Does God work at midnight?

Steve Brown:
Does God work at midnight? The answer to that question on this edition of Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, here to communicate the freeing truth that God’s not mad at his children. Steve invited our friend Jerry Parries to teach this week. Jerry is the pastor of Christian Family Worship Center, House of Grace and the author of Grace: The Real Good News of the Gospel.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’ve been listening this week, if you haven’t, you have missed some of the best stuff that we’ve ever put on the air at Key Life. Dr. Jerry Parries, my beloved friend, is here and he’s been talking about, when you go through a difficult time, how do you trust God? We talked about how to trust God in a difficult times and what happens when you fall and you can’t get up. And he taught the Scripture where the father said about his son, he loved to Jesus. I believe, help my unbelief and the power of that kind of prayer. And now, today we’re going to talk about the God who speaks at midnight. Let me read some Scripture and then Jerry will teach us. Acts 16:23 through 26.

They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer, who ordered to make sure they didn’t escape, so the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in stocks.

Twenty five

Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off.

Wow.

Jerry Parries:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
So God, even when it’s dark, even at midnight, when it’s hard, God’s there, isn’t he?

Jerry Parries:
Yes, he is. I love this story because it parallels our life. You know, midnight for us, is when things are at its worst. You know, when you got the worst news, when things have fallen apart in your life. God works best at midnight. Midnight in just the natural, the hustle and bustle have stopped. You can hear better at midnight. You can hear things that you normally couldn’t hear at midnight. God speaks clearer during midnight moments.

Steve Brown:
You know, not everybody believes that. My mother used to say, and by the way, we were privileged to spend the last three months of her life in the mountains of North Carolina. And watching and I wanted to say to the world, come see a godly woman die. But she said to me one time, son, when the sun comes up, I can handle anything. But at night, it’s really hard. I wish I could have received your teaching during that time. I would have told her, no mom, that’s the time when he comes.

Jerry Parries:
Yeah, that’s the time that he comes. And so, in this midnight moment of my life, you know, and as I’ve been talking about me being diagnosed with prostate cancer. I’m not running. I’m not on social media. I’m listening to what God is saying right now because at midnight God speaks best. It’s not that he doesn’t speak during the day. It’s just so much of the noise that when you’ve got things going well in your life and things are running good, you don’t really take the time because you’re busy doing this, busy doing that. But when trouble comes and trials comes, it makes you sit for a moment. And that midnight moment gives you an opportunity to spend time with God, to hear from God. And that’s what happened when Paul and Silas was locked up in jail. They was locked up in jail and midnight that they started praying, they started singing, you know, they weren’t out eating and partying and they were taking a moment to worship, prayer and praise. And when they were praying and people were praying during the midnight hour, the Lord came through and freed them out of the jail. And that’s what I wanted to share with somebody, when you’re in your midnight hour, take a moment to just pray, take a moment to sing, take a moment to concentrate on being with the father and allow him to set you free from the prison stuff in your mind and your heart and your spirit so that you will be able to get freed from the shackles of depression, from the shackles of disappointment, from the shackles of fear, from the shackles of everything that will hold you bound from God doing some of the great things in your life that he wants to do.

Steve Brown:
Oh my. Do you think we’re too busy doing stuff?

Jerry Parries:
Yeah, I am.

Steve Brown:
Me too.

Jerry Parries:
I am so busy.

Steve Brown:
As you were teaching, I was thinking, you know I need to go for the midnight because I don’t get many of those.

Jerry Parries:
Yeah. Yeah, man I am so busy in life and like I said, I would I was traveling and I mean traveling Africa traveling to Dubai, I mean, I’m all.

Steve Brown:
By the way, Jerry, part of what he does is he travels the world and he takes people with him to show them the world, and he does a lot of that. I don’t even like going to the corner drug store. So, I’m glad it’s your ministry, not mine.

Jerry Parries:
Yeah. Well, you’ve got to come hang out with us.

Steve Brown:
No, I ain’t doing that.

Jerry Parries:
Yeah. But in the process of doing all the things that I’m doing, you know, all the things, and then to get this diagnosis, it caused me to have to re-evaluate my whole entire schedule, my whole entire life. And now, I have to sit and for a minute to say, God, what do I do next? And sometimes we don’t take the time to ask God what’s the next thing to do. We’re so busy doing it. So, midnight comes to quiet us down so that we can hear a little bit from the Lord.

