The Debbie Taylor Williams Podcast

Debbie Taylor Williams: Hi, this is Debbie Taylor Williams. Thanks for tuning into my podcast. I'm so glad you're here and pray the Lord will speak to you through this message.

Thank you for being here this morning! It's wonderful to be with you. I love seeing your sweet faces and us sharing our Wednesday mornings together and digging into Acts. How many of you are loving the study of Acts and all that you're learning and growing? I am, too. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, we love you and we adore you. Thank you for the word pictures you give us. Thank you for the scenes from 2,000 years ago that you bring and that are relevant to us today. I ask that you speak clearly and loudly to each of us and that you specifically give us a point that we can take home and through which you refine us and conform us into the image of Jesus Christ. Use us for your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay, let's get started. You can put this listening guide away for a while because I'm not going to use it. As I was praying over this morning and what the Lord wanted me to bring to you last week, He impressed on my heart sounds: S-O-U-N-D-S. What we are going to do this morning is we are going to look at the sounds that Paul experienced and others experienced that are given to us in the book of Acts 16.

We see in this second missionary journey that Paul did, he went to Philippi, Macedonia, which was in the northern part of what is now Greece. It's in the northern part of what we would call northern Greece. And this was an amazing venture into the Roman Empire, into Europe. And we are going to see the first Christian. And it was a woman in that Europe had, the very, very first Christian. Isn't this exciting?

And we're given her name. It's Lydia. We see how Paul and Silas, they sang hymns to God in jail. And we see how the jailer and his family are saved like Lydia was by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Such a contrast between this jailer who worked in the dungeon and Lydia who was a seller of expensive, royal-colored purple fabric. So it's exciting for us.

So what are the sounds from Acts 16? If you haven't opened your Bible yet, please open your Bible because there are many sounds. I'll give us a review in a minute of Acts 16:1-10, but to bring us up to today and what we specifically focused on beginning in verse 11, we read:

"So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; and from there to Philippi, which is the leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. And we were staying in this city for some days. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.

A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.' And she prevailed upon us.

And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out and saying, 'These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.' She continued doing this for many days.

But Paul was greatly annoyed and turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.' And it came out at that very moment. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities.

And when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, 'These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.' The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off of them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.

When they had struck them many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks. But about midnight..."

Let's go and let's look at some of these sounds that the Holy Spirit wants us to hear, that the Lord wants us to hear in Acts 16. One of the first sounds that we see if we back up to the beginning of Acts 16:1-3, are Timothy and his mother saying their goodbyes. Have you thought about them saying their goodbyes?

And Timothy's mother knowing what her son Timothy leaving with Paul might entail because it was in her city that she had known of Paul being stoned. And now her son is leaving. Would you like for your son to take off with a man who has a tendency to get stoned? What would that goodbye sound like?

In verses 4-5, we have the voices of Paul and Silas delivering good news to the churches as they spread that word that they do not have to be circumcised, that salvation is by faith. And then in verses 6-8, we have the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit. The silent, perhaps, voice but very real voice of the Holy Spirit, whom you know.

And I pray that each of you knows what that nudging is because it is real. And it both nudges you to do things and He also nudges you, "Whoa, don't." For the Christian, it is the most exciting life that we can possibly live when we offer our bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice and we invite and implore the Holy Spirit to speak to us.

That's why I wanted to give you that QR code so you can go and you can study more deeply about how you can listen up to the Holy Spirit. The quiet voice of the Spirit. And we see also the clear call of the man in Europe saying, "Come over to us, help us." His voice was clear, God's will was clear, and they knew that they were supposed to follow that voice.

So Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke get on a ship. Have you been to the Mediterranean? The water can't be more blue. The Aegean Sea where they left. Do you know the sound of the water lapping against a ship, against a sailboat? It's rhythmic, it's melodic, and it was a time of peace. It was a time no doubt of prayer. It was a time no doubt of worship and calm for them on this voyage.

So there was that sound, the refreshing sound before they went into what they were going to be experiencing. Are you right now in a time of refreshment in your spiritual life? If you are, enjoy it, celebrate it, enjoy the breath of fresh air and the peace and the calm in your life. We are not promised it will last. It's a gift for those moments that we get to experience the beauty of this world and life that God created.

But there are more sounds. We see the gurgling river, and you can Google and you can see images of the river in Philippi because it is gurgling. And we can envision the women gathering because there wasn't a large enough population of Jews for there to be a synagogue. And we see Paul doing something different. He is visiting with the women and he is teaching them.

And we see and we can hear those women talking, can't we? Because you just came from your discussion group. And those were the very same women just like you sitting and talking and asking and inquiring and listening and hearing and absorbing and being curious. And we see, in particular, this Lydia and how she was a very bright businesswoman, successful, independent, who traded with the wealthy people who were in the minority in Philippi.

