Power Over Darkness - Hour of Power with Bobby Schuller

[Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Applause] [Applause] this is the day the lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it good morning hello visitors and church family it is always a joy to be with you did you know that there is no christian without a miracle every life that comes to jesus must come by way of a miracle if you are in christ you are a miracle and today christian or not you are so loved well we're just so glad that you're here wherever you're here from because some people are in the house and some people aren't but no matter what we're just grateful that you're gathered with us today and we believe god has a good word for you father we come to you in the very strong name of jesus and we ask today that you would open and enlighten our hearts to see the world the way you see it help us to see people that we don't get along with the way you see them that they're loved by you help us to see that we live in a spiritual world with material results help us to come under the authority power and life of the kingdom of the heavens today and we ask this all in the very strong name of jesus amen amen turn to the person next to you and say god loves you and so do i [Music] the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] yay [Music] for you [Music] [Music] me [Music] shall follow me for the days of my life [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] happy birthday hannah from the hour of power in germany switzerland and austria you are a great woman of god and we are glad that you are on our side have a blast and enjoy your special day hannah happy birthday we love you god bless you dearest hannah very happy birthday from the dordon area in the heart of france henna we love you happy birthday hi hannah we wish you a happy birthday and hope to see you soon happy birthday hannah greetings coming from the canada office of the hour of power hey hannah you're the kindest person i've ever known we love you hey hannah happy birthday happy birthday hannah happy birthday from your production crew happy birthday hannah thank you for always being so kind and caring and really really investing in each and every one of us we love you and we're so excited to see what this coming year decades you name it all of it has in store together with you thank you for being a blessing happy birthday to one of the kindest and sweetest people i know i hope that your day is truly as wonderful as you are so many happy memories of traveling the world with you including amsterdam and hong kong we love you hannah hannah you are one of the most selfless people i know a beautiful human being inside and out you are such a great person i know that you're such a great advocate for the orchestra and we all love you for that hannah you are so encouraging and supportive to me and everyone around you hannah i just love you so much you always keep me up to date on when scriptures are changing on sunday morning you're just the best we so admire your love for the lord and your commitment as a prayer warrior [Music] happy birthday hannah we love you we love you hannah we love you hannah we love you hannah we love you hannah we love you we love you wow you guys know how to make a girl feel special thank you that means so much to me and this church and the people here and our church family and friends mean so so much to us you have no idea so thank you for making my life like more bright and wonderful so love you okay in preparation for the message second corinthians 10 3-5 for though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of god and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to christ church family as we submit to god we have been given the power to set the oppressed free and to break every bondage amen [Music] but with no family all that house just goes [Music] there's no need people need people [Music] between us [Music] [Laughter] [Music] people need people together [Music] [Music] [Music] me all come start to together [Music] [Music] hi friends we're so happy you joined us to encounter jesus today you are the beloved of god and you are precious to him and to us as we gather to welcome fall and to anticipate the coming of advent we're all waiting for something yeah we know that god is with us yet each of us has desires and hopes places in which we yearn to see and experience his presence for some it's recovery from the uncertainty of the past year for others it's the restoration of a broken family in the season bobby and i want to encourage you to seek jesus and await his answers alongside fellow brothers and sisters whether it's returning to church joining a bible study or becoming part of an online small group allow your heart to be blessed by the joy of sharing hopes fears and victories with other people that's right and as you do know that your hour of power family is cheering you on we thank the lord for you and we joyfully anticipate that he will continue to accomplish through your faith your kindness is a constant source of encouragement and your generosity is already impacting millions around the world in fact to express gratitude for the vital role you play in our community we're excited to share these holiday inspired gifts with you call write or go online today and request our 2021 angel ornament hand crafted from solid brass then overlaid with 24 karat gold this beautiful filigree angel lifts her hands to heaven in joyful worship the second of five in a series she was made entirely in the u.s and is yours with a generous gift of 20 or more along with the ornament for a generous donation of 150 or more we're excited to offer our enchanting come to the manger christmas lantern when the led light is switched