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Well, good morning to you, Providence. It's good to see you. My name's Dave. One of the pastors have the joy to teach you today. And if you're a guest with us, we say a special welcome. If you've joined us online or in the other room, it's uh great to have you uh as well. So today at uh Providence, it is uh before we dive into our our text, uh let me just share a few words about what's happening on our campus today. Um, it really is a special time uh in the life of Providence uh to be able to um partner with ministry um that are throughout our city. When you walked in, uh you saw multiple uh banners uh in our uh lobby, and today is our local outreach ministry fair where we really um are super excited to partner with these ministries, uh, many of them on the front lines of engaging uh our city uh with really specificity and uniqueness. And so we're just super thankful uh for them and we partner with them uh because there is a desire uh among Providence to be able to be a part of bringing the hope of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ to this city, um, to bring healing holistically. Some of these ministries do some incredible things, helping folks get on their feet and to bring help uh to the city. And so it's just a remarkable time, it's a remarkable city that we live in. As a matter of fact, a few things about this city and the area that we live in. Um as I look this week at some reports. One came out just recently from the U.S. News and World Report of 19,000 cities. Um, Raleigh's the is the sixth best place to live in the U.S. It is the nation's third fastest growing city where it adds roughly 53 residents daily, only behind Atlanta and Fort Worth. It's the second fastest growing tech hub in the U.S. And then expanding out beyond our city, Wake County currently gains approximately 80 new residents daily, and close to 30 of those 80 are internationals. So the nations are even coming to the city. But Raleigh is also a broken city for it has doubled since 2020 in homelessness. Six thousand adults are homeless, fifty one hundred children are homeless, and a hundred thousand live in poverty. Expanded out a little bit more. North Carolina, right? We love our state. We like some of the teams that are represented. You've got the beach, the mountains, folks love to move to this area. Here's something about our state. It ranks 46 in the US for homelessness conditions. Another way to say that is we are in the bottom five of how we care for those who have no shelter. Think about Wake County Public Schools, it's the 15th largest in the country with a hundred and sixty-one thousand students just in the Wake County public schools. And of that number, sixty-eight thousand two hundred and twenty-three students qualify for free or reduced lunch. But when there's obstacles, there's also opportunities. And the church is partnering with many of these ministries that you will walk past as you leave in just a few. And we're helping meet physical needs in hopes to reach the greatest of all needs, a spiritual need to introduce many to Christ and the hope he brings. Think about just a few of these ministries. One is the Raleigh Dream Center. It's an incredible ministry. We're helping with addiction recovery, with food pantry, with a clothing outreach. It's just some remarkable things. A weekly service held at New Hope Church, where we've partnered with to help revitalize. Last year they had 145,000 meals they helped prepare. They gave away an estimate of 1.2 million pounds of food in our city. They run a Dop the Block incredible ministry where you go in and just love on communities. They've seen hundreds last year come to Christ and be baptized. Amazing opportunities. Think about prison alliance for just a minute. Started by a mom who was here at Providence many years ago. She graduated college. She's a mom of three, a wife, a businesswoman. Some 25 years ago started it, but when she graduated from college, she adopted an atheistic worldview and then moved to this area. And some folks just began to love on her, encourage her, invited her to a Bible study. And she studied the Bible and came to know Jesus. And within one year of knowing Jesus and walking, she had a heart to get Bibles into hard places, into shelters, into prisons. And so she just begins to dream and pray like crazy. And God has opened the door. She just retired a few years ago from it. It's continuing strong. But they are in 2,500 prisons in the U.S. They are in 16 countries in over 700 prisons. A mom, a wife, dreaming. Last year, they saw 78,195 prisoners around the world give their life to Christ. This is yeah, you can clap for that. Yeah. Think about a ministry called Refugee Hope Partners. The nations are coming to Raleigh. Raleigh is the seventh largest resettlement city for refugees. Beautiful people made in the image of God, forced to leave their country. A mom, a wife is walking to church 20-some years ago, and a family from Burma is walking across. She invites them into church. Here's their story. Begins a relationship and starts to dream and pray. How would we minister to refugees that come? And