Collierville First Baptist Church

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And let me give you a verse of Scripture I'm memorizing this week. Samuel said this to the nation of Israel. Only fear the Lord, only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart.

00;00;18;06 - 00;00;51;06
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For consider what great things he has done for you. Amen. Amen. Let's take your Bible. Turn to acts chapter 16. And today I want to speak to you on the subject. The ultimate question. I went to the to Google and I googled the most important questions in the world. And here's what I received from Google. Where did I come from?

00;00;51;08 - 00;01;43;07
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Who am I? Why am I here? How should I live? Where am I going? Now those are important questions, no doubt. But they are not. Life's ultimate question. Life's ultimate question was asked by a Roman soldier over 2000 years ago in the city of Philippi. Paul and Silas were Christian missionaries. The Holy Spirit of God commanded them to go and tell the Philippians about Jesus and Paul and Silas obeyed their Lord, and they went to Europe to share the gospel and to see people saved on that continent.

00;01;43;09 - 00;02;14;13
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Now, when they arrived there, they began to look for opportunities to share the gospel. If you'll take your Bible Acts chapter 16, I want you to look at this passage with me. It's a wonderful story. The Bible says in verse 14, a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening.

00;02;14;16 - 00;02;47;27
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What were they listening to? They were listening to Paul and Silas share the gospel with them. And the Bible says, and the Lord opened their heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. The Lord opened her heart. Maybe you're here today, and you have never received Jesus by faith as your Savior, your Lord. I want you to understand the Lord has to open your heart in order for you to be saved.

00;02;47;29 - 00;03;21;19
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But I can tell you this the Lord wants to open your heart today. The Bible says it's not his will for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. So here they are. They're sharing the gospel. The Lord opened their heart. Verse 15. And when she and her household had been baptized. Listen, not only was she saved, but also her entire household was saved by the glorious gospel of the risen Christ.

00;03;21;22 - 00;03;57;27
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And she said to them, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. So she prevailed upon them. It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her master's much fortune by her fortune telling. Following after Paul in 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.

00;03;57;29 - 00;04;32;13
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She continued doing this for many days. Can you imagine how that must have gotten on the nerves of Paul and Silas? Can I tell you, heaven does not need demonic influence service to make the gospel good for people? I promise you that. And eventually Paul had enough of it. The Bible says that he was greatly annoyed in verse 18 and turned and said to the spirit, the demon spirit within her, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

00;04;32;15 - 00;05;00;05
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This is this. And the Bible says, and the demon spirit came out of her at that exact moment. That's the power of the resurrected Christ, the power of men of God who are filled with the Spirit of God. Verse 19. And when our master saw that their hope for profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.

00;05;00;07 - 00;05;36;15
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And when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, these men are throwing our city into confusion. Being Jews, they were anti-Semitic. This group was anti-Semitic and are proclaiming customs which is not lawful for us to accept or to observe being Romans. The Bible says in verse 22, 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.

00;05;36;18 - 00;06;10;04
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And when they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into the prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks. Now this was a strange thing, wasn't it? Here these men of God in Philippi, proclaiming the most important truth that they could ever hear in their entire lives.

00;06;10;07 - 00;06;41;13
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And Satan manipulates a young servant girl, and this demon causes her to keep saying things about the Apostle Paul and Silas. Even though the demon was telling the truth, God didn't want the demon to get credit for the gospel. The effect of the gospel, and Paul cast his demon out of it. You say, pastor, are people still demon possessed today?

00;06;41;16 - 00;07;07;13
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I believe they are. I believe they're people all over the world who are demon possessed. In fact, if you go to other countries, you can see demon activity out in the wide open. We've seen it in other countries where we've been. And she's demon possessed and and then all of the sudden, Paul cast the demon out of her and she was free.

00;07;07;15 - 00;07;37;10
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She was free. Her masters were not necessarily excited about this. You see, as she told people fortunes, she got money for telling fortunes. And of course, her master had made her bring the money to them. I know going down, highway, 78 or 22 now on Interstate 22. Now there's a over there to the right, like you're going to Tupelo.

00;07;37;13 - 00;08;01;05
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There's a little house over there, and it's a big sign. Fortune teller. Fortune teller. Can I tell you I've never pulled in there? I have no desire for somebody to tell me my fortune. Let me tell you. Jesus has told me everything I need to know about my future. He's told me that I'm saved. He's told me that I'm a child of God.