on it transforms into a magical snow globe featuring a colorful likeness of mary and joseph leaning over baby jesus in the manger swirling glitter surrounds them whenever the scene is illuminated molded in a cylindrical shape with a sturdy handle this beautiful decoration hangs or stands on its own our prayer is that these special keepsakes will fill your heart and your home with cheer and serve as a continual reminder to enjoy jesus presence call writer go online and request the 2021 angel ornament for your gift of 20 or for your gift of 150 or more will also include the come to the manger christmas lantern there is healing and strength in community and our lost world is longing for a place to belong everyone needs to know about the savior who sees and loves them and we have the privilege of sharing his incredible hope with them thank you so so much for helping us take the good news of jesus christ around the world and remember as always god loves you and so do we bonnie gray is an author and inspirational speaker who loves to encourage women and discuss topics relating to emotional and spiritual care her new book sweet like jasmine finding identity in a culture of loneliness looks at her life and how she embarked on a journey of finding belonging in christ after uncovering a hidden family secret please welcome bonnie gray bonnie hi hi bobby it's so good to be here with you such a joy to have you in the house for those who don't know you we're excited about your new book sweet like jasmine tell us a little bit about your faith journey well you know i grew up in san francisco chinatown my mother was a male order bride from hong kong and my father was a busboy in a noodle shop both my parents emigrated here so it's an immigrant story of faith of how i overcome hard times growing up in poverty and yet god lifted me up and god lifts all of us up he sees all of us even especially when we're lonely and we seem like no one can see us god sees us that's awesome what inspired you to write this book well you know so interesting i really love stories and yet so many of us feel like we have to hide those down in the valley moments right we like to talk about the mountaintops and so for myself i kind of always hid those parts of my life that felt broken my father left when i was seven years old kind of when i went to school i was cheerful bonnie but when i stepped through the way back home all those things that were happening in my family kind of my family culture was about staying quiet and so later as i became a mom and i had two boys of my own i realized that i needed to find out where is my father why did he leave because one day my children are going to ask me where is grandpa and when did we come to america and those are questions that i couldn't answer bobby because i never had the courage to ask them before but god said bonnie those missing pieces of your story they're important to me and i want you to find the answer so that started me to find my father and i wanted to write about this story about what happened because i think all of us are lonely in different ways we all kind of hide the things that we think might be embarrassing or shameful but yet god says no your story matters so i wrote this book to empower everyone to know god loves you god cares about you there's nothing that's shameful when god's love shines his light in it and he can make something beautiful even though it was broken in the moment we experience the pain god's love heals the broken places that's right and you probably felt so much like growing up as you discovered a lot of these things that you didn't like about yourself you probably felt a lot of shame didn't feel like you could speak anymore but a big part of your discovery was discovering that i really do have something to give i have something to say and i really do matter in god's kingdom yeah you know god brings people in those times when we're suffering the most and that's what i love about god's family you know when i felt ashamed i experienced sexual assault you know during college it was something that surprised me of somebody that i thought i was safe um later on i experienced panic attacks i never had them before after i became a mom and a lot of women go through that as well those are two things you know one out of three women experience loneliness one out of five women experience sexual assault and yet because we're believers and you know bobby i'm a bible teacher in my own church i do bible study trainings you know it's very hard when you're a believer and you feel like gosh these things i've gone through i don't want people to judge me i don't want them to think like i did something wrong and so you kind of cover it up but god brought people who went through those things and then they asked me and they cared for me so i want to do the same that's my life passion i want to come alongside and share my story so that other women can shine and share their stories that's how we're going to heal the world that's how we become a light not because we have perfect lives but because god loves us in our mess and imperfection so i will boast in my weakness because god's strength is the power in my life so i have no shame now because god loves me and so i just pray that every woman every man will be able to stand up and say this is my story and god loves me and he loves you too amen what do you hope that people will really get like what kind of encouragement do you think people will get if they read your book well you know we all know that god is close to the brokenhearted in psalm 34 verse 18 it says the lord is close to the brokenhearted he saves those who are crushed in spirit so those who read this book sweet like jasmine i want them to feel god's love god cares about our broken