FBC Daily Devotional – December 29, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Wednesday to you. I hope your week's going well, and we're wrapping up this year, and looking forward to the beginning of a new year.

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Are you setting some goals for 2022? I hope you are. I hope you're praying about them, and really asking the

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Lord to give you some things that He wants you to pursue in the coming year, and that you might have a sense that these are goals that God wants you to pursue.

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I'll say more about that in just a minute, but before we look at some ideas regarding establishing some good goals, in our reading for today, in Acts chapter 20, is that story of Eutychus.

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You know the young man who was sitting in the window, and Paul was in that upper room, and he was in the room as well, sitting in that window, and Paul's speaking, and it got really late at night.

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Paul just kept speaking, and talking, and sharing what was happening in the ministry, and so forth, and Eutychus, sitting there in the window, he just fell asleep, and fell out of the window, and everybody thought poor guy had died, because he fell so far and hard, but you know,

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Paul went down, raised him up, and he was all good. Well, that whole incident has surely provided plenty of fodder for some humor in the church, hasn't it?

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You know, talking about long -winded preachers, and all the rest of that stuff, and then, you know, preachers, on the other hand, use it as fodder for talking about people in their church that fall asleep.

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I suppose in our church, you know, there could be some uses on both sides, right?

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I mean, I know, I see people from time to time who doze off, and I don't blame them for that.

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You know, I can't, I don't fault them for it. I don't criticize them for it. I figure it's probably my fault for being boring.

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I don't know, but, and on the other hand, the people in the pew could say, well, you know, if you weren't speaking so long, maybe

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I could stay awake easier. Yeah, well, whatever the case, what I see here, all humor aside, what

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I see here is an interesting evidence of Eutychus's, the genuineness of Eutychus's conversion.

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I mean, the very fact that he was there, and he was there late into the evening, this young man, he didn't need to be, he didn't have to be there.

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There was nobody forcing him to be there, but he wanted to be there. He wanted to hear what Paul had to say.

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He wanted to hear what God was doing through this man's life. That's a pretty good indication that God's Spirit has worked in a man's heart, that he would have that kind of an interest and a desire to hear what

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God is doing, what God's, you know, how God's using a guy, hear God's message from his apostle.

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So, you know, I look at that a little differently. It's, I'm not critical of Eutychus in the least bit, or of Paul.

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Paul had a lot to say. He was only going to be there for a very short time and much to communicate.

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And those who were there, they wanted to hear what he had to say, Eutychus included. And they did because they loved

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Christ, and they loved God's word, and they loved God's messenger. Okay? So, getting back to the idea of goals though,

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Paul had a well -established goal, and it comes out in verse 16. Here's what it says,

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Acts 20, verse 16. It says, Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia.

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Why? For he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

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All right? So, Paul had this goal in mind to get to Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost.

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That was his objective. And that established goal that he had for himself, that drove the decisions that he made along the way.

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He realized, if I stop and spend too much time in Ephesus, I'm not going to be able to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost.

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So, I'm going to have to bypass Ephesus. And indeed he did. And he did stop, and some elders from Ephesus came to where he was, so he wasn't delayed.

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And he spent some time talking with them and so forth. But what's interesting in verses 22 and 23, as he's sharing with the elders at Ephesus, he says this, he says,

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And now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem. And I believe what he's communicating there is,

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I am convinced in my spirit that God's Spirit has established for me this goal to get to Jerusalem.

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I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem. I don't know what's waiting for me there, he says, except that the

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Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying the chains and tribulations await me.

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And yet he's going. He's going. Why is he doing that?

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Why is he, when he keeps hearing the message that when you get to Jerusalem, you're going to be bound and imprisoned, then why would he go?

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Well, because he was convinced in his heart that this objective to get to Jerusalem before Pentecost was one that God gave him to pursue.

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That's pretty powerful. And that's why I mentioned at the beginning here that I think it's helpful for us and needful for us, really, as we look forward to this coming year, to really be thinking a lot about,

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Lord, what would you have me to do? And ask the Lord to really give you some convictions in your heart about goals that he would have you pursue and own for 2022.

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That's what I'm doing, and I'm just really praying that the Lord will give me the right kind of objectives to pursue for my life personally, for my family, my marriage, for the church, and that they will be objectives that God gives me, and that I will have an enthusiasm and a passion to see those things accomplished.

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So how much will he do? I don't know, but that's the direction I'm praying, because I find this to be very helpful, what

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Paul experienced. And I think it's the kind of experience that we all ought to hope for, that God would so convict us of a direction to go that we will head in that direction.

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It'll affect the decisions we make, and we'll head in that direction regardless of the cost, because we know it's the right way to go.

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Good convictions to have. Father, guide us, we pray, at the closing of this year, that we would look forward to the new year with some

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God -given goals and objectives for 2022. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.