This sermon was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on Sunday, April 14, 2013 by Pastor Paul Mims.

Acts 16:11-24
Two women illustrate what I want to say to you today. I had been to the Dutch Island of Bonarie with my good friend, Jack Turney. For ten days, we worked in the studios of Trans World Radio, a world – wide gospel broadcasting enterprise operated by missionaries. We were there to record the New Testament which was the first step in doing something that had never been done before; to record the entire Bible on cassette tape. On the way home we had to fly in a small plane over to the neighboring Island of Curacao to catch our flight back to the states. We had several hours there so we went exploring. I wanted to see the banana boats that come over to the Islands from South America bringing fruits and vegetables. What a colorful site it was. The docks were crowded with people buying and selling their goods. One woman with a bright smile on her face caught my attention. She was an older lady sitting on the dock at the bow of her boat that had come over from Venezuela laden down with fruits and vegetables. She was happy and toothless. I tried to start a conversation with her to ask if she was a Christian, but the language barrier prevented this. Finally, I said, “Have you ever heard of Trans World Radio?” She brightened up and pointed to her heart exclaiming, “Christo, Christo!” to indicate that she had come to know Christ as her Savior and Lord.

We were now on the plane headed for New York. I was seated beside a lady returning from her vacation in the Dutch ABC Islands. She was having one drink after another and describing the fun she had had picking up men, gambling, and enjoying herself without restraint. Out over the ocean the plane hit an air pocket and dropped about a thousand feet straight down. This lady let out a loud scream. She said, “Jesus!” not in terms of endearment, but of cursing. When we landed in New York she exclaimed “terra firma.” I guess that she meant “more firma, less terror!”
Both of these women used the name of Jesus, but only one of them knew him. She was the liberated woman.

Such is the case with two women in our text today. First, let’s consider:

I. THE WOMAN WHO OPENED HER HEART TO THE LORD. (vv.11-15).

You remember from our study last week that the missionary team of Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke were directed to open a beachhead for the Gospel in Europe. Luke, the author of Acts, tells us that the first convert in Europe was a woman named Lydia.

The team set sail from Troas and in two days crossed the Aegean Sea to Neapolis, the port eight miles from Philippi which was a Roman Colony. They were getting close to the governmental powers that were ruling the world. They spent several days in Philippi getting acquainted with their surroundings. The Sabbath day came and they wanted to worship. Usually, they would begin in the synagogue, but there seemed to be no strong Jewish population there, so they heard of a prayer meeting down by the river side. There was a group of women who sought after God and met for prayer. So Paul and the team found them willing to listen to a presentation of the gospel of Christ. Among the group was Lydia, a woman from Thyatira, who was doing business in Philippi as a seller of purple dyes.

Picture the scene. It is a beautiful day. The women are seated on the ground beside the river. Paul, the converted Pharisee, is telling them of the love of God in Christ. This is the man who in the years before his conversion prayed as the Pharisees did, “O God, I thank Thee that I am neither Gentile, a slave, or a woman.” He had changed so much that he would later write, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male or female.” (Galatians 3:28).

Lydia responded to the appeal of Paul to receive Christ and opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. The Lord spoke to her so clearly that she opened her heart and her home to the Lord. She and her family were baptized and she invited the team to stay at her house. So the first convert in Europe was a woman. There were other converts and soon a church was established in Philippi. This was to become the congregation that Paul loved so dearly. In his later letter to the Philippians, he tells them what a joy they have been to him.

The churches that Janice and I have served over a period of fifty five years we relate to books of the Bible. Temple at Brevard, North Carolina was our “Genesis” church, our beginnings; Seaford in Virginia was our “Psalms” church in that we were learning about the ways of the Lord; FBC Norfolk was our “Acts” church for there was a great move of the Holy Spirit there; Druid Hills in Atlanta was our “Philippian” church which was a supreme joy to serve; Ocean View in Myrtle Beach was our “Corinthian” church which was filled with problems and still is to this day; and now our wonderful Cornerstone congregation, which will be our “Revelation” church.

“Heart is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, and decide. It has been described as “the place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity,” “the comprehensive term for a person as a whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will,” and “the center of a person. The place to which God turns.” (J. Stowell).

As I look over this congregation, I see women who have opened their hearts to the Lord. His Holy Spirit wooed your spiritual nature and touched the very core of your being. You are the real life force of the church in that you work hard in all areas of church life. It is the liberated women who have advanced the gospel through missions, education, outreach, and giving. Without you – the church would hardly exist.
Later on in the mission to Philippi, Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten, and jailed. After they were released, “…they went to Lydia’s house where they met with the brothers and encouraged them.” (16:40). Lydia was indeed a woman who was liberated from her spiritual darkness and she believed whole heartedly when the Lord touched her.

