GREG LAURIE - Saturday, August 3, 2019
How Worship Makes a Difference
Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.
—Acts 16:25
If you’re a Christian, then you’re being watched everywhere you go. That’s because when people know you are a Christian, they’re essentially thinking, “Let’s see how this Christian treats his wife” or “Let’s see what kind of life this single Christian lives” or “Let’s see how hard this Christian works” or “Let’s see how this Christian drives” or “Let’s see what kind of student this Christian is.”
You’re being watched. And honestly, nonbelievers want you to fail so they can pull out their favorite word: hypocrite. But you when you give praise to God, live a godly life, and can rejoice even when things are bad, you mess with their narrative.
When Paul and Silas were thrown into a Philippian dungeon for preaching the gospel, the jailer whipped them and put them into stocks.
Then we read that “around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening” (Acts 16:25 NLT).
The word listening used in this verse can be translated “listening with pleasure.”
And when an earthquake hit, everyone could have run to their freedom. But they stayed. The jailer was about to kill himself, but Paul stopped him, saying,
“Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!” (verse 28 NLT).
The jailer said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (verse 30 nlt).
What set the stage? It was their worship. Your worship is a testimony, and you can do it even if you don’t feel like it. Worshipping God with other Christians helps put things in perspective. When you magnify the Lord and see Him in all of His glory, you can see your problems in the proper perspective.
Worship can make all the difference as we gather together with God’s people and see things accurately, biblically, and correctly.
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Praising God can lead to something surprising.
Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon
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