In his sermon 'Insights Into Spiritual Warfare,' Trent Moody expounds on Acts 16:16-25, illustrating the unseen battles Christians face. The narrative of Paul and Silas encountering a demon-possessed slave girl on their way to prayer serves as a primary example of spiritual warfare. The sermon emphasizes the power of prayer and its vital role in a believer's life, highlighting that prayer is not without its dangers and opposition, both spiritual and physical. The authority of Jesus' name is portrayed as a critical weapon against deception and evil, as demonstrated by Paul's command to the spirit within the girl. Additionally, the sermon discusses the nature of false teachings and the subtlety of Satan's tactics, which can often appear as truth. The incident of Paul and Silas being imprisoned for casting out the demon further underscores the reality of persecution as a response to the advancement of God's kingdom. Yet, their response—praying and singing hymns while in prison—reflects a supernatural resilience and highlights the importance of maintaining faith and worship amidst trials. The sermon ultimately calls for believers to be vigilant, discerning, and prepared for spiritual battles, emphasizing the necessity of relying on the power and authority of Christ.

Acts 16, beginning with verse 16, we will read down through verse 25. And thus says the word of the Lord. Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days.

But Paul greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates and said, These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city, and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.

When they had laid many strikes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. Let's pray.

Our heavenly father, we wanna thank you this morning that you have called us to this firm foundation of the word of God. Lord, we have not come this morning to hear, Lord, the thoughts of men. God, we have come to hear from you. Lord, I pray this morning that your spirit through your word would instruct us. That you would teach us this morning, Lord.

Father, we need you. And Lord, more than anything else, we need your spirit to come and to deliver the word to our hearts. Father, a man may stand and proclaim many things. He may stand and do his very best from the natural abilities that you give. But Father, if your spirit does not do the work of the heart, it will fall on deaf ears and there will be no lasting change.

So Lord, I ask you this morning to please come and be with us and come and take this word and produce in us your desired effect. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Amen.

You may be seated. My desire this morning is to help us, all of us, to have some insights into the spiritual warfare that goes on really all the time that we're usually not even aware of. Things that take place in our life that we because we live with eyes that see only the natural. But God's word gives us some insight into what goes on around us in the world of the spiritual that we don't see. This does not give us an exhaustive account of these things, but I believe and I hope that it does give us some instruction.

And what I want us to look at today in the insights of spiritual warfare, as we see here in this passage of scripture, and let me just explain that this passage in chapter 16 is so large there was no way that I could grapple with the rest of this chapter this morning. It would take too much time because there are so many wonderful truths here and so I'm really going to break down the last sections of this into three sermons, this being the first of the three. But as you know, it kind of flows right out of what we looked at two weeks ago regarding Lydia, when I preached regarding the topic of close is not enough, that being just outside the gate is not the same thing as being in the gate. Being close to the people of God is not the same thing as being the people of God. You know, praying or saying prayers is not the same thing as being a child of God who lifts up his request to his heavenly father, and that there's such a danger there on the outside on that ground that is just outside the gate.

But today, what we're finding here is yet again, we see people going to prayer. They're taking a journey, if you will, a short journey. Some of us have come a journey this morning to the time of prayer. And we find here in this passage that prayer is actually not a benign thing that we do. Coming to prayer, and let's just use this in the sense of coming to worship God this morning, it's not something without its dangers.

Coming before the Lord and coming to gather together for the sacred purpose of prayer and for the preaching of the word of God for singing, for lifting up our requests to the Lord and coming to hear a word from the Lord, it's not something that is always safe. And in this passage, what we see here is prayer is actually a spiritual battleground that was taking place. There was a battle taking place and let's look at that in verses 16 through 18 where the scripture says, now it happened as we went to prayer. I want to stop just for a moment and ask you a question. That sounds to me almost like a telling of a story or a first liner of many stories of a Christian family on their way to church on Sunday morning.

Now it happened on the way to church. I don't know if that's ever happened to you on the way to church, but it has certainly happened to us on the way to church that it seems as if things are just not going the way that we designed, the way that we hoped they would go. I mean, our desire is that the way to church and on the way to church would be just as joyous and happy and spirit-filled as the time that we are in church, but that's not always the case. Can I get an amen to that? If we could write a book, I think many of them would happen that way.

