Breaking Chains - Acts 16:30-34

And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.  And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.  Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.  Acts 16:30-34

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten, then tossed into jail for casting a demonic spirit our of a young girl. Yet instead of being depressed about their circumstances, they had a prayer and worship service right there in the prison! The result was impressive;  The Lord brought an earthquake that shook the jail, opened all of the doors, and even opened up the prisoners chains.  While that was impressive, what happened next was even more important - The jailer accepted Christ, and his entire family was saved!

See, I’m sure the prisoners were happy about being released, but I wonder how many went back to their old life, and ended up right back in prison? The jailer and his family, on the other hand, their lives, and the lives of their descendants were changed FOREVER!

I see this as one of the often-overlooked blessings of salvation; Our decision to follow Christ not only affects our lives, but it affects the lives of our entire family. When we are saved, not only are our chains broken, but the multi-generational curse of sin that may have existed in our family line is broken as well.

Every time I go onto the UNCW campus, I notice the buildings with people’s names on them. Those buildings are the legacy of the people who donated money to the university, and wanted to be remembered.  The sad thing is that students go in and out of those buildings every day, and they have no idea of who that person was, or what their life meant.  It’s just “Jones Hall.”

Rather than live your life to put your name on a building, live your life to leave a legacy of the next generation that will go out and change the world of Jesus Christ, and it starts with the life-changing , chain-breaking gospel of Jesus Christ, one person at a time, one family at a time.

Change a man, change a family; 

Change a family, change a neighborhood; 

Change a neighborhood, change a city;

Change a city, change a state;

Change a state, change a nation;

Change a nation, change the world.

Pastor Clay