And so here she is, this classy woman, and she is asking questions. And then the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit in her heart, in her inner person through the voice of Paul, Jesus speaking. And her heart is opened. Opened! We see her confession and the influence it had. Something that we are not told in Acts but we are told in Luke 15:10 that happened at this moment that Lydia's heart was opened.

And she confessed Jesus as Savior—the one she had not seen, just like you and I confess Jesus as Savior, though we have not seen Him—and she was given the Holy Spirit. Just like you and I were given the gift. We are the same women as that Lydia back there. Maybe a different social status, but the same, in that we gather to learn.

And we've professed Jesus as Lord and our hearts have been opened by God and we've received the Holy Spirit and the angels rejoiced when you became a Christian. We are told that when one sinner repents, there is rejoicing in heaven by the angels. We don't hear that, but we will hear it one day.

In verses 16-17, we read how we hear the servant girl who is possessed by an evil demon. Demons are evil. She was possessed by evil. Satan possessed her soul, like the Holy Spirit now possesses Lydia's soul. But on the outside, you don't see Satan. You just see a girl. And this breaks my heart because today there are girls who are being sex trafficked.

There are girls, teenage girls—the latest report is teenage girls are some of the most hopeless and desperate and suicidal. We don't see it on the outside. But just like in this case, that girl was saying, "These are men of the Most High God." Friends, we really have to pay attention because the words sounded right but the source was evil.

And in the same way, there are words being said in our nation today and it may sound right, "My body, my choice." And yes, but make the choice before you engage in sex if you don't want to keep the baby that you are having. There are words that may sound nice, that all immigrants should come into the United States. And yes, our nation was founded on immigrants.

But at the same time, even God bets who gets into heaven. Not everybody gets across the border that God has set. There is a border in heaven. There is a gate. And we must be vetted. We must have our backgrounds checked and us have had a time where our sins were forgiven.

So it may come out words that sound right, but there needs to be words that have understanding. Yes, we invite immigrants into our nation, but we do not invite criminals and slave traffickers who are prostituting young girls. We see that the Satan doesn't have any problem prostituting and using and abusing this young slave girl.

We see her crying out words, not her words, words of her being possessed. We hear Paul's loud voice now saying to the demon, "Come out!" We hear the angry charges against Paul and Silas as they grab them. We hear the yells of a mob crowd yelling as they push Paul and Silas forward.

We hear the rods beating their backs many times by men trained for how to hurl abuse on someone. We hear Paul and Silas's cries with every blow. There are sounds in Acts 16. Do you hear the sounds? We hear the bang of the prison doors shutting them into the inner darkness and the black, the silence of the inner dungeon, black where you can't see your hand and there are no words but two chained, stocked bodies of men.

But then we hear the low hum of a man's voice and another man's voice joining him. And the men's voices rising as they choose—they choose—to sing praises to their God. Did you hear the chains falling? It's recorded in Acts 16. The chains fall. The earthquake. The voice rising from Paul saying, "Do not harm yourself!"

The jailer calling for lights. Did you hear his voice trembling? Did you read that? Did you see that? Where it says in Acts 16, verse 29, "Trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas." The jailer! The big brute is trembling. Have you ever trembled? If you haven't, it's a crazy feeling. I've only had a couple of times where I uncontrollably trembled, but it's when your body—you're not doing it—it's something in you.

It is like this and he is trembling. He knows he has been in the face or he is looking at men possessed with the face of God and he is trembling and saying, "What must I do to be saved?" We see Paul's answer from his broken, bruised body. It's still the same message: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."

We hear the splashing of the baptismal waters as he has professed his faith and now the water is splashing over him and over all of his household. We hear the voices of the family of the jailer rejoicing. He has been, perhaps, a rude man, a coarse man, a harsh man, a cruel man, a tyrant of a man.

He works all day in a prison with stinky, foul people where their feces isn't cleaned up, where they're barely given any food, that's intended to be so torturous you would rather die. That's his job. What kind of a father, what kind of a husband do you think he has been? And now he is transformed and his face has changed.

And we see that the family is rejoicing, but not only that, we see that he wants to do things for Paul. He wants to clean his back. He wants to take care of him. But we also see that after all this has transpired, that the chief magistrates beginning in 35-39, they want to have Paul and Silas just slip away as if nothing has happened. And we hear Paul's strong voice say, "No, indeed!"

What can we learn? The encouraging words that he then goes and gives to Lydia and then after he gives the encouraging words to Lydia, we hear the footsteps going back down the road, going back down the road to the next place that he is going to take the gospel.

The good news has transferred from this area in Turkey and Jerusalem where it began and it is now in Europe. It is on its way to us. This is very personal to me. And the reason it's very personal is because Sunday, I was eating lunch with my nephew Logan, who is 14 years old, and with Lauren and Chris and Chris's parents.

