I Will Not Fear Judgement.

Review / Introduction:



Here is What I Have Found Compelling about Jesus:

  1. He Persues you. (Acts 26:12-14)

  2. He Totally forgives you. (Acts 26:18)

  3. Romans 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

  1. He wants to Use you. (Acts 26:16)

  2. He Changes your life. (Acts 26:20)
  3. What is Obedience About?

    • Authority (Acts 5:29)
    • Trust (Hebrews 11:8)
    • Love (John 14:15)
    • Benefit (Duet 6:24)

  4. He will always Be With you. (Acts 26:22)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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  • 00:35-00:38

    Alright, turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 26.

    00:39-00:41

    Acts chapter 26.

    00:41-00:46

    This is actually our last message in the book of Acts until after Easter.

    00:49-01:04

    So while you're turning there, just to get us all caught up to speed on where we are in the book of Acts, do you remember the apostle Paul was falsely accused, but still in custody, in Caesarea by the Romans.

    01:04-01:06

    He appeals his case to Caesar.

    01:07-01:16

    But before he's sent to Rome, King Agrippa and Bernice, his sister/wife, comes to town.

    01:17-01:27

    So Festus, the governor, has this big event to figure out how to do the paperwork to send with Paul when he goes to the emperor.

    01:31-01:48

    there, Acts 26. Well, before we actually look at the text, you know, we've all heard or read a good review from a satisfied customer and bought something.

    01:50-02:38

    We've all heard someone who tried something, recommended it to us, and we've decided to try it ourselves or maybe a doctor say hey you you've got to check out I I've been going to this new chiropractor and you're gonna you're gonna go check him out I think it's called thrive or something like that right it's a good name I agree doctor anyways we've all been there where you hear a good review from a satisfied customer like I gotta go try that and And since we live in the day of online shopping, we also live in the day of online customer reviews, which I think we can all be thankful for because if you're going to invest in something, don't you want to know it's a good product?

    02:39-02:55

    I mean, it's one thing for the guy that's selling it to tell you it's good, but even better than the guy that's selling it is the person who tried it and is a satisfied customer, them telling you that it's good.

    02:55-02:58

    That's why we love those customer reviews.

    02:59-03:05

    That's why this morning, before we get into the text, I wanna look at a few.

    03:05-03:09

    These are actual customer reviews from Amazon.

    03:11-03:14

    And most of these are going to be movie reviews.

    03:14-03:16

    They bought a movie and reviewed it.

    03:16-03:23

    But this first one here was actually sent to me from a friend of mine and I'm like, even though it's not a movie, I gotta share it.

    03:23-03:28

    This is a review for a commentary on the book of Exodus, saved for God's glory.

    03:28-03:43

    And a Kindle customer writes, "Two star review, opening low enough, "I hurt my ankle simply trying to get "my small feet into these." I'm not sure why you're laughing.

    03:44-03:46

    I don't really, I don't think that's funny.

    03:46-03:47

    I had the same problem.

    03:47-03:56

    got this book on 1 Corinthians. My foot barely fits in that, and they wouldn't take it back.

    03:59-04:15

    Another unsatisfied customer. All right, now these ones are movies. These are customer reviews about movies. The first one is Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. Asa Walker says, One star, the mission was not impossible.

    04:18-04:19

    And that's false advertising.

    04:19-04:22

    The movie probably didn't actually have real ghosts in it either.

    04:23-04:33

    But here's a review for "The Passion of the Christ." How many of you have seen "The Passion of the Christ?" Okay, Leslie Clark gives it one star.

    04:33-04:39

    She says, "I did not know it was in Spanish." All right, science fiction.

    04:40-04:42

    How many people have seen Jurassic World?

    04:43-04:45

    The sort of reboot of Jurassic Park?

    04:45-04:48

    Well, Eric Miles saw it and he was not impressed.

    04:48-04:59

    He said, "What happened to the pterodactyl that flew away?" Now look, I'm not goofing on the guy because he misspelled pterodactyl because I have no idea how to spell pterodactyl.

    05:00-05:00

    I'd have to look it up.

    05:01-05:03

    Here's what I thought was funny about that.

    05:04-05:11

    Despite the acting, directing, music score, That ruined his whole movie.

    05:12-05:35

    He sat through that whole multi-million dollar production and he went home, or he bought it and watched it at home or whatever, and somebody said, "Hey, Eric, what did you think of Jurassic World?" He goes, "The movie stunk because I don't know what happened to that pterodactyl that flew away." The next movie is Monster Zinc for those Disney Pixar cartoon.

    05:35-05:38

    Monsters Inc. Joe Gonzales, not a fan, one star.

    05:38-05:47

    He said, "Too many monsters." If you're going to have monsters in the movie, I think you need a title that reflects that.

    05:48-05:52

    None of these subliminal, ambiguous titles like Monsters Inc.

    05:53-05:54

    Right?

    05:57-05:58

    And our final review for the day.

    05:59-06:00

    This is Titanic.

    06:00-06:03

    Mike Watson, he was not a fan, one star.

    06:04-06:05

    He said, "This could never happen.

    06:05-06:08

    Oh yeah, a boat this big could really sink.

    06:11-06:13

    Well reviews can be helpful.

    06:19-06:27

    Unless they come from someone who doesn't understand what they are reviewing.

    06:30-06:35

    These people obviously didn't know what they were reviewing.

    06:35-06:38

    So you can't really trust their reviews.

    06:41-06:42

    Like where are you going with this?

    06:42-06:46

    Well, there are a lot of reviews out there about Jesus.

    06:49-06:50

    So how do you know who to trust?

    06:52-06:59

    Today I'm going to show you, here's one person you can definitely trust regarding his review of Jesus, and his name is Paul.

    07:01-07:06

    Because his review of Jesus changed from one star to five stars.

    07:09-07:19

    And like all of these reviewers from Amazon, at first he was looking at Jesus all wrong.

    07:22-07:26

    Even when he really experienced Jesus for who He is, everything changed for Paul.

    07:30-07:37

    The best witnesses for Christ are the ones who are motivated to witness because of real life change.

    07:37-07:46

    In other words, the best witnesses for Christ - pardon the secular term, but you understand what I mean - the best witnesses for Christ are satisfied customers.

    07:48-07:54

    I found Jesus Christ to be everything that He promised and more.

    07:57-08:06

    So Acts chapter 26, Paul, he's not technically in court, but he's defending himself again.

    08:07-08:12

    And we're going to see here that his goal was to witness to Agrippa, the king.

    08:13-08:17

    So Paul was the satisfied customer that had audience with the king.

    08:18-08:18

    Could you imagine?

    08:21-08:28

    Paul has one shot to sell him on a serious look at Jesus Christ.

    08:31-08:33

    We are going to read the entire chapter.

    08:35-08:43

    I heard some people gasp and a couple of groans, "We're going to get through this together." But the reason we're doing this is it all goes together, right?

    08:44-08:49

    So let's look at Acts chapter 26.

    08:51-09:08

    So Agrippa said to Paul, and remember the scene, they have this big prom, this big event, you know, pomp and circumstance and all of that to write up the paperwork, and Festus sort of makes his opening comments, chapter 26.

    09:09-09:16

    So Agrippa says to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." And Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense.

    09:17-09:31

    "I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I'm going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews.

    09:33-09:37

    Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently." He wasn't flattering him, okay?

    09:37-09:38

    Paul wasn't buttering him up.

    09:39-10:04

    Paul was just like, "Look, I've been dealing with the Romans," and sort of read between the lines here, "Festus was kind of clueless." Remember he was like, "I don't know what to do with this guy, Agrippa, can you help the brother out?" And Paul's like, "I'm glad somebody who knows what's going on, I'm going to be able to tell you my story." My manner of life for my youth spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem is known by all the Jews.

    10:06-10:14

    They've known for a long time, if they're willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I have lived as a Pharisee.

    10:16-10:27

    And now I stand here on trial because of my hope and the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our 12 tribes hope to attain as they earnestly worship night and day.

    10:27-10:32

    And for this hope, I am accused by Jews, O King.

    10:33-10:39

    Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?" I love that question.

    10:39-10:40

    Paul's like, "Here's the issue.

    10:41-10:43

    I'm talking about Jesus resurrecting from the dead.

    10:43-10:52

    As soon as I say resurrection, everybody just throws a fit." Paul's like, "Why is this so crazy to you that God raises the dead?

    10:53-11:08

    How do you not get that as devout Jews?" He said, "I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and I did so in Jerusalem.

    11:08-11:17

    I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.

    11:18-11:24

    And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme.

    11:26-11:31

    and raging fury against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

    11:33-11:40

    And this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest.

    11:41-11:52

    At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

    11:54-12:04

    when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

    12:05-12:56

    It is hard for you to kick against the goads." And I said, "Who are you, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles, whom I am sending you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

    12:58-13:16

    Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with repentance.

    13:18-13:22

    For this reason, the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

    13:24-13:28

    To this day, I have had the help that comes from God.

    13:29-13:50

    And so I stand here testifying, both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles." There again he circled back to that Jewish mindset.

    13:50-13:57

    He goes, "Look, anything I've ever said has been promised in the Scriptures, in the law.

    13:57-13:58

    It's all written there.

    13:59-14:07

    And the people that say they believe what's written in the law are persecuting me because I preach that Jesus fulfilled what is written," where?

    14:08-14:08

    In the law.

    14:10-14:18

    And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are out of your mind.

    14:20-15:08

    Your great learning is driving you out of your mind." But Paul said, "I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words, for the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly, for I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe. I love that question. It's snake-like. Remember we talked about the snake and the dove? This was snake-like. So Paul here, you get the whole scene in your mind, the big pageantry and the big shows going on here and Paul's like, "Do you believe the prophets?" Because I know that you do.

    15:09-15:18

    Because see, if Agrippus says, "Well, yeah, I believe the prophets," now all of a sudden it looks like he's agreeing with Paul.

    15:19-15:21

    And that was going to make the Jewish leaders angry.

    15:21-15:30

    "Oh, wait a second, the king's on Paul's side." So he couldn't say that, but he couldn't say, "No, I don't believe in the prophets.

    15:31-15:32

    You're the king of the Jews.

    15:32-15:37

    You can't exactly get up and say, "I don't believe the Jewish prophets." So what did he say?

    15:38-15:42

    Notice how he kind of dances around the issue.

    15:42-15:43

    Good politician here, right?

    15:44-15:47

    No offense to any politicians listening to this.

    15:48-16:34

    And Agrippa said to Paul, "In a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian?" And Paul said, "Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also to all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains." Then the king rose and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them, and when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, "This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment." And Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar." Now that last statement, it wasn't exactly a law.

    16:36-16:50

    It was more of an unwritten law in those days that if someone appealed to Caesar, stopping that process could be detrimental to your political career.

    16:52-16:54

    So that's what Agrippa was getting at.

    16:55-17:17

    He goes, "You know, we could have let him go, but we certainly can't do it now that he appealed to Caesar." So, on your outline today, like Paul, to sum up his experience as a satisfied customer, I would say that I too give Jesus a five-star review.

    17:20-17:28

    Like Paul, I would want to sell you based on my experience with Jesus Christ.

    17:29-17:32

    So we're just going to pull a few of these principles out of this passage.

    17:33-17:38

    But on your outline, here is what I have found compelling about Jesus.

    17:41-17:46

    We see from the passage that Paul was trying to persuade Agrippa to come to Christ.

    17:46-17:48

    Not just Agrippa, but everyone who heard.

    17:51-17:55

    And again, carrying the analogy, this was a sales pitch for Jesus.

    17:56-18:00

    And Paul was saying, "Here's why. Here's why I'm convinced.

    18:01-18:07

    That following Christ is the way." I would echo these sentiments today.

    18:11-18:14

    And if I may, I'd like to use this as my own sales pitch.

    18:14-18:21

    If you're listening to this, and you don't know Jesus Christ, you think, "Why should I be a follower of Christ?

    18:22-18:23

    Why should I be a Christian?

    18:23-18:30

    Why should I get serious about this?" I would say, "Well, here's what I found compelling about Jesus, just like Paul.

    18:33-18:35

    Number one, He pursues you.

    18:37-18:38

    He pursues you.

    18:43-18:45

    That is something so awesome about Jesus.

    18:47-18:49

    You see, we've rebelled against Him in our sin.

    18:51-19:00

    And He would have every right to literally say, "To hell with you." But what does He do instead?

    19:02-19:03

    He pursues us.

    19:05-19:11

    And Paul knew that he came to Christ because Christ was after Paul.

    19:11-19:12

    Right?

    19:13-19:23

    We didn't see Paul on his face saying, "Jesus, I just want to know who you are." We see Paul on the way to arrest, imprison, kill Christians when Jesus intervenes.

    19:26-19:28

    You know, that's how the Bible portrays God.

    19:31-19:33

    He's the shepherd looking for a lost sheep.

    19:35-19:39

    He's a father running to a lost son.

    19:42-19:48

    And I would say like Paul, I was at my worst when God chased me down.

    19:50-19:55

    But to me, that's one of the most compelling things about the Lord is the fact that He's after you.

    19:57-20:08

    He's not like, "I'm hidden, try to find me, see if you can figure it out." If Christmas teaches us anything, it teaches us that God is after us.

    20:10-20:12

    That's what I find compelling about Jesus.

    20:12-20:15

    Number two, He will totally forgive you.

    20:17-20:19

    He will totally forgive you.

    20:22-20:26

    You know, we've seen a few times here in the book of Acts that Paul has shared his testimony.

    20:29-20:33

    Do you ever think that that must have grieved Paul to recount that past life?

    20:35-20:39

    How many times do you think when Paul was sharing his testimony he could see Stephen's face in his head?

    20:40-20:40

    Remember Stephen?

    20:41-20:54

    Paul's like, "Here, let me hold your coats so you can pelt him with rocks until he's dead." I helped kill that kid.