so refugee hope was a birth and started. Over 3,200 refugees are ministered to on falls of the noose out of that office throughout Wake County from 83 nations. This is what's happening in our city. Jeremiah 29 says it like this says, to seek the welfare of the city. Where I've sent you. This is God's people that have been sent into exile. Where you think they could complain, and yet God says, No, seek the welfare of it. In one sense, we're exiles living. This isn't our final destination as a Christian. Heaven is. But he says, seek and then pray. Pray for the city. And so, how can you be a part of what God is doing? How can you be a part of what God is doing in the city? I want to encourage you. There's a card on the seat when you came in. You can simply scan that QR code. All it's going to do is bring up the ministry partners that we partner with simply to see. Maybe, and if you want information, you can click on that. We'll get you information about what they do when they meet. Multiple opportunities, hundreds, if not thousands, of you serve it in some capacity, some weekly, some monthly, some quarterly, some yearly. But it's awesome opportunities to serve. You could also, on the way out to lunch, as you head out, you could stop by. Just simply stop by one of those and just more than anything say thank you. Thank you for your labors in the city. Thank you for what you're doing and how God's using you. And then consider, consider signing up. Once a year, we as a church rally as a church to go into our city collectively together. And so on Saturday, May 7th, for a few hours that Saturday morning, we'll meet here, hundreds of us, and then we'll go to multiple places all over the city just to serve collectively on that day. And so it'll be a great time. So let me pray for our city and then for our text, and we'll dive in. Father, we love you. Thank you for your grace and mercy. Thank you for the opportunity to open your word and to get in it and pray that it gets in us. Thank you for the opportunity to partner with so many incredible ministries in our city. And we pray for them today, God. We pray for them. Many of the leaders are in this room, even this hour. Pray that, Father, you would encourage them to be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that their labor in the Lord's not in vain. So would you do a great work to reach this city? And we bank on the promise that if we reach neighborhoods, that we could probably reach more nations. And so we know the light that shines the brightest in the city reaches the farthest to the nation. So God, do a work in this city, not for our glory, but for the glory of your Son, and that it would spread to all people. So we lift this up and we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, if you're new to Christianity, exploring Christianity, been walking with Him for a long time, we are in a study of the book of Acts. It's the mighty Acts of God. And we're in chapter 25. And so if you would look at chapter 25. And today I want to talk to you about lessons from the waiting room. Lessons from the waiting room. You and I probably at some point in time, maybe some more than often, have found ourselves in a waiting room, waiting to be called, waiting for news in a season of waiting. Maybe waiting to get that report, maybe waiting for this to happen or that to come through. One study showed that we'll spend some five years, 43,800 hours waiting. Majority of that is on falls of the noose and six forks during drive time, right? God's testing our patience, is he not? He's using those moments even. And our text today shows Paul's not in a waiting room, but in a prison waiting on God. He's preaching the gospel constantly, and he's been arrested. And one pastor theologian says it like this second only to suffering, waiting may be the greatest teacher. In godliness, maturity, and faith we encounter. Second only to suffering. Waiting might be the greatest teacher. And so the stage is set. This is Paul's fourth defense of six defenses he'll make in Acts. He's seemingly always on trial, always waiting for God to come through. And each time trust deepens. And look, there's a point, there's a point in life when you've witnessed so much of God's faithfulness that the sovereignty of God, this doctrine of God being completely in control of all details, that the sovereignty of God becomes a rock under your feet to hold you up and a pillow for your head at night to lay it down, to never miss an hour of sleep. Because there's no room for worry in you. Because you've come to a place in your life where you think you're holding on to God and you're realizing He's actually holding you. And so, what do we learn in this season of waiting? I want to show you three things. We'll start in verse 1 of chapter 25. We'll read a little bit and unpack it as we walk through it. Now, three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. And the chief priest and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged him, asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem, because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way. Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly. So said he, let the men of authority among you go down with me. And if there is anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him. After they stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. So I want to show you our first truth this morning is this is that God is working while we are waiting. God is working, He's always working. He wastes no time. He wastes no seasons. Matter of fact, in chapter 24, the last verse we learn before the new governor arrives on the scene that it says, when two years elapse, Felix was succeeded by Festus and desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul where? In prison. And then these this after this season of being in prison, Paul's waiting and waiting. I mean, that's just this is 730 days that he's waiting. And when Fester arrives, Festus arrives, he rolls in Jerusalem, and then the the Jews, the first conversation in verse 2 of 25 says they urged him, right? They're trying, I mean, two years have passed, and their hatred toward Paul has only escalated. It's rising so much so that the first thing they want him to address is this dude that's been preaching another way, the gospel way, the Jesus way, and they're so angry. They're planning an ambush, they they want to ultimately kill him. And Festus says, yes, he's talking to him, he's engaging in conversation. We'll see how that conversation goes in a minute. But what is happening in these moments? This is what's happening. The plan of God is unfolding. It looks like a chessboard where the pawns are moving one direction and the knights one way and the castle one way, and they're they're forward and back and sideways. And yet God is orchestrating the whole thing. It's like the book of Esther. If you ever read the book of Esther, just read it in one setting. It's the only book in the Bible where God's name is not mentioned, and yet God is everywhere. The narrative of the book of Esther implies divine providence and hidden protection everywhere. Just imagine what's going to happen as Paul is going to be moved, we'll see toward the end of the book, from this prison of Caesarea to Rome to another prison. And what happens? I think he's prepping Paul in this prison stay for another prison stay where he will write four of our New Testament books. They're called the prison epistles, Ephesians and Colossians, and Philemon, and Philippians. And just think about how we get a snapshot of his continuing to wait, continuing to trust God, even in Philippians, because he helped plant this church. And now from prison in Rome, we'll see later in the book of Acts. He he writes back these letters to encourage them. And notice what he writes in Philippians from prison in Rome. Once he gets there, he says, the people at Philippi are called the Philippians. And so he's sending this letter to him. He says, What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Like what? What has happened to Paul? What's happened is he's been arrested again. And again, he's put in jail for this preaching of this gospel. And then he says this, so that it's become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Now, what's going on there? Here's what's happening, right? You've got guard after guard coming in for their shift. You've got news starting to spread through the prison, right? That that there's got most guys, probably that work in prisons don't know the record of every single person, but this it this is becoming known throughout because what happens as one guard comes and does his shift, what is Paul gonna do? Complain? No. He takes an opportunity to preach the gospel. He's preaching the gospel in such a way that it's becoming known throughout the whole guard. And then it says, it says, he goes on, and most of my brothers having been confident in the Lord by my imprisonment. Aren't you encouraged, right? Paul, aren't you encouraged? Other people are being uh growing in confidence. So those brothers, sisters outside the walls that are sharing the gospel are growing bolder because Paul's saying it's worth it that even while I'm in prison, where they're trying to stop the preaching of the gospel, it's actually spreading. So much so that Paul in chapter four at the end of the book says, These other brothers are becoming more bold to speak the word without fear. And then he says, The brothers who are with me. Now he's sometimes when we read the Bible and we we read the last few lines of a book, we sometimes we slow down, we skip over. Don't skip over it. It's so much in it. So he says, The brothers who are with me greet you. Now what's going on there? I think he's leading other prisoners to Christ and other family members. They're brothers in Christ. He says, All all the all the saints greet you, not perfect people, people who have come to faith. And then he says, This, watch this, especially those of Caesar's household. Now, what is happening in that moment? Here's what's happening. I think Paul has led prisoners to Christ. I think he's led guards to Christ. And the guard is while he's watching Paul and he's at his station. I think he's looking to see where his supervisor is, and then he's leaning in, maybe through the jail cell, and