Sound
Pt. 2 – Sound Seep
As you will remember we began this series last week by talking about Sound Doctrine. We said that sound is powerful. Genesis teaches us from moment one that sound isn't just for communication but has power in it. Sound sets atmosphere and mood. I stated that our problem is that our world has learned to harness the power of sound more effectively than the children of God.
So I challenged you out of the account of Joshua's instructions at Jericho to learn that sound precedes victory. If you lose your shout you lose victory. You must sound victorious even before you are victorious. Your shout can't resemble your situation but rather your situation will line up with your shout! Anyone have a shout left this morning?
I told you that silence is for a season. There is nothing wrong with seasonal silence. However, I am concerned that some of you have accepted silence as a substitute for sound. The enemy will try to keep you quiet so he can keep you in bondage. And so I challenged us as a body to release the sound that is in us. Our level of victory, our ability to take territory is directly linked to our sound and while we are waiting on God to touch things He is waiting on us to speak to things! Make a sound!
So this morning I want to take you into another familiar sound section of Scripture and talk to you about Sound Seep!
Text: Acts 16:16-34
16-18 One day, on our way to the place of prayer, a slave girl ran into us. She was a psychic and, with her fortunetelling, made a lot of money for the people who owned her. She started following Paul around, calling everyone’s attention to us by yelling out, “These men are working for the Most High God. They’re laying out the road of salvation for you!” She did this for a number of days until Paul, finally fed up with her, turned and commanded the spirit that possessed her, “Out! In the name of Jesus Christ, get out of her!” And it was gone, just like that.
19-22 When her owners saw that their lucrative little business was suddenly bankrupt, they went after Paul and Silas, roughed them up and dragged them into the market square. Then the police arrested them and pulled them into a court with the accusation, “These men are disturbing the peace—dangerous Jewish agitators subverting our Roman law and order.” By this time the crowd had turned into a restless mob out for blood.
22-24 The judges went along with the mob, had Paul and Silas’s clothes ripped off and ordered a public beating. After beating them black-and-blue, they threw them into jail, telling the jailkeeper to put them under heavy guard so there would be no chance of escape. He did just that—threw them into the maximum security cell in the jail and clamped leg irons on them.
25-26 Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn’t believe their ears. Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose.
27-28 Startled from sleep, the jailer saw all the doors swinging loose on their hinges. Assuming that all the prisoners had escaped, he pulled out his sword and was about to do himself in, figuring he was as good as dead anyway, when Paul stopped him: “Don’t do that! We’re all still here! Nobody’s run away!”
29-31 The jailer got a torch and ran inside. Badly shaken, he collapsed in front of Paul and Silas. He led them out of the jail and asked, “Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved, to really live?” They said, “Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus. Then you’ll live as you were meant to live—and everyone in your house included!”
32-34 They went on to spell out in detail the story of the Master—the entire family got in on this part. They never did get to bed that night. The jailer made them feel at home, dressed their wounds, and then—he couldn’t wait till morning!—was baptized, he and everyone in his family. There in his home, he had food set out for a festive meal. It was a night to remember: He and his entire family had put their trust in God; everyone in the house was in on the celebration.
a. Your sound can't be tied to your sight!
Paul and Silas visibly had no reason to sing. They had been falsely accused. They had been arrested on trumped up charges. They were beaten until their backs were bloody and broken. They are in chains which had to be uncomfortable and painful. What they saw didn't lend itself to a song. Yet their sound wasn't tied to their sight. Their sound was tied to their spirit!
Some of you are in midnight situations. The lights are out. The day seems to be almost over. Hope is gone. Victory seems improbable at best and impossible at worst. You are chained. Broken. Beaten. The relationship ended. The bill went unpaid. The report was negative. The answer didn't come! If your sound is tied to your sight you will stumble through your midnight in silence. But your midnight, miserable situation can be the backdrop of your greatest sound! The sound produced in your prison can be a freedom song! If your sound is not based on your sight . . . it is not by might and it is not by sight . . . complaining will give way to singing.
Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, had it right when he stated, " “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
We have to learn not to base our sound on our cell! We can't let what’s wrong with us keep us from worshipping what’s right about God.
David said it like this in Psalm 92:1-2, "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; To declare Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness by night."
Elijah had prophesied that wouldn't be any rain for 3 years. After the showdown with the prophets of Baal it was still dry, they were still in the midst of a drought and before he ever prayed one word, fasted one meal, attended a revival service, seen one cloud, Elijah looks at King Ahab and says, "I hear the sound of an abundance of rain!" Elijah heard rain before he saw rain. In the midst of your drought what you hear can't be tied to what you see!
Some of you have tied your sound to your sight. So when you find yourself in a midnight circumstance your sound dries up! I challenge you to find a sound that is secure regardless of what your see! You may not see change but do you still have a sound? You may not see healing do you still have a sound? You may not see rescue do you still have a sound?
Your most powerful sound comes from you darkest midnight!
B. Your sound must seep.
Paul and Silas had a sound that wasn't based on sight. But I also want you to realize that their sound was a sound that seeped. The sound that escaped from them in the midnight hour just didn't effect them, encourage them, or impact them! In fact, their sound impacted the entire prison . . . inmate, jail keeper, and his family alike!
They just didn't have a good church service and enjoy the impact of their sound! No, if you can learn the lesson of last week and get your sound to elevate above your situation. If you can get release your sound in spite of being in chains of your own, then your sound will not only set you free but those around you.
The power of sound seeps! That is why it is so important for you to get in this type of setting and release the sound that is in you! As imperfect as the church is we are commanded in Hebrews to not forsake these kind of gatherings? Why? Because sound seeps!The person 2 seats over, 3 rows up, 6 rows back needs your sound. The sound that escapes from your pain, the praise that is birthed out of you may actually contain the key to someone else's victory. That is why it is absolutely essential for your to release your sound! There is somebody near you right no that has no energy, no strength, no faith, no belief left and as you open up your mouth and make your sound it causes faith to be stirred again. Your sound brings hope back. Your sound brings strength back. Your praise is the key to their jail cell!
Come on stand up for a moment and go to 3 people and tell them let your sound seep! When I have no sound I need your sound. Your sound shakes my cell. Your sound breaks my chains. Your shout gives me hope. Your sound stirs me to worship again, to believe again, to trust again! I need your sound! I need your song! I need your joy! let your sound seep!
Paul, in Ephesians 5, begins to list the things we shouldn't do like involve ourselves in idolatry, sexual immorality, or foolish talk and then right in the midst of all this list of things that are off limits I think he may have had a memory of a midnight worship service because he stops and says, "here is one thing you should do . . . speak to one another with Psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit!" There are a lot of things you can't do but here is one you can't afford not to do. He knew that our song was the key to someone else's cell!
Who are you setting free with your sound? Who are keeping in bondage because you fail to sound off? If you lock down your sound you keep them on lock down! Who is depending on your sound seep today!
It is time to recognize that your sound isn't really even for you! Your sound can bring others to salvation! If you refuse to allow the sound to come of you you fail to allow others to taste the victory that can be theirs!
Not everyone in the jail felt like singing but everyone experienced the miracle. Not everyone in the prison felt like praising but everyone experienced the power of God. Not everyone setting next to you today or working next to you on Monday will feel like worshipping however, your sound needs to seep because you can in effect release them with your sound! We have to make a covenant with one another. On the days I have a sound I will release it because you may need it. I will do that even if I don't feel like it because the day will come when I will have no sound and I will need your sound and I am counting on you to release your sound on that day!
CLOSE:
If you have lost your sound . . . if you have no shout left and you feel like you are locked up, in bondage, defeated and just can't make a sound, then come forward. Those of us who have a sound need to sound off on their behalf. We have to allow our sound to seep. We must allow our sound to rattle their chains! Sing over them! Shout over them.