    20:58-21:08

    He was the religious nut. He imprisoned Christians, he killed Christians, and the reality is look we all have a past. We've all done things we're not proud of, right?

    21:10-21:18

    Let's have open mic day. Everybody come up, step into the microphone, and list the things that you've done that you're not proud of?

    21:20-21:21

    You're like, now?

    21:21-21:23

    Yeah, now, let's line up.

    21:25-21:25

    Are you serious?

    21:25-21:26

    No, I'm not serious.

    21:27-21:28

    But could you imagine?

    21:29-21:30

    Could you imagine?

    21:30-21:31

    How would you feel about that?

    21:32-21:34

    How would you feel if I said, okay, you're up.

    21:35-21:37

    Tell me all the things you've done in your past that you're ashamed of.

    21:39-21:47

    And understand here, Paul, basically he's standing in the middle of Congress doing that very thing.

    21:48-21:49

    He goes, "Look, here's what I've done.

    21:52-22:00

    "I've done some horrible things." But you see, the reality is it doesn't matter what you've done.

    22:01-22:07

    Jesus Christ is ready to totally forgive you if you turn to Him.

    22:10-22:12

    I find that so compelling about Jesus.

    22:14-22:16

    He offers total forgiveness.

    22:17-22:21

    As far as the East is from the West, He removes our iniquity from us.

    22:21-22:24

    He casts our sins into the depths of the sea.

    22:24-22:33

    Jesus promises, and this is really important because He puts it in both Testaments, to Jeremiah and Hebrews, I will remember their sins no more.

    22:33-22:36

    He is willing to completely forget your sin.

    22:39-22:40

    You know, we're talking about no fear this year.

    22:40-22:41

    I will not fear.

    22:42-22:48

    And someday, someday you are going to die and you are going to stand before God.

    22:51-22:56

    And there is, Romans 8.1, now therefore, what?

    22:57-23:00

    No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

    23:01-23:06

    You have nothing to fear regarding judgment from God when you're in Christ.

    23:07-23:09

    Like, well, how do I get this?

    23:09-23:11

    I want you to look back at verse 18.

    23:14-23:21

    He says that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.

    23:24-23:26

    I find this totally compelling about Jesus.

    23:28-23:31

    It's the salvation He offers isn't based on what I do.

    23:34-23:35

    It's based on what He's done.

    23:38-23:40

    Notice he talks about sanctification here.

    23:40-23:43

    My salvation isn't sustained by my works either.

    23:45-23:45

    Right?

    23:45-23:51

    Some people are like, well, you're saved by grace, but then you sort of stay afloat by your good works.

    23:51-23:51

    No.

    23:53-23:54

    Hey, good works are important.

    23:54-23:56

    We're going to be talking about that.

    23:56-24:02

    But, your good works don't give you any merit towards Jesus Christ.

    24:04-24:13

    Understand that Jesus Christ loves you the same on your absolute best day as He does on your absolute worst day.

    24:14-24:27

    The day that you're neck deep in sin and the day that you spent 18 hours of the day sitting in church, He loves you the same because it's based on what He's done for you.

    24:28-24:30

    It's not based on what you can do for Him.

    24:31-24:32

    By faith.

    24:33-24:34

    I find that totally compelling.

    24:38-24:44

    Number three, like Paul, what I find compelling about Christ is He wants to use you.

    24:45-24:46

    He wants to use you.

    24:47-24:50

    And like Paul, God is going to use you as two things.

    24:51-24:53

    Look at it again in verse 16.

    24:54-25:04

    He says, "I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness." It's really what God calls all of His people to.

    25:04-25:05

    We're to be servants and witnesses.

    25:07-25:12

    And when you know Christ, you know there's no greater joy than serving Him.

    25:16-25:17

    I find that compelling about Jesus.

    25:19-25:25

    That God wants to use regular old people like us to preach the Gospel.

    25:27-25:32

    God wants to use regular people like us to love people.

    25:33-25:35

    God wants to love the world through you.

    25:36-25:38

    And I find that so compelling about Jesus.

    25:41-25:46

    Number four, what I find compelling about Jesus is this, He changes your life.

    25:48-25:49

    He changes your life.

    25:52-26:00

    Paul talked in verse 20 about preaching that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with repentance.

    26:02-26:09

    If you think following Christ is about rules, then you're just like the guy who was reviewing the Titanic movie.

    26:10-26:13

    You completely missed everything that was happening.

    26:14-26:24

    You're like, "Okay, so if following Christ isn't about keeping the rules and doing the actions, then why does the Bible say to repent?" I'll tell you why.

    26:26-26:30

    Repentance is your acknowledgment that your thing ain't working.

    26:31-26:35

    That's the person who knows that he needs what God offers.

    26:36-26:44

    My sin, my selfishness, living for myself, my way, it's done nothing but make myself a mess.

    26:45-26:47

    And repentance is changing your mind.

    26:48-26:51

    And when your mind changes, your actions change.

    26:51-26:54

    And when your actions change, Your life changes.

    26:57-27:06

    So when we talk about obedience, when the Bible talks about obedience, understand obedience to Christ is not about keeping the rules to make God happy.

    27:07-27:11

    God is quote unquote happy with you on the basis of what Jesus has done.

    27:12-27:16

    God's not happy with you or unhappy with you based on your conduct.

    27:17-27:18

    Like so what place is obedience?

    27:19-27:21

    I want you to jot these four things down.

    27:21-27:22

    What is obedience about?

    27:23-27:25

    Why do we say, "Obey the Lord, obey the Lord"?

    27:25-27:26

    Why do we say that?

    27:26-27:28

    It's not a salvation issue.

    27:29-27:30

    What kind of issue is it?

    27:30-27:31

    It's four things.

    27:31-27:32

    Write these down.

    27:32-27:33

    First of all, authority.

    27:35-27:37

    Obedience is acknowledging God's authority.

    27:38-27:42

    Obedience is our way of saying, "He is God and I am not.

    27:43-27:47

    He is God and I am not." Acts 5.29.

    27:49-28:01

    is saying, "I'm just a part of creation and you're the almighty, holy, wise God, so yeah, I should bow to your authority." Obedience secondly is about, write this down, trust.

    28:02-28:03

    It's about trust.

    28:05-28:06

    Hebrews 11.8.

    28:08-28:11

    What you're saying is, "I don't understand God, but I'm going to do it your way.

    28:12-28:18

    Here's how I want to handle this situation, but your word says I should handle the situation in a different way.

    28:18-28:24

    So I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do it your way, and I'm gonna trust your results.

    28:25-28:29

    We talk about that with money, right? Financial Peace University, right? It's getting... that's repentance.

    28:30-28:36

    Here's how I thought about handling money. Here's how God says, and maybe I don't understand it, but I'm going to trust it.

    28:38-28:42

    And when I trust, that's obedience.

    28:45-28:47

    Third reason for obedience is love.

    28:49-28:49

    There's love.

    28:49-28:50

    John 14, 15.

    28:51-28:55

    Jesus said, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." It's that simple.

    28:55-28:56

    How can you show Jesus that you love Him?

    28:58-29:00

    Send Him a Christmas/birthday card?

    29:03-29:05

    Because we celebrate His birthday on Christmas.

    29:07-29:07

    Too late.

    29:07-29:08

    Don't laugh now.

    29:09-29:11

    How can you show Jesus you love Him?

    29:12-29:12

    Give Him a hug?

    29:12-29:13

    Not yet.

    29:14-29:15

    How?

    29:16-29:19

    Jesus said we show our love by obeying His commandments.

    29:22-29:26

    And then fourthly, this kind of ties to the trust thing, but just write down benefit.

    29:28-29:33

    Deuteronomy 6.24, interesting statement God makes often through the law.

    29:33-29:36

    He says we should obey God for our own good.

    29:37-29:37

    It's for our own good.

    29:39-29:40

    Try it your way.

    29:41-29:44

    Keep a journal, make notes, let me know how that works out.

    29:44-29:48

    do everything your way, and then try to do everything God's way.

    29:49-29:51

    Keep a journal, make notes, tell me how that works out.

    29:51-29:57

    And you're going to find 100 times out of 100, doing it God's way always gets the better result for you.

    29:58-29:58

    For you.

    30:01-30:02

    It'll change your life.

    30:05-30:06

    I find that compelling about Jesus.

    30:07-30:09

    Jesus isn't like, hey, you know what I'm about?

    30:09-30:18

    Come to church for an hour to an hour and a half on Sunday and sing some songs and listen to, try to stay awake to your message or whatever, and see you next week.

    30:19-30:23

    He changes your life from the inside out.

    30:26-30:31

    And finally, number five, what I find so compelling about Jesus is He will always be with you.

    30:33-30:34

    He will always be with you.

    30:35-30:36

    Do you notice that from Paul?

    30:37-30:44

    Verse 22, he says, "To this day, "I've had the help that comes from God." He will always be with you.

    30:47-30:53

    Several years ago when I used to have to travel out of town, I would have to take my dog to this kennel.

    30:54-31:04

    And this kennel was run by these people that had a house at the top of the hill, but the actual building where they kenneled the dogs was at the bottom of an extremely steep hill.

    31:07-31:24

    And the one time I went to pick up my dog, It was in January and it had just like snowed/freezing rain and this hill was a solid sheet of white ice.

    31:25-31:31

    And I remember walking down to the kennel and literally slipping and falling a few times on my way down to get the dog.

    31:32-31:34

    And when I finally made it, it was a long hill.

    31:34-31:38

    It was like, in my mind, it was like a mile long.

    31:38-31:40

    It wasn't that long, like literally I didn't measure it.

    31:41-31:43

    But in my mind, it was like a really long, steep hill.

    31:43-31:45

    And especially when you're falling a lot, it seems longer.

    31:46-31:47

    So I finally make it down to the kennel.

    31:49-31:53

    And the lady that ran the business was sitting down there in her wheelchair.

    31:56-31:59

    Did you think of the same question that I had?

    31:59-32:03

    I'm like, how did you get down here?

    32:05-32:06

    I didn't ask that though.

    32:07-32:09

    I had an even bigger question.

    32:09-32:10

    Go ahead, what is it?

    32:12-32:13

    How are you gonna get back up?

    32:14-32:17

    I said, what are you doing down here?

    32:17-32:20

    She's like, well, I can't remember the whole story.

    32:20-32:23

    Somehow she got down there and wasn't able to get back up.

    32:23-32:27

    And she said, you know, I said, what are you gonna do?

    32:27-32:32

    And she said, well, my son-in-law, he's gonna be coming and he'll help me get back up.

    32:32-32:33

    I'm like, when's he gonna come?

    32:33-32:35

    She said, oh, he'll be here after supper.

    32:36-32:39

    I'm like, after supper is like seven hours from now.

    32:40-32:45

    Is that your plan to sit down here in the blizzard in your wheelchair and your house coat for seven hours?

    32:45-32:46

    Like, is that your plan?

    32:46-32:48

    She's like, I don't know what else to do.

    32:48-32:50

    I said, I'll take you up.

    32:52-32:54

    She goes, all right.

    32:55-32:57

    So get this picture in your head.

    32:58-33:11

    I'm pulling this woman in her wheelchair up this steep hill in the snow backwards, slipping and sliding the whole way, 'cause it was so,

    33:11-33:11

    (mimics sliding)

    33:12-33:23

    and in my mind, I'm just thinking, "God, please do not let me lose grip or lose my footing," because she literally would have died if I would have fallen and she would have gone down in her wheelchair.

    33:23-33:26

    And I'm pulling her up, pulling her up, pulling her up.

    33:26-33:31

    Every muscle in my body just like on alert, right?

    33:31-33:31

    don't slip.

    33:34-33:41

    And the whole time I was pulling her up the hill, the whole time I'm pulling her up the hill, she was berating me.

    33:43-33:48

    She was saying, if my son-in-law were here, he would have had me up by now.

    33:48-33:50

    My son-in-law is a big, strong guy.

    33:50-33:52

    You should see the size of my son-in-law.

    33:52-33:53

    He's got some big arms.

    33:53-33:55

    He would have had me up there by now.

    33:55-33:56

    And I'm pulling her up.

    33:56-34:01

    And she's like, yeah, if he was here, If he was here, he wouldn't be struggling like you are.

    34:01-34:05

    And I'm like, "Ugh!" No, I didn't do that.

    34:05-34:08

    I didn't do that, Mike.

    34:10-34:12

    The whole way up, I'm pulling her up.

    34:12-34:35

    And the whole, she's, "Yeah, oh, I just wish he was here "because, well, he wouldn't be struggling like you are." And then finally, I said to the woman, "You know, there's a big difference "between me and your son-in-law." And she's like, "What's that?" And I said, "He ain't here." Here's the point.

    34:38-34:42

    Power means nothing if it isn't present.

    34:45-34:50

    And God, the possessor of all power, promises to always be present.

    34:52-34:54

    I find that so compelling about Jesus.

    34:57-35:00

    You don't have to sit and wait for Him to show up after supper maybe sometime.

    35:02-35:04

    He's there all the time.

    35:06-35:18

    So, like Paul and his chains, there are some things in my life that I wouldn't wish upon you.

    35:20-35:33

    But like Paul, I would wish for you to discover what I have - Who pursued me when I was at my worst, and forgave me of all my sin.

    35:33-35:35

    Who accepted me just as I was.

    35:37-35:42

    Who totally changed my life, and He's with me forever, and He will do the same for you.

    35:44-35:46

    So take it from a satisfied customer.

    35:48-35:49

    I give Jesus five stars.

    35:51-35:51

    Let's pray.

    35:52-35:59

    Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the faithful testimony that you've preserved in your Word.

    36:02-36:10

    What a testimony of a man who didn't understand Jesus and hated Him, and then when he met Him, he gave his life for Him.

