Daily Devotional – July 8, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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Middle of the week, middle of a warm week, isn't it? Again, it's so hot, it's so hot that my dream house is now any house in Alaska.

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Of course, it can be pretty hot in the summertime in Alaska, but it's so hot that when the temperature drops below 90,

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I start to feel chilly and get goose bumps. It's so hot that I discovered that asphalt has a liquid state.

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Did you realize that until this heat wave? It's so hot I saw a bird pull a worm out of the ground with an oven mitt.

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It's so hot that chickens are laying hard -boiled eggs. Well, it's so hot that I discovered my seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron, too.

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Yikes. And do you have an iPhone? Well, it's so hot that Siri, that iPhone woman, asked to be dipped in a glass of ice water.

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Yeah, pretty warm days these days, and I trust you are keeping cool and keeping your cool.

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But are you stuck? Are you stuck? That's the question we're considering yesterday and again today.

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You ever been there, done that, got the t -shirt? And what I mean by that is you're in a place that you don't want to be, and you see no end in sight.

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And you have no clue why. Why are you here? What's the purpose of this? You certainly can't see anything good that's coming out of it, anything positive that could be there.

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And you find yourself thinking things like, I could be so much more effective if only

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I weren't stuck like this. Well, yesterday I encouraged us to consider what

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Paul went through in Caesarea. He got stuck in that Roman prison there for a couple of years, and it wasn't because he did anything wrong for two years.

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And it's not because God's punishing him for something that he did, like he was unfaithful to his calling or anything like that.

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In fact, he's there because he was being faithful. He was doing exactly the thing that God wanted him to do.

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And here he is, stuck in prison. Remember what crime he'd committed?

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None. No crime against God. No crime against the

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Jewish law. No violation against any Roman Empire edict.

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There was literally no justification for his being held captive.

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And yet, here he was, stuck in a Caesarean prison for two years, just because of what some angry people did, people who hated him and hated his message of the gospel.

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Two years. Yesterday I asked, you know, what issues arise in such circumstances?

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What would you struggle with? What would you do? There's no way we're going to exhaust all of the possible responses to those questions, but one of the issues that would certainly have to come up is the big question, why?

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Right? Why would the sovereign, all -knowing, all -powerful

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God allow this to happen in the first place? I mean, why not intervene and get him out like he did at Philippi?

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I mean, you know, Paul was just at Philippi in the Philippian jail for just a very brief period of time, and an earthquake struck and, you know, next day he's out of there.

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Why wouldn't God do that? And why has God seemingly sidelined this chosen instrument,

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Paul? Why is he leaving Paul stuck? Now, let me be clear.

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I don't know. Well, at least I don't know with nearly the degree of certainty

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I might if God had told Paul, Paul, look, I'm letting you stay in this prison for two years and here's why.

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But God didn't do that, so I don't know for sure. But I do know that one of the things that happened during this time is that part of God's plan for Paul was accomplished, part of his commission.

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You remember that call, that commission? It's recorded for us in Acts chapter 9, after Paul had that encounter with a risen

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Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he's blinded and he's told to go to see this guy

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Ananias. And Ananias, the man whom God prepared for Paul's coming,

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Ananias was told by God that Paul is to be a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the

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Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

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Now, one of the things that God told Paul that his calling would involve was suffering for the name of Christ.

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He's experienced that, and that's pretty much what he's been going through for the last 10 years, and he's taken it all in stride, all the suffering of the last 10 years.

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In these two missionary journeys, these missionary journeys, he's already gone on three of them, actually. He's gone on these missionary journeys in many places.

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He suffered persecution, and that was just part of it, and he knew about it all along. He knew up front that that was coming.

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By the way, could your stuckness simply just be part of it, part of the vocation that God has providentially had for you to pursue?

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I know, for example, on more than one occasion over the past four decades in the ministry,

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I have felt stuck. Nothing was really happening that anyone could see or measure.

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Anyone would look and say, wow, look at what's happening over here. Didn't seem to be making much of a difference at all, just doing what

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I was doing week after week, and not much really happening. And just the feeling like, wow,

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I could really be so much more effective somewhere else. But part of pastoral ministry is simply being faithful through times of seeming drought, as well as when the showers of blessing are pouring forth.

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Well, another component of Paul's calling is to carry Christ's name before kings or governing authorities.

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So here he is stuck in this prison in Caesarea for two years. And while he was there, he proclaimed the name of Christ to the governor

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Felix and his wife, who was a Jewish woman. And Felix had a successor.

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Felix kept Paul in prison for these two years until he passed off the scene. And Felix's successor was a guy by the name of Festus.

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And when I read that Festus, I always think of the guy in gun smoke. You ever do that?

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Anyway, Festus was the governor that took Felix's place, and Paul had the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to Festus.

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And while Festus was the governor, King Agrippa and his wife came for a visit.

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And Festus says, hey, I want you to hear this guy, Paul. And Paul had the opportunity to share the gospel, and quite extensively, with King Agrippa and his wife,

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Bernice. Now, in appearing before Festus, Paul had the opportunity to appeal his case to Caesar.

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So eventually, because of this time in Caesarea, Paul is going to have the opportunity to share the gospel, to proclaim the gospel to the emperor of the

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Roman Empire. Now, would he have ever had that opportunity if he weren't stuck in Caesarea?

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Which leads me to wonder, okay, so I'm stuck.

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What opportunities are available to me in this stuckness that I might otherwise miss?

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Am I even looking? Well, let's explore this some more tomorrow.

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In the meantime, let's ponder the question, especially if you're sensing that you're stuck.

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Let's ponder the questions. Is this just really part of it, part of a season that I need to go through,

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I need to be faithful through it? And then, are there opportunities that I'm missing,

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I'm not looking for, and I should be, during this time of stuckness? Well, let's have a word of prayer.

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Our Father and our God, you don't leave your people stuck for no reason. We may not always clearly understand the reason and see it, but Father, we should ponder whether or not you're just calling us to be faithful during a season of drought, or whether or not you're also possibly opening doors of opportunities that we wouldn't otherwise have.

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Lord, help us to keep our eyes open and keep our conscience tender and sensitive to what you're leading us to do.

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And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, I hope the rest of your midweek goes well.

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And just a reminder, if you're in the area, that we have our midweek service in the church auditorium tonight at seven o 'clock.

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If you can make it, we'll join together for a time of Bible study and prayer. Otherwise, hope to see you back here tomorrow at noon or 6 p .m.