hearts and then for those who have been on the other side of healing i want to empower men and women to know that god can use you as a light this is what's different about us as christians is that we don't have to pretend that we have it all i mean that's what the world does the world says i have authority because i know it all and i can teach you everything follow me but we are different we're saying i don't know at all i've experienced brokenness but i am following the one who knows me loves me and he loves you too so those are the two things is my prayer and my vote motivation to share these stories and there are stories to share you know i have not shared these stories with my children even bobby my children josh and caleb are 13 and 15 and i thought maybe one day when they become parents themselves maybe i might share these stories with them and my children i thought gosh what are they going to think of me and instead they said mom wow god is amazing you're so brave so bobby it was kind of the opposite of what i feared yeah so even in my own life i'm still learning and growing i love it thank you so much the book is called sweet like jasmine if you needed encouragement maybe you've been through a hard time and you want to hear a story of somebody who's overcome i want to recommend you get bonnie gray's book bonnie thank you so much for joining us today thank you so much bobby god bless [Applause] [Music] we you with no proof anyone could hear in our hearts are hopefully understood now we are not afraid [Music] mountains [Music] who knows [Music] when you believe [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] seeking faith and speaking words [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] your way me through the rain says [Music] is [Music] uh [Applause] [Music] you will when you believe [Music] hi friends we're so happy you joined us to encounter jesus today you are the beloved of god and you are precious to him and to us as we gather to welcome fall and to anticipate the coming of advent we're all waiting for something yeah we know that god is with us yet each of us has desires and hopes places in which we yearn to see and experience his presence for some it's recovery from the uncertainty of the past year for others it's the restoration of a broken family in the season bobby and i want to encourage you to seek jesus and await his answers alongside fellow brothers and sisters whether it's returning to church joining a bible study or becoming part of an online small group allow your heart to be blessed by the joy of sharing hopes fears and victories with other people that's right and as you do know that your hour of power family is cheering you on we thank the lord for you and we joyfully anticipate that he will continue to accomplish through your faith your kindness is a constant source of encouragement and your generosity is already impacting millions around the world in fact to express gratitude for the vital role you play in our community we're excited to share these holiday inspired gifts with you call write or go online today and request our 2021 angel ornament hand crafted from solid brass then overlaid with 24 karat gold this beautiful filigree angel lifts her hands to heaven in joyful worship the second of five in a series she was made entirely in the u.s and is yours with a generous gift of 20 or more along with the ornament for a generous donation of 150 or more we're excited to offer our enchanting come to the manger christmas lantern when the led light is switched on it transforms into a magical snow globe featuring a colorful likeness of mary and joseph leaning over baby jesus in the manger swirling glitter surrounds them whenever the scene is illuminated molded in a cylindrical shape with a sturdy handle this beautiful decoration hangs or stands on its own our prayer is that these special keepsakes will fill your heart and your home with cheer and serve as a continual reminder to enjoy jesus presence call writer go online and request the 2021 angel ornament for your gift of 20 or for your gift of 150 or more will also include the come to the manger christmas lantern there is healing and strength in community and our lost world is longing for a place to belong everyone needs to know about the savior who sees and loves them and we have the privilege of sharing his incredible hope with them thank you so so much for helping us take the good news of jesus christ around the world and remember as always god loves you and so do we all right would you stand with us hold your hands out like this as a way of receiving let's say this together i'm not what i do i'm not what i have i'm not what people say about me i am the beloved of god it's who i am no one can take it from me i don't have to worry i don't have to hurry i can trust my friend jesus and share his love with the world thanks you can be seated i want to encourage you today that god is doing things behind the scenes in your life that you just can't see and the things that he's doing for you are good do not interpret god through your circumstances but rather interpret your circumstances through the goodness and faithfulness of god you are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in god's great universe and may i say we live in a great universe many of us will learn this before before we die but all of us will learn this when the day we die that behind everything that exists there's a veil and behind that veil is a spiritual world that none of us really understand that is having a big impact on very small things in your life actually and we're going to talk about that today god can break addiction in your life just like that for some of us it's a process but for some of you he'll just take it away god can