Praising God in Hard Times: Paul and Silas in Acts 16
Guest pastor Tom McCoy opened with a question he admitted nobody wants asked. “How many of you in this room really love and enjoy adversity?” No hands went up — which, he said, was a relief, because otherwise some wires were seriously crossed. Then came the harder follow-ups. How do you actually handle hardship? Does adversity push you toward God and the people around you, or away from them? And how often do we approach God with the goal of getting Him to do what we want — handing Him the situation along with our instructions, as if He needed our advice — rather than asking, “Lord, what do You want to do with this, and how can I partner with You in it?”
Tom — a longtime pastor, now retired, preaching at New River as part of the REACH series — was honest about the adjustment of being a guest, too. He’s used to preaching with an earpiece, and holding a handheld microphone left him one hand short (“Could we duct tape this to my head?”). When he caught himself grumbling about it minutes later, he stopped mid-sermon and repented on the spot: see, that’s how I respond to an adverse situation — I already failed. The room laughed, but the moment made his point better than any illustration could.
Because the whole message hangs on one statement he asked the room to listen to closely: God does not do His work through extraordinary people. God does His extraordinary work through ordinary people.
What this sermon is about
The thesis comes straight out of a Philippian jail at midnight. When adversity hits — and in a broken world, it will — you always have a choice in how you respond. Paul and Silas, beaten and chained for doing everything right, chose to pray and sing praise to God. That choice positioned them for God to do extraordinary work through them, and it changed every life within earshot. There are no extraordinary people. Only an extraordinary God, working through ordinary ones who make the right choice under pressure.
If you’re in a hard, hurtful season right now — whether you caused it or somebody else did — this message is for you.
A very, very bad day — and a choice
The story starts with Paul and Silas in Philippi, where Paul delivers a slave girl from a spirit her owners had been using for fortune-telling profit.
Acts 16:19-24 — “When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities… The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.”
Slandered. Victims of injustice. Physically tortured. Placed in chains. Everything they had done was right — all they were doing was helping people come to God — and they got punished for it. That math doesn’t add up. Tom called it, by any measure, a very, very bad day — worse, for the moms and grandmoms in the room, than Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
“The next time you’re having a bad day, friend, just open up your Bible to Acts 16 and read about their day. It will give you a new perspective on your day.” — Tom McCoy
And here’s what they did with it: they made the choice to pray and sing praise to God. They could have felt sorry for themselves, gotten mad at God, started a whining and complaining session — pouting 101. Instead, they behaved what they believed. Their belief about Christ charted, channeled, and created their behavior. (Tom said if the sermon had a second title, it would be Behaving What You Believe.)
Underneath the choice sits a question Tom made the room answer out loud: is God sovereign — is God in charge? If He is, then He knows everything about your past, present, and future, and He knows exactly where you are this minute. Which means if you’re in a hard place, He has allowed it for a purpose — to refine you, to bring glory to Himself, to let others watch how you respond, or all of the above. And that means you can trust Him. He even quoted Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” — and asked the bluntest question of the morning: are you dead yet? A dead body, he noted from too much pastoral experience, does nothing when you poke it. If we were truly dead in Christ, the world’s poking wouldn’t set us off.
People are watching how you handle the squeeze
The second movement of the sermon: Paul and Silas’s choice to pray and praise had a profound influence on everybody around them.
Acts 16:25 — “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”
The prisoners and the guards had seen how Paul and Silas were beaten. Now they heard how Paul and Silas responded. And that response validated and authenticated their verbal witness about Jesus. Tom shared something his mother used to say: “Tom, you know how you know what’s inside a grape? You squeeze it.” When Satan, demonic forces, or just life puts a little squeeze on us — what comes out?
“The way we behave in response to difficulties and adversity in our life will have a profound influence on those around us. Your family, your neighbors, your coworkers — they are watching, whether you think they are or not.” — Tom McCoy
Everybody can smile when things are hunky-dory, he said. The testimony is what happens when they aren’t.
Count the miracles of midnight
Then the earthquake — and Tom slowed the room down so nobody would read past the details.
Acts 16:26 — “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”
He unpacked three Greek words: megas (violent — mega, mighty, big), the word for foundations (the footings, the sub-construction a building’s whole strength rests on), and saleuo (shaken — agitated, rocked, by implication destroyed). Then he started counting miracles most of us skip. Nobody was injured or killed — shake a stone building’s foundation and walls crumble and roofs collapse, unless, as Tom put it, angelic beings were saying “Nope, you’re not going to hit this guy, wall.” The chains came loose on every prisoner — and as powerful as an earthquake is, it will not shake handcuffs off a man’s wrist. Not a single prisoner escaped — and these were not choirboys; you don’t get the dungeon for jaywalking. Every man was free to sprint, and not one left, because God was working, and they knew better than to leave when God’s working. The jailer’s life was saved — about to fall on his sword because a Roman jailer who lost his prisoners would be tortured and killed anyway, until Paul shouted through the dark, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
But the greatest miracle came last.