Now it happened as we went to church. And the stories, all of us could no doubt tell of the difficulty and perhaps disaster or disagreements that took place on the way to the place of prayer. I don't know if you've noticed, but going to prayer or going to worship, as I said, is not always a safe, and it's not always an easy, and it's not always an uneventful activity. Prayer, and the reason I believe that this is, is because prayer and the worship of God is truly one of the most vital activities in the life of a Christian and in the life of a local church. This time that we gather together is vital, it's a commandment of God that we gather together, that we forsake not the assembling of ourselves together.

Without prayer, we are powerless. Without prayer, we are disconnected from our Heavenly Father. You know, I think about our Lord Jesus Christ this weekend. One of the messages was about Jesus Christ the man, and it was talking about how he was fully God and fully man, and he spoke about all the different things that Christ did. And I was just thinking about this regarding prayer.

If you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you look at a man who was born of a virgin. He was raised up and he began his ministry at around the age of 30. And as he did so, it was noticeable. And that's what we read about in our gospels is how he was a man who did miraculous things, his first miracle turning the water into wine. This man opened the eyes of the blind, but yet he prayed.

This man raised the dead, yet he prayed. This man walked on water, and yet he prayed. It tells you something of the vital nature of prayer in the life of a believer. If our Lord Jesus Christ himself prayed, it tells you the importance of us gathering together to pray. We have prayed this morning.

I have prayed for you this morning. And we are even now as as I'm preaching this in my heart, I'm praying God take this word and and bring it to the hearts of your people for their benefit and for their good and for his glory. But without prayer, we're powerless or we're disconnected. Prayer is not an option for the believer. Prayer is something that God has commanded us to do and it's important to recognize that prayer though is not without its opposition.

Again if we're going to have some insights into spiritual warfare, you need to understand that when you set your heart and set your mind to praying, you're going to have some form of opposition in the act of prayer. Maybe before prayer, maybe in prayer, maybe after prayer. I don't know about you, but there have been plenty of times that I've set my heart to say I'm going to wake up in the morning at a certain time and I'm going to pray. And something happens that hinders me or not necessarily hinders, but perhaps even as Paul's case here's we'll look at in a few moments that gets in his way of prayer it he becomes greatly annoyed at something and there are things that distract us in our prayer Maybe even in the act of prayer itself, you become distracted with a sinful thought. Or something maybe that's not sinful, but something that is distracting in the sense of you begin to think about all the things that you need to do on Monday morning.

Or the things that you need to do on Monday morning or the things that you need to do even this evening to prepare your mind and your thought for the things you need to do on Monday morning. Or perhaps it's a child right beside you that may be acting in such a way that's hindering your prayer. There's a thousand things that can hinder you and distract you in prayer, not all of them demonic, let me just say. But there are cases, and I think more often than we realize, when on the way to prayer, that we actually meet up with something that we don't recognize and understand is hindering us or wanting to hinder us in this vital aspect of our prayer life. Because prayer again is not an option for a believer it's the very lifeline to God for the believer.

And so the devil knows the importance and power of a praying Christian. His desire again is either to keep you from prayer or to distract you in prayer. So let's, I want us just to think about this is how the devil is not going to, and I don't mean him literally the devil, but just in the sense of we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. There are things that go on that we are not fully aware of. But he and the forces of evil, the enemy of our soul, does not sit idly by as the kingdom of God is in a pattern of growing.

Now so what we have here, we see in the scripture, Paul and Silas are going, they're proclaiming the gospel. We see just in the last time in the book of Acts chapter 16, Lydia, God opens her heart to receive the thing spoken by Paul, but not only does Lydia have her heart open, but we read there in the last part that it says that he opened her heart and she and her household were baptized. So the power of the kingdom of God and the growing of the kingdom of God was taking place in this little this this town or the city of Philippi not little but this town of the city of Philippi and the kingdom of God was advancing there and as we see and we will see in the next three sermons on this that not only did Lydia and her household believe, but we know also about this Philippian jailer. He believed also and had his heart opened by the Lord and his whole household believed. By the time we get to the end of chapter 16 and verse 40, listen to what it says.

