Steven Furtick - Chain Reactions (02/22/2017)
From Acts 16:22-26, the preacher dives into how Paul and Silas turned their midnight prison misery into praise, sparking an earthquake that busted open doors and dropped chains everywhere. The big takeaway is shifting your viewpoint to God's angle, where praise isn't just noise—it's the key that starts a freedom ripple effect. In the end, it's all about linking your outlook to purpose so chains can't hold you back, and God flips even the worst stuff for good.
Unlocking Freedom Through Praise in Prison
Acts chapter 16, verse 22 through 26. If you're new to our church, the scriptures are going to come up on the screen. You can follow along. I believe the Lord's given me a word for your situation today. A liberating word. A powerful word. A word that will set you free. Scripture says, and singing hymns to God. And the other prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly, everybody say suddenly. There was such a violent earthquake. How many know God can shake the foundations of things that have been holding you down in one moment in your life in his presence? The foundations of the prison were shaken. At once, all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. Wow. What if that happened today in the presence of God? What if chains fell off of your life in areas where you've been bound for years? What if things that have held you hostage for decades fell to the ground in the presence of God today? You believe it can happen.
Embracing Chain Reactions in Faith
I want to speak to you today from this subject. I want to talk about chain reactions. Chain reactions. Chain reactions. Touch somebody next to you on your way to your seat. Say, you're about to get set free. Amen. You may be seated. Chain reactions. Ooh, I feel like God's going to do something great today. Oh, thanks, guys. You're good. You can stay if you want. I always love having a string section behind me while I preach. It's very epic. Lately, I've been asking God for different kinds of blessings in my life. And I've stopped asking him so much to bless the items on my list. And instead, I've been asking him to bless my perspective. To bless my perspective. And the reason for that is because I think I've spent too much of my time trying to get God to see things from my perspective when all he's really ever wanted is to show me how to see things from his.
Shifting How We See Our World
And one of the most powerful things that you can do, that I can do, is when we just ask God to help us to see things like he sees them. When you get down to it, really all that you have control over, complete control over, is your perspective. You know, you really can solve one problem and another will take its place. So you'll never really be in complete control of your problems. But I do believe that over time, with practice, you can gain mastery of your perspective. And this may be worth writing down. Your perspective is a product of your connections. Your perspective is a product of your connections. The perspective that you have right now about your life, about your wife, about your job, about your abilities, that perspective is a product of the connections that you've made.
Building Maturity with Stronger Ties
In the way that you think about one thing, maturity is the process of learning to make better connections. so that a little child thinks they're getting in trouble because it's not fair. But an adult learns to make better connections and learns that some of the consequences in my life are the product of my own decisions. And we call this maturity. Because maturity is a result of better connections. Better thinking is simply better connections. And the more that you learn to pay attention to your connections, the more you can live with a correct perspective, which is so important because your perspective will either become your prison or your passport.
Perspective as Your Key to Freedom
Your perspective will either become the thing that confines you to the way things are or releases you into the way things can be and the way God designed your life to operate. So checking your perspective is a daily habit more important than brushing your teeth, more important than fixing your hair, more important than toning your obliques, is to check your perspective. Touch the person next to you, say check your perspective. Really, when you come to church, one of the best things about that decision. is that you are making an investment in your perspective.
Investing in a Godly Viewpoint
We invest all kinds of money and all kinds of time into all other facets of life, but when's the last time you made an investment in your perspective? When we come to church and we say, you know, that was life-changing, or when we read something and we say, man, that changed my life, what we really mean is, it altered my perspective. One of the greatest gifts that people can give you who are different than you is the wisdom of their perspective. It's a real gift when somebody doesn't agree with you because they just opened a door or a window for you to see life through their lens, thereby granting you wisdom that you might not have otherwise been able to access.
