Singers Will Not Complain

Happy Sunday. Last week, my sermon was entitled, "Complainers will not sing." Today we see just the opposite. Singers will not complain.

Listen to these words from Acts 16. Luke tells us, "One day, as we were going to a place of prayer, we met a female slave who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortunetelling. While she followed Paul, and as she would cry out, these men are slaves of the most high God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation." She kept doing this for many days.

But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour. But when the owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men, these Jews are disturbing our city and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us, being Romans, to adopt or to observe."

The crowd joined in attacking them and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and then they ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them in prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell, maximum security, and fastened their feet in stocks. Let me stop here.

I'm between verses 24 and 25. Paul and Silas have now been arrested for, of all things, healing a young woman of demon possession. And as a result of this act of healing, they've been stripped, beaten, thrown in jail, and shackled. Now, you may expect some complaining to follow verse 24.

But listen to verse 25. It's amazing. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Let me read it again.

After such a day as this, beaten and thrown in jail about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. They're in jail singing. They'd been beaten, arrested for healing a demon-possessed woman.

And after all that, they are singing. Remember my premise? Singers don't complain. There's something about the heart.

There's something about the heart that makes us sing. And we're told the other prisoners were listening. The other prisoners had to be wondering, "Why are they singing?" You know why, don't you?

They sang because of Jesus Christ. They sang because he was risen. They sang because they couldn't help it. No matter what happened to them, they would sing.

As the other prisoners wondered why Paul and Silas would just keep on singing. If you're a Christian, this is my wish for you. Keep on singing. I'm tired of so-called Christians that act like they were baptized in lemon juice.

You know somebody like that? We've been given the greatest gift of all. So, keep on singing. No matter how tough it is at work, keep on singing.

No matter what you've been through, keep on singing. No matter what you are in the middle of, keep on singing. No matter how tough 2025 has been, keep on singing. I found out this morning that one of my favorite cousins went to heaven.

Sandra and I would talk every few months and she had cancer and I never knew it. She never told me. She didn't complain. She kept on singing and it was a beautiful song and she's heaven in heaven singing now.

Pray with me. Father, help us to have that song in our heart, that song of joy, that song of praise that, well, it stops us from complaining. Help us to be so thankful that that just permeates our life and our attitudes and our interactions with the world around us. Thank you for the example of Paul and of Silas.

And help us to sing no matter what. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. God bless.

Thanks for joining me today.