So when they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. By the time we get to the end of chapter 16, there is at least a notable gathering of believers in this city of Philippi. So there is an advancement of the kingdom of God. And so when you see the advancement of the kingdom of God, expect also resistance to the kingdom of God and that comes in many forms. There are a lot of things happening in this text that we can't see right off.

However, I believe that with a closer look, I hope to point out a few things that I believe will help us on our way to understand and have some insights into spiritual warfare as we are desiring to pray and to worship God and even just go about our lives. The one thing that I want us to notice is in the sense that Lydia's household was believing this assumed Philippian jailers household would believe and because of these things and because of the advancement of the gospel and the kingdom of God there's actually this space here between verse 15 and verse 16. It says in verse 15, so she persuaded them to stay with them. They came to her house and stayed. But then in verse 16, it says, now it happened as we went to prayer.

So there's a time lapse in between verse 15 and 16. I don't know how long. Maybe a day, maybe three days, maybe a week. I'm not exactly sure because we're not told. But there's a time lapse here between this time of people coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in this time now and when in which they are now going to prayer.

And so Paul is not in this time period remaining silent about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we see this, that her whole house was baptized, and I showed last time also how when the whole household was baptized, it was because the whole household believed. They also had faith in the message that Paul proclaimed. And so at the very least, we know that the gospel was proclaimed to her household. And we know Paul.

We've seen Paul throughout the book of Acts and you see him in other other epistles. This is a man who cannot remain silent when it comes to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're getting ready to see it later on in the in chapter 16. We'll see it in 17. We're gonna see it all the way up to Rome when he's going to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ there in Rome.

And he does that for nearly two years. This was a man who had a heart for the gospel and he had a desire for the advancement of the kingdom. But note, as he was on his way to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her master's much profit by their fortune telling. This certain slave girl, possessed, possessed means to be indwelt, it means to be inhabited or as some modern terms would be to haunt if you will. But this this idea of divination and the wording behind it and the meaning behind it is kind of interesting.

It's where we get our word Python from. It has the idea of a snake demon that was used. And it was in the sense, it was the name of this snake that guarded a demonic oracle. It's written that in early time periods it was it was also known as someone who was a ventriloquist, someone who could in a sense throw their voice, we say. Not in the sense that it was a natural thing, in this case, we know that Paul here rebukes the demon.

But it was seen as something as not originating from this girl. It was she was possessed and she was, as it says here, the girl possessed with a spirit of divination. And so it presented as if it was a voice not from her Does that make sense? It is it is something that that was outside of her but yet inside of her not from her but in her and she was possessed and it had the the Understanding of where we get our word of a python. She did her work, this spirit did her work.

I don't wanna say she necessarily because it says when Paul cast out, it says and he came out that very hour. There was a masculine form here. But this this girl being possessed by the by this demon, this python, if you will, was a fortune teller, one who would professionally supposedly predict the future. I don't believe that demons can predict the future. I think that they can say things based upon their knowledge of past things and even the understanding of human nature itself can present as if it is speaking of things futuristic.

But it was something enough that brought enough attention and enough notoriety and enough trust in what she was doing and what her masters were doing that they were actually making a pretty good profit off of this thing. I don't know if you've ever headed down to the beach, but along going on way down to the beach, you'll see sometimes these little houses off the side of the road. And they'll have maybe palm readings and they'll have fortune tellers and it's kind of a weird little place, don't ever go there. But just keep on going. But that's the same kind of idea, these people who profess to do something that is unnatural, to be able to tell you something about yourself and to tell you something about your future or the future.

It's interesting though, and what catches my attention in this passage is, is that as this girl is possessed with this spirit of divination, she's bringing her master's much profit by this fortune-telling. And it says this, this girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the most high God who proclaimed to us the way of salvation. Can I remind us, Paul and Silas were just on their way to prayer? Just on their way to prayer. Just on their way to prayer.

They're going to pray to God. They are going to worship the Lord and now they meet this girl along the way who has this demon possession and she makes this pronouncement to them and we we read in the next verse that this is not something she did one time this is something that she did every day and this she did for many days anyway she did this for many days the insight that I that I hope to gain from this, that I hope we all gain from this, is that the devil knows that sometimes the best way to deceive people is to lie to them and at other times to tell them the truth. You know, when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, the devil actually quoted scripture to Jesus. Now, he quoted scripture out of context, but the literal words that were said when he was quoting the scriptures was truth words. One of the things that we need to understand about understanding the spiritual warfare and even in regards to false teachers or a situation like this is that you could be confronted with something that is in itself on face value a true statement, but it's not being used in a way for your benefit.