00;08;01;08 - 00;08;25;17
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He's told me that he has a place reserved for me in heaven. He's told me to go and preach the gospel. He's told me things that are absolutely amazing. And I do not need any demon to tell me anything about my future. I know my future, and I know who holds my future. Amen. So here, here we are.

00;08;25;18 - 00;08;50;27
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This. This rowdy crowd develops. And you know how it is. We see it happen in America today. You get some something going on, and somebody instigates something, and a crowd gathers in and they act all crazy and do crazy stuff. And it's amazing to me that Philadelphia wins a Super Bowl, and people in Philadelphia go nuts and destroy things.

00;08;50;29 - 00;09;17;06
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Now, if they do that, when they win, what do they do? When they lose? But that's what's happened here in our story. The rowdy crowd turned against Paul and Silas, and then the magistrates call them in to court, and they condemn them and they order their rows to be pulled off, and they beat the tar out of them.

00;09;17;09 - 00;09;46;21
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They turned them over to the jailer, the Roman jailer there in Philippi, a Roman soldier. And he brings him into the inner part of the prison, the most secure part of the prison. And he places their feed in stocks, wooden stocks, so that they cannot escape. Now, if I were to share this story, I believe this story would make a great movie, by the way.

00;09;46;23 - 00;10;12;02
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Some of you young people, you need to grow up and make a great movie out of this. It's a great movie, but I want to divide this story into three scenes for you today. Just like a movie scene number one is the crisis. I want you to look at verses 25 to 27, but about midnight. And here's Paul and Silas.

00;10;12;04 - 00;10;49;19
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They're in the inner part of the prison. Their feet are in wooden stocks. And listen to this verse 25. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. They were doing exactly what Joshua let us just sing about blessing God. They were blessing God, even in bad circumstances, and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken.

00;10;49;22 - 00;11;26;04
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And immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains were unfastened. What a scene! This is! Now listen. When the earthquake occurred, it messed up the founder. Have you ever seen a house where the foundations going? Bad. And you try to close the door and it won't close. That's exactly what happened here. The earthquake occurred. The foundations through all of the doors in the prison open.

00;11;26;06 - 00;12;02;28
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And here are two men. Two men of God singing praises to God. And they were praying. Now, when the Roman jailer saw the open doors, you can imagine what he thought. He automatically assume that all the prisoners had escaped in, including these two Christians in the inner part of the prison. So the Bible says in verse 27, when the jailer woke and saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

00;12;03;00 - 00;12;29;27
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So I want you to picture the the prison guard, this Roman soldier, and he pulls out his sword, and he puts the point of the sword right against his chest, about to pierce his own heart, because he knew he knew that he did not want to face the Roman authorities who would persecute him and torment him, and then take his life because he let the prisoner escape.

00;12;30;01 - 00;13;01;27
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Earthquake or no worse quake. It didn't matter. He was in trouble, serious trouble. And he would rather take his own life and place himself in the hands of the Roman authorities. Just as he was about to plunge the sword into his heart, he heard the voice of Paul. This is what Paul said. Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, do not harm yourself, for we are all here now.

00;13;01;27 - 00;13;42;09
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Can you imagine that all the prison doors were open and Paul and Silas are still in prison? They could have left all the other prisoners who were still in prison. They could have walked out, but they're all still in prison. Do not harm yourself, for we are all here. So what did he do? The Bible says, when Paul cried out with that loud voice in verse 29, he call for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.

00;13;42;11 - 00;14;01;14
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Can you imagine? You can picture it. Here's this Roman soldier, proud, arrogant, brought to his knees before these Christian missionaries.

00;14;01;17 - 00;14;18;10
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Who were these men? How could they worship their God in circumstances like this? Why? Blood was oozing out of the pores of their skin from the beating they had received.

00;14;18;13 - 00;14;48;19
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Their feet were shackled. And they were praising God and worshiping him. And he asked himself this question, why are they still here? Why didn't they walk out the door to freedom? He had heard about the faith of these men. You see, news like this travels fast. He had heard about their encounter with the slave girl who had demon possessed.

00;14;48;19 - 00;15;06;12
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He heard how these men had cast the demon out of that girl. And set her free. He heard how Lydia and others had believed in Christ. And there was something about these men.