    36:12-36:18

    He spent his life pursued preaching and planting churches and enduring much.

    36:21-36:28

    So Father, I pray that we would sort of reevaluate in our own lives what place Christ has.

    36:31-36:46

    Not as duty or obligation, Father, but I pray that we would get back to the place where we are drawn to Christ because of what was so compelling about Christ that moment we first believed.

    36:49-37:10

    Father, I pray especially for anyone here, either in this room or going to be listening to this online, I pray that if there's someone who hasn't received Christ, that yes, certainly Jesus calls us to count the cost, but we also must count the cost of not following Christ.

    37:10-37:26

    But I pray, Father, that they would come to know this loving God who pursues us, this loving God who forgives us and who changes us, this loving God who is with us every step of every moment of every day.

    37:28-37:32

    To your glory and honor, Father, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 26 (share the reading load)

  1. If you were persuading someone to follow Christ (Acts 26:28), what are the top 3 reasons / benefits you would list?

  2. What prompted Paul to share his testimony to Agrippa? Why do you think Agrippa responded as he did?

  3. "Share the Gospel not like a salesman but like a satisfied customer." What does that mean? Does this explain why more Christians don’t witness? How can you get there in your own walk?

  4. What is your "big take-a-way" from this passage / message?
     

Breakout Questions:

Pray for area churches as the Gospel is proclaimed this Christmas.

I Will Not Fear Injustice.

Review / Introduction:



Reality Check about Injustice:

  1. God Hates injustice. (Proverbs 20:23)

  2. God's people should Hate injustice, too. (Micah 6:8)

  3. Injustice exists Everywhere on Every level.

  4. Jesus will End all injustice when He returns. (Isaiah 9:7)

  5. We need to learn to Live With injustice until then.

Three Questions to Answer When Faced with Personal Injustice (Romans 12:17-21):

  1. Should I bring this injustice to Light? (Romans 12:17)

  2. Can I Trust God to bring justice? (Romans 12:19)

  3. How can I Bless those who are being unjust towards me? (Romans 12:20)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint:
Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:35-00:38

    Grab your Bibles and open them up to the book of Acts chapter 25.

    00:40-00:41

    Acts chapter 25.

    00:44-00:51

    While you're turning there, just to get us all caught up to speed, we're going verse by verse, chunk by chunk through the book of Acts.

    00:53-00:54

    Where are we in Acts chapter 25?

    00:55-00:58

    Well Paul is in custody in Caesarea.

    00:58-01:03

    He was falsely accused of bringing Greeks into the temple in Jerusalem.

    01:05-01:11

    While the Roman governor Felix just stalled for two years and then he got replaced.

    01:12-01:14

    Didn't do anything with Paul, still in custody.

    01:15-01:21

    The new guy Festus, we saw was proactive, but he didn't know what to do because Paul was innocent.

    01:23-01:26

    But releasing Paul would have angered the Jewish leaders.

    01:28-01:30

    So Paul, we saw last week, he appealed to Caesar.

    01:31-01:38

    That was his right as a Roman citizen, saying, "I'm going to take this to the highest court." So Festus was like, "Great.

    01:39-01:43

    I'll pack your bags." And that's where we are.

    01:44-01:48

    Acts 25, picking up in verse 13.

    01:50-01:58

    It says, "Now when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus.

    02:01-02:18

    And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, "There's a man left prisoner by Felix, and when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid their case against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him.

    02:19-02:32

    I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone, before the the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him.

    02:34-02:37

    So when they came together here, I made no delay.

    02:37-02:43

    But on the next day, took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought.

    02:45-02:51

    When the accuser stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed.

    02:52-03:04

    Rather, they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.

    03:06-03:16

    Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them.

    03:16-03:26

    But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.

    03:29-03:42

    Then Agrippa said to Festus, 'I would like to hear the man myself.' 'Tomorrow,' said he, 'you will hear him.'" All right, Agrippa is introduced.

    03:42-03:43

    Who is Agrippa?

    03:43-03:59

    He was actually the king who ruled the northern part of Palestine, and even though he wasn't over Judea, that wasn't his jurisdiction, he controlled the temple treasury and he appointed the high priest.

    04:00-04:08

    You're like, "Why are you telling us this?" Because he had a stake in Jewish affairs, and Agrippa was considered an expert in Jewish things.

    04:09-04:10

    That sets the stage.

    04:10-04:18

    So Agrippa comes to town and Festus is like, "Great, I have a Jewish problem and you're an expert in Jewish things.

    04:18-04:29

    So I need you to give me a Jewish solution here because I have no idea what to do." All right, so if you're a fan of family trees and lineage and tracing all this, get ready.

    04:31-04:35

    Agrippa's father was Herod from Acts 12.

    04:37-04:37

    You remember him?

    04:38-04:41

    He's the one who killed James, imprisoned Peter.

    04:41-04:44

    He dressed like a disco ball, was eaten by worms and he died.

    04:45-04:51

    And interestingly, it happened in the same city that these events are taking place, Caesarea.

    04:52-04:59

    Now, the previous governor that Paul had trial under, Felix, remember he had a wife, Drusilla.

    05:01-05:04

    You're like, wait a minute, I was here for that sermon.

    05:04-05:07

    Drusilla was also a disco balls kid too, right?

    05:07-05:15

    Yes, so Agrippa and Drusilla would be brother and sister, right?

    05:16-05:23

    But did you know Disco Ball had another kid and a daughter and her name was Bernice.

    05:25-05:27

    And you're like, wait a minute, Agrippa's Bernice.

    05:28-05:30

    Yeah, same one.

    05:31-05:40

    You're like, so you're telling me that Bernice was his Wife and his sister?

    05:40-05:42

    Yeah, yeah.

    05:42-05:43

    Everybody say ooh.

    05:44-05:46

    Okay, yeah.

    05:49-05:52

    Scandalous to say the least, but yeah, wife and sister.

    05:52-05:52

    And you know what?

    05:52-05:54

    I don't even have time to get into it all this morning.

    05:55-05:57

    Do a little biographical study of Bernice.

    05:57-06:02

    That woman was married her uncle and previously and everything else.

    06:02-06:03

    I mean, she was, wow.

    06:04-06:07

    So yeah, she was married to her brother at this point in history.

    06:09-06:15

    Agrippa's great uncle was the one who killed John the Baptist, the one who put Jesus on trial.

    06:17-06:20

    And for a little Christmas flair for you, here we go.

    06:20-06:24

    Agrippa's great grandfather was Herod the Great.

    06:25-06:30

    And that was the one who ordered all the babies to be killed trying to catch Jesus when Jesus was born.

    06:31-06:32

    Okay, so that's the family tree.

    06:32-06:33

    You got all that?

    06:34-06:35

    You're like, "Yeah, I got the family treatment.

    06:35-06:39

    It doesn't branch off a lot when it comes to Bernice." Yeah, I know, I know.

    06:40-06:42

    That's just how it goes.

    06:43-06:46

    So Agrippa came to pay respects to Festus.

    06:46-06:47

    It was a political thing.

    06:48-06:50

    Again, Festus was like, "Okay, I got a problem.

    06:50-06:57

    This guy broke the Roman laws and the Jews hate him to death over some religious dispute, over some guy named Jesus.

    06:58-07:00

    And he appealed to Caesar.

    07:01-07:02

    And I am so glad you're in town.

    07:03-07:05

    can you please help us Agrippa?

    07:06-07:08

    And Agrippa says, I can help you, absolutely.

    07:09-07:10

    But first let's have a prom.

    07:11-07:13

    And that's what we see in the next passage here.

    07:13-07:15

    Look at verse 23.

    07:17-07:21

    So in the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp.

    07:23-07:25

    The Greek word for pomp is fantasia.

    07:26-07:27

    Thought that was interesting.

    07:28-07:35

    They entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city.

    07:36-07:38

    So can you get the picture in your mind?

    07:38-07:43

    It's like a giant, just pageantry, just this big show.

    07:44-07:50

    And here comes the king with the whole escort, the entourage, and do you have that picture in your head?

    07:51-08:10

    Okay, then it says, "Then at the command of Festus, "Paul was brought in." The Festus said, "King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.

    08:11-08:15

    But I found that he had done nothing deserving death.

    08:16-08:23

    And as he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to go ahead and send him." Watch this.

    08:23-08:24

    Don't miss this.

    08:24-08:29

    "But I have nothing definite to write to my Lord about him.

    08:30-08:41

    Therefore, I have brought him here before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after we have examined him, I may have something to write.

    08:42-08:55

    For it seems to me unreasonable in sending a prisoner not to indicate the charges against him." Okay, so did you see why they had this giant party?

    08:56-08:56

    Did you see it?

    08:56-08:57

    It's right there in the text.

    08:58-09:10

    They had a giant party slash, it wasn't really a trial, you're gonna see that, but they had this big to-do over filling out the paperwork, right?

    09:11-09:12

    Is that what your Bible says?

    09:12-09:20

    They have this big, let's get everybody here because Festus is like, yeah, I gotta fill out the form here and I'm not quite sure where it goes in the blanks.

    09:20-09:26

    Can you please help me fill this out?" And that's why they had this big prom.

    09:28-09:57

    You know, when we get to this part of Acts, it gets a little frustrating, because at least to me reading it, when you kind of insert yourself in the story, because how many times did the law, did the Romans say, "Paul isn't guilty." We have seen it over and over and over in Jerusalem before Claudius Lysias and before Felix and before Festus and over and over, even in this passage today, "He's not guilty.

    09:57-10:03

    I find nothing wrong that he had done." How many times do we have to hear that?

    10:04-10:05

    How many times do we have to see that?

    10:07-10:08

    Today we're going to talk about injustice.

    10:10-10:12

    So let's define the term, first of all.

    10:13-10:18

    The simplest definition of justice is conforming to lawfulness.

    10:19-10:20

    Conforming to lawfulness.

    10:21-10:27

    Injustice is when what is lawful is not done.

    10:29-10:32

    I need to take a couple of minutes to clarify something.

    10:33-10:37

    I know we like to joke around and have fun and stuff a lot, but this is serious.

    10:39-10:40

    Because this is a very hard truth.

    10:42-10:44

    And I need you to listen to every word I say here.

    10:45-10:46

    Because I don't want to be misunderstood.

    10:49-11:08

    We often, myself included/especially, we often say or think, "That's not fair." the subject at hand has nothing to do with fairness or justice.

    11:12-11:24

    Injustice is an objective fact thing, meaning what's not fair according to the laws and the rules that are established for everybody.

    11:26-11:32

    That is different, please hear me, that is different than what we sometimes wrongly think.

    11:34-11:45

    When we say that's not fair, when the truth is that's not an objective fact thing, that's a subjective opinion thing.

    11:46-11:51

    And that has nothing to do with true fairness and injustice.

    11:52-11:53

    Is everybody with me?

    11:54-11:55

    I'm gonna give you an example.

    11:56-12:01

    If you have kids, do you have nieces, nephews, do you know a kid, have you ever seen a kid?

    12:03-12:04

    Just imagine this scenario.

    12:07-12:07

    Okay?

    12:08-12:23

    This kid comes to you and says, "I want a pony." And you say, "Well, you can't have a pony." And your kid says, "Well, that's not fair." that that's not an issue of fairness, right?

    12:25-12:36

    The only way that would be an issue of fairness would be if the law says every single kid in the United States of America is entitled to and promised a pony from their parents.

    12:37-12:41

    If that were the case, then that child saying, "That's not fair," would apply.

    12:42-12:46

    But since that's not the case, that child saying, "That's not fair," doesn't apply, right?

    12:47-13:25

    example, your teenager says, "I want to go to the party." You say, "You can't go to that party." And what does your teenager say? "That's not fair!" I know some teenagers are really gonna hate me over this. Send me nasty text messages with very angry emojis. I'm kidding. Look, it's because I love you that I have to to tell you this, but not being allowed to go to the party is not a matter of fairness because there's no law that says all kids must go to all parties.

    13:28-13:35

    I hear some giggles of conviction, but here's the hard truth.

    13:37-13:39

    We easily recognize this in children.

    13:40-13:41

    I want a pony.

    13:42-13:44

    We easily recognize this in our teenagers.

    13:44-13:45

    I want to go to the party.

    13:47-13:48

    But some of us never grow out of this.

    13:50-13:55

    Some of us, even as adults, say things like, it's not fair that I'm sick.

    13:56-13:58

    It's not fair that I don't have a father.

    13:58-14:04

    It's not fair that my kids have a problem, and other people's kids don't have that problem.

    14:04-14:05

    It's not fair.

    14:06-14:09

    I am not minimizing the pain of such things.

    14:09-14:10

    Do you hear me?

    14:10-14:14

    I am not minimizing the pain of such things.

    14:16-14:17

    Because I've been there.

    14:18-14:19

    You know I have.

    14:20-14:33

    And it is hard, and it is heartbreaking, but we can't just say that's not fair, when the real issue is that we have unbiblical or idealistic expectations.

    14:36-14:40

    For example, let's talk about a husband.

    14:42-14:47

    Specifically, let's talk about a group of ladies speaking on the subject.

    14:48-15:13

    One lady might say, "It's not fair that I don't have a husband." But the next lady says, "It's not fair that my husband is sick." Then the next lady says, "It's not fair that my husband hasn't given me children." The next lady says, "It's not fair that my husband isn't taller." So the question is, if you're addressing this group of ladies, what would be fair?

    15:15-15:15

    What would be fair?

    15:17-15:19

    That you each have the husband who is perfect in every way?

    15:21-15:27

    There's only one lady that has a perfect husband, and it is not her, not her.

    15:27-15:28

    I said not her.

    15:30-15:35

    Is it only fair if every lady has the absolute perfect husband?

    15:35-15:37

    And you can switch that, make it wife.

    15:37-15:38

    Why don't I have a wife?