False teachers will do this. False teachers will tell you 99.9% things that are true, but yet deny the very fundamental thing that is necessary. We have to be discerning regarding spiritual warfare. We have to be discerning regarding those things that may come into our minds when we are praying or when we're going to worship the Lord, when we are confronted with things that seem at face value to be okay. This sounds right.

But it actually takes a discerning spirit, and I mean that as the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit giving us discernment, to understand the difference of what is going on here. The devil doesn't remember. The devil does not always come to you with at face value lies. Listen to what Second Corinthians says. But what I do, I will also continue to do that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which we boast.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. Transforming themselves. Making themselves present as if they were apostles of Christ. And he goes on, and no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Verse 15 of 2nd Corinthians 11, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works not their words.

Brothers and sisters we have to be wise and discerning, filled with the spirit, led by the spirit, and understanding the wiles of the devil. Here he is, working within this slave girl to proclaim something and you know it is not for the purpose of exalting these men with godly intentions. She's not actually there to proclaim the way of truth. She's not there to come along beside them and proclaim the gospel to the law so that they will be saved. She is there to head them all.

She is there to do something to them, to distract them or to divert them or to hinder them from continuing the proclamation of the gospel. Or she is there to hinder those who are hearing the message that they are proclaiming. We have seen it and we are we are dealing with in our culture and even in our neighborhoods and in the towns in which we live when we go out and we proclaim the gospel on the street or we're going to a city council meeting, we are dealing with those who are not, it's not natural things that we're dealing with. I believe truly that these are demonic things that we are dealing with. And we need to be wise and understand and discerning of what the warfare of a Christian actually looks like, the insights that we need to have into the spiritual warfare that we're faced with.

Calvin says, but the devil is the father of lying in such sort that he covereth himself under the ale and deceivable color of truth. There he played another person, though his craft subtly, he's crafty and subtle, then was agreeable to his nature." So what he's saying is His nature is that which is he is the father of lies. And yet, 2 Corinthians tells us he transforms himself into an angel of light. And those who are his ministers are those who serve him as ministers of righteousness. They may say things that we've seen it we see it in our town councils we've seen it in the town of Wake Forest there are those who profess to be gospel ministers who are who profess to be ministers of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ And yet they speak with a forked tongue.

They have smooth words to deceive the hearers, but they do it so that they will be captured by the devil to do his will. We need to be wise regarding spiritual warfare. Calvin goes on, he says, the devil does this by creeping in craftily, that he might do the more harm and therefore whereas he is called the father of lies, we must not so take it as if he did not, excuse me, we must not take it as if he did always lie manifestly and without any color. And what he means there is like any kind of deception like he's hiding this thing. Yea, rather, we must beware of his crafty subtlety, lest when he pretendeth the color of truth, he deceives us under a vain show.

We must be wise regarding the spiritual warfare, especially when we are coming for the most vital purpose that God has created us for and that is to worship Him. When we come to the time of prayer and worship. His desire is to misuse the truth for evil ends. And we must be aware of his devices. I personally believe that this girl, that what she was saying was probably in a mocking tone.

But we don't know. We don't have the tone of voice here. But I'm not certain about this. It could have been such that she was trying to identify herself with what they were doing. You know that will often happen whenever God allows a revival to take place, a true work of the Spirit of God, it is always accompanied by something false.

Something that will come in beside this thing and try to divert off those who were following after the truth and to divert them to falsehood. This may be what she was doing, this demonic influence was doing. And so It could have been that what she was saying was either, like I said, mocking or sarcastic, or it could have been something that she was saying that was true, but for the purpose of diverting. But the thing that's interesting to me is that she did it continually. She did this for many days, it says.

What I want us to look at though is as she's doing this for many days, verse 18, and she did it for many days, but this, the authority of the name of Jesus Christ gives us the victory over this type of deception. We need to come under the authority of Jesus Christ. It says here of Paul in the letter part of verse 18, but Paul greatly annoyed. That just humors me, I'm sorry. He was greatly annoyed by this thing.

