Dare to Believe
Illus. By John Raulerson
A guy sees a sign in front of a house: "Talking Dog for Sale." He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a black mutt just sitting there. "You talk?" he asks.
"Yep," the mutt replies.
"So, what’s your story?"
The mutt looks up and says, "Well, I discovered my gift of talking pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running. The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired." The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. The owner says, "Ten dollars." The guy says, "This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"
The owner replies, "He’s a big liar. He didn’t do any of that stuff." You can’t believe a word he says.
(from Mikey’s Funnies)
Acts 16:30-31 NKJ
30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and Thou shall be saved...
When a person is willing to believe in Jesus and make him the Lord and Savior of their life… That is the first step to a life that is filled with the endless possibilities and promises of the kingdom of heaven.
We have been taught that in the natural when things sound
to good to be true..they usually are
But in the super natural realm of the kingdom of God
Every promise is true, because every promise runs straight
through the cross and is guaranteed by the blood of Jesus..
At first glance, we might think that this is just a chance encounter with this jailer… As with most all of us with our first encounter with JESUS...
But God with his Omni presence… Looks ahead in someone's life and I believe there are no chance encounters but only divine appointments,
Because when they are willing to believe in His Only Begotten Son...He is willing to go to great lengths when someone wants to become a part of His Family
I have a friend who has adopted a baby from China and I have heard many other times as well when someone does adopt a baby from Another country...
They travel halfway around the world and they go to great lengths, sometimes through many obstacles...never with the assurance that they will actually be able to adopt the child and have them to become a part of their family..
God is no different…and today I want to try and show you some of the lengths and things God is willing to do and to go to when someone is willing to dare to believe..
For you see the story of the jailers conversion did not begin with our text and the walls started to shake...as with all great stories and things that God does in the process of helping one person, almost always..countless others are helped in the process..
For the sake of time this morning our story begins in verse 1 of acts 16...because the truth be told, the plans for everyone's lives began at the beginning of creation..
because even in the beginning...God knew their would be an end one day and in His infinite knowledge, He already provided a plan for everyone who would believe so they could escape an eternity of death..and spend forever with Him in heaven.
Acts 16 1-3 Paul came first to Derbe, then Lystra. He found a disciple there by the name of Timothy, son of a devout Jewish mother and Greek father. Friends in Lystra and Iconium all said what a fine young man he was. Paul wanted to recruit him for their mission, but first took him aside and circumcised him so he wouldn’t offend the Jews who lived in those parts. They all knew that his father was Greek.
(Timothy became the first miracle on the road to the jailers miracle...and he became a great asset to the ministry and kingdom of God...and no doubt touched countless lives in the process…Paul went on to write first and second Timothy all because of this divine appointment that got set up on the way to the jailers encounter..)
4-5 As they traveled from town to town, they presented the simple guidelines the Jerusalem apostles and leaders had come up with. That turned out to be most helpful. Day after day the congregations became stronger in faith and larger in size.
(others grew in their faith and were ministered to in the process...Gods plans our all encompassing plans,
Jeremiah 29:11 RSV says...For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
God's plans to deliver you are certainly plans big enough to bless and also deliver everyone that needs delivering…on the way to completing your plans...Amen??
Some of our greatest blessings come to us when we are afforded the opportunity to be a part of some one else's blessing...amen??)
6-8 They went to Phrygia, and then on through the region of Galatia. Their plan was to turn west into Asia province, but the Holy Spirit blocked that route. So they went to Mysia and tried to go north to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let them go there either. Proceeding on through Mysia, they went down to the seaport Troas.
9-10 That night Paul had a dream: A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news to the Europeans.
(take the word of God to another nation on the way to meeting your needs… Is there nothing out of the realm of possibilities of the Almighty God that offers salvation to whosoever who will come and partake of His Son JESUS divine Goodness...)
11-12 Putting out from the harbor at Troas, we made a straight run for Samothrace. The next day we tied up at New City and walked from there to Philippi, the main city in that part of Macedonia and, even more importantly, a Roman colony. We lingered there several days.
13-14 On the Sabbath, we left the city and went down along the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting. We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them. One woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a God-fearing woman. As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the Master gave her a trusting heart—and she believed!
15 After she was baptized, along with everyone in her household, she said in a surge of hospitality, “If you’re confident that I’m in this with you and believe in the Master truly, come home with me and be my guests.” We hesitated, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
(all things work together for them that love the Lord the Bible says… Clearly this is a great example with the fruit to prove it… Everyone of her household came to know that
JESUS is Lord that day...it was no chance encounter, it was a divine set up all part of Gods Plans being carried out and coming to fruition...Amen??