    15:38-15:39

    It's not fair I don't have a wife.

    15:39-15:41

    It's not fair that my wife hasn't given me children.

    15:41-15:47

    It's not fair that my wife, you know, isn't blonde instead of brunette or whatever.

    15:47-15:48

    What's fair?

    15:49-15:50

    What is fair?

    15:51-15:53

    So do you see that this isn't an issue of fairness?

    15:55-15:56

    You're like, why are you telling us all this?

    15:57-15:59

    Here's why, because this is so important.

    16:00-16:12

    Because when we say over matters like this, that's not fair, who are we accusing of unfairness exactly?

    16:13-16:14

    Who are we accusing?

    16:16-16:18

    Right, I see where some of you are pointing.

    16:18-16:19

    You're accusing God.

    16:20-16:25

    You're saying, God, this says that you're fair and you're just.

    16:25-16:27

    But I'm gonna tell you something, God, you're not.

    16:28-16:30

    Because you haven't been fair to me.

    16:32-16:34

    You're accusing God of injustice.

    16:35-16:38

    So look, I'm just saying, let's have a clarification of terms here.

    16:39-16:47

    If you're struggling with the husband issue or the sickness issue or the children issue, whatever it is you're struggling with, you can say, "God, God, it's hard sometimes.

    16:47-16:49

    "God, you know the pain I feel.

    16:49-16:54

    "God, you understand." But something that we cannot ever rightly say about that is that's not fair.

    16:57-16:58

    because we don't want to accuse God of injustice.

    16:59-17:04

    So in our discussion of justice and fairness, let's be accurate in what applies.

    17:04-17:05

    Reality check.

    17:06-17:07

    Reality check about injustice.

    17:08-17:09

    I'm gonna go through these quickly.

    17:11-17:13

    Reality check about injustice.

    17:13-17:14

    Number one, God hates injustice.

    17:16-17:17

    God hates injustice.

    17:18-17:25

    Proverbs 20, 23 says, "Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, "and false scales are not good." Unequal weight?

    17:25-17:27

    Unequal weights are an abomination?

    17:28-17:30

    Like why is God so fired up about unequal weights?

    17:32-17:33

    It's the unfairness of it.

    17:34-17:52

    You see, unequal weights, it's taking you to the marketplace where it says this costs $5 a pound, and you think you're buying a pound, but my scales are rigged so they read a pound, but you're only getting, you know, three quarters of a pound maybe or whatever, and I'm ripping you off.

    17:52-17:53

    God hates that.

    17:54-17:57

    God hates people being intentionally ripped off.

    17:57-18:01

    And that verse draws to the bigger principle.

    18:01-18:06

    We could spend so much time on so many other verses, but point is this, God hates injustice.

    18:08-18:10

    Secondly, God's people should hate injustice too.

    18:11-18:13

    God's people should hate injustice too.

    18:14-18:16

    Has he told you, O man, what is good?

    18:17-18:25

    And what does the Lord require of you but to, there it is, do justice and love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

    18:26-18:45

    There's something in us, especially God's people, there's something in us that should rage against true injustice, racism or police brutality or sexual assault or abuse or false allegations for all of those things.

    18:46-18:52

    There's something that should rage in our hearts against injustice because God himself hates injustice.

    18:52-18:57

    Thirdly, injustice exists everywhere on every level.

    18:59-19:09

    Whether it's national, governmental scale, to corporate scale, to personal scale, in courts and in sports, every arena of life, there's injustice.

    19:11-19:18

    Okay, well if God hates it, and it's everywhere, why isn't He doing anything about it?

    19:18-19:23

    Well, number four, Jesus will eliminate all injustice when He returns.

    19:25-19:28

    Jesus will eliminate all injustice when He returns.

    19:28-19:34

    Isaiah 9:7 "Of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end.

    19:34-19:54

    On the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness, from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this." come a time when Christ returns and He sets up His kingdom on this earth.

    19:55-20:19

    Justice will always be perfectly carried out everywhere at every time because the King of righteousness is going to make sure of that. Then fifthly, we need to learn, we need to learn to live with injustice until then. We need to learn to live with injustice until then.

    20:20-20:23

    Kind of like what we talked about last week, content, right?

    20:23-20:24

    Learn to be content.

    20:26-20:34

    As we close here, with all this talk of injustice, the question is, what do you do when it lands on your lap?

    20:35-20:37

    What do you do when injustice lands on your lap?

    20:39-20:41

    For example, maybe it's your workplace.

    20:41-20:42

    You work so hard.

    20:43-21:02

    You work so hard and you toe the line and you keep the rules and you got this co-worker who's just constantly goofing off and always in late, out early, and promotion is coming, and your co-worker gets the promotion and you're passed over.

    21:03-21:04

    How do you handle that?

    21:06-21:10

    Or what about this completely hypothetical scenario?

    21:11-21:21

    When you're in a whole line of cars and you're all speeding, but your car is the one that gets picked out and pulled over and you get a ticket.

    21:22-21:24

    All right, maybe that one wasn't completely hypothetical.

    21:25-21:30

    Like that one sounds like it's coming from a place of deep personal hurt, Pastor Jeff, it is.

    21:33-21:34

    That's really not an issue of fairness, actually.

    21:36-21:41

    Because I was, just because I was guilty with a group of guilty people doesn't mean I wasn't guilty.

    21:42-21:44

    It took me a long time to learn that.

    21:46-21:48

    But what do we do when injustice lands on our lap?

    21:49-21:50

    Flip over a few pages.

    21:50-21:52

    We're going to go through this very quickly as we close here.

    21:53-21:58

    I could spend so much time on this, but I can't leave you without this to chew on.

    21:59-22:02

    We need to learn to live with injustice until then.

    22:02-22:07

    Romans 12, verses 17 through 21.

    22:08-22:11

    Here's the same guy that dealt with all this injustice.

    22:12-22:14

    Look what he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

    22:14-22:22

    Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

    22:23-22:27

    If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

    22:28-22:37

    Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord.

    22:39-22:41

    To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

    22:42-22:44

    If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

    22:44-23:01

    For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head to not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." So, as we close here, three questions to answer when you are faced with personal injustice.

    23:02-23:03

    Three questions you have to answer.

    23:03-23:06

    The first question is this, should I bring this injustice to light?

    23:08-23:10

    Should I bring this injustice to light?

    23:10-23:12

    You have to ask that one first.

    23:13-23:23

    Because as much in our culture as we love to sue and we love to protest, the truth is not every injustice needs to be broadcast.

    23:25-23:35

    But, everybody say but, but if people are being hurt or abused, including you.

    23:36-23:41

    If laws are being broken, you have to make it known.

    23:43-23:51

    In other cases, if it's just an unfairness inflicted upon you, I'll go to question two.

    23:52-23:55

    Letter B, can I trust God to bring justice?

    23:56-23:58

    Can I trust God to bring justice?

    24:00-24:09

    Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, or leave room, or give place to the wrath of God.

    24:12-24:14

    God wants justice even more than you do.

    24:15-24:19

    And he has promised to bring it sooner or later, right?

    24:19-24:21

    Sooner or later, he's going to bring justice.

    24:24-24:29

    So if God says he is going to avenge, what place do we have to step in and try to do it for him?

    24:31-24:33

    But this is a matter of faith.

    24:33-24:37

    Either you take God and His Word, you trust God's Word, or you don't.

    24:37-24:43

    But if you say you trust God's Word, you're going to have to trust that He will bring justice sooner or later.

    24:45-24:46

    Can I trust God to bring justice?

    24:47-24:54

    And finally, this is a hard truth, a hard question to ask yourself.

    24:54-24:57

    How can I bless those who are being unjust towards me?

    24:59-25:03

    How can I bless those who are being unjust towards me?

    25:05-25:09

    So what do I do when I'm facing an injustice?

    25:09-25:15

    It's not a matter of abuse or anything illegal, but it's just an unfair treatment at work or whatever.

    25:15-25:16

    What do I do?

    25:17-25:20

    What you do is you repay evil with good.

    25:21-25:26

    And I've got to tell you as a young Christian, when I read this, I completely misunderstood it.

    25:27-25:31

    It says that you will heap burning coals on their head.

    25:32-25:35

    I had this picture of like modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.

    25:36-25:42

    Like if I do good to somebody that does me bad, God's going to like rain hellfire down on their heads.

    25:42-25:43

    Like, ah!

    25:43-25:47

    And that was this picture I had in mind and that has nothing to do with that.

    25:48-25:51

    I was kind of disappointed to find out, honestly.

    25:52-25:55

    This is actually an Egyptian custom of repentance.

    25:56-26:04

    that they would take an insulated pot and put burning coals in the pot and walk around with it on their heads, it was a sign of repentance.

    26:05-26:11

    You know, sort of like the Jewish custom was sackcloth and ashes, that was the Egyptian custom.

    26:12-26:14

    Burning coals on your head.

    26:16-26:26

    Like, wait a second, you're telling me that I'm being treated unfairly, so I need to look for ways to bless those who are being unjust towards me.

    26:26-26:29

    Yeah, that's exactly what God said.

    26:31-26:32

    Because here's the alternative.

    26:33-26:49

    You can become bitter and nasty and vocal and cantankerous about it, and everybody, including the person that's causing you the injustice, is going to look at you and say, oh, well, he obviously deserves to be treated like that.

    26:50-26:51

    Look at how he's acting.

    26:51-26:53

    Look at how she, listen to how she's talking.

    26:53-26:56

    It's no wonder she got passed over for that.

    26:56-26:57

    Listen how she's talking.

    26:58-27:07

    But, but if you bless, everyone is going to see, you know, maybe she didn't deserve that.

    27:08-27:14

    And such conduct may bring the person who is wronging you to repentance.

    27:15-27:17

    You know, you can bring that person to repentance.

    27:17-27:17

    You know what?

    27:18-27:23

    I've really treated him like dirt and he's done nothing but do good to me.

    27:23-27:24

    What am I doing?

    27:24-27:25

    Why am I acting like this?

    27:27-27:32

    You can bring somebody to repentance through such conduct.

    27:34-27:39

    Hey, nobody likes injustice, especially when it hits home.

    27:41-27:44

    But it's not going away until Christ returns.

    27:46-27:56

    So church, let's handle it the way Jesus Christ did the first time while we wait for Him to come a second time to eliminate it.

    27:57-27:57

    You with me?

    27:58-27:59

    All right, let's pray.

    28:00-28:04

    Father in heaven, I pray that you would change our thinking.

    28:04-28:06

    Your word tells us that we have to renew our minds.

    28:08-28:11

    Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters here for two things especially today.

    28:11-28:15

    One, I pray, Father, that we would never accuse you of being unfair.

    28:17-28:33

    Sometimes, Father, we look at incredibly hard and painful circumstances and we say that's not fair Father, if there's anyone here who's stuck in that mindset, I pray that you would grant repentance today.

    28:35-28:41

    Father, I pray that you would grant me repentance for the times that I'm tempted that same mindset.

    28:43-29:02

    Father, I pray that we would be people who would, on the receiving end of injustice and the receiving end of unfairness, help us, Father, to be people who would to be a people who are proactive at blessing those who persecute, at doing good to the people who would do us wrong.

    29:04-29:15

    It goes against our natural, human, sinful, self-centered thinking, but it totally lines up with the kind of God that you are.

    29:17-29:19

    Transform our thinking today, Father.

    29:20-29:30

    Let us joyfully bear the weight of injustice until the King returns to set up perfect justice on this earth.

    29:31-29:38

    It is in that King's name, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the King of Kings, that we pray. Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 25:13-27 and Romans 12:17-21

  1. If God loves justice, why is there so much injustice in the world, on every level?

  2. How do you know when to stand and speak out against injustice and when to bless those causing injustice?

  3. What is your big takeaway from this passage / message?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another!

I Will Not Fear. I Will Be Content.

Review / Introduction:



Sit in your PEW

  1. Persecution

  2. Endurance

  3. Witness

Make a MESS

  1. Make the most of every situation.

  2. Evil people will hate you.

  3. Share Christ.

  4. Stand strong.

FLY little songbird

  1. Fear no evil.

  2. Live with persecution.

  3. Yearn for witnessing opportunities.

Psalm 6:2-3 - Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long?

Psalm 77:7-9 - "Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"


How Can I Be Content in Hardship?


  1. Learn to see Hardship as Dependance.

  2. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 - So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.


  3. Learn to see things to be Thankful for.

  4. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 - give thanks in all circumstances...


  5. Learn to see the Bigger picture.

  6. Hebrews 12:2 - looking to Jesus... who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God


Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint:
Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:35-00:40

    Open up your Bibles please to the book of Acts and chapter 25.

    00:40-00:44

    If you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles in the pockets in the seat.

    00:45-00:49

    And you can keep that if you need a copy of God's word, consider that a gift.

    00:51-01:01

    While you're turning there, let's get a quick review of where we are in our study in the book of Acts.

    01:03-01:14

    following the life of the Apostle Paul here in these latter chapters and acts, and following false accusations of bringing Greeks into the temple in Jerusalem.

    01:14-01:30

    Paul was taken into Roman custody and sent to Caesarea, where he was put on trial before the Roman governor of Judea named Felix, accused of breaking Roman, Jewish, and even God's laws.

    01:31-01:40

    So Paul makes his defense, he proves his innocence, but Felix keeps Paul in custody for two years, hearing the gospel but wanting a bribe.

    01:41-01:44

    Okay, Acts 25, you there?

    01:46-01:57

    It says, "Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province," Festus actually succeeded Felix as the Roman governor of Judea, okay?

    01:59-02:01

    He was a little better than Felix.

    02:01-02:11

    you're going to see here in the passage, where we saw last week Felix was like, let's just stall, put them off and delay, that way we don't make the Jews mad, we don't make the Romans mad.

    02:11-02:14

    Felix was sort of a procrastinator.