00;15;06;14 - 00;15;41;05
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That drew him to them. Listen, that's when he asked life's ultimate question. Now, let's step out of this scene for just a moment. Are we out of the scene? I just want to talk to you for just a moment. You do understand that God uses circumstances in your life to get your attention. A young people, sometimes he may use a break up that you have with your boyfriend or girlfriend to get your attention.

00;15;41;07 - 00;16;13;12
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Sometimes he may use the death of a loved one or a friend to get your attention. Sometimes he may use a financial setback for a young family to get your attention as a family. Sometimes he might even use a fracture in a marriage relationship to get the attention of husband and wife. Sometimes he might use a frightening medical diagnosis to get the attention of a senior adult.

00;16;13;15 - 00;16;38;12
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But God wants to get your attention. Do you know why? Because he loves you. He loves you. The Bible says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The God of heaven, the creator God, who formed you in your mother's womb, loves you.

00;16;38;15 - 00;17;02;13
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And when he formed you in your mother's womb, he formed in you a living soul. The Bible says in in Genesis two seven that when God created Adam and Eve, he breathed into them the breath of life, and they became a living soul. Listen, the most important part of you young people, it's not your outward exterior. It's not your body.

00;17;02;14 - 00;17;37;00
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The most important part of you is your soul. Your soul will live forever. Your soul is immortal. It will either live forever in heaven with God or your soul will live forever separated from God in a place called hell. So the most important thing you can do in your life is to make sure that your soul is right with God, and he uses many ways to get your attention.

00;17;37;03 - 00;18;00;22
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And I'm sure in a crowd this size, some of you are saying, I believe God's getting my attention through this or through that. Well, if you get your attention, I would encourage you to follow through. Do not gamble with your soul. Whatever you do, don't gamble with your soul. Hey, there's some men in the Bible who gamble with their soul.

00;18;00;24 - 00;18;46;21
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King Herod was willing to trade the value of his soul for power. Governor Felix was willing to sacrifice his soul. For prosperity. The rich young ruler was willing to sacrifice his soul. The most important part of him, because he valued what he owned. Don't gamble with your soul. Young people, look at me. Everybody white. Look at me. Don't gamble with your.

00;18;46;21 - 00;19;11;15
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So. Whatever you did, you say. But, pastor, I'm 14 years old. I'm 15 years old. I'm 16 years old. I'm going to live for a long time. You're not sure of that? Do you realize that the Bible says that Jesus is coming again? He may come before this day is done. The Bible says that it's appointed unto man wants to die.

00;19;11;15 - 00;19;41;24
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And then comes the judgment. You're going to die one day. I hope and pray it's a long time away. But the fact is that you could die young and you could die old. It's important that you take care of your soul. Let's listen to the life's ultimate question espoused by a Roman jailer 2000 years years ago. Here's what he said to Paul.

00;19;41;26 - 00;20;16;00
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Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now, ladies and Jim, let me tell you, that's the most important question you'll ever have to wrestle with. What must I do to be saved? So we've talked about the crisis. Now we move to the conversion in acts 1630 and 31. The Bible says he brought them out and he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

00;20;16;04 - 00;20;39;00
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They said, listen what they say. They didn't say, make sure your good works outweigh your bad works. They didn't say, make sure you go to church all the time. They didn't say that. Even though that's important. They didn't say, make sure you're very religious. They didn't say that. Here's what they said. Here's the answer to life's ultimate question.

00;20;39;05 - 00;21;12;19
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Are you ready? They said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. You and your household. Now listen, here's here's the truth I want you to remember. Your response to life's ultimate question is crucial. Whether you're 14 years old, whether you're 24 years old with you're 84 years old, doesn't matter. Your response to life's ultimate question is absolutely crucial.

00;21;12;21 - 00;21;19;25
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You're living soul hangs in the balance.

00;21;19;27 - 00;21;48;04
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Now you can believe in the Lord Jesus. If you're on your deathbed. You can believe in the Lord Jesus. If you're a senior adult, a middle age adult, a child, or a teenager, you can believe in the Lord Jesus. If you've made a mess out of your life, you say, pastor, are you kidding me? Are you telling me that even though I've made an absolute royal mess out of my life, I can believe in Jesus and be saved?

00;21;48;07 - 00;22;11;00
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It's exactly what I'm telling you. I tell you, my friend, our God is a God of infinite grace and mercy. He loves you and he sent his Son to die on the cross for your sins, so that you could be forgiven and have the gift of eternal life. You can believe in Jesus if you've lived a good moral life, you can believe in Jesus.