The power of perspective. Some of you today are locked in ways of living that are the result of incorrect perspectives. And the Word of God has the ability to gut your perspective of past memories that haunt you, of future fears that intimidate you, and of personal insecurities that damage you and cripple you and bring you into a proper perspective of all that God says you are, all that He says you can do, all that He says He is, all that He says you have because you're connected to Him.
Connecting to God's Abundance Changes Everything
When you realize that you're connected to God, it changes your perspective, because your perspective is the product of your connections. So if I'm connected to the all-sufficient God, I don't see lack. I see all my needs abundantly supplied by His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. It changes my perspective when I understand my connection. That's why when I lift my hands in worship, I feel strength coming to every weak area in my life. My life didn't change. My perspective changed. And if I get my perspective right, my life will line up over time.
True Blessing Starts in the Mind
So I'm coming to realize that being blessed is not a state of affairs. Being blessed is a state of mind. Being blessed is not a level of my bank account. Being blessed is not a condition or a circumstantial reality as much as it is a way of thinking and a perspective. Blessing is a perspective. So I want to ask you a question today. You might have a blessed body or blessed marriage or blessed family or blessed career, but do you have a blessed perspective? And when's the last time that you came into the presence of God and said, God, I just want you to touch my mind and bless my perspective.
Paul and Silas' Story of Unshakable Faith
I'm not even going to ask you today to bless this and that and Jimmy and Johnny. Just bless my perspective to see how you're already working in all areas of my life. Bless my perspective. Lately, I've been reading Scripture even looking for the psychological construct that brings the text together. And in Acts chapter 16, I see such a powerful picture of perspective. The kind of perspective that can cause you to make it through the darkest night of your life.
The Bible says that Paul and Silas were out preaching on a missionary journey in the city of Philippi. And the crowd, verse 22, joined in the attack against Paul and Silas. Notice the word against. Against. You probably won't be attacked by a mob because of your faith in Jesus Christ. Not necessarily. But I will illustrate the principle that when there is an advance, there is always a counterattack. When there is advancement in your life or the desire to advance, there will always be an attack. Always. Always. Always.
Seeing Attacks as Signs of Progress
The enemy doesn't attack apathetic people. He doesn't have to. You're sabotaging yourself. You're sitting on your destiny. He doesn't have to get you to forfeit it. by becoming discouraged. You're not doing anything with the gifts you have anyway, but the moment that you make up your mind to advance, you can expect an attack. And little baby Christians get all upset anytime they're attacked for any reason. Any little thing can cause them to want to give up. But the sign of an attack is the indication of advancement in my life. So stop being surprised when stuff is hard. Stop being so shocked when things don't go your way.
In fact, I was studying about this whole scene. It's kind of a racial riot, if you want to know the truth about it, because Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, but they were also Jews. And they were preaching the gospel of Christ in Europe for the first time in this city called Philippi in the Macedonian region. The reason that they ended up in Macedonia and in Philippi to be exact is because they tried to go into the province of Asia. The Bible says that the Spirit of Jesus would not permit them to go there. And it was because of what they didn't get to do, that they set out to do, that they ended up where they needed to be to accomplish what God had put in them. That's for somebody right there.
You've been crying about something that didn't happen for you, or somebody who didn't like you, or somebody who rejected you. But rejection is nothing more than redirection. And when you begin to see it that way, you see that some of the heartbreak in your life was really God moving you into position for some of the blessings that he desires to bring that you don't even know to pray for yet. It's a chain reaction.
How Good Deeds Lead to Unexpected Trials
Paul couldn't get into Asia, so he said, well, let me try Macedonia. And he goes to Macedonia, and there's a girl following him and Silas around, and she's mocking them while they preach. And Paul put up with it for a little while, but eventually he turned around and said one word in the name of Jesus, come out. And when this girl who had the ability to predict the future, I'm just filling you in the context of the thing so you can understand how sometimes it's a chain reaction, how one thing leads to the other, and how even bad things can lead to good things.
