SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Daniel Savage.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here at Providence and just uh excited to be able to go through the word with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, we're gonna be in Acts chapter 23 mostly.
SPEAKER_00: Um we are gonna catch the last verse of Acts chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I'm excited to see what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: As you just saw, we're in the middle of a series called Unstoppable, where we're moving through the book of Acts and just uh learning together about what God is doing in this narrative section of the Bible, is really He's um He's revealing how He took the gospel and was uh moving it forward from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see over and over again, and what we're certainly going to see this morning, is that what God is doing is unstoppable.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that there is a movement that is happening, he's moving through his spirit and through his people to take his gospel forward, and nothing can stop it.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see that uh in some really powerful ways this morning.
SPEAKER_00: What we want to think about as we look at uh Acts chapter 23 is we we want to read this chapter and look for the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: Who is God and who is he revealing himself to be through what he's doing and what he's allowing and how he's moving through all these circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, God tells us in verse 11 what his plan is for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He gets to verse 11, and the Lord shows up to Paul and says, You've been my um witness in Jerusalem, and now I need you to be my witness in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And if we read the surrounding story, which we will, we'll see that all the circumstances seem to be falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: All of them seem to be working against that ultimate idea.
SPEAKER_00: But what we'll see is that God is able to move through all of the circumstances that are going on in this chapter to bring about his perfect plans.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the main idea of the chapter, that the Lord uses all things together to accomplish his perfect plans.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that as we look at that together this morning, especially think about Paul's circumstances and how dark they seemed.
SPEAKER_00: My hope is that it will be very encouraging to us this morning to think about how God can work through all of our circumstances, no matter how good or bad they may be, to bring about his good plans and purposes.
SPEAKER_00: That's my hope.
SPEAKER_00: So let me say a prayer and then we'll read Acts chapter 23 together.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to be gathered here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for your word, for the promises that it holds for us, and for the way that you've revealed yourself through it.
SPEAKER_00: God, as we come before you, um, we come in humility and asking that you would reveal yourself through your word.
SPEAKER_01: We are a people who need to see you.
SPEAKER_00: We are quickly discouraged, we lose perspective, we begin to care about things that are not as important as the things we should care about.
SPEAKER_00: We need you to reveal yourself to us for our encouragement and for our uh sustaining hope.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, would you reveal yourself to us this morning through your word?
SPEAKER_00: Would you remind us that you hold all things together by the word of your power?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to see you high and lifted up?
SPEAKER_00: And as Jesus is exalted among us, I pray that he would draw us to himself.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in his powerful name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read this together, and we're gonna look for God's activity in it as we read.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna read, I'm gonna start in verse 30 of chapter 22, and I'm gonna read all the way through.
SPEAKER_00: I am gonna stop a few times on the way through just to summarize what's happening, not because I'm not confident in you, but because I'm realistic.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and this is a long passage, and I don't want to lose anybody on the way.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna start in verse 30, and we'll make our way, make our way through it one section at a time.
SPEAKER_00: So it says, but on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, Paul has just been drugged out of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: He came back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was warned over and over again that if he went to Jerusalem, he was going to be bound, he was gonna be mistreated, and they tried to convince him not to go.
SPEAKER_00: But he decided to go anyway.
SPEAKER_00: He decided that's what the Lord was leading him to do.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes to Jerusalem, and James tells him that he should go to the temple and he should participate in these vows, and he should pay the fees for these brothers who wanted to take these sacred vows in the temple to prove to everybody that the rumors that they had heard were not true, that Paul wasn't traveling around the world telling people that they could not trust in or rely on the law of Moses, that he wasn't opposed to the Jewish religion, but instead he was still participating.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul decides to do this.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the temple, he's there, and it says on the seventh day, they stir up a riot against him, they drag him out of the temple, and they begin to beat him, and the Roman soldiers see him and snatch him out of the riot.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're trying to figure out what these people have against Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And so it says, on the next day they they bring the council together because they're still trying to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're going to start in verse one, and I'm not going to stop after every verse like that.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: So it says, and looking intently at the council, Paul said, Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.
SPEAKER_00: And the high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Then Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall.
SPEAKER_00: Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?