say, Yo, Paul, what you doing, man? And Paul's like, man, I I helped plant a church in Philippi, and I'm writing a letter, and I'm gonna send it to him to encourage them. And I think the guard does a double take to see if his supervisor is coming. And when he sees it's somewhat clear, he leans in as he's come to faith. He leans in, he said, Hey Paul, tell him I said, What's up? Especially, they're sending greetings. It's become known throughout the whole they're sending greetings from the prison. This Paul is continuing to trust, he's continuing to trust even there when you can't see it, right? Listen, Paul in prison is freer than every single person trying to kill him outside of the prison. And so what do you do? What do you do when you have to wait? What do you do when you have to wait? Do you does anger rise? Does anxiety rise? Listen, does worry grip you? Does weariness grip you? Or does God's word ground you through this? Recently I heard and was overwhelmed by a story of a man in World War II, Jacob De Sezar, who was a sergeant and a crew member of the plane after the attack on Pearl Harbor, was over Tokyo in a plane and was shot down. This is him here, and he ends up going into captivity for as a prisoner of war for 40 months. 34 of those months, he was in solitary confinement. And by God's grace, he was given a Bible for three weeks. Only three weeks. Six, 16 hours a day, he read it. He read through it multiple times. He comes to faith, he gets out of prison, comes back to the States, studies in seminary, gets a theological degree, and is he's the first missionary to Japan after World War II. And when he gets back there, he's writing material, he's leading people to Christ, and he begins to connect with this guy, which is a live picture there of him sharing the gospel. This is a guy by the name of Fuchara, and he's the Japanese naval aviator that led the attack on Pearl Harbor. And he shared the gospel with them, and he came to faith in Christ, and he became a missionary throughout all of Asia, even coming back to the states to share the gospel. Listen, God, God has and will work in all situations. And so the question is, the question is, do you do you worship in those seasons or do you worry in those seasons? And it's let me just tell you, friend, listen, it's impossible to do both at the same time. One will overrule the other if you're not leaning in. And so here's here's what I'm gonna do. This is a little unique timing here, okay? I'm gonna hit time out real quick. I'm gonna hit timeout on preaching, and I'm gonna go into pastoral counseling, okay, for just a second. So just imagine we're in the office and we're just doing a little pastoral counseling. I'm gonna I'm gonna encourage you, I'm gonna encourage you with what I call my three J's for the hard journey of waiting or suffering, right? And we would get into the word, and the first J I would lean into and try to encourage you with is to study God's word and study the life of Joseph. To study the life of Joseph, who's such a picture and portrait of the life of Jesus. But Joseph in Genesis 39 to 50, it's a remarkable story of he is the youngest of brothers. The brother, all his brothers hated him, so they sold him into slavery. He sold, again, he's he goes into work, he begins to work, do somewhat well, but he's accused wrongly. He then he's then put in prison. And in chapter 39 of Genesis, it says, four times the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. See, listen, it might it might be better to be in prison with the Lord than in the world without him. And and so he he's learning to trust, he's waiting on God. Eventually, he's raised up to second in command in Egypt. He has some serious engineering skills. He's got spreadsheets all over his office, and and there's a famine that's coming, and he's being able to ration and portion the food out so it could last seven years so people could eat. And do you know who needed to eat? His brothers needed to eat. That sold them years before, lied to his dad about what happened. So they come, they don't recognize him, he recognizes them. And it's amazing interaction when they did come to know who this was, saving their life physically. And this is what he writes, and this is an anchor verse that is a rock under your feet and a pillow for your head at night. It's Genesis 50. He says, Do not fear, for I'm in the place of God. You imagine getting there in your walk, in your theology, where you could get through a hard season and say, I'm actually in the place of God. I'm in a place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive in the hard times. You trust the Lord. The Lord's with you. And C.S. Lewis would give, I think, our culture, our city, a warning in some of his writings. He says it like this: he says, Comfort will sideline you faster than imprisonment. One of his books, he writes, prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he's finding his place in it while really it's finding its place in him. And the safest road to hell is a gradual, gentle slope. It may be best to have a hard life on earth with the promise of heaven that's coming rather than a happy life on earth and end up