Daily Devotional – July 10, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, happy Friday to you. How are you holding up through the heat wave? have you had to alter your plans at all this week because of Because of the heat

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Well, I sure did. I was supposed to this past Monday. I was supposed to leave early in the morning and drive up to Wisconsin parked the car and was gonna go backpacking all week.

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I'm gonna leave Monday and have spent five nights Tenting and in the shelter five days of let's see

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Monday Tuesday Wednesday six days actually of actual hiking supposed to hike about 55 almost 60 miles during those days and Then I looked at the extended forecast.

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This is I started looking at the forecast a couple weeks ago And I said it looks like a heat waves coming and then

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I looked at it last week and I'm looking at Monday 91 Tuesday 91

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Wednesday 93 Thursday 93 Friday 91 Saturday 90 and I'm like This doesn't sound fun.

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It doesn't sound like the thing to do You know, I need to lose a few pounds to be sure but that's not exactly the way

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I want to do it I I enjoy backpacking, but I'm not a martyr for the cause if you will so I decided to scrap the plans and Try again another time, you know, maybe when the weather isn't quite so brutal

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I wimped out I wimped out and canceled the trip that the trip. Yeah, I know

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Wow Well, anyway, we've been contemplating this week The problem of being stuck being stuck in a place where you don't want to be

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See no end in sight to that being in that place. You have no clue why you're there and You don't see any real purpose for it.

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

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I could be much more effective if I Just weren't stuck here We've all been there and some may actually be there right now

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How do you respond? How do you respond? we've been considering what Paul went through in Caesarea when he was stuck in that Roman prison for a couple of years and It wasn't because he did anything wrong.

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In fact, he didn't do anything wrong He was doing exactly what God had called him to do and that calling involved nothing whatsoever that violated any laws neither

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Roman laws or Jewish laws no nothing nothing.

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There was literally no Justification for his being held captive. In fact, we read that Festus agreed that I don't have any real reason for holding him here.

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But you know, I got a hold him Yet here he was stuck stuck in this prison for two years two years

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And I've asked us all this week to think about what issues arise when you feel stuck

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What do you struggle with? What do you do? What do you do? we've already considered earlier that we in the week the why questions and Yesterday we pondered the question.

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What do you do when you're stuck? and To get some direction.

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We noted a couple things that Paul did while he was stuck in prison one thing he did was he entertained visitors who came to see him and to encourage him pointed out that some of us don't like to Open ourselves up to needing encouragement and receiving it and that's that's a flaw that we should overcome and the other thing that Paul did was he shared the gospel and the truth of God's Word at every

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Opportunity that Felix gave him and there were apparently quite a few of those opportunities

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So what did he do? he accepted all the encouragement offered by others who cared for him in his difficulty and Again let me just encourage you as hard as that may be for you

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Don't be embarrassed or too proud to ask for help It's not a sign of weakness

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It's not a sign of failure what it does actually is gives other people an opportunity to minister to you so also

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Don't wallow in self -pity and allow that that the time of being stuck to shut you down Distracting you from your mission in life

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Don't allow yourself to get so depressed and end up neglecting the very basic things of your life vocation

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Stay at it Now those things we know for sure that Paul did but I'm thinking that Paul did something else as well

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I'm thinking that during this time of semi isolation of being stuck

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That he studied and he meditated and he continued to grow in his knowledge and understanding of God and his word and his

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Responsibility to serve God and how to do so while he's in this world and while he had opportunity and here's why

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I think this a Few years later after this prison sentence He gets out and he ends up going to Rome and he's under house arrest for a while in Rome and then he's released and and then a few years after that Paul got arrested again and Same kind of thing.

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He never did anything wrong He was just preaching the gospel and the Christian faith was being persecuted in the

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Roman Empire at that particular time and Paul was a spokesman for the gospel for the

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Christian faith and so he gets imprisoned again and it and he's actually Sentenced to execution and While he's waiting for waiting to be executed

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He wrote to Timothy his young protege and he urged Timothy to come to see him soon and Paul wrote when you come

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Bring the books and above all the parchments Well, Paul was asking for was the the parchments of God's Word the writings of God's Word Bring those with you.

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Bring my bring my library Why Because even even when he's stuck physically

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Paul didn't let that keep him stuck intellectually and Spiritually, he kept on growing

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Well, let me encourage you to do the same when you are feeling stuck Keep growing in your walk with Christ Keep growing in the development of the skills that you need for your calling

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Even if you don't think you're gonna use those right now keep growing in those skills Keep growing in your knowledge and understanding be a lifelong learner even if you've come to the place of retirement from your

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Career and here you are and you're wondering what to do. Keep learning keep growing

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Keep developing your knowledge and understanding be a lifelong learner and keep growing in your character development to as you learn things like Patience, these are things that are especially critical and need to be learned in times of feeling stuck patience submission obedience self -control

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Yeah It may feel like you're stuck and you're going absolutely nowhere

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But keep growing keep going and keep growing keep growing and like Paul Watch what the

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Lord will do in you and through you During this time and especially when he brings you out on the other side

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So let's pray today and ask the Lord to give us the desire the hunger to keep growing in In every area of our of our life so father in heaven we again, thank you for Paul's example of Just being faithful even in times of being stuck.

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I pray for your people today who? May fee be feeling like they're in that position that place of stuck stuck

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Oh Lord just encourage us with your word to keep on keeping on To be faithful to keep going and to keep growing and this we pray in Jesus name and for his sake

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Amen All right. Well, I hope you have a good rest of your Friday And it'll be a wonderful weekend and look forward to the

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Lord's Day be meeting at our church in the auditorium and If you can't join us on Site then join us by live stream and hope we'll gather together on the