Acts 16:30-31 — “He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household.’”
Tom believes in supernatural miracles — his own wife had stage four colon cancer and was healed, and he’s grateful. But even a healed body, he said, is a tent we’re passing through; it’s made to decay. When a soul is saved, it is forever, eternally saved — taken from the steps of hell to the gates of heaven. That’s the greatest miracle there is. And it reframes the whole earthquake:
“God didn’t open the doors so they could get out. God opened the door so he could get in — and find liberty, healing, freedom, and eternity in Jesus.” — Tom McCoy
God rarely works the way we think it ought to work.
Iron Man, Balaam’s donkey, and ordinary people
To land the “ordinary people” point, Tom went somewhere unexpected: superheroes. Superman and Thor never appealed to him — aliens with innate powers are an impossible reality. But Iron Man? Tony Stark is just a human in a fantastic suit. With the suit, champion; without the suit, mere mortal. And that, Tom said, is just about exactly like you and me. Without Jesus, we’re pretty much a mess. With Jesus — “I am the vine; you are the branches… apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) — all things are possible. So we practice daily clothing ourselves in the righteousness of Christ, praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit, living by the Word, and partnering with the family of faith called the church.
The Bible’s roster proves the pattern. Abraham told Pharaoh his wife was his sister — that dude’s messed up, and God used him. David, whose psalms everybody loves, was an adulterer and a murderer — and God used him. And then Tom told his own story. He grew up a preacher’s kid and knew better, but he was hardheaded and rebellious — in jail a couple of times in his younger years, never a felony, but plenty of silly mistakes. When God called him to preach at nineteen, he went to his father — a man with two bachelor’s degrees, two master’s, two earned doctorates, a former seminary president and missionary — and asked, “Dad, you know the mess I’ve been. How could God use anybody like me?” His dad looked at him and said: “Son, if God can use Balaam’s donkey, I think he can use you.” (Tom noted the King James Version doesn’t say donkey. Look it up.)
“God not only can — he will do extraordinary work through your life. And all you have to do is say, here I am.” — Tom McCoy
He added one more line worth keeping: God rarely does anything through you until He’s done something in you.
What this means for your week in Franklin
If you take this sermon seriously, four things change about this week.
- Choose praise before the circumstances change. Paul and Silas sang at midnight, not after the earthquake. Whatever your hard thing is this week, pray and praise first — it’s the choice that positions you for God to work.
- Hand God the situation without the instructions. Instead of “Lord, here’s the problem and here’s how to fix it,” try Tom’s prayer: “Lord, here’s the hurtful situation. What do You want to do with it — and how can I partner with You?”
- Remember the grape. Somebody in your house, your office, or your neighborhood is watching how you handle the squeeze this week. Your response under pressure is your most credible witness.
- Retire the “God can’t use me” excuse. Jail time, bad decisions, an ordinary resume — none of it disqualifies you. If God can use Balaam’s donkey, He can use you. Just say, “Here I am.”
Watch the full message
The full sermon — “Experiencing God’s Extraordinary Work Through You” from the REACH series, with guest pastor Tom McCoy — is in the video above. We post a new message every Sunday from New River Church in Franklin, TN. Browse our message library for more from the REACH series and other recent teaching.
Coming Sunday at New River Church in Franklin, TN
If this message resonated and you’d like to experience worship and community in person, we’d love to have you with us. New River Church meets Sundays at 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM at 1153 Lewisburg Pike in Franklin, TN 37064 — just minutes from downtown Franklin and easy to reach from across Williamson County, Brentwood, and Spring Hill.
You don’t need to dress up. You don’t need a good voice. You don’t need to know much about church or the Bible to come. We’re a community of ordinary people walking through ordinary life, trying to do it together with Jesus at the center. Whether you’ve been a Christian for forty years or you’ve never set foot in a church, you are welcome here.
If you’re new to the area or new to faith, our First Time Guest page walks through everything you need to know before your first visit: parking, what to expect on Sunday morning, what your kids will experience in River Kids, and how to find us when you arrive.
If you’re looking for deeper community beyond Sunday morning, our Community Groups meet across Franklin and the surrounding area throughout the week. Groups are where Sunday morning faith becomes Tuesday afternoon real life.
Whatever you’re carrying right now, you don’t have to carry it alone. There’s a place for you at New River Church in Franklin, Tennessee. Come as you are.
Watch more sermons: newriverfranklin.com/messages Plan your visit: newriverfranklin.com/firsttimeguest Find a group: newriverfranklin.com/groups
📍 New River Church | 1153 Lewisburg Pike, Franklin, TN 37064 | Sundays 9:00 AM & 10:45 AM