heal people miraculously god can put new people in your life that you need right when you need it god can use you to transform history even though even though even though in the kingdom of god we recognize that it's inverse of what the world has the world says if you're you know good looking and powerful and wealthy that you'll make a difference but we see in the kingdom of god that god loves to use people that seem weak people that seem less than to have a positive and good impact on history so behind everything that's going on in your life there's all this stuff going on that you can't see but you live long enough in a life of prayer you begin to see how god was working at things all along i want to get in your mind today that we live in a material world that has a spiritual world behind it this is not a ridiculous idea and this is not an idea that's been say thrown out by scientists i think there are a lot of vocal atheistic scientists who will sort of act like this is the agreed upon rule in the scientific community let me tell you it's not find a scientist and just ask them i remember when i first realized this i've told this story before but it had a a big impact on my life in a in a big way i've always had a respect for the academic community and um i've always enjoyed school and no i haven't enjoyed school i take that back i've enjoyed good teachers there's bad teachers in school you see there's a mix of both and i remember when rich mao who at the time was the president of my seminary uh i didn't realize how big of an honor it was invited me to go with him to a gathering of intellectuals at the harvard club in new york called biologos i got there a little bit late and it was surprised because the gathering was a couple hundred mostly scientists almost all of them were from university of harvard or harvard college the others were from little universities called mit cambridge and oxford those are the four universities that represent it and all of the scientists that were there were christians and when i say christian i don't mean like anglican like the king of england i mean when i walked into the harvard club which is something i didn't even know existed this big building in in manhattan in new york beautiful building old place and they had this big dining hall that they had you know reserved somehow and i walked in and i saw all of these prestigious evolutionary biologists and physicists geneticists astrophysicists with their hands in the air like a bunch of pentecostals singing hymns and spiritual songs in resounding flat and sharp tones irene they weren't good singers they didn't care it was so moving to look around and understand that in this group were professors some of the smartest people in the whole world were a bunch of bleeding heart worshipers maybe they had seen something i hadn't seen in that group were people like the lady that at the time was running the hubble telescope who told me she was an hour power viewer which is great if you're still watching hi good to see you again francis collins who headed up the human genome project who has his own testimony of being an atheist and coming to faith after delving into the world of science and it was so wonderful because obviously to be professors at harvard they only had to be intelligent they had to be good researchers and good teachers and many of them were giving speeches and you know lectures and such one person gave this very mind-bending speech about space i'll do my best to repeat it she said uh you know time is the fastest thing in the universe it's the constant i guess and we actually have two rocket scientists in the balcony so i'm a little worried about messing the subs but there's this constant the speed of light and she showed this video of a spaceship going around the earth and at the speed of light and it would go kind of like it looked about like this speed it seems very fast and she said well the time it would take the light from the moon to get here would be about a second and a third or something like that and then she said the time it would take for this the light to get from the sun to the earth would be about eight and a half minutes so that means that when you see the sun in the sky it's not really there it's like off a little bit because the light that's coming from the sun takes a minute to get to you so in other words the next time you see a sunset and you want to be annoying you can look at the person with you and go it already set eight and a half minutes ago it's like down farther and if you're on pluto and say it's two o'clock in the afternoon in pluto it's a very cold day the sun's already set the further you get the more it takes for the light from the thing you're looking at in space to get to you even though it's going the speed of light so alpha centauri which is the closest star to our solar system it takes the light i gotta i wrote it down four and four point years to get to you so it's not even there wherever you know and the light that you're seeing is four years old and the light that's in the star in our galaxy that's the closest that you can see is 7 500 light years away meaning the light you're seeing in the sky is 7500 years old that star might not even be there anymore and if you were on that star and had a telescope powerful enough to see earth you would see like the prehistoric era you'd see a bunch of cavemen walking around with spears and such and if you waited long enough you'd be able to see jesus around the year zero not weird and then the milky way galaxy is a hundred thousand light years across is that right so if you're on one side of the galaxy and you can see the other side of the galaxy the light that you're seeing is from a hundred thousand years ago and the distance of the whole