Steve Brown:
And so, you’re giving us an admonishment, which is the same one from the Psalmist.

Be still. And know that I’m God.

And we’re not very still most of the time.

Jerry Parries:
And here’s the thing, when you’re still, know that He is still working at midnight.

Steve Brown:
Oh, that’s so good. So, if you’re going through a midnight time, it may be that God is simply saying, be still. Just be quiet. Listen. Trust me. You don’t do that very much because you’re so busy trying to help me out, and I was doing fine. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
That was Steve Brown and Jerry Parries teaching on the God who speaks at midnight. Steve and Jerry are leading us through a timely series called How to Trust God in Difficult Times. And, can I tell you something? Jerry prepared this message before he got his diagnosis. Now, how amazing is that timing? Still one more day of teaching to go, and I know you won’t want to miss that. Well, we just heard Steve and Jerry, but there are of course other Voices of Key Life. Namely Pete Alwinson, Matt Heard, Justin Holcomb. Well, recently, all five of these Bible teachers sat down for an episode of Steve Brown Etc. Take a listen to part of that show, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

Steve Brown:
A number of years ago, our agent came to me and said, Steve, you’re going to die. And I said, I know that. Then he said, or drool. And I said, I know that too. Well, what’s going to happen when you die or drool? And our agent said, we’re going to call that DD Day. And I said, I don’t know. I guess we’ll close this thing down and be glad we didn’t lose too many. And he said, you know something, I’ve never seen a ministry that was personality driven survive the death of the personality. Am I the personality, I ask? He said, of course you are in some circles. And then he said, but I have seen that ministries that have a message can continue. So, you ought to get some people around you, and you ought to agree on the message, and then have a bunch of people proclaim the message. The message is that if you belong to Jesus, Jesus is not angry at you, and He never will be. We took it to the board, this happened five or six years ago. We agreed on it unanimously, and the result is, well, the result is what’s going on on this broadcast right now. All of these guys.

Matt Heard:
You couldn’t find the guys, so the result is us.

Steve Brown:
I looked everywhere, and then I finally went to the bottom of the barrel and I chose these guys that are sitting around. And you note already the respect that I get from them, which is not very good. And we’re not going to have any trouble with these guys talking. Sometimes when we have guests on Etcetera they’re like deer in the headlights, they look at you and don’t know what to say. And occasionally I’ve had to say, Look, if you don’t talk, we don’t have a show. So, you can’t say yes and no, you’ve got to speak up. I didn’t say that to these guys. In fact, I’m going to have trouble getting them to be quiet at the break times. But it’s going to be so good, really good stuff. And we’re going to talk about the church. Well, you’re a Bishop. What do you think?

Justin Holcomb:
I’m actually very hopeful because God made a promise.

That faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

And when there are faithful people proclaiming the gospel, that’s the way that God changes lives. And he will honor the preaching and teaching of his word. It doesn’t mean it’s always going to be numerically strong or a vibrant organization, but that’s what gives me the most hope. And we have the oldest demographic of churches. And so, instead of complaining that our churches are filled with older people, I just told all the clergy, I’m like, well, let’s just shepherd them, see what happens. And so, we’re having renewal of faith and revival. You know, discipleship, but there’ve been a few stories in the past few months of people who have been in church for decades, hearing the gospel proclaimed and go into their minister and saying,

Steve Brown:
Oh man.

Justin Holcomb:
Hey, I just realized Jesus loves me. God loves me in Christ. This is a game changer. And so, I mean, we, there were so many things happening like that where I was like, can we just do a story on this? Can we tell people about this? And there’s another place where they have, you know, five young adults scheduled for October baptism. I mean, it’s just, so that’s starting because it’s God’s word, it’s his good news and people respond to good news.

Steve Brown:
The church I attend has had a hundred percent growth in the last year. We’ve gone to three services, are talking about four, don’t know what to do with all these people. So, I’m hopeful too.

Matthew Porter:
This was a fun and deeply encouraging episode. That’s why we’d love to send you that entire episode on CD for free. Sound good? Then call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your absolutely free copy of the CD featuring the Voices of Key Life. And finally, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can simply text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.