"Hey, maybe this could be the moment that things really change for me. Maybe this is my year. Maybe this year I will get a ring.
Maybe this year I will get a raise. Maybe this year I will stop being so mean to everybody, get my temper under control, get my attitude in check. Maybe this will be the moment.
" I don't think we so much expect that everything is going to change in a moment, because we're much too mature for that. We've lived through too much, and we know things don't change in a moment; they happen gradually. I think what we come to church for is so we can get a sense of momentum.
Although we know nothing changes when the dot disappears or the calendar flips to another page, although we know that just making it to January in and of itself won't make us more like Jesus, maybe if we hit this one running… Momentum can change things. That's what the Ohio State Buckeyes were praying for that they never got tonight. They wanted a shift in momentum.
Praise the Lord. And they didn't get it. Momentum can shift quickly in your life.
Have you noticed? You can be doing really well at something, an exercise plan, and then your ankle, that bad ankle you have, twists and folds up under you. Not even while you're exercising, just while you're going to the car.
Just the most simple activities. All of a sudden you lose momentum. When you lose momentum, the change you initiated seems impossible to complete.
We came not just to watch the dot disappear off the clock, but we came hoping this night would be a shift in momentum, where we get the strength to push back against everything that has held us, which brings me to Paul and Silas, who had great ministry momentum. They were seeing things start to shift. Paul was called to the Gentiles.
You really don't get the full scope of it just reading that little part of the passage I read to you, but trust me. Paul had some serious ministry momentum. The council at Antioch has just agreed to send Paul and Silas out on a missionary journey, the second missionary journey for Paul.
He gets to go 1,400 miles, because he saw a vision. Well, he went to the place where God was calling him, which is the region of Macedonia, and he even has a helper. Sometimes when you pray a prayer, God will send you the answer in the form of a person.
Paul now not only has Silas, but he has this young cat named Timothy. Timothy is under his tutelage and his training to help him in the process of transforming or changing the world and bringing the Gentile people into the good news of Jesus Christ. Timothy was committed.
We know he was committed, because Paul had to circumcise him in order not to offend the Jews, and Timothy went along with it. How many staff members do you think I would have if they had to be circumcised as grown men to be on staff? Timothy was committed.
So now Paul has a commission from the council at Antioch, and he has a partner, a comrade, to help him take the gospel forward, and he has momentum. He's preaching and doing well. He comes to this town called Philippi.
You might have heard of it. There's a book in the Bible called Philippians. It's called the happiest book in the Bible.
Paul wrote that book 10 years after this moment, 10 years after he was going to the place of prayer and they couldn't find a quorum of 10 men, which they needed to have a Jewish synagogue meeting officially, but they found a woman. God doesn't need to meet your rules in order to move. This woman named Lydia was there, and she was a dealer in purple cloth.
She believed in God, but she didn't know about Jesus yet. Paul said, "Isn't that crazy? God set this meeting up.
Here you are, and here I am, and what I know is what you need. " That one woman started the church in Philippi in her house. It was exciting for Paul, because now the gospel had made its way into Europe.
It previously had been confined to Asia. So the momentum of the gospel is growing. Right about the time the momentum starts growing, there comes midnight.
It didn't start at midnight. Paul was going along preaching, and he's making progress, and he has great momentum. There was this woman who used to follow him around, and she would contradict everything he said.
In fact, she would mock him. He would be trying to preach and trying to move forward. He'd be trying to accomplish the mission, and this woman would start contradicting.
I wonder if you have something that follows you around. It might not be a person. It might be an internal voice.
Paul got so sick of it one day he turned around, rebuked her in the name of Jesus, and she lost her ability to produce income for her masters. When the economy of Philippi was threatened by the mission Paul represented, they put Paul and Silas in prison, but not before beating them. I read you that passage up front because I don't know what kind of year you had.