    02:14-02:17

    Festus, he went right after it.

    02:18-02:19

    Okay, and you're gonna see that here in the passage.

    02:21-02:31

    Three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea, and the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul.

    02:32-02:34

    Keep in mind, this is like two years later, and they're still fired up.

    02:34-02:41

    Like Festus rolls into town, they're like, "Hey, we gotta talk to you about Paul." Like seriously guys, you need to let it go already, but they will not.

    02:43-02:58

    Says, "They urged him, asking as a favor against Paul, that he summon him to Jerusalem because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way." Same thing that we saw previously, right?

    02:59-03:05

    Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly.

    03:07-03:11

    So said he, "Let the men of authority among you "go down with me.

    03:11-03:25

    "If there's anything wrong about the man, "let them bring charges against him." So again, not procrastinating, Festus is like, "Look, if you've got a problem with Paul, "I'm going to Caesarea, why don't you come with me "and we'll take care of this, okay?

    03:25-03:35

    "We'll take care of it." After he stayed among them, not more than eight or 10 days, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day he took his seat on the tribunal.

    03:36-03:38

    That means he got on the judgment seat.

    03:39-03:40

    And ordered Paul to be brought.

    03:40-03:48

    When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him bringing many and serious charges against him they could not prove.

    03:50-03:59

    Paul argued in his defense, neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.

    04:01-04:18

    But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, "Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?" Now see, this was Festus' idea of trying to make both sides happy.

    04:18-04:20

    Like the Jews were mad, but Paul's a Roman citizen.

    04:21-04:22

    He's like, "Yeah, I got an idea.

    04:22-04:24

    Why don't we go to Jerusalem?

    04:25-04:33

    That way we're sort of in their backyard, but I'm gonna be the one presiding over the case and we'll make everybody happy, right?

    04:35-04:37

    By the way, making everybody happy, does that ever work?

    04:38-04:40

    Okay, all right, that's been my experience, just checking.

    04:42-04:47

    But Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar's tribunal "where I ought to be tried.

    04:47-04:51

    "To the Jews, I have done no wrong, "as you yourselves very well know.

    04:51-05:02

    If then I'm a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death.

    05:03-05:07

    But if there's nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them.

    05:07-05:10

    Paul's like, "Look, I didn't break Roman law. I'm in a Roman court.

    05:11-05:14

    I didn't break any Roman law. If I did, execute me.

    05:14-05:16

    I'm not going to fight you. Execute me.

    05:16-05:18

    If I broke a Roman law, but I didn't.

    05:18-05:20

    And I didn't break Jewish law either, and you know that.

    05:22-05:25

    Look at the next phrase. This is a turning point in Acts here.

    05:26-05:55

    Paul says, "I appeal to Caesar." "Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, 'To Caesar you have appealed ; to Caesar you shall go.'" So with this appeal, what happened was Paul's case was taken out of the governor's hands, Festus' hands, and it was put into the emperor's hands.

    05:55-05:57

    And the emperor at this time was Nero.

    05:57-05:58

    You're like, "Wait a second.

    06:00-06:03

    From what I remember in history, Nero, he was a little cray-cray, wasn't he?

    06:03-06:09

    Why would Paul appeal to go see Nero?" Well, this was early on in Nero's reign.

    06:09-06:17

    He wasn't the savage, sadistic madman that he became later in his reign.

    06:17-06:18

    That was later on.

    06:19-06:20

    Not as bad in the early days.

    06:21-06:23

    This was very snake-like for Paul.

    06:25-06:27

    Let's be honest, this was sort of a gift for Festus, wasn't it?

    06:28-06:44

    He's like trying to figure out what to do with Paul, trying to figure out what to do with Paul, and Paul's like, "I appeal to Caesar," and he's like, "Go." And the Bible doesn't say this, but I have to wonder if Festus, like, after the fact, went into his chambers or whatever, shut the door and was like, "Yes!" Because Paul is out of his hair.

    06:45-06:48

    Now he's Caesar's problem, right?

    06:49-06:51

    Okay, so that's the text.

    06:51-06:54

    And here's the sermon.

    06:57-06:58

    I'm gonna be honest with you.

    06:58-07:02

    I had a very difficult time coming up with an outline for this passage.

    07:02-07:02

    Why?

    07:03-07:05

    Not because it's hard content, let's be honest.

    07:05-07:07

    Like you read that, it's very straightforward, right?

    07:07-07:07

    What's happening.

    07:07-07:20

    It's not hard content, but I had a very difficult time coming up with a sermon outline Because I'm just gonna be honest with you, it is the same stuff that we've covered over the last two months, true or false.

    07:20-07:22

    Did you see going through the passage?

    07:22-07:23

    It's the same stuff.

    07:23-07:25

    It's the same stuff over and over and over.

    07:26-07:33

    And Dan, you can testify to this, giving a message every week, teaching the same timeless truths in new and fresh ways.

    07:33-07:37

    When you get to this portion of the book of Acts, it's sort of like, didn't I already preach this sermon?

    07:38-07:42

    And it was hard to come up with an outline, so we're gonna give it a whirl.

    07:42-07:43

    you're gonna show me grace, right?

    07:45-07:47

    Okay, so here's your outline.

    07:48-07:50

    Sit in your pew, it's an acrostic.

    07:52-07:58

    P is for persecution, E is for endurance, and W is for witnessing.

    08:00-08:01

    That's not very good, is it?

    08:02-08:04

    We can be honest, that's not a very good outline, is it?

    08:07-08:11

    But honestly, I was looking at this passage and those are the three things I see.

    08:11-08:13

    Persecution, call to endurance.

    08:13-08:14

    And Paul had to...

    08:15-08:18

    You guys totally, some of you guys are looking at me like, that outline's no good.

    08:21-08:21

    All right.

    08:23-08:24

    All right, I have another one here.

    08:25-08:26

    How about this one?

    08:27-08:27

    Make a mess.

    08:30-08:32

    M, make the most of every situation.

    08:32-08:34

    E, evil people will hate you.

    08:35-08:36

    S, share Christ.

    08:37-08:38

    S, stand strong.

    08:40-08:42

    Would you like me to preach that outline?

    08:44-08:44

    Wow, no?

    08:48-08:51

    All right, let's try this one.

    08:52-08:53

    Fly little songbird.

    08:54-08:55

    (congregation laughing)

    08:57-08:59

    Hey, do you wanna try this?

    09:00-09:06

    Every week, every week, every week, sitting down on Monday, what am I gonna do with this passage?

    09:07-09:08

    Do you wanna do it?

    09:08-09:09

    All right, you're up next week, Tony, okay?

    09:10-09:11

    I see you smirking back there.

    09:11-09:12

    You're up next week.

    09:13-09:14

    Come on, tough guy.

    09:16-09:23

    Fly little songbird, fear no evil, live with persecution, yearn for witness.

    09:23-09:24

    Oh, man.

    09:26-09:27

    That's no good either.

    09:30-09:32

    Isn't this the same stuff that we've already covered?

    09:34-10:06

    I'll be honest with you, it's pretty hard to think of a sermon when it's the same stuff over and over over and over and if you think that's frustrating I want you to imagine being Paul at this point if you think it's frustrating to try to come up with a fresh way to roll this out persecution and hatred and false accusations and Imagine Paul at this point, same problems, different day.

    10:08-10:17

    I just went through this passage, I just made a list of all the things that Paul experienced just in this passage that we've already seen, okay?

    10:19-10:28

    So number one, Paul's like, "I'm on trial in Caesarea before a Roman governor "with a two-syllable name beginning with F." I mean, that is really specific.

    10:30-10:31

    He went from Felix to Festus.

    10:32-10:34

    I mean, the name only slightly changed on that.

    10:36-10:38

    So at this point, Paul's like, "The Jewish leaders hate me.

    10:39-10:43

    Yeah, that happened in 2222." Verse three, "They have a plan to murder me.

    10:43-10:48

    Yeah, that happened in 2315." Verse seven, "The Jews are accusing me.

    10:48-10:53

    Yeah, that happened in 2405 and other places, but there's no evidence for their accusations.

    10:53-11:01

    That already happened again and again and again, 2413." So Paul's like, "I'll defend myself again." Chapter 22, verse one.

    11:01-11:03

    I think this is like the fourth time he's made a defense.

    11:06-11:07

    How about verse nine?

    11:07-11:15

    "A Roman official wants to appease the angry Jews instead of executing justice." That's exactly what happened in chapter 24, verse 27.

    11:17-11:23

    And in verse 10, Paul's like, "I'll defend myself again." Again, 24, 10.

    11:24-11:25

    Now this wasn't happening.

    11:26-11:28

    Now we've been studying this over the last several weeks.

    11:28-11:31

    This wasn't happening over the course of days or weeks.

    11:32-11:33

    This was years.

    11:35-11:36

    And nothing's changed.

    11:37-11:40

    Same trials, a name slightly changed, but that's it.

    11:43-11:44

    And that's the sermon today.

    11:46-11:52

    How am I supposed to hold on when a trial doesn't seem to be ending?

    11:54-11:57

    Is there anybody else that can identify with Paul at this point.

    11:58-12:02

    That there's an ongoing trial in my life that just doesn't seem to be ending.

    12:03-12:04

    Anyone? Anyone else?

    12:06-12:11

    If so, you're in good biblical company because it's a common experience.

    12:11-12:16

    Psalm 6, "Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing.

    12:16-12:18

    Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.

    12:18-12:21

    My soul also is greatly troubled.

    12:21-12:26

    "But you, O Lord, how long?" Psalm 77.

    12:28-12:31

    "Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable?

    12:32-12:34

    Has His steadfast love forever ceased?

    12:36-12:39

    Are His promises at an end for all time?

    12:39-12:42

    Has God forgotten to be gracious?" Wow.

    12:44-12:52

    "Has He in anger shut up His compassion?" How long am I going to have to deal with this?

    12:54-12:55

    That's always the question, right?

    12:56-12:56

    How long?

    12:57-12:59

    How long am I going to have to deal with this?

    13:00-13:02

    How long? How long?

    13:04-13:07

    We'll go through the questions. You know who and you know what.

    13:07-13:10

    And honestly, if you've studied your Bible, you know why.

    13:10-13:16

    Those questions don't seem to bother us as much as the question, How long? How long am I going to have to go through this?

    13:19-13:25

    The reason that's such a struggle for us is because of a principle that we're all familiar with, and it's this principle.

    13:25-13:30

    Jot this down, "Pain prolongs time." Pain prolongs time.

    13:33-13:59

    Several years ago, I was at the gym exercising, and I was doing these tricep pull-downs on this machine with the cables and all this stuff, I'm doing the, and it was right next to this like vending machine and there was a TV on the vending machine and I don't even know what I was watching on TV, but I was distracted by the flashing lights and I'm doing my tricep pull downs and I'm partway down and the cable snapped.

    13:59-14:00

    (imitates snapping)

    14:00-14:06

    And my hands went full force down and there was another bar below for another exercise on the machine, you know what I mean?

    14:06-14:11

    And I mashed all of my fingers between the bar I was holding and the bar.

    14:11-14:12

    I see you cringing.

    14:12-14:25

    Yeah, this finger right here took the brunt of it and it turned, remember Aaron, it turned like a greenish purple color and got real big and I ended up losing the fingernail and that's a whole nother story.

    14:25-14:34

    But anyways, right after it happened, I was like, oh, I was the only one in the gym at the time.

    14:34-14:39

    But right after it happened, this friend of mine came in and he walks in, this just happened.

    14:39-14:43

    And he's like, "Jeff, what's up with your penguins?

    14:43-14:49

    They just can't seem to be scoring goals." Now in real time, that's how long the conversation lasted.

    14:51-14:55

    But as I look back on the event, that guy stood there for three hours talking to me about hockey.

    14:57-15:08

    Because I couldn't like, I didn't want to be like, "You're such a, I just hurt my finger." So he's talking and he's like, "Jeff, what's up with your penguins?" I'm like, "I don't know what's up with them."

    15:37-15:38

    (mimics heart beating)

    15:38-15:40

    What's it like with three days with the flu?

    15:42-15:42

    Right?

    15:44-15:48

    Some of you are going through trials right now that don't seem to be ending.

    15:50-15:52

    I'm part of the prayer team. I get to friendship registers.

    15:53-15:55

    And I know some of you are hurting.

    15:56-16:01

    Because you've been seeking God in prayer for a long time.

    16:03-16:04

    For the same thing.

    16:07-16:18

    Maybe you're asking, "How can I keep the faith when God doesn't seem to be working?" "How can I keep praying when God doesn't seem to be answering?" I mean, seriously.

    16:20-16:24

    I've been praying about this and praying about this.

    16:25-16:26

    Why should I keep praying?

    16:29-16:32

    You know, maybe for some of you, maybe it's a financial situation.

    16:32-16:39

    Like, you know what, I've been praying about my finances for years, and I just can't dig myself out of the hole.

    16:40-16:56

    Maybe for some of you, it's a breakdown in some relationship, maybe with a family member or a coworker, or you're like, "I've been praying about this relationship for years." For some of you, it's a health issue.

    16:57-17:15

    You know, I've had this affliction now for years, and I've gone to the pastor and elders to pray over me, and I've prayed, and I've been praying for so long, and I've been dealing with this hardship for so long.

    17:16-17:19

    I can't really remember my life before this trial.

    17:21-17:26

    It dominated all my thoughts and all my energy, and really dominated my life.

    17:28-17:41

    I remember in my own life when we first discovered the developmental issues with my oldest son Owen. I was completely crushed. I mean I was crushed.

    17:44-18:43

    Shortly after that I turned it around 180 and I'm like I am going to beat this and I am going to I'm going to read and I'm going to study and I'm going to travel and I'm going to buy whatever we need and I can't even tell you the seasons of fasting and prayer. I've had so many pastor and missionary friends who have prayed with me and prayed over him and I can stand here before you today and tell you 11 years into the battle I haven't won. So if this is the new normal, if I have to accept that this is how it's going to be, if things aren't changing anytime soon, here's the real sermon outline. How can I be content in and hardship.