SPEAKER_00: Those who stood by said, Would you revile God's high priest?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul said, I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: For it is written, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.
SPEAKER_00: Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other were Pharisees, he cried out in the council of brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
SPEAKER_00: For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledged them all.
SPEAKER_00: Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply.
SPEAKER_00: And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.
SPEAKER_00: So they've assembled the Jewish leaders, and they're trying to get to the bottom of what Paul has done.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul begins his speech.
SPEAKER_00: It appears he's kind of starting this speech that he has prepared.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers, I have lived, uh I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day, but he doesn't get past the first line before the high priest commands someone next to him to strike him in the mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, Paul is upset by this.
SPEAKER_00: You can tell that he's upset by what he says.
SPEAKER_00: Um he says he calls him a whitewashed wall.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, probably not uh very nice.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're questioning him, but then everything seems to kind of go off track.
SPEAKER_00: Paul seemed to have had a plan, but that plan is disrupted.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's he's looking out at these uh brothers in front of him, and he notices that some are Sadducees and some are Pharisees, and he says, Well, this will this will turn the tide and get the attention off of me.
SPEAKER_00: And he throws out this plea to the Pharisees that he's on trial because he's a Pharisee, and the Pharisees take up his case.
SPEAKER_00: They begin to defend him.
SPEAKER_00: And then it gets violent.
SPEAKER_00: These two groups start going at it, they forget about Paul, and so they pull him out and return him to the barracks.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this incredible thing happens in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11, it says, The following night the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is an extraordinary thing for God to do.
SPEAKER_00: God appears to him, stands next to him, and speaks audibly to him and tells him what the plan is.
SPEAKER_00: He he meets him in this incredible time of need, which is why the title of the sermon is The Lord is Near, because Paul's hope, we're gonna see, is not in that this is all gonna come to an end or that God is gonna remove him from the situation.
SPEAKER_00: His only hope is that God is gonna be near him as he goes through it.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 12, it says, When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath, neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
SPEAKER_00: There were more than forty who made this conspiracy.
SPEAKER_00: They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, You have strictly bound, we have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Now, therefore, you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you are going to determine his case more exactly, and we are ready to kill him before he comes near.
SPEAKER_00: Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul called one of the centurions and said, Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.
SPEAKER_00: So he took him and brought him to the tribune, and said, Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.
SPEAKER_00: The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, What is it that you have to tell me?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him.
SPEAKER_00: But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor to drink, till they have killed him.
SPEAKER_00: And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.
SPEAKER_00: So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.
SPEAKER_00: So forty men make an oath together that they're gonna kill Paul, and they come up with a scheme.
SPEAKER_00: And the scheme is that they're gonna ask the council to ask the tribune to send Paul down to the council again to question him further, and as he's on his way there, their plan is to ambush the convoy and kill him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the scheme of men here.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they are intending to do, and as you notice, it's different than the plan of God.
SPEAKER_00: The plan of God is to move Paul from here on towards Rome.
SPEAKER_00: But the plan of these men is to take his life.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23 says, Then he called two of the centurions and said, Get ready two hundred soldiers with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night.
SPEAKER_00: Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix, the governor.
SPEAKER_00: And he wrote a letter to this effect, Claudius Lysius to his excellency the governor Felix, greetings.
SPEAKER_00: This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen.
SPEAKER_00: And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council.
SPEAKER_00: I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.
SPEAKER_00: And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.
SPEAKER_00: So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.
SPEAKER_00: I worked all week on saying that, and then froze right in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_00: Antipatris, that's how you say it.
SPEAKER_00: And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him.
SPEAKER_00: When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him.
SPEAKER_00: On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from.
SPEAKER_00: And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, he said, I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.
SPEAKER_00: And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's Praetorium.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is moved in the middle of the night by an escort of soldiers from Jerusalem to Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: He's moved in safety, and he's there kept in custody.
SPEAKER_00: And so all these things are unfolding.
SPEAKER_00: We know what God's ultimate plan is, that he's going to move Paul from Jerusalem to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we see all these things, we see all these things working against him, working against that plan, working against Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And I think as we go through this, I want to point out to you seven things that God uses in these verses to accomplish his plans.
SPEAKER_00: So you're saying, does he have seven points?
SPEAKER_00: No, I have one point.
