The Backstory

We started a new series this Sunday. Joyful Endurance. A walk through Philippians. But first, the backstory. Acts 16. How Paul and Silas ended up in Philippi in the first place.

Three movements. Plans eclipsed. Pain endured. People evangelized.

Paul had plans for Asia. God said no. Twice. Then the Macedonian Call came, and Paul followed. He ended up at a riverbank in Philippi, where Lydia’s heart was opened and the first church in Europe was born. Not in a grand hall. In a home.

Then things got hard. Paul cast a demon out of a slave girl. Her owners lost their income. Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into the inner prison. No trial. No defense. Just pain for doing the right thing.

And then midnight. Stocks on their feet. Wounds on their backs. And they sang. The prisoners listened. An earthquake broke every chain. And a jailer fell to his knees and asked, “What must I do to be saved?” His whole household believed that night.

Joy under pressure became the most powerful evangelism in the chapter. No strategy. Just worship in the dark.

Something to sit with this week:

Where is God redirecting your plans? And what would it look like to keep singing anyway?