say words of concern and anxiety, so they didn’t know what to do, so they called Esther. These words are not far away; they are in the church. These words are not irrelevant to you. If you’re an outcast, you can’t handle it, but the reason people do all of that is for their own benefit. You need to at least keep this in mind. If this person is saying anything that is not God’s Word, then without a doubt, they say things for their own benefit.
When someone says something, who will gain the most from it? That’s the beginning and conclusion. Even if you just analyze, “Who benefits from these words?” You’ll be able to discern what is going on, but if you don’t, then whether you believe in God or not, you’ll be dragged around by the opinion of the majority.
While you’re a teenager, be careful. If you harass or blame someone or put negative things online, you kill the other person, and without a doubt, that will come back to you. However, if there’s already negative words exchanged on the internet, if you give words of life, you can change the environment. If you take videos or pictures of someone and upload to YouTube without their permission, that’s illegal. Teenagers don’t know this but you must. If you keep doing it without knowing it, you’ll go to jail. If you sell materials illegally or things that don’t belong to you online, the police will have to find you later on. Lately, there’s a whole police force specifically for surveying things online, and they will find it one day.
You think just because you’re on the internet, they can’t track you down? They can track anything on the internet, so stop it. They sell drugs online, but all of this can be found out. You think just because a person doesn’t find you, you’re safe, but everything can be found out on the internet. Someone in North Korea hacked a system to get a lot of money. America counter-hacked them and stole even more money. All of this is going online. You think they don’t know, right? They actually know everything so don’t do these things.
It’s gotten to a point where, you know cameras on each screen like your laptop, people can look through those cameras and see everything you’re doing in your house. That was very popular awhile ago. So many people hacked into the cameras and looked into people’s homes, they started taping over the cameras. You think the internet is not being surveyed but it is. Stop doing illegal things. Whatever negative things you type as you’re hidden behind a screen, it’s like shooting them with a gun. Stop doing that. Uploading pictures and videos of people without their consent is illegal. You’ll get caught and it’s illegal.
Do you know what kind of crime it is? It is a crime to upload someone’s image without their consent, that is a crime. Teenagers don’t know they’re breaking the law but they are. Use the internet in a positive way. Do the Way of Salvation and upload those videos. If someone is being bullied, go into that chatroom and change the environment to save them. But if you’re so blank-minded and empty in your brain that you follow the majority voice and you’re unable to say anything, you’re just as bad as them.
2.Imprisoned
1) rods
2) Jail Cell – Guards
Joseph, David, Daniel, Three Friends
Joseph proclaimed the gospel and was sent to jail. Things might happen to us. You may be bullied or outcast by someone. That was David. Daniel refused food sacrificed to idols. Satan will corner you on all sides to kill you. You must be able to overcome and handle that. If you’re worried and trying to calculate your way through that, you’ll never be able to do world evangelization. Overcome that. The gospel is more important than your perspective.
This is what a worker does. The crowds and masses are not like that. Remnants must stand as the workers. You do everything you want just to eat well, dress well, and play well, and you live your life for that? Your life will be worse than dog or cow. A dog or cow never worry about food or hospital bills or sleeping. They just have to make the owner happy. What about you? If you live just for what you eat, wear, or do, you’re worse than a dog. You may have a better job than others, but your life is worse than a dog. You’re worried about your future. Even stray dogs don’t worry; they wander freely. Our life is not worse than a dog’s; we must live as God’s worker.
When the word of God goes into your heart and you say, “This is correct,” the Word of God moves. If that’s not the case and you keep thinking, “I will do what I want.”
I said, “Go to RU and listen to the spiritual messages from Rev. Ryu.” I wasn’t just saying this to the Senior Deaconess, but for anyone who wants to do world evangelization, that’s the person’s spiritual state. Back in that time schedule, everyone lived a religious life so everyone compare religion and the law. When someone is afflicted by spiritual problems.
When people are liberated from the law of sin and death, they have so much freedom. People are seized for a long time by Satan, and ultimately, this is why people crumble. It doesn’t matter how good the messages are, but we crumble and fall. It’s a very regrettable fact. It doesn’t matter whether you go to church for a long time or not; if it is not the gospel, the devil will work through it. Only by Christ are the forces of darkness brought down. “I’ve gone to church for a long time”?
There was a pastor I liked, used by God, and one church member asked me, “You cannot overcome your Buddhist background unless it is by only Christ. You cannot resolve the problems of your past except through Jesus Christ. Even if you know, you’ll be seized. It’s frustrating. The answer comers out in the message. You may go to prison.
3. Work
1) Worship
2) Jailer
We do DRB and God’s work is saving. The devil’s work makes you seized by Satan and you are destroyed by sin. No matter what you go through, hold onto the covenant and pray and God and everywhere you are, God does His work through His people, His workers.
Prayer
God, we thank You. Please bless the remnants. It may seem we have no strength but we believe You will do your work from the power of heaven. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.