    18:44-18:48

    Do you think Paul ever had this thought cross his mind at this point?

    18:50-18:52

    Same stuff, different day.

    18:54-18:56

    So here's what we're going after today, okay?

    18:56-18:59

    How can I be content in hardship?

    18:59-19:01

    And right now somebody's like, "Content?

    19:02-19:03

    Are you kidding me?

    19:05-19:06

    Are you serious right now?

    19:06-19:18

    You're telling me that I have this issue that's been crushing me and it's been crushing my family and you're telling me that I should be content with that?

    19:20-19:23

    And I would just ask you, well, what's the alternative?

    19:26-19:28

    Has bitterness changed your situation at all?

    19:30-19:35

    Has anger helped your circumstances at all?

    19:37-19:42

    Has despair and despondency, Have those things put you in a better station in life?

    19:45-19:47

    If we're honest, I know they have not.

    19:49-19:54

    So if it doesn't look like the circumstances are going to change, what means is I have to change.

    19:56-20:13

    Philippians 4, verse 11, Paul says, look at this very closely, "For I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content.

    20:15-20:16

    Why don't you look at that first phrase?

    20:17-20:21

    Paul says, "I have learned." You know why he said, "I have learned"?

    20:22-20:25

    Because it's not natural, right?

    20:26-20:28

    If it was natural, God's word wouldn't need to address it.

    20:29-20:29

    Right?

    20:30-20:33

    But Paul says contentment wasn't something that I just had.

    20:33-20:49

    I just woke up one morning like, "Well, I'm content with being under arrest for no reason." He said, "I've had to learn how to be content." So we're gonna go to school here.

    20:50-20:52

    I want you to learn three things today.

    20:52-20:54

    We could say so much more on the subject.

    20:56-20:58

    I just want you to get three things down.

    20:58-20:58

    You ready?

    20:58-21:04

    Number one, learn to see hardship as dependence.

    21:06-21:10

    Learn to see hardship as dependence.

    21:11-21:17

    In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, this is a whole other sermon series down the road, but some of you are familiar with the story.

    21:17-21:18

    The apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh.

    21:18-21:22

    We don't know exactly what it was, and there's a million different guesses what it was.

    21:22-21:23

    It doesn't matter what it was.

    21:23-21:26

    He had this thing that was constantly afflicting him.

    21:26-21:28

    Was it a physical thing?

    21:28-21:29

    Was it a relational thing?

    21:29-21:30

    Was it a spiritual thing?

    21:30-21:31

    I have no idea.

    21:31-21:32

    It doesn't matter.

    21:32-21:35

    The matter is, he had this thing that he dealt with.

    21:37-21:52

    And he says, "So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations," he says, "a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being conceited." But look at this next phrase.

    21:52-22:00

    He says, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this." See, this wasn't one and done for Paul.

    22:00-23:19

    Like, "Well, I prayed about that last week answer so on to the next thing. He said, "I prayed and I prayed and I prayed that God would take this." He says, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then..." See this next phrase? "I am content with..." And this list covers the whole spectrum of everything. Look at this list. Weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. He's like, "Whatever. Whatever bad stuff happens in my life, I can be content." How? Well look at this last phrase. He says, "For when I am weak, then I am strong." Do you want to know the power of Christ? Do you want to know the power of Christ? I'm assuming that's why you're here today. If you want to know the power of Christ, then you have You have to be weak.

    23:21-23:21

    You have to be weak.

    23:23-23:28

    You can't be resting in your own strength and experience the strength of Jesus at the same time.

    23:29-23:30

    You can't do it.

    23:32-23:37

    You have to get to the place in your life that you're like, "I bring nothing to the table.

    23:38-23:45

    It's Jesus or it's nothing." Because here's the bottom line, spoiler alert.

    23:46-23:48

    we're all going to suffer in this life.

    23:50-23:53

    We're all going to suffer in some way, shape or form, but here's the choice you have.

    23:53-23:57

    You can suffer with Christ or you can try to suffer without Christ.

    23:58-23:59

    And I've done both.

    24:00-24:06

    And I'm here to tell you, I would never go back to suffering without Christ.

    24:09-24:20

    Paul learned to see his thorn as something that God was using to keep him humble To keep him resting in Christ's power and not his own.

    24:21-24:25

    To learn that Jesus' grace is sufficient.

    24:27-24:36

    So if you want to know the sufficiency of grace, you need to see hardships as dependence.

    24:37-24:54

    Whatever that thing is, instead of saying, "This is my hardship in life, this is my this is my trial, this is my suffering, whatever, you need to say, this is the thing in my life that has taught me that I need Jesus Christ every moment of every day.

    24:54-24:55

    That's what this thing is.

    24:57-25:02

    And when you learn to see it that way, you'll learn contentment.

    25:05-25:12

    Every day, every day, you should be able to point at that hardship and say, God, this is why I need you.

    25:13-25:18

    I imagine God's gonna be like, "Well, you need me for a lot of other stuff too." And you're like, "Yeah, you know what, that's true.

    25:20-25:22

    But this is the thing that's on the forefront of my mind right now, God.

    25:22-25:26

    This is the thing that's weighing on my heart right now.

    25:26-25:38

    This is the one that I'm feeling the most, God." You need to see your hardships instead as dependents, the thing that makes you dependent on Christ.

    25:42-25:52

    As I heard one preacher say, "Jesus Christ is all you need, but you'll never know it until He's all that you got.

    25:54-26:04

    And then when He's all that you got, you learn He's all that you need." Number one, learn to see hardships as dependents.

    26:04-26:09

    Number two, learn to see things to be thankful for.

    26:12-26:14

    Learn to see things to be thankful for.

    26:14-26:16

    What about Paul in this situation?

    26:17-26:19

    Right where he is right now in the text, in Acts.

    26:21-26:23

    Pop quiz, does Paul have things he can be thankful for right now?

    26:24-26:25

    Absolutely.

    26:25-26:26

    And I'm sure he was.

    26:26-26:27

    What are some things?

    26:27-26:27

    We saw it actually.

    26:28-26:31

    Go back up to chapter 24 and verse 23.

    26:34-26:40

    Paul was given liberty, even though he was under house arrest, he was given liberty, his friends could come and go, and all of his needs were met.

    26:42-26:49

    So right there off the top of my head looking at just one verse, I'm sure those were three things that Paul was daily thankful for.

    26:50-27:46

    "I just, I'm incarcerated, but, but, but 1 Thessalonians 5.18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances." to notice, give thanks in all circumstances. It says in, not for. Note that. In all circumstances, not for all circumstances. In other words, you don't say, "I'm thankful for my cancer." The Bible doesn't call you to that. The Bible doesn't say, "Okay, because I have this physical diagnosis, "I'm thankful for the cancer." But instead you say, "In this circumstance of having cancer, I am finding things to be thankful for." Do you see the difference?

    27:47-27:56

    You're not thankful for the cancer. Though that's the hardship you're enduring, you're finding things in that to be thankful for.

    27:58-28:04

    So go to school, learn to see hardship as dependence. Learn to see things to be thankful for.

    28:05-28:08

    The last lesson for today, how can I be content in hardship?

    28:09-28:21

    Learn to see the bigger picture. When God is at work in you, it's about more than you.

    28:23-28:28

    When God is doing something in your life, it is always about more than you.

    28:30-28:36

    And you're like, "Oh, so that's supposed to motivate me?" It motivated Jesus.

    28:37-28:54

    Like, "Oh, that wasn't fair." Hebrews 12, two says, "Looking to Jesus," look at this, "who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

    28:56-29:08

    Jesus knew that the suffering He had to go through was to glorify God, but He also knew it was going to purchase salvation for those who would receive Him.

    29:09-29:12

    It was going to purchase salvation for the people that showed that today.

    29:14-29:28

    So Jesus went through the most horrific suffering that a human being can go through, but he was content to go through it because he knew suffering was part of God's bigger picture.

    29:30-29:31

    There's a difference for you and I though.

    29:32-29:34

    I don't always know what the bigger picture is for us.

    29:35-29:41

    I mean, it's easy in regards to the bigger picture for Jesus because God wrote it down in his word, right?

    29:41-29:48

    And we can read his word like, oh, I see what God was doing through Christ in the midst of his suffering, but I don't have that luxury for us.

    29:49-29:51

    We're living through it right now.

    29:52-30:19

    I wish I had one of those magic eight balls or some kind of way you come to my office, you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, "why am I going through this trial?" And I'm like, "Well, you see, "it's because God's going to use this "to win your neighbors to Christ." You're like, "Oh, thanks for letting me know about that." I can't, I don't know that there's a purpose, but I don't know what exactly the purpose is rather, but I don't need to know exactly what the purpose is to know that there actually is a purpose, right?

    30:21-30:24

    You can figure out what that sentence meant, you let me know.

    30:25-30:26

    But you get the point.

    30:27-30:27

    You get the point.

    30:28-30:31

    I don't always know what the bigger picture is, but I know that God has one.

    30:32-30:44

    And though it involves suffering, not only will you be blessed on the other side, God is going to use it to impact people in ways that you may never discover until heaven.

    30:46-30:46

    Like, what about Paul?

    30:48-30:49

    What about Paul?

    30:49-31:13

    Do you think there was ever a time during Paul's history of incarcerations, do you think there was ever a time that Paul's like, you know, I'm really getting sick of this and I don't see the point because I'd like to go visit the churches, I'd like to go see people, I'd like to go preach the gospel and I can't do those things.

    31:13-31:14

    I can't go and do them.

    31:14-31:18

    All I can do, all I can do is send them letters.

    31:20-31:22

    Do you think God had a bigger purpose with that?

    31:24-31:27

    Paul writing letters from jail, do you think God had a bigger purpose for that?

    31:29-31:33

    'Cause you realize almost 2000 years later, these letters are bringing people to Christ.

    31:34-31:44

    We're still carrying his letters around and reading them and studying them and God's using them to change lives for eternity.

    31:46-31:50

    So today we are going to go to school. We are going to learn some things.

    31:52-32:08

    If you want to learn, "Ok, maybe I can't change my circumstance, maybe I need to change and what I need is contentment. How am I going to learn contentment?" Learn to rename hardship. Call it dependence.

    32:10-32:12

    This is the thing that makes me dependent on Jesus.

    32:14-32:16

    You need to learn to be thankful in hard circumstances.

    32:16-32:17

    Yeah, things aren't optimal.

    32:18-32:19

    Things will never be optimal.

    32:21-32:24

    But even in the worst of situations, I'm finding things to be thankful for.

    32:25-32:27

    And that's what I'm going to focus upon.

    32:29-32:31

    And I'm going to learn to trust God that there's a bigger picture.

    32:31-32:32

    I don't know what it is right now.

    32:34-32:35

    But He's doing something.

    32:37-32:41

    If you can learn those lessons, you're going to earn a diploma.

    32:43-32:46

    You're going to get a master's degree in being content.

    32:48-32:48

    Let's pray.

    32:49-32:55

    Father in heaven, this is one of those easier said than done things.

    32:57-33:02

    Because Father, I know looking out, I know there are some people sitting here that have been going through some trials for a long time.

    33:03-33:08

    Whether it's relational or physical or financial or whatever.

    33:09-33:12

    There are people here that have been struggling for a very long time.

    33:13-33:21

    And Father, it's easy to lose heart when we pray, and we don't see You moving.

    33:22-33:24

    We don't see You answering.

    33:26-33:28

    And we start to wonder if You're listening at all.

    33:30-33:34

    God, You may choose to change our entire life circumstance today.

    33:36-33:46

    Father, you may choose to say, "No, my grace is sufficient for you." Whatever the case, Father, I pray for myself.

    33:49-33:51

    And I pray for my brothers and sisters in this room.

    33:53-33:56

    I pray for everyone who's going to be listening to this message.

    33:58-34:01

    That you would teach us to be content.

    34:03-34:09

    Father, teach us what it means to live in the strength of Christ when we are totally weak.

    34:10-34:11

    Teach us.

    34:12-34:17

    Teach us how to find things to be thankful for and let our focus be on that.

    34:19-34:26

    Father, teach us that you're rarely ever doing one thing in one person's life.

    34:26-34:35

    In your providence, you're doing thousands of things in millions of people's lives, even with one seeming event.

    34:38-34:45

    Father, when we leave here today, we might be like Paul, saying the same situation as yesterday, and it's going to look the same tomorrow.

    34:47-34:48

    So God, we need you.

    34:49-34:52

    Whatever happens, Father, we need you to change us.

    34:53-34:55

    I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 25:1-12 

  1. If God is sovereignly using a trial in your life, is it OK to pray for the ongoing trial to end?

  2. What advice would you give someone who says, "I have been suffering with this hardship for years. I have been so discouraged because God obviously isn't answering my prayers."?

  3. What is your big take-away from this passage / message?

Breakout Questions:

What hardship have YOU been enduring for a long time? How are you doing with being content in the trial? What do you need to do if you are struggling with being content?

I Should Fear, Lack of Urgency!

Review / Introduction:



How to Miss Your Opportunity to Receive Christ:

  1. Don't Apply what you learn. (Acts 24:24-25a)

  2. Hebrews 10:26-27 - For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

  1. Keep Putting if off. (Acts 24:25b)

  2. Hebrews 3:7-8 - Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts..."


  3. Care more about Lesser things. (Acts 24:26-27)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint:
Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:35-00:38

    …to the book of Acts chapter 24.

    00:40-00:42

    Book of Acts chapter 24.

    00:43-00:53

    While you're turning there, following false accusations of bringing Greeks into the temple in Jerusalem.