The apostle Paul, dealing with this, you know, it's not really amazing that he was greatly annoyed. I think the thing is that's amazing to me is that he was so patient. She did this for many days. She kept following them and kept meeting them and doing this same thing over and over and over again. And so the apostle finally had had enough, greatly annoyed.

Now the word here means to be irked. And if you know me, I love to come up with new words and use words in an interesting way. And so the irkiness of Paul was great. And so he finally had had enough. He was disturbed.

He was troubled by this thing. And so what did he do? He turns and he looks at this girl, greatly annoyed, and he said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her. And he came out that very hour. One of the purposes of prayer is that we would commune with God.

We have a desire to to pour out our hearts to Him, to have a connection with Him, to have the power of the Holy Spirit for a holy life and sometimes what happens is is when we get distracted or we get diverted from that very good and vital purpose of having a vivid prayer life or a vital prayer life with the Lord, an energetic prayer life, an earnest prayer life with the Lord. Sometimes we get so knocked off track that we forget the truth of the gospel and we forget the power of the name and the authority of Jesus Christ to help us. And we get defeated, we get discouraged, we get down, we get angry, we quarrel, we do all of these things and we forget that what we need, and I'm not saying that we're going to go around Demanding demons to come out of people but I think the principle is this is that in the midst of the spiritual warfare Let us not forget the power and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in our life and in that situation When we do that we actually are succumbing to the very scheme of the devil.

That he would hinder our prayer life, that he would hinder our fellowship one with another. And so what Paul does, greatly annoyed though he was, he looked at this situation and he had full faith and confidence in the power of the name of Jesus Christ. He had seen it. He had seen people raised from the dead. He had seen people who had been healed from sicknesses.

Paul understood the name of Jesus Christ and the power and the glory and the authority of that name, that name which is above every name, that name at which every knee will bow and every tongue confess that most holy name, the name that cannot be restrained, though the nations rage at that name and the heathens have for centuries tried to stamp out that name, it is the name that continues on and will continue on throughout eternity that is the name above every name and it is the name by which this demon had to obey and was cast out that very hour. Now we also see this same idea regarding the authority and the power of the name of Jesus Christ earlier. We saw this in Acts chapter 4. It says, and when they had set them, this is Peter and the others who were with him, when they had set them in the midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have you done this? Who gives you this authority to do these things and to say these things that you are saying and doing.

And then it says this and then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man By what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." This is the name that saves people. This is the name and the authority by which a person is taken from death to life. Someone who is taken with a heart of stone and they're given a heart of flesh and This is someone who is taken from the pit of hell and in the power of the father of lies and they're transformed and Translated into the kingdom of light This is the only name by which you can be saved and go to heaven There's no other name under heaven Our greatest weapon against the enemy of our soul is the name of Jesus Christ.

Now what I mean by that is not in the sense of using his name as as a silver bullet or as a rabbit's foot or as something that would ward off the evil spirits or as a good luck charm, rather than it is faith in the risen Savior Jesus Christ. For those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, His name will not be your salvation, it will be your judgment. You must understand to be under the authority and power of His name. Remember what happened to the seven sons of Sceva who thought that they could use the name. We're gonna cast out some demons too.

We're gonna use the name because it apparently is the name. We just say the name and it's gonna work. In Acts 19, now God worked unusual miracles by the hand of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call on the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. They decided they would use the name.

But what happens when you use the name if you don't believe in the name? You're not submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ. You're not believing in the name as he is the son of God, he is God Almighty, he is seated upon his throne. But you're using it as some wording or some exercise to exercise the demons out of somebody. He goes on and he says, They said this, we exercise you by the by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.

Also, there were seven sons of Sceva, Jewish chief priests who did so and the evil spirit answered and said, I love this, answered and says Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? Who are you supposed to be using the name of Jesus? Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. This became known both to all the Jews and the Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified." You can't misuse the name. They were blaspheming the name is what they were doing they were misusing it as if they could somehow use it even as as Simon the sorcerer wanted to have this power so that he Can confer it upon anybody that he wanted to of course for a price I?