Don't you just love it when a good plan comes together? clearly God does...through Paul's obedience to share the gospel, God not only had given him an opportunity to minister to Lydia and meet her needs..
but also had provided for all his and those who were with him as well needs to be met in the process
Let's read on...
Beat Up and Thrown in Jail
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.
(Another life set free forever along they way to the jailers conversion...another divine appointment)
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.
(isn't that just like the accuser… When things are going good and needs are being met and lives are being changed forever..and God is moving in marvelous ways..
the devil cannot stand it when things are going good for anybody...and so he feels like he has to step in and somehow throw a wrench in the wheel.
It always seems as though he has a way of trying someone's faith to the third degree..one minute things are going fantastic, the next things turn from Rosie to black and blue with what seems like no chance of escape...
But this time and every time that the love of God is involved in the equation...he had met his match, because Paul and Silas knew that God was bigger than anything that he could throw at them...
And just when he thought he had them where he wanted them...Paul and Silas let him know that there was no where that God's love couldn't reach or permeate, if someone was willing to call upon and lift up the name of Jesus and
Dare To Believe!!
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!”
(even if all the fantastic miracles..Timothy, Lydia, all her family, the demon possessed little girl and all the countless others...that happened along the way had not happened...and the journey to this moment in time was only for the jailer...
It would have been worth it all and this shows the concern God
has for a soul and the degree that God is willing to go to..to not let someone perish and be lost forever, no matter what lengths the devil may go
to try to stop it from happening...
John 10:9-10 NKJ
I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
The jailer had seen the light..he wanted to know how to receive the abundant life
Paul and Silas clearly had)
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!”
(In few words they said DARE TO BELIEVE....and if you want the same I would suggest to do the same DARE TO BELIEVE....)
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.
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...things would
never be the same again...
there's no length that God is not willing to go to...to not only meet, but exceed far beyond your wildest expectations if you are willing to dare to believe He can do what He says He can do....
Illus. By Guy Caley
In 1953 in Grimes Iowa, Violet Cross was getting sicker by the day. Finally her eldest son Frank insisted she go to the doctor. Eventually they ended up at the large teaching hospital in Iowa City.
The diagnosis was devastating. Though Violet had never smoked she was dying of Lung cancer. One lung was already gone the other was rapidly being devoured by the malignancy. The doctors sent her home offering no real hope, six months of pain would ultimately lead to her death.
That Sunday violet went down to kneel at the altar at the tiny church pastored by her son-in-law, Clarence Lautt. There in Grimes Gospel Center she begged God for one thing.
Her two youngest daughters, Kay and Linda were still in high school. "Please God," she prayed, (and I would add...Dared to believe) "Let me see my girls finish high school."
Her husband Eddie bought her the engagement ring that he hadn’t had the money to buy 30 years earlier, expecting that to be one of his final acts of love toward her.
But Violet started feeling better. Kay graduated from high school, and her mom was back on the farm doing chores again. Linda graduated from high-school.
Both girls married. Grandchildren were born...1,2,3....8,9,10...in fact 18 grandchildren were there to help celebrate Violet and Eddie’s 50th wedding anniversary.
In 1976 Violet came to live at my house after my grandfather Eddie passed away. When I was 12 years old, 38 years after the doctors had given her 6 months to live, Grandma Cross’s two healthy lungs breathed their last.
Illus. Chorus
There is nothing that I need that he won't provide
There is nothing that I need that he won't supply
If I believe… If I believe
And so I say to the mountain move...
And so I say to the mountain, Get Out Of My Way...
And so I say to the mountain move...
And so I say to the mountain, Get Out Of My Way...
Cause I Believe...Yes I Believe
Do you have a need this morning?
This is what TBS about your need this morning...
Isaiah 53:5 NKJ
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
Do you believe the bible to be the inspired, infallible word of the most High God??
Then have the courage to step out of your need and into your miracle today!
Don't just talk about your need...step away from your need
and don't look back and dare to believe that..
*those wounds JESUS took were for you..
*those bruises that JESUS took were for you..
*all the chastisement of your peace was upon Him
*and because of the stripes that He took on His back
You don't have to stay in your need..you have been healed
This moment in time has already been reserved for you to step into and receive what has been waiting for you all along..
Come now as we pray...