And sometimes you try to do a good thing and it leads to a bad thing, because when he turned around and did that, this spirit that had enabled this girl to predict the future left her, and now her masters who were pimping her out could no longer make money off of her, so it upset the region. So they used the Jewish nationality of these men to incite the crowd to put them in prison. And that's where we pick up. It says that they were stripped and beaten and fastened in stocks. Stripped. I wonder, have you ever been stripped of your self-worth?
Stripped, Beaten, but Guarded for Purpose
Let me be specific about this. I've got to word this carefully. Stripped of your self-worth. It's a different kind of strip. It's when you get stripped of your confidence, stripped of possessions. Some of you have been stripped of your health. Some of you have been stripped of your own love for others by some abuse that happened to you that made it really hard for you to give what you never got. And they were beaten. Beaten. Beaten. Maybe you haven't been beaten by rods, but maybe you've been beaten by thoughts. Maybe you've been beaten by doubts. Maybe you've been beaten by words and criticism and cynicism. Maybe you've been beaten by habits and addictions.
Stripped and beaten and guarded. Guarded. Why? Because they were so important to God's purpose. that the enemy had to do everything that he could. In this case, it was the Roman magistrate. But in your case, you have an enemy who has set up guards at the door of your life to make sure that the purpose that is in you never gets out.
Doubt as a Sign of Hidden Power
You know, I remember, even as a young boy, feeling like that God had given me a calling to preach the gospel. I couldn't describe it, but it was a feeling that I was supposed to preach one day. Maybe I just wanted to tell people what to do. I don't know what the motivation was. I'm not saying it was a holy motivation, but it was a sense that I had a calling. But even from a young age, I remember thought processes in my mind and perspectives that seemed to contradict that calling.
So I can remember very vividly being seven years old, eight years old, lying in bed, trying to believe in God, but couldn't do it. As a little boy, because I couldn't get past, well, then where did God come from? And it would trip me up every time as a little boy, just an overactive, hyperactive imagination of a little boy just wondering like, well, then where did he come from? And I couldn't get past that. And I can remember staying up later and later and later with every year just thinking about stuff. I've always had a real acute sense of doubt that would seem to disqualify me from doing this.
But what if the doubt that has stood at the door my whole life is only an indication. of the power, of the purpose that's locked inside? Oh God, did you hear me? I said, what if the thing that's been holding you captive your whole life is just an indication of the potency, of the calling that's inside of you? And if it ever got loose, if it ever got free, if it ever got out, it might change the world. Oh! That's why you've been struggling with so much.
Fighting Inner Battles for Greater Calling
That's why you fight so hard with your temper. That's why you fight so hard in your mind. That's why you fight so hard with pessimism. Because there's something so great on the inside, the enemy has been commanded to guard you carefully. If you lock down. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. I came to announce the Spirit of the Lord is in this place. And if the Son makes you free, you are free! So, please, calm down.
They were thrown in prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. It's hilarious to read about this if you understand that Paul and Silas were joined by two partners called Luke and Timothy. Luke and Timothy. Timothy was a young protégé they picked up along the way of this Acts chapter 16 journey that I told you about. Luke was the physician that wrote the record in the book of Acts. But I don't see them in prison. Why? Because they're not the leaders. They're not the leaders.
Leaders Face the Heat of the Front Lines
So, when you ask God to use your life in a significant way, let me put it this way. Maybe this will make sense. If you want the fire, you have to be able to stand the heat. If you want to be on the front line serving God, if you want to be on the front line raising kids that have values, if you want to be on the front line shaking things up in your school, the ones who are the most on fire have to face the most heat.
So it is no surprise to me if people say bad things about our church. Why? We are on fire. That is why they picked Paul and Silas to put in prison. I don't understand why everybody is always picking on me, why it is always so hard for me, why everybody else. Because you are not everybody else. Because you want something more than everybody else wants. Because you have got your eyes set on things above.