SPEAKER_00: That one point is that God uses all things to accomplish his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to look at seven of them individually.
SPEAKER_00: And as I put myself in your shoes this week, I was thinking, what are they going to think when I say I have seven things to share with them?
SPEAKER_00: And if you're like me, you're maybe a little nervous right now, I would be nervous.
SPEAKER_00: I would just want to know that the person standing up front has thought about this well enough that he's not going to keep us here for an hour and a half.
SPEAKER_00: And I can testify that the last service ended right on time.
SPEAKER_00: So, nothing to worry about.
SPEAKER_00: Seven things that I think we see God clearly using to accomplish his plans and purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one.
SPEAKER_00: First, he uses our dark circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: He uses our dark circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening to Paul here is not good.
SPEAKER_00: It's dark.
SPEAKER_00: He is facing dark circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has been doing nothing but serve God, serve God's people.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to spread the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing all these things that he thinks are right and good.
SPEAKER_00: And now everything seems to be going wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He's in custody.
SPEAKER_00: He's being accused of things that are not true.
SPEAKER_00: Justice seems to be fleeting.
SPEAKER_00: He can't get a hearing before the right people.
SPEAKER_00: He's uncertain what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is going wrong, but it's not going to keep God from accomplishing his plans.
SPEAKER_00: When we face dark circumstances, we can be quick to question God's goodness, as I'm sure Paul might have been tempted to do here.
SPEAKER_00: He might have been tempted to think, God, I'm just trying to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving my life away to try to serve these people, and yet this is what happens to me?
SPEAKER_00: Why, God?
SPEAKER_00: And we can be tempted in the same way to ask those kinds of questions.
SPEAKER_00: We wonder if God is being faithful.
SPEAKER_00: We wonder if he has forgotten the good things that we've tried to do, but this chapter reminds us that God uses the seemingly unfair and often hard circumstances of our lives to achieve his plans.
SPEAKER_00: That we have the benefit in this story of being able to see the beginning, the middle, and the end.
SPEAKER_00: We see Paul called to this task, and we see the promise made in the middle of the story, and then if you keep reading the book of Acts, you see that Paul indeed gets to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan works out just fine.
SPEAKER_00: The problem that you and I have in real life is that we're in the middle of the story.
SPEAKER_00: We can't read the rest of the book and find out that it all works out perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: We're stuck in the middle, stuck here, left to trust God in the middle of the story.
SPEAKER_00: But what this chapter teaches us is that we can trust God.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us that God has proven himself faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He sees you, he knows your situation, and he's powerful enough to use it to accomplish his good plans.
SPEAKER_00: He uses our dark circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Second, he uses the wicked schemes of men.
SPEAKER_00: We see him do this a few different ways in the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: He uses the wicked schemes of men.
SPEAKER_00: First, he uses this controversy or this rivalry between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is before the council and he's looking out, and his speech has just been interrupted, and he's wondering, what am I going to do?
SPEAKER_00: And he decides, I'm going to appeal to this controversy between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's all kinds of debate about whether or not this was a good thing for Paul to do.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, there are things in the Bible that are prescriptive and there are things that are descriptive.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those descriptive things.
SPEAKER_00: It just tells us what Paul does.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't assign any moral value to it.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say he's being good or he's being smart or he's being manipulative.
SPEAKER_00: It just says this is what he does.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see, though, is that God uses the conspiracy or the controversy, sorry, between these two groups of people to move Paul out of the situation.
SPEAKER_00: This rivalry that existed between these two groups, they become so angry with each other they forget that they had come together against Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And God uses it to move him out of that situation where he did not want him to be.
SPEAKER_00: The second way we see him use it is this plot to take Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: These 40 men come together, a wicked scheme.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to take Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: And what does God do?
SPEAKER_00: He uses that scheme to move Paul along to where he wants him to go.
SPEAKER_00: Only God could do that.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't the first time we've seen this in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: God does it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You remember back in Acts chapter 4, when Peter and John had just been, they'd been warned by the same counsel not to preach the gospel anymore, and they'd been beaten and let go, and they go back to the other disciples and they rejoice together that they'd been counted worthy of suffering, and they begin to pray, and they start out, O sovereign Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Sovereign means he's overall, he's all powerful.
