BE REVIVED IN '25: REVITALIZE THE MISSION

We hope you have fully transitioned into the New Year and are able to write 2025 without thinking!  This is always a simple but good indicator that you have crossed the threshold into a new year! In our series, Be Revived in ’25, the goal is to energize the dry bones of our hearts and help them come alive. We have spent the last two weeks with the powerful vision that God shared with Ezekiel. God wanted to move his people from their despair and desperation into the dynamic realization that he is willing and able to help them thrive even in the most adverse conditions. The sermon this week is Revitalize the Mission, and we turn to the second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul in Acts 16. We often lose our sense of mission about our lives.  It happens easily because we struggle to see an overriding purpose that can give us deeper meaning.  There are so many voices in our world that want us to believe that life does not have a greater purpose.  In Acts 16:23-34, Paul and Silas have been beaten and thrown into the darkest part of the prison.  Their sense of mission gives them strength, even though they are beaten black and blue, to sing and pray at midnight in the complete darkness of their cell! This amazes and captivates the other prisoners as Paul and Silas sing and pray, rather than swear and despair!  What happens next is a moment of power and grace; this transforms this prison and the lives of these men!  It is a dank, dark, and desperate moment, but God brought an incredible light of hope and strength.  Our most sincere prayer is for you to experience this hope and strength in your life and to take on the mission to share this hope and strength with others!  As you read Acts 16:23-34, sense the light shining upon you!

Acts 16:23-24: After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.