Editor’s Note: This microtalk is from SOLA Conference 2021. Find more resources and videos here.
How can we find the strength to sing in a worst-case scenario? Like Paul and Silas in prison, we can worship and witness in any situation because God is sovereign over every circumstance.
Below is a transcript of the microtalk. It has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the audio here.
Hi, everyone, my name is Aaron. I am the Social Media Manager at SOLA Network. I am also the social media officer at my church, FCBC Walnut. I’m also a Sunday school teacher and a music leader.
I’m going to be honest with you: It’s been hard as a music leader to sing. This COVID season has been one of the worst times. We’ve been meeting outside in the parking lots—it’s been difficult to sing. We’ve been meeting online—it’s been difficult to sing.
Sometimes I feel that if God would just do a miracle of some sort—if he would just heal the entire world of COVID or if he would somehow just make my life a little bit easier during this time—it’d be a lot easier for me to sing. I feel that I’m coming from a place of privilege and I shouldn’t be saying these things. But that’s honestly how I felt during this time. And it’s a place of my sin, too. So it’s hard for me to confess this to you, but I feel that it’s something worth sharing, and I feel that it’s something that God has something to say about.
There’s a story in the Bible about Paul and Silas in prison. I’d like to share that with you in the hopes that it encourages you as it has encouraged me. I want you to turn your Bibles, if you will, to Acts 16:25-34. When you turn there, I want you to ask yourself, how did Paul and Silas find the strength to sing in a worst-case scenario?
As you turn there, I’m going to give you a little bit of the backstory. Acts was written by Luke, and it’s like part two of the Gospel of Luke. His purpose is to show how the gospel is being spread and how the early church is being started. At this point in the story, Paul has already been converted, and he’s traveling with his friend Silas. They were put in jail for casting out a demon and preaching the gospel. They were stripped, severely beaten with wooden rods and put in jail. This was a miscarriage of justice and they were treated shamefully. I’m sure they were hungry and tired while they were put in prison. We’re going to see how they were able to sing in a worst-case scenario. Would you read this together with me? Acts 16:25-34. I’m going to be reading from the English Standard Version.
About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and sing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and wash their wounds; and he was baptized at once he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoice to along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
I see three things Paul and Silas did as they found the strength to sing in a worst-case scenario.
1. The first thing that we see is that they turned to God in prayer
Look at verse 25 with me: “About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying.” Don’t skip over this. This isn’t just some throwaway phrase. They were actually communing. They were communicating. They were connecting with God. It would have been so easy for them to just say, “We’re tired. It’s midnight. We just want to go to sleep. Here we are in prison, let’s just get some rest.” But instead, they said, “No, we need to speak with God.” The first thing that they did in a worst-case scenario is turn to God in prayer.
2. The second thing that they did is that they trusted in God’s promises
Now, if you’re following along with me, you might object and say, “Well, Aaron, there was no physical Bible with them. They didn’t have this book. How are they able to trust in God’s promises if they didn’t have the Bible?” And I would say to you, “You’re absolutely right.” They did not have a physical Bible with them. But if you remember, at this point in the story, Paul has already been converted. He saw Jesus on the Damascus Road. He knows the gospel. He knows his Old Testament and all the promises that are contained in there. I believe that when Paul and Silas were singing, they were holding on to the promises of God and the ultimate promise of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Let’s look at this together in verse 30. This is what the jailer does. Then he, the jailer, brought them out. He brought Paul and Silas out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So whatever Paul and Silas were praying and singing, they were communicating the gospel truth. They were able to sing and pray in such a way where people, the jailer, were able to ask them, “I know these guys are Christian. I know that they’re talking about Jesus and salvation.” And when this earthquake happened and the jailer got scared, he said, “I better talk to these guys.” He asked them the most important question of all: “What must I do to be saved?”
I think that they were singing to Jesus. And we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died so we can be saved from our sins. Paul and Silas believe that they trusted this, and the jailer was able to pick up on this. Isn’t singing such a beautiful way for us to communicate and to remember and recall the gospel truths? We’re often singing truths of Scripture. We’re saying what we believe. We’re saying everything is going to be okay because of what God says. It’s a beautiful thing, how Christ compels us to sing.
