FBC Daily Devotional – January 10, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning, here we are on the beginning the second week of 2022 already and we got one week in the book books 5051 to go.

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I hope you're not counting like that. You know, the Lord tells us to Encourages us to pray that the

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Lord would teach us to number our days But yeah, I and I do that to some degree have a little number at the top of my devotional journal that tells me how many days

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I've lived and If I live to be 80 how many days I have left? It may seem a little morbid but it's kind of a practical way to put that into to practice if you will but anyway,

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I Don't know if you keep track of the weeks like this. We got one week down this year 51 to go

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Anyway, here we go off to a new week So today in our Bible reading if you're following this year's

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Bible reading plan you're in Acts chapter 24 and Struck me in this passage.

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Is that you know, the timely the timeliness of it regarding the the atmosphere of Sort of a hopelessness and despair

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That we're living in in our current day With all of the all the stuff about kovat and we read read new stuff every day, you know cases spiking more and more people getting sick all the time and what's this gonna mean is we're gonna live with this forever and you know, there's so many things like that and then in the political arena, you know, what's happening with our government and Society as a whole our culture it can be very

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Very distressing and lead the person to a sense of hopelessness and despair

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But I want to I want to zero in on a statement that the Apostle Paul made given his circumstances, which could really be

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Circumstances that would lead one to a sense of hopelessness and despair So to kind of give you the context of Acts 24, you know,

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Paul went to Jerusalem He had that goal of going to Jerusalem. He achieved that goal.

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There he is. He's in Jerusalem, but while he's there Turmoil gets stirred up and he gets arrested

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It gets accused of causing sedition. And so he's in prison. I mean he's in bondage

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And then there's a plot for his life That plot is overheard and the fortunately the authorities sought sought

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Profitable and beneficial to have Paul moved so that his life is not taken from him.

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So he doesn't get assassinated but they send him to to Caesarea and to Be judged before Felix.

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So off he goes to Caesarea and now in Acts 24 He has the opportunity to defend himself before Felix, but where is all this gonna go?

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Where is all this taking him? What's going to be the outcome of all this Already, he's seen

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He's seen injustice. He's seen inequity. He's seen false accusations and he's suffering for those false accusations

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Where's all this gonna lead? He could be Hopeless he could be in despair

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But listen to what he says in chapter 24 verse 15

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He makes this statement He says and he's speaking to Felix so the the judge who's not who's not a

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Jew, he's not a follower of Jesus He's just a secular Roman judge and Paul says this he says

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I have hope in God that there will be a resurrection of the dead both of the unjust and the just I Have hope in God that there will be a resurrection of the dead

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So here's the thing in This in the midst of these circumstances that could lead one to hopelessness and despair

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Paul is looking beyond the circumstances. He's looking out into the future at this certainty that will come to pass that God the righteous judge he will bring a way to cause a resurrection a resurrection of the dead and The the just and the unjust are going to be judged at that time of the resurrection in other words

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Here's the point when there could be Circumstances that drive us to hopelessness and despair there's reason to hope

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Paul says I have hope that there will be a resurrection of the dead

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So all that's going on all that's going on in our world

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Has an ultimate divine point That it's leading to There is a point and there is a purpose and in the end it's all leading to a a

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God -ordained end and Those of us who are in Christ Jesus those of us who are the just we can be confident that in this resurrection of the dead when

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There will be this resurrection of the just and the unjust That we're secure in that we're secure

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That you know, you know, but the Bible tells us that those who are in Christ Jesus are in the palm of his hand

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For all eternity and nothing can take them from it Nothing can separate you from the love of God So I don't know how you're looking at this year

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I don't know how you're looking at the the pandemic I don't know your emotional response to what's going on in Washington and Springfield.

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I I do know that looking at any of those things. There's plenty that could lead you to really a sense of despair and hopelessness

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But look beyond these things Look beyond these things have hope in God that there will be a resurrection of the just that whatever happens in this world is

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Leading to that ultimate point. It's going to bring to fulfillment God's ultimate purpose hope in him

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You don't need to wallow in hopelessness and despair Follow the example of Paul trust in his word

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God's Word Hope in him hope in him in whom there is resurrection

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Our Father and our God we do. Thank you today that in these dark days in our nation's history when

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There's so much that could lead us to a sense of despair We can have hope in you we can have hope in this glorious resurrection that await the just beyond the affairs and the

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Circumstances of this life and I pray that we would I pray that we would not get so caught up in the stuff of this life that we lose sight of That which should give us great hope that there is indeed nothing that can separate us

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From the love of God that the just are eternally secure in Christ's embrace

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Encourage us with that today. We pray we ask it in Jesus name. Amen All right.

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Well, I hope you have have a good rest of your Monday your week gets off to a great start