universe is a something like it's billions of light years like i think it was 43 billion light years or something like that so everything that you're seeing it's taken all this time it's not even there anymore and then the real mind bender she was saying that the universe is continually expanding like this and i didn't quite understand i said what do you mean it's expanding like in and i raised my hand as like so it's expanding into outer space and she says no space is what's expanding and i said expanding into what she said well nothing there's nothing there and i said what space is nothing it's like she's like no there's no space it's just expanding and i was like i'm sorry i'm the dummy in the room i know all of you are smart i'm the idiot seminarian you mean if i got in a spaceship and went to the edge of the universe and like poked my hand through imagine it's the truman show like what do i walk into what's back there she goes nothing and everybody laughs but not space no i'll tell you nobody really knows right how can you know how can you know what's what that is maybe it's god francis collins actually said something like that he said like that that we scientists have been climbing this mountain and now as we're making these revolutionary discoveries in the 20th and 21st century we get to the very top only to see a bunch of theologians who have been sitting there for a thousand years the remarkable thing about that story actually is not all of the things i told you is that when people study things like these smartest people in the world many of them come to the conclusion that there's a spiritual world behind the material world and that that spiritual world is in the loving grasp and hands of god if you're listening to me today don't listen to smart people who seem to know everything about you and everywhere your life is going to go and it's not good listen to me listen to me god knows about your future and your life and he cares very often when we start to do things the world's way we start to mess up or delay the good things that god has in store for us so today we can relax we can know we're forgiven that we're loved and begin to pray in a way that we actually believe this stuff that we really believe god is behind the scenes doing a good work in your life and he is uh i've done this before but uh i need like four or five choir members whoever you are let's see if it's the same people from the first service can be a new group whoever you want but you're going to be sitting for about five minutes all right anybody four five six steph is bowing out on this one it's all dudes just come here as i said just come sit face the screen so i've showed you this before but it's good to remember this is plato's allegory of the cave plato was trying to describe his view of the world in the universe and he says in this bizarre cave there are a bunch of men and women just people that have been chained they were sort of born here and imagine their backs are against a wall and what they're seeing are reflections on a cave wall caused by a fire that's behind them but they don't know the fire is there and they don't know that various objects and people are there and what they do is they all sit here hello mr strange hello and they're all they all sit here and they debate what these shadows are and in their view this is reality you guys want some blocking you can kind of point and you're talking to each other and you're like a bunch of dummies because you're like this is reality this is their real life and plato says that all of a sudden a man's chains come free a man wearing a blue jacket is too small for him and he turns around he turns around and he sees the fire and he sees these objects he sees these people and he's like whoa wait a second what's going on here and then he sees a pin of light on the far distance and begins to walk towards that light and it's actually the opening of the cave and he goes outside and he sees all this like amazing stuff that he's never even heard of before it looks similar to the shadows but it's better it's better and it's amazing it's a sun he's never seen a sun before birds and a tree mountains grass keep in mind he doesn't have a word for the color blue he doesn't have a word for tree or bird only things that kind of link to stuff that we've seen in the shadows and so he finds this whole new amazing life that until this moment was hidden to him and had heard about but just thought was ridiculous so he's living in this place full of joy and full of life and plato says that all of a sudden he gets a ping of guilt because he he remembers his friends in the cave and he wants to go set them free so he goes back to the cave at some personal risk goes into the cave and keep in mind imagine it's a bright summer day at noon and you walk into a deep part of a cave what happens imagine going into a dark room for example what would happen your eyes haven't adjusted and so as he walks in he trips and all of his friends laugh at him because he can't see and then he tells them my friends these things you're seeing on the this is just approaching it's not real this is not real at all there's something very real and it's out there but he can't even see his friends he can kind of see things around he's trying to describe trees and mountains and things but he doesn't have words for it so he's saying like there's this color and it's not yellow and it's not black it's it's like somewhere in between but brighter and somehow prettier and all of his friends just look at him like he's crazy okay thank you guys so plato's cave is a is a look into plato's view of the world is actually foundational to to western to to western education actually because within it is skepticism and the skepticism isn't just