Chained But Not Changed!

How many of you are guilty of trying to change your circumstances instead of letting God change it!

I believe that we forget what the Psalm writer wrote:

Psalm 46:10

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

In fewer words – Don’t forget who I am!

Be patient! I know what I am doing! You just praise and serve me, and let me take care of your life!

The reason we get so frustrated with life is too many times we are trying to play God!

Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for everything!

God is capable of breaking those chains in your life, but you have to give Him the opportunity to do it!

You don’t see Paul and Silas here trying to look for the key on the wall!

They just praised God and let Him do what He wanted to do with them.

And in cool, amazing God style He shook the whole prison and set them free!

God can break those chains in your life, whatever you are going through right now, just hang on and trust!

There is a plan, there is a purpose!

Paul and Silas had no idea what God was going to do when they got thrown into prison.

But they were patient and they didn’t waiver, and God came through!

Now, once God breaks these chains in our lives that is not the end!

Let’s continue with Verses 29 - 34

The Forth life lesson we have to get from Paul is this:

4. Once you have been freed, go free others!

Church we have to understand this point.

God lets us go through things in life that, lets face it, stink!

But as the song we sing says, the Joy comes in the morning!

You see once you have been freed from something and the people around you saw how you handled it, they are going to want what you got!

What you have is a testimony!

God did something in your life and you need to share it! Not just with your Christian friends but with the world!

Too many of you have testimonies of what God did in your life and you gave God a thank you and that’s it!

You see the mistake they made was putting Paul in a inner cell, which means that the other were probably all around him.

You should have stuck him in the corner somewhere and put tape on his mouth, because you give Paul an audience and if he aint dead he is gonna praise God!

Paul knew who he served and the power of who he served.

He wanted to offer that freedom to anyone and everyone! He was about the mission, 24/7!

What are you about?

Have you accepted that free gift, seen God work in incredible ways in your life and then been silent about it?

People need to know, they may look like they are having a great time, they may say they are having a good time, but trust me; I do enough counseling to know they are miserable!

They need Jesus! You hold the key!

Don’t you sit there after you have been freed and keep your mouth shut!

That is the most selfish thing we can do!

You know they are going to HELL, they may not realize it!

Somebody may want to clue them in!

I don’t want them to get mad,

I don’t want them to hate me,

I don’t want to loose their friendship.

Come on, what kind of a friend are you if you are going to let them go to HELL!