So, so Luke tells the story. He said that when he had received these orders, verse 24, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. Now he did one thing right and one thing wrong. Okay? One thing he did, one thing he did guaranteed that they couldn't get out. But the other thing he did guaranteed that they wouldn't stay.
What he did right is he put their feet in stocks. So technically, they can't move. But what he did wrong is in the same verse. And you missed it. You weren't paying attention and you missed it. But I'm in a review. Put the verse back on the screen. He put them in the inner cell. Singular. He put them in the same cell. He shouldn't have done that. If he wanted Paul and Silas to stay in that place, he should have kept them separated. He guaranteed when he put them in the same cell that that cell couldn't hold them.
The Danger of Isolation in Struggles
The enemy always wants to fight you one-on-one in isolation. If you can look back over the times in your life where you were the most discouraged, I guarantee you that it was because you allowed yourself to become isolated. And you may even have had people around you who wanted to help you, but you were in solitary.
Holly told me about a study. I don't know if it's true, and please don't write me any animal rights letters about this. But they took two monkeys, and they put them in an experiment to see if they could scare the monkeys. So they did it two ways. The first time, they put the monkeys in separate cages. And they measured the cortisol, the stress hormone. And it measured off the charts. They would flash lights and make loud sounds. And I know they shouldn't have treated those monkeys like that. I didn't do the experiment. I just heard about it from Holly. So write her about it, if you don't like it.
But they put them in the cage alone and measured the stress. And then they put them in the cage together. And they did the same experiment, the same flashing lights, the same loud sounds, But the stress level when they were in the cage together was half what it was when they were apart. Oh, God. Touch somebody and say, will you be my monkey? Because if I'm going to have to go through hell, at least don't make me go through it alone.
It said, Paul and Silas. Now, that little and is the devil's problem. Because if he would have wanted to have kept you bound, he shouldn't have let you get to church today. If he can keep you in the cage by yourself, he can torment you with fear. Ah, but I've got a connection today. Come on, shove somebody. Say, make the connection. Make the connection. Yeah, yeah.
If you would have stayed home, you might have given up. But you came to church around some praising people, some praying people, some worshiping people, some people who know how to rejoice. He put them in the cell. Big mistake. Because Paul's kind of grumpy. So if you put him by himself, he might start to get a little negative. You know, it's midnight. I was trying to serve God. I can't even get comfortable because they beat me on my right side. And they beat me on my left side. I can't even turn all the way around because my feet are in these stocks.
Singing Through the Pain at Midnight
And all of a sudden, I hear Silas. Silas starts singing. Talking about... My hope is blue. I'm nothing less... Than Jesus' blood... And righteousness. Paul says, Shut up, Silas! I'm so asleep. I don't know how long we're going to be here. Silas kept singing. He said, I dare not trust the sweetest friend. But... He did that little rhyme. He did that little rhyme. Paul sat up and Paul said, Holy lean on Jesus' name. And it was midnight, so then Silas said, When darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace. You take it, Paul. Paul said... In every high and stormy Gale, My anchor holds. Woo! My head hurts, but... My anchor holds. My back is raw from where they beat me with rods, But. .. My anchor holds.
I went through some stuff this week. And I got some storms in my life. But my anchor holds. My anchor holds. Within the veil. And then they sang a duet. They sang... On Christ the solid rock, All other ground... Is sinking sand. All other ground... is sinking sand. These Silas say... You remember this one? Why can't wash... Away... my soul... Point... Yeah, I know. nothing but the blood of Jesus.
He shouldn't have put them in the cell together. He should have kept them where they couldn't hear each other. He shouldn't have let us come together today. James break when we come together. Hope rises when we come together. And all the prisoners were listening to them. Want to see how these servants of the Most High God would respond in the darkness of a prison cell. And they made a connection. And when they got to a certain point, the ground started to shake.