in hell. Listen, when you study the life of Joseph, when you study the life of Job, it's it's misery. It's this misery after misery, and you see yet mercy after mercy after mercy. Job, he's he's wealthy, things are going great, and these bandits come and they steal all of his livestock. A tornado hits his house and kills his kids. He gets sick as a dog with these sores all over his body, and he he's he doesn't curse God. He curses the day that he was born. And he keeps leaning hard into trust. And what's amazing about the book of Job, if you read it in its totality, God never answers him why this happened. Why did this happen? Don't you want to know today why you're in this season that you're in of waiting? Why worry tends to with teeth grab your heart? You know what? You know what God does? In chapters 38 and following toward the end, three to four chapters, he says, Job, I want you to, I want you to man up for a minute, because I'm gonna, I'm gonna add, here's some QA. He does QA with God asking the questions. And he he asked him some 70 plus questions, and he asks him questions like this. He says, Job, do you have any idea how lightning bolts strike? Because I ordain every one of them. Job, do you have any ideas how snowflakes form and fall to the earth? Have you ever tried to measure the universe? He he leans in and he he gets more specific. Job, have have you, do you have any idea where the mane on a horse's neck comes from and why I put it there? Do you have any idea, Job, why I've made the mountain goat's foot a specific way so that when it climbs rocks, it can have leverage to pull himself up. Job, you got any ideas? You know what he's doing? He's lifting his head to see the glory and greatness of God. He doesn't tell him why he didn't kill his kids. He doesn't tell him why he doesn't tell him why. And I repent because I had an adequate view of who you were. That's what happened. Well, listen. Listen, you know the third J is coming. It's Jesus the Christ, the cross, right? His defeat is our victory. Study his life, study the gospels, his death for us, his his pain, our joy. And Hebrews 12 says, consider him. The word consider, it's it's a unique word that means continue to do the math, continue to do the math, and continue to consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that, now what watch what the word says, so that you may not grow, right? We're all growing in a certain direction. Grow weary or faint-hearted. And so listen, let's let's trust. Let's trust God's plan. Let's trust God's plan even when we can't see his purposes. The sovereignty of God will be a rock under your feet and a pillow for your head at night. And you'll lean into verses like Psalm 130 that says, I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. In his word I hope. In his word I hope. Well, last, not least, let's let's conclude this quickly with verse 13. Notice what it says. Now, when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus. And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, There's a man left prisoner by Felix. And when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests, the elders of the Jews, they laid out their case against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him. I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone, before the accused met the accusers face to face and had the opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him. So when they came together here, I made no delay, but only but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought. And when the accusers stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed. Rather, they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he would want it to go to Jerusalem and be tried there. And yet, for the decision of the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar. And then Agrippa said to Festus, I would like to hear, I would like to hear this man more. Tomorrow, he said, you shall hear. Tomorrow you shall hear. So let me try to unpack this in a short amount of time. The last two is this is that God uses a clean conscience to build courage. Just prior to that passage, we just see really two things. They're coming around him, they're breathing down his neck, they're so frustrated, they're so mad. And yet, Festus is warning, right? Even with King Agrippa, Festus is warning pole numbers to go up. He's got a fear of man. He loves the approval of man. He's moving into compromise. He's growing cowardly. Well, for Paul, he has the fear of God. He has the fear of God. And what's growing is courage. And a life of blamelessness provides remarkable boldness. A life of blamelessness provides remarkable boldness, not arrogance, and this clean conscience that comes from Christ forgiving you, not as a perfect person, but as a forgiven person. It creates this confidence that feels as if you're empty of yourself and full of God at the same time. You're low and lifted at the same time. And this is what happened to Martin Luther. This is what happened to Martin Luther in back in the time when he came to faith. It was pretty remarkable. He was a monk studying in a monastery to become a priest, and yet he