HOW
ABOUT YOUR HEART
ACTS 16:13-26
INTRODUCTION:
HOW IS
YOUR HEART? HAVE YOU EVER HAD OPEN HEART SURGERY?
SPIRITUALLY HOW IS YOUR HEART? HAVE
YOU EVER HAD OPEN HEART
SURGERY?
1. Is it an Open Heart? v
13-15
The Lord opened her heart - Only time this phrase is
in Scripture.
A.
Note this Lady before the Lord opened her heart. v 13-14
1. She was An Interceding Lady. v 13
13 And on the Sabbath day we went
outside the gate to a river
side, where we supposing that there would be a place of prayer;
and we sat down, and began speaking to the women who had assembled.
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a. Were they Praying for Men to
lead a synagogue. b. Were they Praying
for the Messiah to Come.
c. Were they Praying for God to reveal
Himself.
2. She was An Inquisitive Lady. v 14
14 And a
certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira a seller of purple, a worshipper of God, was
istening
and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
a.
Worship b. Listening
c.
Responding
B. Note this Lady
after the Lord opened her heart. v 15
15 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 there. And she prevailed
upon us.
1. She is An Immersed Lady. v
15a
a. Household
equals servants.(probably not
Family)
1.) All over 12 years of age. (I
get that from the same place some say there were babies in the house)
2. She is An Insistent Lady. v
15b
a. A
successful sales lady. -- large house
1.) Church started here. Thyatira
ILLUSTRATION: Reference "...and the Lord
opened her heart..."
Story of little boy lost in Northern snow storm. Father and others
looked all night. At the
break of dawn the father kicked what he thought was a log. It was his
son all snug in the snow.
The boy jumped up and said "oh daddy I found you, I found you".
The father put his arms around his son and almost hugged the life out
of him and said "Oh yes
son you found me, you found me"
APPLICATION:
EVERY CONVERSION REPORTED IN
SCRIPTURE -- AN ADULT CONVERSION.
2. Is it an Enslaved
Heart? v 16-18
A.
A heart Enslaved by ... Sin.
v 16 (she didn't start out enslaved)
16 And it
happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave girl having a
spirit of divination
met us, who was bringing
her masters much profit by fortunetelling.
B. A
heart Enslaved by a .. spirit. v 16
4436. Puthon, poo'-thone; from
Putho (the name of the region where Delphi, the seat of the famous
oracle, was located); a
Python, i.e. (by anal. with the supposed diviner there) inspiration
(soothsaying):--divination.
Deut 18:10 "There shall not be
found among you anyone who makes his
son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one
who
practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, NAS
C. A heart
Exorcized by the Saviour. v 17-18
17 Following after Paul and us she kept crying out,
saying, These men are
bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.
18 And this she continued doing
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 that very moment.
1. Note command!
2. Didn't immediately cast out demon.
--
a. Why?
ILLUSTRATION:
18 year old girl in West Virginia; a. Dope, sex, drugs, dealing in drugs,
demon control
b. Obsession with Rock Music.
c. Evaluation of the Catholic
Church
Book The Bondage Breaker-Neil
Anderson
APPLICATION:
10 Times Unclean Spirit -All In
Gospels. KJV
1 Possessed with a Spirit --
only here
46 Times demons In NT. NASB
3. Is it a Greedy Heart?
V 19-21
A. A Greedy
heart placing Money
before people. v 19
19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was
gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the
marketplace before the authorities,
1. All they see is dollar signs.
B. A Greedy
heart placing More's
before people. v 20-21
20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, These
men, are throwing our city into
confusion being Jews, 21
and are proclaiming customs
which it is not lawful for
us to accept, or to observe, being Romans.
1. Anti-Semitism
ILLUSTRATION: TOPIC: Greed INDEX: 2133
Giving with glad and generous hearts has a way of routing out the tough
old
miser within us. Even the poor need to know that they can give. Just
the
very act of letting go of money, or some other treasure, does something
within us. It destroys the demon greed. (Richard J. Foster, Money, Sex &
Power)
APPLICATION:
4. Is it a Peaceful
Heart? V 22-26
22 And the crowd rose up together against them: and the chief
magistrates tore their robes off them, and proceeded to order them to
be
beaten with rods. 23
And when they had inflected
many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, commanding the
jailor to guard them securely:
24 And he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner
prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 But about
midnight Paul
and Silas were praying and
singing hymns of praise to God, and the
prisoners were listening to them;
A.
A Peaceful heart in the face of Punishment. v 23-24a
23 And when they had inflected many blows upon
them, they threw them into prison, commanding the
jailor to guard them securely: 24 And he, having received such a
command, threw them into the inner prison, and fastened
their feet in the stocks.
1. Beaten, back swollen, sang songs of praise.
B.
A Peaceful heart in the face of Prison. v 24-25
1. Prison, inner prison, and
stocks.
2. Body in chains - spirit is free.
C.
A Peaceful heart in the face of Pulsations of the earth. v26
26 and suddenly there
came a great earthquake,
so that the foundations
of the prison-house were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's
chains were unfastened.
1. The First sacred concert in Europe.
a. It Brought the house down Gates etc.
ILLUSTRATION:
Young girl tossed around from home to home, sexually abused, came to
church. Pastor's wife found her to be bright and desirous of a change.
Got
her enrolled in a Baptist College. She was invited by a fine young
Ministerial student to attend a banquet. President was outraged. She
asked is there anything in that Bible that could make me fit to go out
with
that boy. In tears the President led her to Christ. She went back to
her
home town and led her first boy friend to the Lord and he took her to
the banquet.
CONCLUSION:
HOW ABOUT YOUR HEART
1. Is it an Open Heart? v 13-15
2. Is it an Enslaved Heart? v
16-18
3. Is it a Greedy Heart? v19-21
4. Is it a Peaceful Heart? v 22