Okay. Devil, you might keep my feet from moving, but you can't keep my voice from singing. I might not be able to move my feet, but I can lift my hands. I might not be able to move my feet, but I can lift my voice. I might not be able to move my feet, but I can lift my eyes. See, here's the principle. You've got to use what's loose to shake the shackles off of what is bound. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is going to set somebody free.
Because you only focus on where you're bound, so you stay that way. Your perspective is either your prison or your passport. Paul said, I might be in chains, but I'm not chained. Because the Word of God... And the ground started to shake. God set their feet free by shaking the foundation that their feet were connected to.
God's Shaking Brings True Liberation
Have you had some shaking going on in your life recently? Have you had some things that you were standing on start to shake beneath you? When the earthquake comes, it can kind of feel like there's no stability in your life. But I came to announce that the reason God is shaking the ground is to break your chains. He's going to shake the foundation to break what you're bound to. He started to shake the foundation. He started to shake the foundation. And it says that when the foundation began to give way, everyone's chains were loose. It was a chain reaction.
So, are you going to let your chains break your praise? Because some people do. Some of you felt today like you couldn't even sing along with the worship team. because you're bound in an area of your life. And so, you don't even feel like you can lift your voice, lift your hands. You don't even feel worthy to do it. And you let your chains break your praise. But there is a praise that will break your chains.
And I make the decision every day of my life through my perspective whether I'm going to let chains break my praise or whether I'm going to command my praise to break my chains.
Choosing Praise Over Chains Every Day
I want to see that all up on Instagram, all up on Facebook. I want everybody who has access to any social media account, by one hour after this sermon, I want you to post on whatever MySpace, LinkedIn, send it in the mail to the White House, whatever you want to do to communicate the message to the world. Tell them like this. My praise breaks chains. I'm sick of my chains telling my praise how high it can go. I'm about to let my praise tell my chains, you stop right here. You'll keep me negative. You'll keep me bound. You'll keep me discouraged. You'll keep me defeated.
Imagine the other approach. Silas turns to Paul and says, Man, this sucks. Paul turns to Silas and says, Yeah, it does. Silas said, I thought God was going to take care of us. I thought he was our protector. Paul said, Yeah, me too. You know, maybe he's not worth serving after all. And Silas says, Yeah, so when we get out of here, let's tone it down a little bit. And Paul says, You know, that wouldn't be such a bad idea. I'm a smart man, and I know I could do better than spending the night in this jail cell.
See, the decisions that you're making are a result of the conversations that you're having. The conversations are the result of the connections that you've made. And the connections that you've made have formed the perspective that you've had. And that's why some people stay stuck. Perspective is a connection. And the reason Silas sang. And the reason Paul prayed. And the reason they were free before their chains ever fell off. You hear me? They were free before they were freed.
The reason they were able to praise when they couldn't move and able to hope when they couldn't see is because their perspective was not connected to their pain. Their perspective was connected to their purpose. Your perspective is a product of your connections.
The gospel had never been to Europe before. Up until this point, the gospel had been held captive in the Middle East. And God was setting the message free. But to set the message free, he had to let Paul and Silas get locked up. And so when you look at it out of context, it looks like that Paul and Silas had been forgotten about. They didn't see it that way. They saw a higher purpose so they had a greater perspective because they kept it in context of their calling.
Purpose in the Midst of Shaking Foundations
So while the foundations were shaking in the prison, the foundation of faith was being laid on the continent of Europe. When foundations are being shaken in our lives, God is laying a foundation of greater faith for everybody who is experiencing the shackles or the shaking today. I wanted to remind you of your purpose. The purpose of the Lord stands firm. The purpose of the Lord is forever. His ways are above our ways. His thoughts above our thoughts.