SPEAKER_00: They pray, oh sovereign Lord, and they quote Psalm 2.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 2 is this Psalm that is predicting this opposition that will come for Jesus, that God's anointed one is going to meet resistance.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be the kings of the earth, and the Gentiles will rage, and they're going to gather together against the Lord and his anointed.
SPEAKER_00: And they say in Acts chapter 4, uh in verse 27, for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, Oh, sovereign Lord, we've we've read Psalm 2 and we saw it come to pass.
SPEAKER_00: We saw how you used these the most powerful men in our community to accomplish your purposes.
SPEAKER_00: They did what your hand and what your plan had predestined to take place.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel like there are people with bad intentions looking to cause you harm, don't despair.
SPEAKER_00: This is not an unusual thing for the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: If they conspired against Jesus, they will surely conspire against us.
SPEAKER_00: And what did Jesus do when he was conspired against?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 23 says, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
SPEAKER_00: When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus entrusted himself to the Father, which means that he didn't concern himself with making sure that his accusers came to justice.
SPEAKER_00: How does he able to do that?
SPEAKER_00: Because he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.
SPEAKER_00: He was so confident in the power of God Almighty that he was able to rest and be content and know that God was able to use even the wicked schemes of men to bring about his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's able to trust.
SPEAKER_00: You and I can do the same.
SPEAKER_00: When people engineer evil against us or say things that aren't true or attack our character, we can remember that God is the final judge.
SPEAKER_00: Not only can he deliver us from the situation, but he can even use it to advance his purposes in our lives and in the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's how powerful our God is.
SPEAKER_00: Third, he uses and controls the seemingly insignificant details.
SPEAKER_00: He uses and controls the seemingly insignificant details.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in how Paul is ultimately delivered here.
SPEAKER_00: God plants Paul's nephew in just the right spot to hear about a plot to take Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: Paul apparently has a sister, and that sister has a son, and that son happened to be just in the right place at just the right time.
SPEAKER_00: God controls the details.
SPEAKER_00: How is it possible that Paul's nephew happened to be the one who was standing there when they were developing this plot?
SPEAKER_00: And how did he find the courage to go and tell Paul?
SPEAKER_00: And how did Paul how was Paul able to arrange him going to talk to the tribune?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer to all those questions is that the Lord is sovereign over all things.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is in control of the details.
SPEAKER_00: Things that you cannot see.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that in all of this, Paul is passive.
SPEAKER_00: This news came to him.
SPEAKER_00: Paul didn't even know that there were people plotting to take his life.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't even know there was a problem to solve, and yet God was working to solve it.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is moving in the details.
SPEAKER_00: When you run into a problem, he's already been working on making provisions for you that you know nothing about.
SPEAKER_00: This truth reminds us to receive everything that comes into our lives as if it has passed through the loving fingers of our Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: When one door closes, it's because the Lord has another one to open.
SPEAKER_00: When there's an unexpected delay, we can know that it's not unexpected for him.
SPEAKER_00: When something we're planning on doesn't happen, he knew about it.
SPEAKER_00: He's planned on it.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth, he uses the power of earthly leaders.
SPEAKER_00: He uses the power of earthly leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is in serious danger here.
SPEAKER_00: A group of 40 men have come together and they've committed to take Paul's life.
SPEAKER_00: And if Paul was facing this threat alone, it would be unsurmountable.
SPEAKER_00: Think about any one of us in this situation, if 40 people decided that they weren't going to eat or drink until they had taken your life, what are you going to do?
SPEAKER_00: Any one person would be helpless in that situation.
SPEAKER_00: But in that same Psalm, Psalm 2, that we talked about in Acts chapter 4, the psalmist is describing all these powerful forces coming together to oppose God's anointed one.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it says in verse 4?
SPEAKER_00: It says, He who sits in the heavens laughs.
SPEAKER_00: He's amused.
SPEAKER_00: As Herod and Pontius Pilate and all these rulers come together to oppose his anointed one.
SPEAKER_00: It is so amusing to him that he laughs about it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's nothing they could do to prevent his plan from taking place.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way as 40 men, this pretty sizable force, come together to oppose Paul and to take his life, the God that sits in heaven laughs.
