Daily Devotional – July 7, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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I came across some good one -liners I think you might appreciate. Maybe you don't, but it's so hot that maybe you won't appreciate them.

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But here we go. It's so hot that I saw a chicken lay an omelet.

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It's so hot I saw a squirrel picking up nuts with potholders. It's so hot

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I saw a funeral procession the other day pulling through a Dairy Queen. It's so hot that Jehovah's Witnesses started telemarketing.

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It's so hot that two trees were fighting over a dog. It's so hot that I saw a cop chasing a thief and they were both walking.

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It's so hot that cows are giving powdered milk. And then, I don't know about yours, but it's so hot my thermometer goes up to,

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Are you kidding me? Well, it is a little toasty. And I guess we're in for this little bit of a heat wave for quite a while as a matter of fact.

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Well, have you ever felt stuck? Have you ever been stuck?

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Maybe you are right now. You know what I mean by that? You're in a place that you don't really want to be and for what seems to be like an endless period of time.

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Or you had no clue why. Why are you there? Why are you here? Why are you stuck in this situation?

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What's the purpose of all of this? And you certainly couldn't see anything positive coming out of it.

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Or you're stuck because you find yourself saying things like, I could be so much more effective if I weren't stuck here.

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You ever felt like that? Well, I want you to consider what Paul went through in Caesarea.

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Do you remember how he got there? You could read the whole story of his experience beginning in Acts 21, but let me just summarize it if I can.

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He was in Jerusalem and some angry Jews there stirred up opposition to him and he ended up being arrested, more for his own safety initially.

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And he tried to defend himself, tried to defend himself to the Jews who were so angry with him.

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And they listened to him until he said that Christ commissioned him to go to the Gentiles.

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And then they broke out in an uproar. So the Roman officials kept him locked up until there could be a hearing to try to get to the bottom of this thing.

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But while he was locked up there in Jerusalem, a plot against his life was uncovered and it was foiled.

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But to foil the plot and to protect Paul's life, he had to get sent to Caesarea.

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And he was to be imprisoned in Caesarea until he could be tried for this apparent mob insurrection that he was in the middle of.

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Now, what crime had he committed for his imprisonment? None.

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None. Why was he stuck in a Roman holding prison? Because of what some angry people did.

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People who hated him and his message of the gospel. Not because of anything that he did. At least not anything wrong that he did.

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So on the one hand, this wasn't anything new in Paul's experience. He'd been in prisons before.

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He'd suffered persecution before. He'd traveled all over the Mediterranean world proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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That Jesus is the long -awaited Messiah. And he's the only savior from man's plight, man's sin.

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And just about everywhere he went, there were some who didn't particularly like what he had to say.

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More than once he had run -ins with local authorities. Primarily because of the

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Jews stirring up opposition to him. And he even did a brief stint in a jail in Philippi.

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But the emphasis is on the word brief. All those previous times of opposition were pretty short -lived.

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He was simply able to move on to another location. But every time he did, he left a group of believers behind that ended up becoming a local church.

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But this time it's different. He arrived in Jerusalem just in time for Pentecost in A .D.

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57. Then came his arrest and shuttling to Caesarea. And he was stuck in that prison in Caesarea for two years.

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Two years. Let that sink in. What could he have done for Christ in those two years?

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That's longer than his first missionary journey. And in that missionary journey, he planted half a dozen churches in regions in the

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Mediterranean world, Asia Minor. And that's about the length of his second missionary journey.

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Where in that journey, he ministered to the churches that he'd already planted in that first journey.

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And he planted further works in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, even preached in Athens.

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And now for two years, he's going to be stuck in a Caesarean prison.

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What issues arise in such circumstances? What would you struggle with if you were so stuck?

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What would you do? And maybe, just maybe, this is exactly where you are right now.

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Stuck. And you honestly can't see anything you've done that's caused your stuckness.

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Okay. So now what? Now what? Let's talk about this the next couple of days.

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And I would just encourage you to think about it. What would you do if you were in Paul's sandals?

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What are you doing if you are already in Paul's sandals? You are so stuck.

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What would you do? What are you doing? How are you handling it?

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So meditate on that. Think on that. And we'll come back tomorrow and we'll start exploring this a little more.

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So for the rest of the day today, let's pray and ask the Lord to encourage us even if we are stuck.

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So our Father and our God, we do thank you today for the fact that you are our

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God, even in those periods of time in our lives when we feel stuck.

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And I pray that by your grace, you would encourage us through your word and challenge us as we consider how to handle those periods of our lives.

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This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, I hope you keep cool the rest of the day.