Believe that what we need to glean from this is that we do not within our own strength or power or authority do battle with the enemy of our souls. If you do, you will be like the seven sons of Sceva. You will be overpowered. You will be laid bare, and you will flee. We are foolish at best if we think that we walk into spiritual battles without being under the authority of that name by which we use.

The scripture says in Ephesians 6, finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore.

Having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end and with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." Think about this. Think about what that passage just described for us. It's really describing what we are seeing in this passage before us. He's explaining to us that we need to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. He's speaking about here that this being strong means that we're putting on the armor of God.

Why? To be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. This was a wile of the devil that was coming to divert and distract people from the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and to distract Paul from the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Notice the connection that it has here to our prayer. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit being watchful to this end.

Brothers and sisters, when you come to the time of prayer, you need to be watchful in your prayer. You need to understand the wiles of the devil. You need to have the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts that are going to be shot at you when you get serious regarding the things of God. It's as one man said, it's not a playground. It's a battleground.

The Christian life is not a life of playing. It's a life of battle. We are doing spiritual battle and you do that spiritual battle on your knees mostly. You know, one of the things I've been convicted of this past weekend and we had a wonderful pastors conference. And all these pastors came together and these godly men were just proclaiming the truth to us and just the challenges of pastoring.

But the main theme of the pastors conference was this, what the man must be. It dealt with who we are, not what we do. But in who I am, it involves what I should be doing. You know, the main purpose that we have deacons is so that we can give ourselves to two things, to prayer and ministry of the Word. Now, it seems as if those two things should be about a 50-50 ratio.

If I have two things I need to be doing, I need to be doing a lot of prayer. And that's one of the things I've been really convicted about is I need to pray more. I need to pray more for my own protection and spiritual warfare. And I'm praying for you more regarding spiritual warfare as well. I'm praying.

I'm calling out to God your names because that is my responsibility as your elder. And I want to do more of that. Pray for me that I will be diligent in my prayers for you. I need your prayers. We need to be praying for one another that we are that we are looking at this that we are praying always notice what Paul says in the last part of this in Ephesians he's asking for prayer for a very specific purpose look at what he says if you if you're turned there in Ephesians 6 19 and for me that utterance may be given to me He's saying pray with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me.

Why? That utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. I need your prayer. You are helping me and enabling me through your prayers to be able to do this very thing to boldly make known the mystery of the gospel when I preach. You are participating through the preaching this morning as you pray for your elders when they preach.

So pray for us as we pray for you. Again there's many things to look at here and it's interesting what we see and I want to begin to look at this in the next little section here starting with verse 19, but when her masters saw their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. So when the kingdom of God is advancing, when the people of God are praying, When the gospel is going out and people are coming to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, this third point is this, expect resistance and persecution when the gospel affects the prophets of the ungodly. Now, we can see this directly here regarding their financial profits. They were losing out on some money that they were making.

They had great residual income coming in from the slave world. But not only am I talking about the financial profits that we affect, but I'm talking about the spiritual profits in the sense when we begin to come into the kingdom of darkness. We are rescuing these people, bringing them in to the kingdom of God. They're not going to sit idly by when you do that. I mean, can you imagine reading the Book of Acts and if you took out all of the persecution?

It'd be like a five verse book. Most of the book of Acts is about the persecution and the planning of the persecution that's going to come against the apostles because they're preaching the gospel and people are getting saved. Expect it. Expect resistance. They were upset because of their prophet was gone in verse 20 and they brought them to the magistrate and said, these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city.

We should not be surprised By the heat of the battle when we're taking ground for the enemy. Persecution most often is a true sign that we are gaining ground. You know, when we're sitting back doing nothing, if we just remain in these four walls and this is like the extent of the light that we have in this community, we're probably not gonna have much persecution. It's probably gonna be pretty pretty smooth sailing within these walls. Every now and then there may be a little kerfuffle going on but not much.

It's gonna be pretty smooth. But when we begin to advance into the kingdom of darkness with the light of the gospel, expect persecution. Her masters were not happy with what had happened. Think about this for a moment. They just saw that the authority and the power of the name of Jesus Christ destroyed the spirit of divination.

Think about this. Yet, they were not moved to believe on that very name. They just watched a miracle take place. They just saw that this slave girl who was possessed by a demon was was cured of that demon and their stone heart was not moved. How often does this happen even under the preaching of the gospel when the gospel is proclaimed that the stony heart is not even moved to believe in the gospel?