3. The third way we see Paul and Silas were able to sing in a worst-case scenario is that they took every opportunity to advance the gospel
Let’s look together at verse 31. And they, Paul and Silas, said to the jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
So here’s a question for you. Why did Paul and Silas decide to stay there, after the earthquake? Why did they decide to stay in that prison cell and talk to the jailer after the earthquake? If it was me, I would have run away as far as I possibly could. I would have said, “God, you gave me an opportunity to escape these prison shackles—I am getting out of here. But Paul and Silas said, “No. We’re going to talk. We’re going to speak, we’re going to proclaim the good news.” So when the jailer asked them a question, Paul and Silas took that opportunity to respond. They took every opportunity to advance the gospel. I think that they were able to see that whatever happened to them had served to advance the gospel. Paul’s imprisonments, all of his suffering, every door that opened, every door that God closed—they saw it as God’s hand over the situation. And they took every opportunity they could to witness and worship for the gospel goal and the glory of God.
In this account of Paul and Silas in prison, we see three ways to worship and witness in a worst-case scenario. Turn to God in prayer, trust God’s promises, and take every opportunity to advance the gospel.
Now I want us to zoom back a little bit. I want us to look at the big picture. I want us to see God’s hand—how he had arranged all of these things for Paul and Silas. In the book of Acts, Luke gives us an orderly account of the gospel message being spread, and he doesn’t leave out the difficult details.
Being put in prison is no joke. But when we look back to the circumstances of Paul and Silas’s imprisonment, how they were kept together, how they were seeing and witnessing, how God brought the earthquake, how God caused the jailer to come and talk to them, and how Paul and Silas were bold in this situation, whatever happened, God’s hand was all over it. Even in difficult times, in trials and tribulation, in persecution and distress, and pain, God is in control and able to glorify His name. This was the start of the church in Philippi. And isn’t this why Paul and Silas were able to sing?
This is the main truth I have for you today. We can worship and witness in any situation because God is sovereign over every circumstance. I need to define some terms here. When I say “situation,” I mean what’s currently happening right now, at this moment. We can worship and witness in anything that is currently happening right now. And when I say “circumstance,” I mean the things that led up to this situation—the things that brought us along to this situation. So you see that God is not only in control over our present situation, but he is in control over all the things leading up to it, and for sure, he is in control, after everything that will go after it. And when I say that God is sovereign, I mean that he has absolute power, control, and authority to govern it and to use it for His glory.
To be sure, most of us are not being thrown in jail right now. There are difficult situations in our lives, and I don’t mean to make small of those things. But what I do want us to recognize is that there are barriers to our joy. There are things that prevent us from worshipping God and giving him our full heart. So I want to give you several applications. I’m going to give you seven applications to help you see what I mean, on how God can give us the strength to sing in difficult situations. And I’m going to be coming at this from my own personal experience, especially as a worship leader. I hope that you can see your own applications and make this a part of your life.
1. The first thing that we do is we need to go to God first in prayer
If you remember Paul and Silas, they didn’t stop and say, “Oh, let’s talk about the situation. Let’s figure out what we need to do. Let’s devise our own plan.” No, they said, “We need to go to God, first.” How often do we go to social media, or go to our family and friends, or even go to ourselves to try to look for answers? The first thing that we can do when we’re faced with a difficult situation is that we can go to God in prayer.
2. The second thing we can do is we can study and memorize scripture
Paul and Silas know, they probably did not have a physical Bible there in the prison cell, but they were able to recall God’s words to them. I believe that as Christians, we need to be able to do the same. Let’s not focus on Christian platitudes and these common phrases or Christian words that we say, but let’s truly make it a part of our lives to make God’s word get into our heads, and into our hearts, so that when difficult times come, we can get it out there into the world.
3. The third thing that we can do is sing in the strength that God supplies
What I mean by this is that we don’t sing just to say, “Okay, I’m going to go through the motions.” We sing in such a way that we feel it—that we really mean it—that we really seek to proclaim in our singing. I also mean that we need to not only sing when we’re at church. But we sing at home, we sing at work, we sing when we’re in the car—we can sing in any situation because God is ultimately in control.