SPEAKER_00: He says, okay, I'll see your 40 and I'll give Paul 400.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to move him out in the middle of the night, and we're going to move him to safety.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Because that was his plan.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan was not for Paul to die in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he wanted to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's not what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: The schemes of man are no match for the plans and purposes of God.
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting here is that God works through the Romans to accomplish his plans, but he does it in several ways, even in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: In the Gospels, they're the instrument that he uses to carry out his plan to provide a sacrifice for sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now he uses them to protect and transport his chosen servant, Paul.
SPEAKER_00: The most powerful empire in the world is no more than an instrument in God's hand.
SPEAKER_00: He uses them to do whatever he has decided to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so the takeaway for us is don't obsess over earthly power.
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of your politics or how you think things are going, there's no hope or shelter to be found in earthly powers.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord raises up kings and he puts them down.
SPEAKER_00: Do not trust in man, trust in God.
SPEAKER_00: Fifth, he uses his timeline and not ours.
SPEAKER_00: He uses his timeline and not ours.
SPEAKER_00: This one is probably the most painful for us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't like to wait.
SPEAKER_00: And we especially don't like to wait when things are not going well.
SPEAKER_00: Think about Paul and his circumstance here.
SPEAKER_00: He receives this incredible promise.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord comes and stands next to him and tells him that he's going to be on his way to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: So he doesn't have to worry anymore.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the plan.
SPEAKER_00: He knows he's not going to die in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that God has more for him to do, more plans for him, and so he can rest and he can be confirmed in that.
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul's transferred to Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: In the middle of the night, 400 soldiers, he's thinking, God's plan, just moving right along.
SPEAKER_00: Look at us go.
SPEAKER_00: Then he gets to Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: You know what happens to him there?
SPEAKER_00: He sits there for two years.
SPEAKER_00: The more I've thought about that this week, the more I've thought about Paul in those two years thinking, did I hear him right?
SPEAKER_00: Did I really see him?
SPEAKER_00: Was I delusional?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he make this promise and then make me wait for two years?
SPEAKER_00: But if you flip back through the pages of Scripture, this happens all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Think about Abraham and his promise that he was going to have a son.
SPEAKER_00: At 75 years old, God comes to him and says, You're going to have a son, and through him I'm going to bless you, and there's going to be generations, and your descendants are going to be like the sand of the seashore.
SPEAKER_00: And then he has to wait 25 years before he has his firstborn son, Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: The son of promise.
SPEAKER_00: It's 25 years later.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God make him wait 25 years?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how long 25 years is?
SPEAKER_00: Think about what you were doing 25 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Some percentage of the room wasn't even alive yet.
SPEAKER_00: 25 years is a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Think about receiving a promise from God and then having to wait for 25 years.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph is similar.
SPEAKER_00: At age 17, he has this dream that his brothers are going to bow down to him and he shares it with him.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think he should have.
SPEAKER_00: But he did.
SPEAKER_00: And then what happens?
SPEAKER_00: He gets sold into slavery.
SPEAKER_00: He spends years as a slave in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Then he gets put in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He spends years there.
SPEAKER_00: And he's got to be thinking, Did I have the right dream?
SPEAKER_00: Eventually he's raised up to the second most powerful man in Egypt, and roughly 20 years after his dream, his brothers walk in and bow down before him.
SPEAKER_00: And God fulfilled his promise.
SPEAKER_00: God has his own timelines.
SPEAKER_00: That could present a real struggle for us because we lack perspective.
SPEAKER_00: We can't see the things that he can see.
SPEAKER_00: His timing is perfect, but it never feels that way to us.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9, it says, God is not slow to fulfill his promises, as some count slowness.
SPEAKER_00: Why is Peter saying that?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's reassuring the people, God has spoken these things and they will come about, even though it may not feel like it right now.
SPEAKER_00: God is not slow.
SPEAKER_00: He's always on time.
SPEAKER_00: If you're waiting for the Lord, don't lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: Wait for him with patience.
SPEAKER_00: Keep praying.
SPEAKER_00: Keep seeking, keep trusting.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why God made Abraham wait 25 years for that promise to be fulfilled, but I know that God's purpose was to bring about a Messiah who would save his people.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that that happened right on time.