If you can sing through the shaking and stand through the shaking, you will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Touch somebody and say, I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free to see things like God sees things. The author of Hebrews said that everything that can be shaken must be shaken so that what can't be shaken will remain. This stuff is shaking in your life today, but God is breaking connections to things. God is breaking connections to foundations that you've stood on that are unstable. That's what the shaking is about. He's setting you free.
Jesus said, I came to open the eyes of the blind. I came to declare Liberty to the bound. I came to release the oppressed. I'm going to loose your shackles by shaking your foundation. I know you want him to come up and loose you with a key, but he said, I'm not going to do it with a key. I'm going to loose your feet with the shaking of your foundation.
You know what's great about God's economy? That jailer that was supposed to guard them, when he woke up, Paul Blart, when Paul Blart woke up, he wasn't very good at his job, apparently. He woke up, he saw the doors open, and he went to kill himself. But when he looked up, he saw Paul was still there.
Now, I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to be honest. If you were locked in prison, and your chains came off, and the doors opened, would you stay? No, hold on. Guard is asleep. Would you stay? What would make Paul stay in prison after his shackles were on the floor? His purpose must not have been completed yet.
Staying for Purpose Beyond Freedom
I'm telling you, when you connect your perspective to your purpose, nobody else holds your keys. Nobody else holds your keys. Paul said, I'm not ready to go yet. So he had a conversation with the guard, because the guard was so amazed at what had happened. He fell down before Paul and Silas, and trembling asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul shared the gospel with that guard. And the guard was saved, but he didn't just want to hear it for himself. He wanted his family to hear.
So he took Paul to his house. Introduced Paul to his wife and his children. Clean Paul's wounds. You know, God will use the very thing that was keeping you captive to ultimately serve his purpose in your life. And the Bible says that the whole family, the whole family of the prison guard placed their faith in Christ.
What was it? It was a chain reaction. Because that family, many scholars suggest, were the first members of the church at Philippi. Oh, God! God got the first members of the church in Europe from the jail cell that they had locked Paul in. This is the first members of the church in America. And now, every horrible thing in your life is about to serve God's purpose if you keep your perspective.
Yeah! I'm sorry, y'all. I just feel like chains are falling off somebody. I feel like if you will praise him right now, in this moment, you…. You might as well try it! You tried everything else to be free. Give Him a prayer.
Rising in Praise to Break Every Chain
On your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet. Clap your hands. Clap your hands. Clap your hands. Clap your hands. Clap your hands, all ye people. And shout unto God with a voice of triumph. Shout unto God with a voice of triumph.
Now, praise breaks chains. If you don't let the chains break your praise. Can't move my feet, but I can lift my hands. I don't have a husband, but I have some friends. I don't have a job right now, but God shall supply all my needs. And if I focus on what's free, it's just a matter of time before this gets loose too.
And praise is so much more than an activity. You don't get free because you did this for the last three minutes of my sermon. You get free at midnight. You get free on Monday. Because praise is a perspective. Praise is a way of seeing God that makes Him bigger than whatever chains are holding me. And it is a perspective that must be practiced. It was too late for Paul and Silas to learn those songs once they were in the cell. You've got to have choir practice before midnight if it's going to work.
I want to declare freedom over some people today. I want to declare freedom over everyone that is bound, over everyone that has been bound by mistakes, discouragement, regret. Everyone who has been bound in an area of your life that's kept you from moving, that's kept you stuck, that's kept you where you are.
However, if that's you, I want you to use what's loose to affect what's bound and lift your hands in the presence of God at every location if that's you. Don't be ashamed, don't be intimidated, don't be hesitant. We believe now. that there is. awesome, miracle-working, wonder-working, saving power in the name of Jesus.
I want you to say this out loud. There is power. in the name of Jesus. And in Jesus' name, we break every chain. Every chain. Every chain. I feel chains falling in here today. I feel chains falling in here. I feel chains falling in Matthews. I feel chains falling in University City. I feel chains falling. Doors opening. Chains falling. Doors opening. There's power in the name. There's power in the name. There is power.