Breaking Chains Through Worship

III. TRUE BIBLICAL WORSHIP IS LOVING PEOPLE OF ALL KINDS. (28-34) OK. The chains have fallen off. The stocks are loose. Everybody is free to go. I think the other prisoners were looking to see what Paul and Silas were going to do. Maybe no one ran because of the darkness. I don’t thinks so for when the doors flew open they would have seen light and instinctively run toward it. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. He must have been sleeping pretty soundly don’t you think? Again for us to see worship in action we look to Paul and Silas’ response. 28But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” Sometimes I stop and think - don’t laugh, I do stop and think occasionally – but I think about the things we do as Christians because we feel obligated to do them, so we do them from a point of mental obedience and not spiritual obedience. Do you understand the difference? Tithing because you are commanded to is no good unless you want to. Witnessing because you have to will come across to others as just that. In our minds we say we love people but do we really? We say all the time, “love the sinner and hate the sin.” But it is so difficult to separate the sinner from his sin that it becomes virtually impossible to do that. So we are called to love unconditionally. Paul could have thought in his mind, “This guy didn’t care about me at all. Why should I care?” But he did care because he lived his life for Jesus. The result? 29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p. 242.

Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, "Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip." Everyone agrees.

He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess--weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, "What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?"