Hopefully, when I was reading that Paul was beaten and bruised with rods and sticks and thrown in prison and his feet shackled to the ground, what was going through your mind was, "Maybe my year hasn't been so bad after all. " I mean, here they are serving God with great momentum, and here comes the counterattack. The Bible says, "About midnight Paul and Silas…" You have to imagine this.
Not only is it dark, because the thing midnight represents is darkness, and the thing darkness represents is confusion. Have you ever been in a confused place where the best you know how you're doing what you think God wants you to do, but you can't get any clarity on the situation? That's midnight.
Have you ever been raising your children the best you can, but all the lessons you've tried to teach them they're not listening to because they have some new friends? That's midnight. Have you ever been in a situation where you were surrounded by people but lonely?
You laugh while everyone is around, but when you get by yourself you wonder, "Will anybody ever love me for me? It's not the real me they love. It's the image I present.
" That's midnight. When you're stuck in a place of frustration and nothing seems to change… Forget about the fact that they're in prison. They're in prison at midnight.
It's dark in there. It gets dark sometimes. Not in here.
In here we have the light. We have glow sticks around our necks in here. But here's Paul, and he's already uncomfortable.
Again, your view of things changes as you mature. When I was about 8 or 9, midnight was not only exciting but it was also scary. I think everything gets amplified in the middle of the night.
My mom used to say to me, "Go back to sleep. " I'd say, "But, Mom, I'm hearing things. " She said, "Those are nighttime noises.
That's the refrigerator running. That is not a monster. " But at midnight everything sounds different.
At midnight your thoughts sound different. What didn't bother you in the daytime… You could drown it out with activity. At midnight, especially if you've been beaten on your back, and you roll over to your side, but they hit you there, and you can't find any place to get comfortable, because it's just you and your thoughts… You're already in a strange place, and you've already been through a beating, and now it's dark in a place you don't recognize.
It wouldn't be so bad if you had been there before, but for Paul, this is a new city, a new place, a new trial. He has been through things before, but now he's in prison at midnight tossing and turning. He can't sleep, so he starts singing.
Not just any songs, not the stuff off the radio, not just the catchy tunes. He's not in a position to juju on that beat, but he knows some hymns. He starts singing hymns and praying at midnight.
Here's my question. How did he do it? How did he sing a hymn at midnight?
Remember, the lights are out and it's dark. How did he sing at midnight? How do you make it through midnight?
What makes this midnight different? The Lord told me to tell you, "Memorize. " That's number one.
There are three. They all start with the letter M. You're welcome.
My name is Steven Furtick. It is an honor to serve you. Put it down.
Memorize. "I don't need to take notes. " Yes, you do.
You never remember what I say. Five minutes after you leave here, you will forget it if you don't write it down. How did he sing a hymn in the dark with no hymnbook available, with no lyrics on the screen, with no worship leader, with no comfortable position to lie in, with no certainty of what the outcome would be of this trial?
He had it memorized. That's the only way you can sing at midnight. If you memorize the melody in the light of day, you'll have it in your heart when midnight comes.
He had it in his heart. What I wanted to challenge you to do with this year we're leaving… We're going into a new year, but be very careful that you remember it right. Your memory is a mess.
You know that. I know this about my children, because they'll remember stuff. They'll forget stuff.
It's the craziest thing. I thank God for my father-in-law. We went to go see them for Christmas, and my kids started telling stories.
Here's how the topic was going. They were telling, "What is the maddest you've ever seen your dad? " Nice little Christmas conversation.
Holly told her story, and her dad is sitting there. Something about scratching the car. I was half paying attention, and here come Elijah and Graham, and now they have a story to tell.
"Oh, I remember the maddest I ever saw my dad. I don't even have to think about it. It's not even close.
" They start telling this stupid story about one time when I took them on vacation and something happened and I lost something that was valuable to me. I may have gotten a little bit excessively upset about the item, and I may have hit the wall, but it wasn't our house; it was a rental. They have vivid memories.
"Oh yeah, and then he hit the wall, then he said this, and then Mommy said, 'Come on, kids. Let's go outside. '" They had the whole thing memorized.