Here these masters of hers, they saw this great thing that happened but they weren't moved to believe in this name and to bow the knee to the name of Jesus Christ. They were just upset that it had messed up their bottom line. Their only consideration was that they had lost their hope of profit. What they did not realize is that they were remaining in a hopeless situation. They lost their hope of eternal life is what it was because they did not believe in the name.

The one who just cast out the demon could have given them living hope. Her masters were not happy. Matthew Henry says that which provoked them was that the damsel being restored to herself they saw that their hope of gain was gone. See here what the evil love of money is the root of. If the preaching of the gospel ruined the craft of the silversmith in chapter 19, much more the craft of the soothsayer.

And therefore here is a great outcry raised when Satan's powers to deceive is broken. The priest hated the gospel because it turned men from the blind service of dumb idols so that the hope of their gain was gone. The power of Christ, he says, which appeared in dispossessing the woman, the great kindness done to her in delivering her out of the hands of Satan made no impression upon them when they apprehended what they should hereby lose, money. What a sad state. What a hard heart.

What a blind person that these men were they could not see. John 3 says, and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed." Jesus knew what he was talking about. Her masters delivered them to the authorities and gave a lying accusation. It's kind of interesting here that the father of lies could only conceal his lying for so long.

He decided that he needed to go ahead and throw off the disguise, and he began to tell the truth about who he was in telling lies. And he's saying that these men had come in here and they greatly exceedingly troubled us and they stirred up the crowd, they stirred up our city. They stirred, exceedingly troubled, it means to throw into an uproar and confusion. They said that Paul and Silas were disturbing the city, but in fact, the demon-possessed girl was disturbing their prayer, is what was taking place. They were disturbing people, but in one sense, I guess they were.

They were calling sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and they were casting out demons and in fact they were reforming families for the glory of God they were troubling the city of darkness is what they were troubling. They were destroying their dishonest gain, showing who the true king was. You know they were they were saying that here they were customs that were not lawful. Yeah the customs of demons. They were throwing that into an upper world.

Paul came to teach the customs of Christ. Paul came to set the captive free to show that Jesus' yoke is easy and his burden is light. Isn't it amazing here that these masters of her were making money off her. They were using her for gain. Jesus doesn't use you for gain.

He gave up the riches of glory for you. He is the one that paid your price. And here this slave girl under bondage to her masters and she's making money for them just to fill their coffers and Jesus opens the coffers of heaven for you if you would only repent and believe in the gospel. What a master we have. What a glorious master we have not like this master.

He is a master who loves you. He is a master who gave his life for you, not taking your life from you. He's come to set you free. It stirred up the whole crowd. Verse 22, then the multitudes rose up together against them and the magistrates tore their clothes off and commanded them to be beaten with rods.

They were beaten with rods because they delivered a girl from demon possession. They were beaten with rods because they proclaimed the truth of the gospel. They were beaten with rods and had their clothes torn from them because they proclaimed the greatest good news there has ever been. Verse 23, and when they had laid many stripes on them, get the pictures in your mind. They stripped them, they beat them with rods, and when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

Keyword take them down to the bottom kind of thing. Solitary confinement, if you will. Having received such a charge, he put them in the inner prison it's not enough to be behind bars, and fastened their feet in the stocks. This was not a comfortable position nor was it clean. Why?

For the proclamation of the gospel. They think that is a worthy reward for those who bring the gospel of peace. But I want you to understand something and look at something here. There's something different about Paul and Silas. Verse 25 says, but at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them.

What a response. What a response of those filled by the Holy Spirit. What a response by those who had just been beaten and laid with many stripes and fastened with stocks. You know the natural response would not be praying and singing, it would be cursing and shouting. That would be the natural man's response to this treatment.

But here we have a supernatural response. They prayed. They prayed to God. They did not allow the devil, the lies, the persecution, the pain, or the prison to keep them from praying. You remember how they started this little section?

They were on their way to prayer. They just didn't realize that the prayer meeting was in the inner prison is what it was. The prayer meeting was in the inner prison. They didn't understand that when they came. You know, oftentimes you'll end up praying for things or maybe in places that you don't realize.