towards the pantheon of gods the skepticism is also towards a naturalistic view of the world remember in plato's day it's like the whole earth is flat and this is a sort of a scientific view everything under the earth was water and everything above the earth was the sun and the earth was fixed and the sun was moving and it caused p this way of thinking is like what if we look deeper what if we look under what if we look over what if there's something behind and plato believed kind of in a god in one god like a monotheist i don't have time to get into it now but it's it's key to understand that many of us um that i would say this there's one of three perspectives of the universe one of what we know less is true of what we know were exactly right or of what we know more is true who here really thinks that everything we know is exactly the amount we can know and most of us don't think there's less isn't that great so i believe that the despair that so many people are facing today is the sort of flatness of a materialistic view of life that all that there is is all we can know and that there's nothing underneath and i know i know that there's more and i know although it's can be vague sometimes and religion doesn't give us all the answers that there is built inside of us a desire to know more about that deeper part of the spiritual world and so much of our despair comes when we're out of touch with that world and yet when we look back we can many of us can see many ways in which god worked in spiritual ways to change material things in our lives and by the way many christians make this mistake too where it's only about studying reading it's only about listening to sermons but not about really walking in its power now maybe maybe it's just for one person here everybody else is just i lost them when i started talking about a hundred thousand light years or something maybe there's somebody here that's really wants to walk in this the first thing we have to do is one believe and you can almost can you feel it like if you close your eyes you kind of just there's i can do this and maybe you can't but you can feel it if you just stop for a second you can feel that world under the world that we're in it's there and and things are happening right now in your life so when we pray we can understand that that spiritual world is under the complete control of god it's the kingdom of the heavens and that god is at work in all the aspects of our life in other words we can be hopeful people and for good reason in luke 10 jesus sends the apostles out they've been studying under him and now they have come under his authority and power meaning that they believe that what he says is true and they begin to act on it they actually begin to love their enemies they actually begin to trust in dark times that even though it seems in the natural this boat is going to sink that maybe jesus taking a nap isn't a bad idea they begin to not worry they begin to grow in power and so he sends them out and when they come back they say that they were doing miracles like he was and they were even able to cast out demons which i know is a word that can mess with some of us hopefully i have time to talk about that but they were able to cast out these dark spirits and jesus says to them in that moment behold i saw satan fall from the heavens like lightning quick observation jesus doesn't say that after the crucifixion or the resurrection he doesn't say it on pentecost he says it the moment his disciples decide to believe and walk in the authority he gave them the your body is the greatest touch point between the material world and the spiritual world your body is the greatest touch point between the kingdom of god the king of the heavens and this world that everybody else experiences when they began to walk in his power that's when satan fell because they just really believed it and they really just tried it in your life it's easy to feel like what is any of this like is this real is god really doing anything in my life and so often all we have to do is posture our bodies in a way that we want to also not not just you know not ignore what's happening but also ask the lord what are you doing what are you doing behind all of that what are you doing behind what i can see and if we can give ourselves spiritual ears we can understand sometimes what god's doing and it's good it gives us hope and gives us peace and allows us to walk every day in an unhurried in the unhurried yoku of jesus think about this for a minute um we have all sorts of passages of demons or dark spirits that seem to have influence or seem to burden people i want to be careful and not assume that for example because my son has epilepsy he's possessed by a demon or because you have a depression or or an addiction that you're possessed or governed by an evil spirit but i also don't want to rule out that you're not i know there are people who struggled with things all their lives for years and years and one day they prayed you know they prayed millions of times but one day god just took it away from them i know that i hope that gives you hope addictive behavior i met a girl who she she went in and out of her struggle with heroin and one day the lord just took it away from her it's hard not to think and maybe i'm wrong that there's something very spiritual about that and i the reason i hope that gives you hope is don't feel guilty or don't feel like oh i have a demon in my life but also feel that there might be a spiritual aspect maybe it's not a demon thing but a spiritual thing about this that god can handle and somehow like the chinese finger track i talked about last week it's only when we're at peace with with these things in our life that they actually go away it's sometimes it's