SPEAKER_00: God fulfilled his promise to Abraham, and he fulfilled his promise to us that he would bless the nations through him.
SPEAKER_00: You can't see why God is making you wait, but you can trust that his timing is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Sixth, he uses his presence to comfort his people.
SPEAKER_00: He uses his presence to comfort his people.
SPEAKER_00: The most encouraging verse in this chapter, in my opinion, is verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: It says, The following night the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: What's so encouraging about that to me is that God saw Paul in his circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: He saw that he was struggling, he saw that he was under the strain and weight of uncertainty, and he decided to move toward him and appear to him and speak to him and give him a promise and say, this is what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And it just displays God's compassion.
SPEAKER_00: That he sees Paul in the situation that he's in and he moves toward him.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 103, verses 13 and 14, some of my favorite verses, it says, As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: God is compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14 says, For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.
SPEAKER_00: God knows that you are weak.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that you are fragile.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that you need encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: He sees you in your struggle, even when you try to hide it from everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: He sees.
SPEAKER_00: He knows.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the kind of God who draws near as a father shows compassion to his children.
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: That compassion means he feels with us.
SPEAKER_00: I remember, I can still remember when this truth fell on me with a new kind of weight after I had my first son.
SPEAKER_00: We were excited, new parents, and we had been expecting, and we finally had our little boy, and we had brought him home from the hospital, and he'd been home for about three weeks, and he was doing what babies do.
SPEAKER_00: He was not sleeping at night.
SPEAKER_00: And so I remember about three weeks in, I was up with him in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: It was quiet.
SPEAKER_00: It was probably two or three o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: And the room was kind of dimly lit, probably with a nightlight or something.
SPEAKER_00: I just remember I could see my son, and I was just looking at him.
SPEAKER_00: It's totally quiet.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember suddenly being overwhelmed by how much I loved and cared about this baby.
SPEAKER_00: This little boy that I'm holding that I've only known for a couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at him, and the more I thought about that, the more overwhelmed by it I became.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's only taken things from me.
SPEAKER_00: He'd taken my money.
SPEAKER_00: He had taken my sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And it dawned on me that there was nothing I would not do for him.
SPEAKER_00: I was sitting there looking at him, thinking, I I can't imagine a sacrifice I would not be willing to make for this little baby.
SPEAKER_00: And I was struck by that.
SPEAKER_00: I was overwhelmed by it, thinking, why do I feel that way?
SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And I remembered this verse.
SPEAKER_00: As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God has revealed himself as a father, and he put a love in us for our kids to show us who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Because in many ways, we're just like that baby.
SPEAKER_01: We have cost him so much, and we've been able to give him nothing in return.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know truly how he feels about us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't respond in the way that we should.
SPEAKER_00: And yet his heart is overwhelmed with love.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that he was willing to make any sacrifice for us.
SPEAKER_00: God draws near to Paul to comfort him in the midst of his hard circumstances, because God is a God filled with compassion.
SPEAKER_00: He sees you.
SPEAKER_00: And so your greatest hope and mine is not that we'd be delivered from our dark circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: Our greatest hope is that God would join us in the midst of them.
SPEAKER_00: That he would draw near.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, his word, he promises us in James, that if we draw near to him, he will draw near to us.
SPEAKER_00: God does not promise to deliver us from pain, but promises to be with us as we endure it.
SPEAKER_00: Life is hard.
SPEAKER_00: And if you set your hope in getting out of this current circumstance, you'll be disappointed only to fall into another one.
SPEAKER_00: Life is one difficult circumstance after the other.
SPEAKER_00: And so, where is our hope?
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is not in being delivered from those hard circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is that God is with us in the midst of it.
SPEAKER_00: Your greatest hope is not deliverance.
SPEAKER_00: Your greatest hope is that God might meet you where you are.
SPEAKER_00: So draw near to him.
SPEAKER_00: Seek his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Seventh and finally, he uses all things together for our good and for his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: He uses all things together for our good and for his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: This is the summary of them all.
SPEAKER_00: Catches all the things here together and all the things that I missed.
SPEAKER_00: He uses all things together for our good and for his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us in Romans 8, verse 28, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.
