Believe In The Lord

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Welcome to Thrive. It's great to have you here today. We are in the Book of Acts. And historical reality we've shared is the fact that you can look, every historian realizes the early church, the first three centuries, just grew explosively across the Roman world. And it doesn't make a lot of sense why. Because everything was really set against Christianity ever growing, ever getting anywhere. And so the message of Jesus sounded dangerous. It sounded impossible, outrageous. If we think our culture in our day has kind of this antipathy towards religion or the gospel or Christianity, that first century, we're going to find it again in this text, it's there all over the place. But the church still responded. The church had a message. The church loved deeply. The church served emphatically. The church lived radically lives that were so shaped by the gospel that somehow it transformed the whole society. Today, we are seeing that in three different case studies, you could say, of three different types of people that the gospel impacted in Acts chapter 16. It's actually the first church on the European continent in the city of Philippi. OK, so we're reading Acts 16. It's a long verse. And by the way, you can look all this stuff up online. I think we've got it. No, it's not up online. Yeah. You know what happened? I forgot to publish it. I apologize. Yeah, well, it might not. Just don't. I might not have quite finished it this week for some reason. So what? You published it. OK, it's published. You'll see what you've got there. Can't remember if I finished it now. I finished the sermon. I just don't know if I did that online. OK, here we go. Acts 16. So setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace. And the following day to Neapolis and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in the city some days. And on the Sabbath, we went outside the gate to the riverside where we suppose there was a place of prayer. And we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized in her household as well, she urged us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us as we were going to the place of prayer. We were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling. She followed Paul and us crying out. These men are servants of the most high God who proclaim to you the way of salvation. And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us Romans to accept our practice. The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 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 bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, do not harm yourself for we are all here. And the jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. As they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire house that they had believed in God. But when it was day, the magistrate sent the police saying, let those men go. And the jailer reported these words to Paul saying, hey,...