We were celebrating Chris's birthday and Lauren. And I'd been at one end of the table and I went down to the other end to visit with Logan. And we were talking about various things and I looked at his wristband that I'd seen many times, but I wanted to visit with him about it. And I said again to him, "Logan, I really like your wristband."

And it says Philippians 4:13. And I said, "You know that verse?" And he goes, "Yeah, that verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." You know what that picture is? That's a picture of Logan with the black wristband with Philippians 4:13. Do you know why my grandson 2,000 years later has on his wrist and has as his verse "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me"?

Do you know why he has that on his wrist? Because Paul 2,000 years ago went to Philippi. He suffered. He suffered. He went without. He took those rods on his back so my grandson can hold that verse in his heart and know that whatever he's going through, he can do whatever he's going through through Christ who strengthens him. We have a debt to pay. We owe it to the next generation to be their Paul, to be their Lydia. Do you agree?

And so what can we learn from the sounds of Acts? What have you heard? What sound is Jesus inviting you to make to impact lives? Very quickly on your listening guide, I want us to conclude with some things that I've learned from the study of Acts 16 and if there's something that you think is good that you would say, "Yes, I learned this too," or maybe "I learned it for the first time," but "Yes, I want to remember this, I want to act on this more often."

I learned from Paul and Silas one, that I have to be sensitive and responsive to the Spirit, trusting—trusting—His timing and the doors He opens and closes. I am to respond to every opportunity to witness that the Lord gives me, whether it's a wealthy Lydia by the river shore or a dungeon jailer. I am to respond to every opportunity the Lord gives me.

From Lydia, I learn that my business, my work is not to interfere with my commitment to God. I am to show up at church. I am to show up at places of worship. I am to pray and bring my family. And I am to listen to the teaching of the word. I am to pray to the Lord for the Lord to open hearts. I'm to be hospitable and use my home for Jesus' purposes.

From the slave girl, I learn the human body can be possessed by an evil spirit or the Holy Spirit. I learn that a person can say things that may sound right but Satan be behind them. I learn that Jesus can free a person from evil. From the slave owners, I am warned evil people will exploit others to profit from them. And evil people may throw Christians in prison for unjustifiable reasons. Get ready.

From Paul and Silas in prison, I learn I can be in a dark place where I don't see a way out, I can't fix it, and the enemy appears to be winning. But I can choose—would you say that word with me?—choose. I can choose to pray and praise, knowing nothing is impossible with God. My sister Linda called me several weeks ago and asked, "What are you doing?"

I was walking and stomping—not stomping—but walking and marching around my house reading scripture and claiming victory over a situation where I did not see a way out. And I was reading and praising God and singing "Jesus loves me" at the top of my lungs, "Victory in Jesus," "Onward Christian Soldiers."

I wanted to take the roof off. I was singing to Jesus and it was just fine with me that Satan was listening. And God brought the victory. Just like 2 Chronicles 20:19 says, that when they began singing, the Lord set an ambush and routed the enemy.

I learn also from Paul and Silas in prison number two, that God can act suddenly because suddenly He sent that earthquake to open doors. Suddenly God can break chains. Suddenly God can bring salvation. And I can stand for what is right as a citizen while showing respect to those in authority. Paul stood up for what he—was right for him as a Roman citizen.

From the jailer, I learn a changed inner—I know that's not really a word, don't worry about me—a changed inner expresses in a changed outer. The jailer was transformed. He went from shackling Paul and Silas to washing their wounds and feeding them. And I learn that I can show hospitality regardless of my social standing.

We saw the contrast in these first converts of Lydia with her wealth and her large home, apparently able to accommodate all of them, and the jailer who also accommodated and fed Paul and Silas. So this question remains: what have you heard today from Acts 16? Because the Holy Spirit speaks. This word speaks. What have you heard?

What sound is Jesus inviting you to make to impact lives? Is He calling you to teach? Is He calling you to invite people into your home to encourage them? Is He calling you to call out evil? That's what Paul did. It was necessary. Is He calling you to pray? Is He calling you to praise in your dark times?

Or in your sin strongholds where you don't see a way out? Is He calling you to take a stand and saying, "No, that's not right. I can pray where I want to pray. This is between me and God." Are you being called? Are you hearing Him call you to take a stand? The question is: what have you heard the Lord say from Acts 16? What have you heard the Holy Spirit speak into your life? Because He has spoken.

Father, you give us your word not to glance over it but to hear it and to internalize it. And with that seed implanted, for it to grow and give birth and bear fruit through our eyes, body, minds, mouths, hands, feet. We ask you do that in every single one of us today, now. And we pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you for listening to this podcast. To learn more about how to grow in Christ or to be saved, visit www.debbietaylorwilliams.com. Connect with me on Instagram at Debbie Taylor Williams. God bless you.