    00:54-00:59

    The apostle Paul was taken into Roman custody and he was sent to Caesarea.

    00:59-01:02

    And last week we saw trial.

    01:03-01:09

    Paul was on trial before the Roman governor of Judea, Felix.

    01:11-01:16

    He was accused of breaking Roman law, he caused his riots.

    01:16-01:21

    He was accused of breaking Jewish law, and he was accused of breaking God's law.

    01:22-01:27

    Paul made his defense and proved his innocence.

    01:28-01:43

    While you're turning there, several years ago in our prison ministry there was a young man, his name was Klaus, and he looked extremely out of place being in prison, quite honestly.

    01:45-01:46

    Way too young.

    01:47-01:53

    And I remember in our weekly Bible study, there were weeks that he would be the only person that showed up.

    01:53-01:55

    It would just be him and I.

    01:55-02:05

    And he had a Bible that he was constantly reading and studying, and he came hanging on every single word.

    02:06-02:12

    You know, if you've ever done a Bible study or a small group, you've ever given a sermon, you can tell who's tuned in and who's not.

    02:13-02:13

    That's just reality.

    02:14-02:17

    Klaus was tuned in to every single word.

    02:18-02:20

    On the edge of his seat, Bible open.

    02:21-02:27

    And one particular week he asked me a question, I'll never forget this.

    02:29-02:32

    He said, "There's a question I've really been struggling with.

    02:33-02:47

    Is it possible to reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the point that you've gone too far and you can't get saved?" And I said, "Yes.

    02:48-02:49

    Biblically there is.

    02:50-02:55

    I don't know when that is, only God does, but Hebrews 6 talks about this and I walked him through that.

    02:55-03:15

    I said, "The problem is not that God has rejected you, the problem is you've hardened your heart so much from constantly saying no to God that you've put yourself in a position where you're so hard-hearted you don't care anymore." And we spent a long time talking about that.

    03:16-03:27

    And again, hanging on every word, and he, tears in his eyes, he said, "I worry about that, Pastor Jeff, I worry about that." And I said, "Well, I got good news for you, because if you're worried about it, it hasn't happened to you.

    03:27-03:30

    If you're worried about it, that means your heart isn't so hard.

    03:31-03:36

    The hard-hearted person doesn't care." So that's good news.

    03:36-03:39

    Well, a couple weeks later, I'm going back into Bible study.

    03:40-03:54

    We were rounding up the inmates to come and I said, "Hey, where's our friend Klaus?" And they said, "Well, he got out two Fridays ago." I'm like, "Oh, like the punk?

    03:54-04:02

    He was supposed to call me when he got out because I told him I was going to try to help him get on his feet and get things going." And it got real awkward for a second.

    04:03-04:08

    They said, "Oh, you didn't hear?" I said, "No, I didn't hear." They said he died the day he got out.

    04:10-04:12

    And I think about him often.

    04:12-04:13

    What happened to him?

    04:15-04:18

    Did he ever come to the point that he received Christ?

    04:20-04:25

    Or by his own admission did he keep putting Christ off?

    04:25-04:34

    Did he harden his heart because he refused to turn over to Jesus Christ?

    04:34-04:46

    You see, we're going through this theme this year of "I will not fear." We've seen a lot of messages here in Acts about things that we should not fear because of our confidence being in the Lord.

    04:46-04:55

    But today, we're going to do something a little different because today in our passage, I'm going to show you one thing that you absolutely should fear.

    04:56-05:04

    So the title of today's message is "I should fear." I should fear lack of urgency.

    05:05-05:12

    Because today in this passage, we're going to see a man who missed salvation because he had no gospel urgency.

    05:13-05:17

    Look at Acts 24, picking up in verse 22.

    05:17-05:19

    Again, this is right after the trial.

    05:20-05:21

    Paul proved his innocence.

    05:22-05:23

    Here's the result.

    05:24-05:56

    It says, "But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge way, meaning he knew about Christianity, put them off, saying, "When Lysias the Tribune comes down, I will decide your case." Then he gave orders to the centurion that he, Paul, should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.

    05:58-06:04

    So Felix stalled, your Bible says he put them off, that's actually a legal term.

    06:05-06:07

    It means adjourning a hearing.

    06:07-06:08

    Do you see what he says?

    06:09-06:21

    He's like, "When Lysaeus the Tribute comes down, I will decide your case." Like dude, he already sent a letter with Paul, which had no evidence that Paul did anything wrong.

    06:21-06:23

    That's in 23 verse 26.

    06:24-06:26

    So Felix, this is your plan really.

    06:26-06:38

    You're just going to keep an innocent man in custody, so you're going to stall and we'll keep him in custody and we'll just wait and maybe we'll...

    06:38-06:39

    Why did he do that?

    06:41-06:57

    Well, understand, Felix was in a tough spot politically, because here you have an innocent man, an obviously innocent man that we can't punish or condemn because he was a Roman citizen.

    06:57-06:59

    The Romans certainly would have come down on him for that.

    07:00-07:02

    But if Felix would have said, "Well, this guy's innocent.

    07:02-07:15

    Just let him go." All these Jewish men were furious with Paul because of him preaching the gospel, and they would have certainly revolted against Felix.

    07:16-07:21

    So he was, you could say he was trapped between justice and popularity.

    07:23-07:29

    And this year as we've been talking about, "I will not fear, I will not fear, I will not fear." Well, Felix, he feared.

    07:31-07:36

    And his fear led him to miss his opportunity.

    07:39-07:40

    Today we have a warning for you.

    07:40-07:41

    I want you to look at Felix.

    07:43-07:54

    If you haven't received Christ, if you haven't gotten serious about God in your own walk, you need to absorb every word that the Bible has for you today, okay?

    07:55-07:56

    Yeah, God knows your heart.

    07:57-08:06

    But if you're sitting here today, yeah, I'm gonna get serious about God, I'm gonna get serious, yeah, I've really been thinking about getting, I know I need to get right with God, I know it.

    08:06-08:09

    Well, you need to listen very, very, very closely today.

    08:12-08:14

    He gives the message, jot this down, you have an outline, jot this down.

    08:15-08:17

    This is how to miss your opportunity to receive Christ.

    08:18-08:24

    And boy, Felix, he just, he nails this stuff, unfortunately.

    08:24-08:26

    But here's how to miss your opportunity to receive Christ.

    08:27-08:30

    Number one, here's how you're going to miss your opportunity to receive Christ.

    08:30-08:31

    Don't apply what you learn.

    08:33-08:34

    Don't apply what you learn.

    08:35-08:37

    Look at verses 24, first part of 25.

    08:39-08:45

    Okay, so we saw in verse 23, Paul was in custody, but he wasn't shackled in a dungeon.

    08:45-08:47

    It was more of a house arrest type thing.

    08:49-08:53

    His friends could come and he could have everything that he needed, but he wasn't allowed to go anywhere.

    08:54-09:30

    Verse 24 says, "After some days, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, And he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus." Actually in the Greek, the definite article is there, so it's literally, "He heard him speak about the faith in Christ Jesus." It says, "And he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment." Stop there for a second.

    09:32-09:34

    Felix's wife, Drusilla.

    09:36-09:37

    A little background, you can study this out.

    09:37-09:40

    It's just an interesting story if you have the time.

    09:41-09:44

    But Felix married her when she was only 16.

    09:45-09:48

    Under some pretty shady and wicked circumstances.

    09:48-09:59

    He actually threw this sorcerer and all these other, you know, this goofy magic man took her away from her current husband.

    10:00-10:02

    And she was actually his third wife.

    10:03-10:10

    So there was a lot of really wicked and shaky circumstances that he took this woman to be his wife.

    10:11-10:16

    And she's actually the daughter of Herod from Acts chapter 12.

    10:16-10:17

    You remember Herod from Acts 12?

    10:18-10:28

    He was the guy that's like, "Look how awesome I am." And everybody's like, "Oh, he speaks like such a God." And he thought he was too sexy for his shiny, remember he had the shiny coat?

    10:29-10:33

    And the Bible says that an angel of the Lord struck him and killed him.

    10:33-10:37

    He was eaten by worms and he died because he refused to give God glory.

    10:37-10:39

    Instead thought he was something.

    10:39-10:42

    Well, that guy was Drusilla's dad.

    10:43-10:43

    All right?

    10:45-10:49

    So it says here in your Bible that Paul reasoned with Felix.

    10:49-10:51

    I want you to see these three things he shared with him.

    10:53-11:02

    He reasoned about, first of all, righteousness and self-control and coming judgment. What's righteousness?

    11:02-11:13

    First of all, that's God's holy standard. Righteousness. That means there are some things that are morally right and morally wrong. That's righteousness.

    11:13-11:23

    That's the first thing that Paul shared with Felix. And you can understand now, I gave you that little bit of background so you understand, Felix wasn't exactly He's basically choir boy.

    11:25-11:30

    So Paul's like, listen man, there's a God who determines right and wrong.

    11:33-11:41

    There's a God who says there are some things that are sin, and there are some things that are righteousness, and there's a standard, and he preached that.

    11:41-11:43

    And the second thing is he preached self-control.

    11:45-11:49

    Literally, that's restraining your passions and your appetites.

    11:50-11:58

    In other words, it's saying - this is going to sound so foreign, so I want you to try to track with me here - it's saying no to sin.

    11:59-12:01

    That's what self-control is.

    12:01-12:02

    It's saying no to sin.

    12:02-12:03

    This is wrong.

    12:03-12:05

    I shouldn't do it, so I'm not going to do it.

    12:06-12:11

    And we live in a culture today - that's such a crazy concept, isn't it?

    12:11-12:12

    Say no to sin?

    12:12-12:13

    But I want it!

    12:13-12:14

    I'm going to have it!

    12:17-12:18

    That's self-control.

    12:20-12:22

    Felix obviously did not have.

    12:23-12:25

    By nature we're like animals.

    12:27-12:30

    We're driven by our desires, you know, like my dog.

    12:30-12:33

    When my dog wants something, he'll just take it.

    12:33-12:35

    He'll do what he wants, what he feels like.

    12:35-12:39

    He doesn't weigh the, is this right, is this wrong?

    12:39-12:41

    He's just governed by his belly.

    12:43-12:44

    Complete lack of self-control.

    12:47-12:48

    And then he gives him the bad news.

    12:48-12:52

    It says he reasoned with them about the coming judgment.

    12:54-13:03

    In other words, it's the result of failing, failing to get on board with God's righteousness and the call to self-control.

    13:05-13:09

    So the bottom line of Paul's message to Felix, you can sum it up in three words, right?

    13:10-13:11

    That you need Jesus.

    13:11-13:13

    That's what he would say, you need Jesus.

    13:15-13:16

    God demands righteousness.

    13:18-13:20

    You're a sinner and you have a problem.

    13:23-13:24

    But here's the good news.

    13:24-13:32

    When you turn from your sin and you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Bible says God gives you the gift of his Holy Spirit.

    13:33-13:36

    That is the presence of God living inside you.

    13:36-13:38

    And he changes you.

    13:39-13:41

    He gives you new appetites.

    13:42-13:44

    He gives you self-control.

    13:44-13:45

    That's a fruit of the Spirit.

    13:45-13:48

    He gives you the ability to say no to sin.

    13:51-13:55

    And he cancels judgment when you receive Jesus Christ.

    13:55-14:00

    God in His courtroom says, "Not guilty." Forever eternally not guilty.

    14:01-14:03

    And nothing can overturn that verdict.

    14:04-14:11

    And that was the message that Paul was preaching to Felix.

    14:13-14:29

    So you would think, let's just stop here for a second, like you would think, okay, if you, like some of you probably read this, and like, even if you read ahead, what a cheater, and you might know what's coming, but at this point you would think, here's the greatest preacher since Jesus Christ himself.

    14:30-14:45

    Like in the entire history of the church, as Felix's personal preacher, and he's like laying it all out for him, this is the gospel, you would think it's like, okay, sackcloth and ashes, repentance, here we go, Felix says, "I'm going to get saved." Right?

    14:47-14:48

    Look at the next statement in your Bible.

    14:51-14:55

    It says, "Felix was alarmed." Felix was alarmed.

    14:57-14:59

    It alarmed him, but it didn't convict him.

    14:59-15:02

    In other words, Felix knew he was guilty.

    15:05-15:05

    But he went no further.

    15:07-15:09

    That's a common problem, by the way.

    15:10-15:12

    That happens every week in this church.

    15:12-15:18

    It happens every week in the church across the street, or whatever church you listen to, where the preacher's broadcast on the radio or online.

    15:19-15:19

    It happens everywhere.

    15:21-15:26

    The people are sitting in church, people are sitting here right now, like, you know what, I need to get serious about my walk with Jesus.

    15:26-15:31

    Yes, I need to get serious about, you're right, I gotta stop playing around, I gotta get serious about my walk with Jesus.

    15:32-15:51

    And yeah, I'm guilty, and I realize I'm guilty, and I need to stop doing this, and I need to cut off this relationship, and I need to stop sneaking around with this hiding this and I need to do that." And you realize you're guilty, but you don't do anything about it.

    15:53-15:56

    And you have to understand that knowing isn't enough.

    15:58-16:01

    It has to be joined with faith.

    16:02-16:04

    That's what faith is.

    16:04-16:08

    Some people think faith is just, "I understand some Bible facts." And that's not faith.

    16:11-16:14

    Faith is really, there's three levels.

    16:17-16:19

    And the first one is, yeah, you do have to know the facts.

    16:20-16:22

    But secondly, you have to agree with the facts.

    16:24-16:31

    But biblically it's not real faith until you get to the third step, which is you rest your life on the facts that you know.

    16:32-16:35

    Some of you, if you've been at this church any amount of time, you've heard me share this before.

    16:36-16:38

    To illustrate, it's like a chair.

    16:38-16:52

    If I said to you, "This chair here will hold a person that sits down on it." Now that's the first level of faith.

