Free Before The Doors Even Opened | September 20, 2026
On Sunday, September 20, we were back in Unstoppable: The Church on Mission, our verse-by-verse walk through the book of Acts. Sermon #45 took us to Acts 16:25-40, "Free Before The Doors Even Opened." We left Paul and Silas the week before bleeding in an inner cell with their feet locked in stocks. This message picked up with what they did with that night. They sang.
Verse 25 is the singing. Verse 26 is the earthquake. Nobody in that cell sang because something good had happened. They sang because of who God is, while nothing had changed yet. And when every door flew open, Paul and Silas were still in the building. That earthquake did not set them free. They had been free since verse 25. Worship is not a reaction to rescue, it is what we do regardless of our circumstances.
We were pointed to Andrew Brunson, the American pastor held in Turkish prisons for two years, part of it in solitary. He says he lost all sense of God's presence that entire time, so he made a decision. Every night he set aside thirty or forty-five minutes and sang anyway, feeling nothing. Praise cannot be a reaction to a good week. It has to be a decision we settle before the hard thing ever shows up.
Then came the jailer. He had the keys, the sword, and the house upstairs, and he was the one reaching for a blade. The men with nothing were worshiping, and the man with everything was ready to end his life. When he came in trembling and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?", nobody rushed him. Fear got him to the question, and the word of God got him to the answer.
Out of everyone in Philippi, he is the last man any of us would have picked. Nobody is too far gone for God to save, and neither is anybody on your list. The man who helped put blood on Paul's back washed his wounds, and then he was washed, and his whole household heard the gospel at one in the morning.
Be careful with verse 31 though. It is not a promise that our faith covers our family. Every person in that house heard the gospel for themselves. The promise is that the same door standing open for us is open for everyone under our roof, on the exact same terms. If you have been praying for someone for twenty years, God has not broken a promise to you. Keep setting the table and keep talking.
When morning came, Paul refused a quiet release. He made the magistrates undo it in daylight, not for his own sake but for the believers who would still be living in Philippi after he left. That is a free man, and he had been free since verse 25.
If you are in a season where the ground has not moved yet, you can start singing before anything changes. We gather Sundays at 11:00 AM at the American Legion Post 96 on S Maple Ave in Brunswick. Join us this Sunday.