The second woman was:

II. A YOUNG WOMAN WHO WAS LIBERATED FROM THOSE WHO WERE USING HER FOR PERSONAL GAIN. (vv.16-18).

It happened as they were going again to the place of prayer. A young woman in the control of Satan began to follow them shouting over and over again, “These men have come from the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She was possessed by an evil spirit and by men who were using her to tell fortunes in sorcery. But what she was saying was correct so what was wrong with that? Satan has only two approaches to the church. He tries to infiltrate the body of believers and failing that he begins to oppose everything they are doing. Perhaps you have heard someone say, “Truth is truth so matter who says it.” Wrong! Biblical truth must have a believer to convey it or else we open ourselves up to Satan’s first tactic. The church has listened to evil men through the centuries whose motive was to tear down rather than to build up the people of God. This is very prevalent today as the values and mores of our society are being defined for person gain: politicians are doing it for votes to keep themselves in office and businesses are doing it to enhance the bottom line. To them, it does not matter what God says in the Bible – they reinterpret issues on the basis of civil rights using our constitution to justify their positions. You can see this being done almost daily through the news media, the White House, the Congress, and the Judicial system. Our country is slipping into a financial and moral abyss.

It was another woman who was largely responsible for removing God from our public life. Her name was Madalyn Murray O’hair. She was an American atheist activist. She was the founder of the organization American Atheists and served as its president from 1963 to 1986. One of her sons, Jon Garth Murray, was the president of the organization from 1986 to 1995, while she remained de facto president during these nine years. She is best known for the Murray v. Curlett lawsuit, which led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling ending official Bible-reading in American public schools in 1963. This came one year after the Supreme Court prohibited officially sponsored prayer in schools in Engel v. Vitale. O’Hair later founded American Atheists and became so controversial that in 1964 Life magazine referred to her as “the most hated woman in America”. (Wikipedia) These rulings have been taken to absurd limits violating the original meaning of the separation of church and state. Bible reading and Prayer are not church. They are the free exercise of personal faith. Church and state must be kept separate and the church must not be supported by taxes and the state must not be governed by the church. But the state must have a moral compass or else it degenerates into the values of whoever is in charge. We have freedom of religion which is a cherished ideal, but our national life has become free from Biblical and Godly influences. We will admit it. The atheists have won and atheism is becoming our national religion for it is to their values that we bow down.

Paul became grieved at what the young woman was saying and the turned and spoke to the evil spirit in her and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.” At that moment the spirit left her. (v.18). Now, she could no longer make money for her owners and they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the authorities. Satan would now use his tactic of antagonism. We will consider that event next week.

There are many young women that are being used by others for profit. Millions of people all over the world are bought and sold as slaves every day. There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today. The worldwide sex trade is currently exploiting one million children. The total yearly profit of this black-market trade in human beings is $32 billion. Sex trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the 21st century.

The U.S. State Department estimates that 244,000 American children and youth are at risk of sexual exploitation. The average age of children exploited is 14; however, children as young as 10 and 11 have been reported as victims.

Child sex trafficking is just as huge a problem for affluent families in Marietta as it is in the inner city of Atlanta. Any young girl is at risk for being enslaved for sex. Factors such as childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence at home, poverty and running away lead to a much greater threat.

An estimated 1.6 million children run away from home each year in the United States. The average time it takes before a trafficker or a solicitor approaches a runaway is only 48 hours. And 90 percent of runaway girls in Atlanta become part of the city’s sex trade, and 70 to 90 percent of commercially sexually exploited children have a history of childhood sexual abuse. Girls are lured in by recruiters and pimps; other children are also used as recruiters. At times, a girl’s own family may be the sellers. This has become a mission field for various Christian groups. The gathering in Atlanta of thousands of college students called “the Passion” over the Christmas holidays addressed this problem and challenged the students to get involved in this ministry of liberation.

Are you bound by some evil in your life from which you want to be free? Unbelievers can allow themselves to be possessed by evil and there is no answer to it apart from a spiritual deliverance by the Lord.

The old hymn expresses the way to freedom.

Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night,
Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come!
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee!
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee!
Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come!
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee!
Out of earth’s sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storm and into Thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee! (William T. Sleeper)