SPEAKER_00: For those who are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, Jesus faced all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: And we see God's faithfulness to him.
SPEAKER_00: He faced dark circumstances, he faced the wicked schemes of men.
SPEAKER_00: He had to trust that the Father could work through earthly powers.
SPEAKER_00: He had to trust that he could use every detail.
SPEAKER_00: He had to accept the Lord's timing.
SPEAKER_00: He had to seek the Father's presence for comfort on that last night before his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: And our Heavenly Father proved faithful in all of it.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has not appeared to me or spoken audibly to me about my future, but instead he gave me all that I need to be confident of his good purposes in my life.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans 8, 32, Paul says, He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what Paul is doing?
SPEAKER_00: Arguing from the greater to the lesser, he's saying, Look, if if he gave his son, then what will he withhold from you?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's proven to us that he's willing to give anything and everything for our good.
SPEAKER_01: There's no cost too high.
SPEAKER_01: There's no hurdle that he will not jump over for you.
SPEAKER_00: He is willing, he is able, and he is moving toward us.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God has given us evidence that he is willing to do anything to provide for our needs.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is the ultimate demonstration of God's heart for us.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that we were dead in our trespasses and sins and without hope in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And God moved towards us.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his son, who took on flesh and took on the form of a servant and became obedient even to the point of death, even death on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: He lived the perfect life that you and I could not live, a life of perfect righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And then as the perfect sacrifice, he died in our place, the death that you and I deserve to die.
SPEAKER_00: And on the third day, he proved himself victorious when he was raised from the dead, to show that he had defeated our greatest enemies of sin and death so that we could put our trust in him and so that we could know what God's heart is towards us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a secret.
SPEAKER_00: He has revealed it clearly.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes our life circumstances are hard and they begin to cloud our vision.
SPEAKER_00: And we begin to forget how God feels about us, but all we need to do is look back to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that he came and took on flesh to die for you.
SPEAKER_00: For me.
SPEAKER_00: His heart is clearly on display.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose sight of it.
SPEAKER_00: Run back to the gospel again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've never put your trust in Christ, then I would plead with you today to put your hope in him alone.
SPEAKER_00: Turn from sin, turn from every other false hope, and put your trust in Jesus Christ, the one who lived the life you could not live and died the death that you deserve to die so that you could be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Turn your life over to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Entrust yourself to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking to God?
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting in Him?
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you two applications just to carry out with you.
SPEAKER_00: These are not new things or things I've already said, but I'm gonna summarize them in two application points.
SPEAKER_00: One, let's remind each other to trust God in all circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Let's remind each other to trust God in all circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say it like that is because you and I need help remembering these things.
SPEAKER_00: We're quick to forget, and our circumstances get dark and things get cloudy, and we can forget these realities.
SPEAKER_00: That's what our community is for.
SPEAKER_00: That's what fellow believers are for.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have life groups, so that you can be a part of a group and know people and be known by them, and so that you can remind one another of these truths, because circumstances will get hard.
SPEAKER_00: If they're not hard right now, they will be soon.
SPEAKER_00: So let's remind each other to trust God in all circumstances, and finally, let's look to the cross and remember God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: If you are lost in a fog of dark circumstances, look to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: If you find yourself forgetting how God feels about you, look to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that God's heart is on display.
SPEAKER_00: And so if things are hard, preach the gospel to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Remember where you were and the hope that He has provided, and the way that He has rescued you, and the great cost that He was willing to pay to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And rejoice in a Savior who has secured for us not an easy life, but an eternal hope.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for all that you are doing and all that you have done.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for walking with us in the midst of hard circumstances, and thank you for these reminders this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That you are able to use all things in our lives to accomplish your purposes.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you help us to remember these things when they're hard to remember?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to build our lives on them so that we're ready when storms come?
SPEAKER_00: Would you fill us with hope and faith?
SPEAKER_00: Would you remind us of your promises and would you remind us that they are true?
SPEAKER_00: And would you help us to walk together, reminding one another of these things?
SPEAKER_00: God, you're so good.
SPEAKER_00: And from our limited perspective, it's so easy to lose sight of that.
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to see?
SPEAKER_00: Help us to see your goodness and trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in the powerful name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.