They were on their way to the place of prayer but they just didn't realize that the place was the inner prison. And they did not allow their circumstances, listen, they did not allow their circumstances to hinder their praying. They didn't allow the demon to hinder their praying. They didn't allow the devil to hinder their praying. They didn't allow the authorities and all of the other stuff that just took place to them.

They did not allow the spiritual works of darkness to hinder the power of their praying. How often are we so easily distracted from prayer? Man, if the temperature's just not right in here, it's kind of hard for me to enjoy the worship service. Man, what's wrong with me? Get a little hot under the collar because it's and lose get distracted from what's going on and here they are they're in stocks and they're praying.

Not only are they praying but they're praising they added to their prayers singing. It's not natural to sing when you're in pain and when you're in a prison. But these dear gospel ministers did not allow their circumstances to keep them from praise. They were filled with the Spirit of God. They had insight into the spiritual warfare.

And when you have the right insight to the spiritual warfare, you recognize that the greatest thing you can do in the midst of persecution is that you can pray to your Father in heaven and you can sing hymns to him. You can actually worship in the midst of the persecution. You know, we don't always know what God may be doing in the midst of our difficulties and in our trials. It's important for us to remember how Christians suffer. It does not go unnoticed by God.

But there's someone else it does not go unnoticed by. Look at what the last part of that verse says, and the prisoners were listening to them. When you're suffering and going through a trial or a temptation or a persecution, you need to recognize that it's not only about you. There are actually other people watching. They're watching how you respond.

They're watching how you deal with that circumstance. And we know, and we're gonna see next time just what an impact their response had upon the Philippian jailer. Now what they did did not open his heart, God opened his heart. But what they did plowed the ground planted the seed and watered it there are always people who were watching how you handle difficult circumstances and you know what It's amazing to me how God works. In the beginning of this passage, we had no idea that God was actually going to be taking.

I mean, if we hadn't read it before, we would have had no idea. They had no idea at the moment that God was actually taking them into the prison to an elect prison guard who needed to hear the gospel. Had no clue. You don't know why you're going through what you're going through. Some of you are going through difficult things.

You may have no idea why this is. But I want you to know it's not for nothing. God is actually doing something in your difficulty to bring about his purpose. For the glory of his name and for the good of his people. God had a prison guard there who needed to hear the gospel and God said, Paul, I choose you and Silas to go and tell him.

As we close this out and think about applications, I just have four things I want to just come back and impress upon you just for a moment. Number one, I want to impress upon you that the battlefield mindset that we should be having in our times of prayer. Don't come to prayer thinking that you're coming to a vacation spot. It's more like a hot spot. It's a spot in which there's going to be battle that needs to be done.

So prepare your hearts and your minds and be watchful in your prayers. Number two, do not be ignorant of Satan's devices. Be aware that the devil not only lies, but he also lies even when he speaks what's true. Therefore, test everything. Everything I've said this morning, test it.

Be Bereans. Study the scripture to see if these things are so. Number three, prepare yourself spiritually and mentally and emotionally for persecution. The reason Paul and Silas could pray and sing praises in the prison was because they were walking in the Spirit and they were filled with the Spirit and they had a pattern of praying. Do not be surprised by it but always be considering in your own heart how you will respond to it when it comes.

And number four, what is your natural response to difficulties? Do you pray? Do you praise? Or do we complain? Do we murmur?

Do we grumble? Do we rail against those around us? You know, how we respond speaks more than we realize. So, brothers and sisters, this is not something to be laid upon you, this is laid upon me. I want to respond in these ways.

These are the things that God is telling me to do. And I'm sharing with you, and I hope it'll be a benefit for your soul. Let's go to battle and pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for the instruction that you've given us today to understand the battlefield, to understand the enemy, but Lord, also to understand the power of the name of Jesus Christ and the authority that you have over all things.

And Lord, I pray that you would so equip your people, help us to consider Ephesians 6, Lord, as we put on the whole armor of God that we We come to the point of doing battle in prayer so that the gospel would be proclaimed boldly Please help us. Oh lord Please teach us what you would have for us to learn today. And I pray, God, that you would strengthen your people, make them ready, make them battle hardened prayer warriors for the glory of God and for the advancement of the kingdom of God. And I ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.