00;22;11;02 - 00;22;38;19
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If you've been religious out the wazoo, you can believe in Jesus. But what does it mean to believe in Jesus? Think about that for just a moment. Well, the word believe means to trust. It means to put your faith in Jesus. You don't put your faith in your ability or your good works. Or the church or anything else.

00;22;38;19 - 00;22;42;28
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You put your faith in Jesus.

00;22;43;00 - 00;23;10;20
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I don't know what this Roman jailer had been trusting prior to this moment. Maybe it was his motto self sufficiency. Maybe it was the religion of all the Roman foreign gods that he might have been worshiping at the time. But whatever it was, I tell you, my friend, he had reached a crossroads. He had reached a fork in the road where he had to make a decision.

00;23;10;21 - 00;23;40;28
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Is he going to continue to trust in the things he had been trusting, or is he going to put his faith in Jesus? The Bible says this and there's salvation in no one else. For there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. In John 647, Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

00;23;41;01 - 00;24;07;13
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To believe in Jesus meant that he would have to agree with who Jesus really was. There's a lot of controversy today about who is Jesus. And and, the aristocrats of our culture says this about Jesus. They're the educated elite of our culture. Says this about Jesus. But I'll tell you, the Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God.

00;24;07;16 - 00;24;31;15
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He's the Son of God. The Bible says that he was incarnated into this human race, and he was fully God, and he was fully man, and he lived a perfect life. There are those in our culture today who say that Jesus sinned. Jesus never sinned. He never sinned. He lived a perfect life.

00;24;31;18 - 00;25;07;12
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That's who Jesus is. But they also he also had to believe what Jesus did. Now, what did Jesus do to save him? Well, the Bible says that he went to the cross. He was 33 years old. He had lived a perfect life. He had done miracle after miracle after miracle to prove his divinity. And they crucified him. They beat him with an inch of his life, crucified him on a cruel Roman cross.

00;25;07;14 - 00;25;39;22
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And God the Father took your sin and my sin and and the, the, the jailer, sin, and his family of sin, and placed it upon the Lord Jesus. And he took our guilt to the cross, and he spilled his blood and offered his body to pay the penalty for our sin. And this jailer had to believe that he had to quit believing the nonsense of his father and make believe God's, and he had to put his faith in the one true God.

00;25;39;23 - 00;25;48;27
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Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.

00;25;48;29 - 00;26;12;24
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And he had to believe not only that Jesus went to the cross and died for his sins, but he had to believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. I had a man come to me one time. I'd share the gospel with him numerous times, and he came to me and he said, pastor, I have trouble believing in the resurrection of Jesus.

00;26;12;26 - 00;26;35;22
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He said, I believe in Jesus, but I don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus. I said, I'm sorry. Do you realize the Bible says in the book of Romans and chapter ten that if you don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus, you can't go to heaven? You say you got to believe in who Jesus is. You gotta believe in what he's done for you.

00;26;35;23 - 00;27;04;18
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He went to the cross. He died for your sins. He was raised from the dead. So you can be justified by the father. And this Roman soldier, and then his entire family believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in verse 32, they spoke the word of the Lord to him, together with all who were in his house.

00;27;04;21 - 00;27;34;01
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And they believed. They believed in Jesus. Now let me step out of the story one more time. I want to talk to you. I must ask you this morning. Is God speaking to your heart this morning? I'm not talking about audibly. God. I've never heard God speak audibly to me. But you know what I've heard? I've heard God speak to me through the Word of God.

00;27;34;04 - 00;27;56;08
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I've heard God speak to me through preachers and people who cared about me, who are willing to share the truth with me. And I've seen the Holy Spirit impress upon my heart truths and and do a work in my heart. Convict me of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and draw me to the Lord Jesus Christ. He saved me when I was 20 years old.

00;27;56;11 - 00;28;23;28
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20 years old. I've been following Jesus for 50 years, and I wouldn't take $1 million for following my Lord. Now listen to me. The Holy Spirit this morning is pounding some of your hearts with this question. What must I do to be saved? And he's pounding your heart with the answer that the apostle Paul gave to this rugged Roman soldier.

00;28;23;28 - 00;28;32;11
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Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. And your household.

00;28;32;14 - 00;28;57;27
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Let me tell you, your soul hangs in the balance. Do you know what Jesus said in Mark chapter eight, verse 36? Jesus said this for what does it profit a man if he will gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? That's some words of Jesus. You see what Jesus is saying? You can have all this world can give you.

