Daily Devotional – July 9, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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Noon and this Thursday afternoon a friend of mine called the other day and he wanted to know Just how hot is it out there in the midwest?

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He's from the east coast So I told him I said it is so hot out here that you can't even make a chili dog

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In fact, it's so hot that chuck gum or one of the members of our church He's feeding ice to his chickens so they won't lay boiled eggs and speaking of uh his chickens

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It's so hot that you can poach his eggs in a pool It's so hot that some of our farmers are seeing the corn popping on the stalks out there in the fields and Yeah, you get in your car and you go to turn it on and the temperature gauge says it's already overheating

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It's so hot and it's so hot that all the bread in the store It's already toast by the time you get it home

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And hey, I don't know about you But it's so hot that i'm using celsius instead of fahrenheit just to have a lower number makes you feel better You know, it's kind of like the uh, the wind chill or the heat index, you know

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Don't tell me the heat index. Just let me know the real temperature so it doesn't feel quite so hot Well, when was the last time you were stuck?

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And what I mean by that is that you're in a place that you don't want to be And you don't see any end in sight to being in that place

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And the thing of it is you don't even really have a clue as to why you're there and what the purpose of it all is

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You certainly don't see anything positive coming out of it and you find yourself thinking things like I i'm sure

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I could be so much more effective if I weren't stuck here and It's really not a question of if is it it's more like When have you been stuck

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I recall feeling that way about a year after we had moved to vermont now we lived there from 1992 to the year 2000 and It was it was less than a year after we moved there and I was really feeling stuck

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Before moving to vermont. I pastored a church in tennessee in oak ridge, tennessee and oak ridge is that community where the atomic bombs were built

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During world war ii And there's still a huge national laboratory there in that community

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And uh, so I you know, I pastored in that church and and led the church through making some really really difficult challenging decisions and before that I served as an assistant pastor at a church in south bend indiana and it was a church of about 700 or so people

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And there was always something You know positive going on and it seemed like the church was moving in a in a very positive direction but in vermont

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I just Was struggling and and felt stuck So the summer after we moved there we were we took a vacation came back to the midwest visiting family and so forth and I went to visit the church where I served as an assistant years before And the pastor was still there same pastor was still there

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And I I met with him and Explaining to him. Is this how I feel? I just I just feel

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I feel stuck. I feel like maybe I need to go somewhere else where I could be more effective And i've told him after telling him that plight and asking, you know, what in the world should

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I do? He simply said to me. Hey stay put Just stay put

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Work through it Be faithful He said the lord will use you in ways that you can't see right now and and if he wants to move you later, he'll move you later, but just stay put

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So we stayed We stayed Stayed there for eight years and the stuckness

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Well, it it pretty much went away. He was right, you know, and the lord ended up using us in in ways there that we

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Did not absolutely could not have seen In those first few months after we arrived Well, we've been

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Considering what paul went through when he was in caesarea this week He got stuck in a roman prison there in caesarea for two years for two years

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And it wasn't because he did anything wrong. He didn't he didn't break any laws And he committed no crime neither against god nor against the jewish law nor against the roman empire.

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He did nothing wrong There was literally no Reason no justification for his being held captive yet There he was stuck in this prison in caesarea for two years

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So i've asked you to think about that I've asked you to think about you know, what issues arise when you feel stuck.

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What do you struggle with during those times? What do you do? What do you do?

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Now yesterday we asked the why questions, right? Why why did god allow this to happen in the first place?

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And why didn't god intervene and get him out of that situation like he had in philippi?

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And why has god seemingly sidelined this chosen instrument this? special apostle

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Why is he leaving paul stuck? And while we can't know all the reasons we concluded that God used the time to provide an opportunity for paul to fulfill some of what he was called to do in the first place

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Which was to preach the gospel to kings Well, another question we want to ponder is what do you do?

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When you're stuck So when you total up the time that luke tells us that paul actually stood before these different magistrates

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Felix and and festus and so forth And and and the time that he shared the gospel to some of just to some extent

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It really doesn't about amount to very much time over those two years, you know, what's actually recorded maybe an hour

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So what did he do with all that time? well Again, we can't say for sure all that he did

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Scripture doesn't tell us But here's what we are told We're told that five days after he arrived in caesarea

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He went before felix for the first time we read about that in the beginning of acts chapter 24

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And then about two years later Festus took over for felix read of that at the end of chapter 24

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And we know only three things that took place in those two years one He had enough freedom that his friends could come and visit him could minister to his needs that could encourage him

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Secondly, we know that he was called by felix to come To talk to him

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And we're told this about those encounters That felix sent for paul and heard him speak about faith in christ.

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Jesus And as he reasoned paul reasoned about righteousness and self -control and the coming judgment felix was alarmed

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And the third thing we know Is that felix sent for him often? And conversed with him

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So, what did paul do while he was stuck in prison well for one thing He accepted all the encouragement that was offered by others who cared for him in his difficulty now

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This can be difficult for some people can be a real challenge And for one thing they don't they don't want to admit to anyone that they're actually feeling stuck

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They won't ask for help They won't share this very real need

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It's like they would be admitting admitting some kind of weakness or or failure or something and they just won't do that Well paul wasn't reluctant to do so And then the second thing paul did when he was stuck in prison

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Was he didn't wallow in self -pity and allow that to shut him down To distract him from his mission in life

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How about you? How about you? when you're when you're stuck, do you just get depressed and end up neglecting the very basic things of your life vocation

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Well, let me encourage you to follow paul's example here

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And not allow yourself to wallow in that self -pity. That's the easiest thing to do and I can tell you that from personal experience you get to wallowing in that and it it demotivates you and it robs you of energy and vitality and vision and enthusiasm motivation

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Don't allow that to happen follow paul's example here and stay focused on the mission at hand and look for opportunities to Use your calling even when you're stuck

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Well, let's have a word of prayer and ask the lord to use us and use you

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Even if you're feeling kind of stuck right now He will Let's pray father in heaven

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We thank you for your encouraging word that Gives advice and counsel to us even in times when we don't feel

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Like we're being very effective and we're being we're really accomplishing anything times.

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We're feeling stuck I pray that you'd bless these thoughts to our word to our hearts today These thoughts from your word and we pray this in jesus name and for his sake.

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Amen Amen All right. Well again as i've been saying this week keep cool and stay by the stuff lord bless you