My father-in-law said to Elijah, "Hey, come here, son. Sit on my lap. Let me tell you what I remember.
" He said, "Elijah, I remember when you were a little baby less than a week old. Your grandmother and I came up to help out and be there for you. We decided to go for a walk, because you cried all the time.
" Remember? No, you don't remember that. You remember me yelling, but you crying… Elijah is 11 now.
He doesn't remember this. My father-in-law said, "We were walking, and we got a little bit away from the house down the street, and some bugs came out. Your dad grabbed you out of the stroller, tucked you under his arm like you were a football, and ran back to the house before we could figure out what happened.
That's what I remember. " Then he said, "I remember when you prayed and asked Jesus to come into your heart. Your dad had come home from a preaching trip, and he was tired, but he was so excited that you asked Jesus in your heart that he made a deal with you that y'all could stay up all night playing video games.
" I'm sitting there nodding. If I would have had a B3 organ I would have backed him up. "And you stayed up until 3:00 in the morning, in the middle of the night, playing video games, because your dad wanted you to have a positive association with Jesus.
He thought video games were the best way, at that stage of your development, to lock it in and put it in your memory. That's what I remember. " I'm just pointing out that maybe you need to re remember this year before you leave it.
When you re-remember you think, "You know what? I did go through a valley, but I didn't die there. I did have some people leave me, but God stood by my side.
I remember. " I was thinking how weird it would be if I was preaching… Just imagine this. Paul and Silas are in prison.
It's midnight, and it's completely dark. Imagine if I was just preaching (this would never happen at Elevation Church), and all of the lights went out in all of the buildings at all of the campuses at Elevation Church while I was preaching. Wouldn't that be the craziest thing?
Your stupid glow sticks are messing up my illustration. If the lights went out while I was preaching, some of y'all might get nervous. "Pastor Steven can't finish his message, because how can he see his notes?
" You don't have to worry about me finishing my message, because I don't need to see my notes, because I've got it memorized. It's in my heart. I don't have to see it with my eyes.
I've got it memorized. Sometimes in the middle of the night, if I have one too many diet Cokes during the day, I might have to get up at midnight and go to the bathroom, but it's not a problem in my house. I don't trip over stuff in my house, because I have the path memorized.
I don't have to see my way to the bathroom from the bed. I've got it memorized. You know what?
I don't always have to see God's goodness in my life to believe God's goodness in my life. I've got it memorized. That's how I can praise him in the dark.
That's how I can worship him at midnight. I've got it memorized. I have a lot of Scriptures.
I have, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits…" Some of y'all need to forget your failure, forget your frustration, and remember his benefits. Forget the burden and remember the blessing.
"…who forgives all your sins…" Is anybody forgiven in the dark tonight? You did some things you're not proud of, but you're still here by the grace of God. "…who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.
" I don't have to feel hope to have hope. I have hope in my heart. I know it by heart.
They started singing hymns because they knew them by heart. If you don't practice it during the daytime, you won't have a praise at midnight, but if you've been practicing this year… You know what? I was thinking about my grandmother.
Mom, do you remember when we would go see her? Her Alzheimer's was so bad at this point she could not remember who you were, who she was, but if you started singing… She was a minister's wife. If you started singing in the nursing home… She would be looking out into the blankness of the day.
All of the light had left her eyes. It was midnight in her mind, but if you sang, "Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father," you'd hear her little voice. It was really thin and trembly, but she'd sing… There is no shadow of turning with thee All I have needed thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me Great is thy faithfulness… I wonder, can you sing in the dark?
Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Sing it like you know it. I wish you would stand up and sing in the dark, because sometimes you have to sing it at midnight when you can't see his hand, when you can't see his plan.
Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Come on, praise him at midnight! When I can't feel he's faithful, I know he's faithful. Praise him till the sun comes up!
Praise him till the situation changes! Praise him till the lights come on! Praise him!
Do you have a praise in your heart at midnight?