00;28;58;00 - 00;29;30;01
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Like Herod. You can have all the power the world can possibly give you. Like the rich young ruler, you can have all of the money that the world can provide. But if you sacrifice your soul for money, or your soul for power, or your soul for popularity, I'm telling you, you will come out on the losing end for all of eternity.

00;29;30;04 - 00;30;02;01
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Don't gamble with your soul. For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? This morning I'm asking your question. Will you believe in Jesus? Will you put your faith in Jesus as your one and only Savior and Lord? Now we've dissected this story. We broken it down into its component parts.

00;30;02;04 - 00;30;22;21
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We've looked at the crisis and the conversion. Now, number three, in the final part, I want you to see the change. The change in acts chapter 16, verse 32 to 34, the Bible saith, and they spoke the word of the Lord to him, together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour. Look at this.

00;30;22;22 - 00;30;59;04
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It's interesting. This crusty Roman soldier battled hardened, took Paul and Silas that very hour of the night and washed their wounds. How do you get the picture? Let me take this guy. Had never washed a Jews wounds. I promise you that. And here he is, prostrated before Paul and Silas with a basin of water and a towel, and he washing their one.

00;30;59;05 - 00;31;09;07
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Maybe tears are streaming down his cheek because he's overwhelmed that God has saved his soul.

00;31;09;10 - 00;31;29;11
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The Bible says he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds. And immediately he was baptized, he and all his household, and he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoice greatly. Having believed in God with his whole household.

00;31;29;13 - 00;31;35;15
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They believed in Jesus.

00;31;35;17 - 00;32;11;14
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And what did they do? The Bible says immediately Paul and Silas took the Roman jailer and his family. His precious wife is his kids. Evidently they were old enough to believe in Jesus, and he took them down to the river where he had met Lydia, and they baptized him just like we baptized these two. These three precious girls today baptize him in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.

00;32;11;17 - 00;32;37;19
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They weren't ashamed of their Lord. This Roman jailer was not ashamed of his Lord. Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me in this generation, I'll be ashamed of you. When you stand before the father. One day I'll ever be ashamed of Jesus. And they were baptized openly and publicly. The Bible says they were never. We would never be the same.

00;32;37;21 - 00;32;56;20
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In Romans chapter six, verses three and four, the Bible says, or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father. So we to look at this.

00;32;56;22 - 00;33;25;04
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Are you looking? Look at me. So we too might walk in newness of life. This jailer was never the same. He had a new life given by his new lord. Because of the precious gospel. I tell you, your life will never be the same when you believe in Jesus. He forgives your sins. He saves your soul. He promises you the gift of eternal life.

00;33;25;07 - 00;33;58;04
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He sends the Holy Spirit to help you to live the way he wants you to live. And he invites you to share the gospel. Now here's the crux of the story. Are you ready? Your response to life's ultimate question is crucial. There are many more important questions that you'll have to answer young people in your life, but none underline none more important than this.

00;33;58;07 - 00;34;09;09
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What must I do to be saved? How will you respond today?

00;34;09;11 - 00;34;33;20
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I'm going to ask our staff to come. Our worship team to come. We're going to have a time of worship. And this is your opportunity to respond to life's ultimate question. Now, your response might be this, pastor, I'm ready to believe in Jesus. You don't have to be a teenager. You can be an adult. You can be a senior adult.

00;34;33;22 - 00;35;04;02
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You can be a ten year old child. But you can believe in Jesus today. Don't put it off. Don't gamble with your soul. Or you can follow the Lord and believer's baptism. You can walk down here and say, pastor, I've been saved, but I've never been baptized like that Philippian jailer, I need to be baptized or are. You can come and pray for people that you know to be saved.

00;35;04;04 - 00;35;30;26
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You got them. Hey teenager, you got you got friends. You got family members that are not saved and they're gambling with their souls. You can come to this altar and call their name out before the Lord and look for opportunities to go and tell them about Jesus. And you can renew your commitment to the Lord today. You can join the family of God here at Carville First Baptist Church.

00;35;30;29 - 00;35;55;11
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Just do whatever the Lord leading you to do. Let me pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, have your way in our heart. Oh God in heaven, have your way in our heart. Don't let us gamble with our souls. Don't let us play games with something as important as this ultimate question. We love you, Lord, in Christ's name.

00;35;55;13 - 00;35;58;27
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Amen. Let's stand and worship and you come as God leads.