only when we're at peace with the fact i can't handle this thing on me i and even still i'm worthy of love and belonging even still i can do good things in this world even still god loves me even still and there's something when you really believe grace and you push into the chinese finger trap instead of trying to pull your fingers out somehow that's what you need to unlock some of us to unlock your destiny in the book of acts paul there's a story that paul has this little girl she's like six to ten years old and it says that she's a fortune teller the word there is that she has a python spirit and the reason they said a fortune teller is a python spirit was the was like the oracle of delphi this is one of the most famous places in the whole ancient world everybody wanted to go here in order to see the oracle you had to pay the equivalent of tons of money and they would have a slave girl in there who was bringing it breathing in ethylene she would get high and then she would speak a prophetic word over you but keep in mind that the belief was there was a python spirit a snake a serpent what did that sound like that there was a serpent giving her these words you see and that that serpent in this case was from apollo that apollo who was this great god slayed the serpent and actually what was happening is that serpent the decaying smell of the serpent was coming up and that's what gave this girl her her words in other words that the girl was possessed by either apollo or this python when paul sees that he just commands it to get out of her life get out of her get out of her boom it's gone and she is completely set free and her slave owners freak out because now they no longer have like a little oracle that they can take around and make money from and so because of this the the leader of philippi takes paul and silas puts them in the deepest part of the prison over them they put a chief jailer who gets paid extra for their brutality and they're in the stocks they've been beaten and whipped it's pitch black you can't see anything and in the middle of all that paul and silas are just worshiping and praising god here's how i've often heard that passage taught i've often heard it like when you go through tough times you know try to worship god try to worship god harder or something like that but that is not what i see when i read the text i don't see paul and silas trying to do anything they're not faking anything they have seen god work in their lives so many times they're just not worried about it they're just assuming somehow god's gonna it's an assumption god's going to use this to do something great great they're not faking anything they're not pretending like they're not bleeding it's that the reward is so you know what it reminds me of it reminds me of mr beast mr b's a youtuber and like i saw this thing where these kids they had to stand up in a circle and whoever's the last one to win got a million dollars and there they're all standing for days struggling horrible right you think they'd be depressed and they're all like laughing and high-fiving and having a grand old time even though physically they're struggling why because they know a reward is coming you got in factor for paul and silas hanging there in the stockades they believed that something amazing was about to happen so you're just going to praise god in advance there's a difference between that and you going through a hard time just being i'm going to worship god through it maybe that's a good thing to do but i want to say that their praise was a result of something they really believed they really really believed it when you're in your deepest moment can you promise me something promise me that you will quiet your heart that you will rest and you will just ask the lord lord help me trust that even though the worst thing in my life has happened i can trust that you will turn it to good lord let my life be a testimony that there is no tragedy that is outside of your good hand that there is no child that is outside of your loving gaze and that there is no story that is not yet unwritten remember what c.s lewis said he said we cannot go to the beginning and change how everything that happened but we can start where we are right now and we can change the ending pray lord do a good work in my life it's been hard at this point but i trust that no matter what i see in the material i believe that behind the curtain firmament of the universe there is a spiritual world at which you are doing good works on the behalf on behalf of me and the people i love i will just trust it the same way i trust when i turn a light switch on that electricity will turn on i don't know how to make electricity but i will trust that in that same way if i look to you lord you'll sort it out for me and he will and does he love you so much he loves you things are going to be okay my friend we could be at peace today and we can ask that through all these tough times god would give us the kind of power that paul and silas and the disciples had that we begin to see a real trust and work in that world so father we love you so much we pray in jesus name lord that you transform our hearts and minds into the image of christ it's in your name we pray amen [Music] hi friend have you subscribed to our channel yet if not then i hope you will our power is filled with uplifting content to nourish your spirit and help you grow closer to jesus we've created this channel to remind you that no matter who you are or what you've done god loves you and so do we

Channel: Hour of Power with Bobby Schuller

Views: 2,889

Rating: 4.8666668 out of 5

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Id: dnkW5Z8ZM_Y

Length: 57min 32sec (3452 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021