couldn't get rid of the guilt he had for sin. And he began to read Romans, then he comes to faith, and then he leaves that and starts preaching the gospel, preaching the Bible. And in 1517, in 1517, he goes to the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, and he nails the 95 theses that he wrote against things they were doing that were heretical on October 31st, 1517. And the first of those 95 is this is that the Christian life is a life of repentance, of confession. And it's Luther would lead into this courage built up so much so that four years later, in 1521, he's brought before the emperor of the Roman church. He refuses to recant. He's faced in accusations. The councils questioning him for hours. And this is what he says. He says, unless I am convinced by the testimony of scriptures or by clear reason, I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. This courage led to the start of the Protestant Reformation. And this is what Paul leaned into in Acts 24. He says, I take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. I take pains. I take pains to have a clear conscience. Why does he take pains to have a clear conscience? It's because Christ has taken the ultimate pain in the gospel to receive God's wrath upon himself to free us than then to run in delight and discipline because we have been approved of, because we have his love. And so this morning, let's confess. Let's confess our sins often. Let's walk humbly and watch courage rise. Let's confess often and then walk humbly and watch courage ride. We'll see it in verse 19. He draws a line that demands our attention. He draws a line that demands our attention and affections in the resurrection of his son. He draws this line that demands our affections, that demands our attention through the resurrection. Notice verse 19, this is the key. Certain points of dispute and their own religion started to rise. And what was that dispute? That dispute was that this certain Jesus, who was dead, is now alive. And Festus is at a loss how to investigate this. He's seeking wisdom from the king, he's perplexed. And this, my friend, this morning, this resurrection of this man is the difference maker. I have friends that I've engaged with in healthy dialogues throughout the years from different worldviews and perspectives, and in a healthy dialogue, they would always say, We are so much closer than you really think we are. And I say, in humility, with compassion, and avoiding arrogance, say, I don't think we could be further apart. Because your founder is dead in a grave, and my faith is in a man resurrected from the grave. The resurrection, why it's a game changer, is because it gives us a living hope. First Peter says, we learned last week, it gives us a living hope because the two greatest enemies, the two greatest enemies, and my two greatest problems, and your two greatest problems on earth is sin and death. And he has overcome in his death our sin and in his resurrection, our life for eternity. It sounds like I want to start talking about Easter again. And something to know about Providence. We actually celebrate Easter every single Sunday. Every single Sunday. Augustine, the fourth century theologian, says, we are an Easter people, and hallelujah is our song. The resurrection is the megaphone of Christianity. And so I want to encourage you this morning. John 11 says this in close. Jesus says, I'm the resurrection and life. Believe in me and live, even though you die. And so this morning, let me ask you this question. Do you have, do you have the hope of heaven? Do you have the hope of heaven? Has the resurrection does it get your attention and grip your affections this morning? I want to encourage you. God draws a line on the resurrection. If he doesn't come back from the dead, we're probably not in this room on this day. And so let's trust Christ. If you've never trusted him, his life lived that we couldn't live. He died a death that we deserve. He was raised from the dead to take our sins. And when you place your trust and your faith in him, the Bible says you have a living hope. And he does this work. And let's treasure this truth. This is a tremendous truth to treasure. And let's tell. Let's tell as many people as we can. The world is on fire and needs this hope to be spoken. In a winsome, humble, clear, compassionate way. Do it this week. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your kindness. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you, God, for your word. Thank you that it is alive and active. And I pray, God, for many in this room, if not all, at some point, at some time, even in this season, or waiting, waiting to hear from you, or waiting to know maybe the next step, waiting to, in a hard season, waiting and wondering all at the same time. What are you doing? And I pray you would meet them where they're at and show them all that you have done. And may the past of your faithfulness from creation to this day ground us in such a way that your sovereignty and character, providence, benevolence would be a rock under our feet and a pillow for our head this week. We love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.