4. The fourth thing we can do is that we can find true fellowship
Now, this is a little bit implicit in the text. Paul and Silas were together by God’s providence, and he put them together so that they could fellowship together in that jail cell. Even though we’re not in jail right now, I believe that we need to seek out true fellowship and community with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s important that we can encourage each other and spur each other on, stir each other up to do good works, to trust God in our most difficult circumstances, and to find true fellowship.
5. The fifth thing that we can do is that we can worship God in our weaknesses
And I want us to think specifically about how we tend to not like to say that we’re weak. I think that we like to promote ourselves as being strong, confident, and assured of ourselves. I know I do. But as a worship leader, it’s imperative that we see ourselves as lowly, as humble, and as sinners in need of the grace of God. That also means that we admit all of our weaknesses in our life. When we are able to admit our weaknesses, we can exploit them for the glory of God, show how Christ is superior in and through our weaknesses, get rid of the idols of approval and affirmation, and we can see that we work best when we let God be the strength in our weaknesses.
6. The sixth thing that we can do is that we can compose new hymns for our church and our community
Now, this is very specific to worship leaders. Paul and Silas had songs to sing. I don’t think that these were songs directly from the mouth of God. I think that these were songs that the early church was singing, and they had to come from somewhere. In the same way, I encourage you, as worship leaders, to compose your own songs so your church community can sing them. And even if you’re not a worship leader, a song leader, or an artist, you can write words, put them out into the world, proclaim truth in such a way that God is glorified in the words that you say, and find new ways to put old and timeless truths into new bodies of work.
7. And the seventh thing that we can do is that we can go as far as God will take you
Look at Paul and Silas when they are in prison. They did not say, “I guess this is the end of our journey. I think this is where we stop.” No. They said, “You know what, there are different avenues for us to explore here in prison.” And no matter what situation you find yourself in, you can do the same. Keep pressing forward for the goal of the gospel. Keep straining toward that goal. Find every single opportunity, every place that you can, to proclaim and share the good news. God will give you things to do. You just have to be aware and open to them. Look for them, and pray that God will give you those things to do.
I hope these seven applications give you something to think about. Of course, this list is not exhaustive. I encourage you to find ways to incorporate this truth into your own life. I also want you to look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. When we look at his life, especially towards the last minutes of his life, he found ways to turn to God in prayer, trust in God’s promises, and even share the gospel to proclaim His kingdom up to the point of his death. When we look to Christ’s example, we can see what a glorious savior we have. His resurrection gives us hope that we can do the same.
If you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, Lord, and treasure, I encourage you to do it now—to believe in the good news—that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, that he came to earth to die for our sins, and that he’s resurrected on the third day so that we can have eternal life and have a relationship with God in heaven. Trust this, believe in his promises, and live your life for the glory of God.
The more I think about it, the more I see that when Paul and Silas were in prison, I don’t think that the earthquake was the main miracle in that situation. I think that the main miracle in that situation was that this jailer was converted. This jailer was saved. At first, he had been dead in his trespasses and sins. Then the next thing you know, he’s a child of God. He’s been adopted into God’s family. He now has eternal life with God in heaven, and he can call Jesus Christ his Lord, Savior, and treasure. I think that’s the true miracle that happened when Paul and Silas were in prison. It wasn’t the earthquake. It was that God moved somebody’s heart to see Jesus Christ for who he is.
The more I think about it, the more I see that I don’t need God to do something out of the ordinary in order for me to sing and worship. I can look at my salvation, and I can be in awe that God would save a sinner like me. And I can look at all of us, the church, and how God has saved us and chosen us to be a people for his own possession. I can look at this and say that this is a marvelous and miraculous work. I can say that this is something that God didn’t have to do, but he chose to do it out of his own goodness and his grace. It’s the grace of God that keeps me in Christ.
I am free from the prison of my sin. I am free from the bondage of hell. I am a slave, a servant, and a son of Christ, and my home is in heaven. We can worship and witness in any situation because God is sovereign over every circumstance. He is in control, and he has guaranteed and sealed our salvation. And this is more than enough reason to sing.
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