    16:52-16:53

    Now you have information, right?

    16:54-16:55

    You're like, "Ok, he told me something.

    16:55-17:00

    He told me this chair would hold a person." Ok, the second level is agreeing with the facts.

    17:01-17:05

    you're sitting here looking at it, and you're like, well, it looks a lot like the one I'm sitting in right now.

    17:05-17:07

    And yeah, you know what, I agree with you.

    17:08-17:09

    I do agree with you.

    17:09-17:13

    That looks like that would hold a person that sat down on it.

    17:13-17:17

    Those are the first two levels, but understand that we're still not biblically at faith yet.

    17:18-17:19

    What is biblical faith?

    17:19-17:28

    Biblical faith is when you sit down in a chair and say, because I know something, and because I agree with it, I'm going to rest my life in the truth of it.

    17:28-17:29

    That's biblical faith.

    17:30-17:33

    You acted on what you know and agree with.

    17:35-17:49

    But too many Christians, or not Christians yet, I should say, too many church goers - that's the word I was looking for, thank you - too many church goers are sitting in church, and they think they're fine with levels 1 and 2.

    17:50-17:50

    I know and agree.

    17:51-17:53

    Yep, I'm guilty, I'm guilty, I do need Jesus.

    17:54-17:55

    And you're no different than Felix.

    17:56-18:03

    Your sin has alarmed you, that hasn't convicted you to the point that you're willing to rest in Christ and act on what you know.

    18:06-18:07

    Knowing isn't enough.

    18:08-18:10

    Do you know what the Gospel calls you to do?

    18:12-18:13

    Turn from your sin.

    18:14-18:18

    Turn from your demand to be the ruler of your life and turn to Jesus Christ.

    18:18-18:21

    Bow to His lordship and allow Him to change you.

    18:23-18:25

    It can happen today, you know.

    18:27-18:31

    You can pray today, "Lord, I am done playing games.

    18:32-18:35

    I want to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

    18:36-18:40

    Please God, save me and change me." That can happen today.

    18:43-18:52

    I have to warn you, what the Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews 10.26-27, look at these words.

    18:55-19:17

    He says, "For if we go on sinning deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." You know what that's saying?

    19:18-19:19

    Here's the short version.

    19:20-19:21

    The short version is this.

    19:21-19:22

    God doesn't have plan B.

    19:24-19:45

    If you continue to sin, it's not like God says, "Well, she hasn't received Jesus, so let's go with this other plan that I have." There is no plan B. So, the first way you can miss your opportunity to receive Christ is to not apply what you learn.

    19:45-19:46

    Just be like Felix.

    19:46-19:48

    "Yeah, you're right.

    19:48-19:49

    This is alarming to me.

    19:49-19:50

    Yes, I am a sinner.

    19:50-19:52

    Very concerned about that.

    19:52-19:53

    Not mixed with faith.

    19:54-20:08

    act on what he knew. Secondly, how can you miss your opportunity? I think this is a pretty obvious one from the text. And boy, is it obvious in the church. Keep putting it off.

    20:10-20:19

    Keep putting it off. Look what Felix says, the rest of verse 25. "Felix was alarmed and "Go away for the present.

    20:19-20:30

    When I get an opportunity, I will summon you." When I get around to it, I'd like to hear some more about this.

    20:32-20:35

    And somebody right now is like, "Okay, Pastor Jeff, I get it.

    20:35-20:35

    I'm a sinner.

    20:36-20:36

    I get it.

    20:37-20:40

    Listen, I'm going to get around to following Jesus.

    20:40-20:42

    I'm going to get around to it." My question is, "When?

    20:43-20:43

    When?

    20:44-20:50

    your plan? Because for some people they think it's just next stage of life, right?

    20:51-21:28

    "Well I'm in high school now and you know maybe when I get to college and when you're in college I'm way too busy with work and studies and then when you know when I get when I get married and then when you're married you're like well I you know I'm gonna focus on my career and I don't have time but when we have kids and, or insert your excuse here. But listen, as we talk about opportunity, I need to tell you something about opportunity. Two things actually. You have it right now, but You may never have it again.

    21:31-21:36

    It's like the guy I shared the gospel with, he's just starting to understand, he was like at level one.

    21:38-21:54

    He said, "So wait a minute, what you're telling me is, if I prayed and received Jesus Christ on my deathbed, I would go to heaven." I said, "Well, yeah, technically that is true.

    21:55-22:01

    If you were on your deathbed and you prayed to receive Jesus, yes, you would go to heaven.

    22:01-22:11

    And he said, "Well, I'll just do that then." And I said, "No, you won't." He's like, "What do you mean, no, I won't?" I said, "Well, there's two problems with that plan.

    22:11-22:12

    There's two problems.

    22:12-22:21

    The first problem is you don't have the guarantee of a deathbed." You know, I think we like to idealize that in our own minds.

    22:21-22:22

    Do you know how I'm going to die?

    22:22-22:39

    I'm gonna be 120 years old, I'm gonna be at my house, and my family's gonna be around the bed, and they're all gonna be holding hands, and they're gonna be singing Amazing Grace, and I'm just gonna take my last breath, just very peacefully, with the angels, go to heaven.

    22:40-22:48

    And they're gonna light a candle or something, and it's gonna be like right out of a Hallmark movie.

    22:50-22:52

    Do you know how often that happens?

    22:54-23:06

    Look, being in pastoral ministry over 20 years, part of the job is funerals and being with people in moments of death and such, and I can tell you on great authority, that is extremely rare.

    23:07-23:08

    Extremely rare!

    23:10-23:12

    So that's your first problem.

    23:12-23:15

    You have no guarantee of a deathbed, but here's the other problem.

    23:15-23:16

    It gets back to what we talked about earlier.

    23:18-23:34

    So I said to this man, "Okay, let me give you this." I told the man, "I'll give you that you're gonna live "to be 120 and you're gonna be in your deathbed "and your family's gonna be around you." I'm like, "How old are you now?" And he's like, "I can't remember." He was like mid-30s or whatever.

    23:34-23:41

    I'm like, "Okay, so that means you have decades "of saying no to Jesus Christ.

    23:41-23:41

    "Think about that.

    23:42-23:59

    "Decades of saying no to God, "decades of shutting God out of your life, and decades of rejecting God, and you mean to tell me when you're 120 years old and you're laying in your deathbed, "All of a sudden, my heart is so open and tender to the things of the Lord." Like, no, that's not going to happen.

    23:59-24:05

    You're going to be so hard-hearted and so callous, you're not going to give a rip about God on that day.

    24:07-24:09

    So that's a bad plan.

    24:10-24:23

    We could go around the room today, and I'm sure every single person in this room could tell stories of death coming too soon and too suddenly.

    24:24-24:35

    Car accidents and motorcycle accidents and weight lifting accidents and accidents at work, sudden health issues like a heart attack or a stroke, or we could go on and on and on.

    24:37-24:40

    You have opportunity right now that you might not ever have again.

    24:42-24:46

    We're going to see here in just a second, Felix had two years.

    24:47-24:48

    Two years!

    24:51-24:53

    You have no idea how much time you have.

    24:55-24:56

    You have no idea.

    24:58-25:00

    This could be your last day on the earth.

    25:02-25:12

    That's why Hebrews 3, verses 7-8, actually if you read Hebrews 3 and 4, he says it like what, like four times in the same little passage.

    25:12-25:22

    Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

    25:25-25:27

    I don't know how much time you have, but you have today.

    25:28-25:29

    Do you want to gamble your eternity?

    25:32-25:33

    But then just be like Felix then.

    25:33-25:35

    That's a great way to miss your opportunity.

    25:36-25:38

    Just keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off.

    25:40-25:48

    Then finally, here's how to miss your opportunity to receive Jesus Christ, to receive salvation, to receive the promise of heaven.

    25:49-25:50

    Here's a surefire way.

    25:50-25:52

    Number three, care more about lesser things.

    25:53-25:54

    Care more about lesser things.

    25:57-26:00

    Okay, so back in the text, Felix is like, "Okay, Paul, go away.

    26:00-26:05

    "And when I get some time or whatever, I'll get you and we'll talk some more about this.

    26:06-26:15

    Verse 26, look at this, "At the same time, he, Felix, hoped that money would be given him by Paul.

    26:17-26:21

    So he sent for him often and conversed with him.

    26:22-26:27

    When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus.

    26:30-26:34

    And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

    26:36-26:39

    Here's another surefire way to miss your opportunity to receive Christ.

    26:39-26:41

    Be distracted with lesser things.

    26:42-26:53

    Just consider the temporary, ultimately useless things of the earth to be more of a priority than being right with God and having the promise of heaven.

    26:55-26:56

    That's what Felix did.

    26:57-27:01

    Did you see the two lesser things that he was more concerned?

    27:01-27:04

    In reverse order, look at verse 27 again.

    27:06-27:12

    Says "Desiring to do the Jews a favor, he left Paul in prison." He wanted to please people.

    27:15-27:16

    He was more concerned about popularity.

    27:18-27:20

    More concerned about what people think than what God thinks.

    27:23-27:28

    If you don't want to be serious about following Jesus Christ because of what your friends might think.

    27:30-27:33

    Listen, it is never going to be popular to follow Jesus Christ.

    27:35-27:35

    It's not gonna happen.

    27:36-27:37

    It's not gonna be popular.

    27:37-27:40

    You will be swimming against the current.

    27:43-27:44

    It's not going to make you popular.

    27:46-27:50

    So given the choice, Felix says, I think I'd rather be popular.

    27:51-27:52

    But you see, here's another problem.

    27:53-27:54

    Look at verse 26.

    27:56-28:03

    It says, "At the same time, he, Felix, hoped that money would be given him by Paul." Why in the world would he think that?

    28:03-28:09

    Do you remember back in verse 17, Paul had already revealed why he was in Jerusalem in the first place, do you remember?

    28:09-28:27

    He said, "I came to Jerusalem bringing an offering for the poor." So Felix is like, "Paul has access to money." But for two years, let's be honest, how annoyed do you think Paul was after two years of this?

    28:28-28:33

    Felix sends for him and Paul comes to him and Felix is like, "Hey, Paul, how are we doing today?"

    28:33-28:34

    (Paul coughs)

    28:37-28:39

    Paul's like, "Do you have a cough?" "No, no, no, I'm, no."

    28:39-28:40

    (Paul coughs)

    28:42-28:45

    "No, I'm fine." "Well, what's wrong with your hand?

    28:45-30:44

    Why is it twitching?" "Uh..." was happening. For two years Felix was like, "So Paul, let's talk. You want to talk about Jesus?" "No, no, I was kind of thinking, I'm really interested in the kind of work that you... tell me about that money that you brought and how I can get some of that." And he's like, "Well, wasn't taking a bribe illegal?" "Yeah, obviously. But don't miss the point. Some people want something from the church as long as it's not Jesus. I'm going to say that again. There might be some people sitting here like that today. Some people want something from the church as long as it's not Jesus. All the stories Aaron and I could tell. You would miss the Steeler game tonight if we started talking about all the stories, the things that we have seen. Not just in this church, any church where I've served. Any church. It's just amazing to me that people who have never seen me and have never even seen the inside of the church and couldn't even point on a map to where the church is located, call the church, call me. They're like, "Hi, yes, I saw your church website and I was looking through your church website and I'm like how can I help you yeah I need you to pay my rent like is that on our website click here to get your rent paid I just don't understand that hello pastor I don't know of a church that I never ever ever ever will go to can you mail me a check and pay my electric bill like that doesn't really happen does that happen constantly It happens.

    30:45-30:47

    Oh, we could tell you stories.

    30:47-30:49

    You know, hello, pastor of a church I've never been to.

    30:50-30:52

    I need toys for my grandkids for Christmas.

    30:54-30:55

    A common one is food.

    30:57-30:59

    That's a real common one.

    30:59-31:02

    Not, I should take that back, not food, food vouchers.

    31:04-31:06

    We used to keep bags of food at the office.

    31:07-31:14

    I remember one time these two young girls came in, they're like, we're starving, and we got babies that are starving, and we just need some food vouchers.

    31:14-31:16

    And I'm like, this is great.

    31:16-31:18

    I said, stay right here, I'm gonna help you out.

    31:19-31:23

    Ran up to my office, had two giant bags of groceries, and I'm like, here you go.

    31:25-31:28

    The look on their face was like I was handing them a dead kitten.

    31:28-31:31

    They were just like, what's that?

    31:32-31:33

    I'm like, it's bags of groceries.

    31:33-31:35

    And they're like, don't you have any food vouchers?

    31:36-31:38

    Like, you can't eat a food voucher, here's real food.

    31:41-31:42

    They were back the next day.

    31:43-32:01

    They're like, "Yeah, we're starving and stuff, "and our babies are starving, I guess, and stuff, "and we need food vouchers." Like, "What happened to all those groceries "I gave you yesterday?" "Oh, no, we need vouchers." We don't eat like that giant eagle food or whatever.

    32:04-32:05

    This has happened a few times.

    32:05-32:07

    It happened here just a month or two ago.

    32:09-32:27

    I had somebody call and say, "Yeah, I found your website, got your number, "and I wanted to call you, "and I wonder, could you buy me some meat?" And I'm like, "Golly, that's a specific request." True story.

    32:27-32:50

    "Can you buy me some meat?" I said, "I'll tell you what we'll do." I said, "You come to church on Sunday, "we'll go over to Giant Eagle afterwards, "and I will buy you some meat." "No, I can't do that." "Why can't you?" "But can't you just like, you know, send me money now?" Like, "No, I don't really have any way of sending you money now, but if you come to church, I will personally take you over afterwards and we'll go grocery shopping.

    32:50-32:52

    I'll get you whatever you want." "No, no, I can't do that.

    32:53-33:06

    Every time I've offered that, I get turned down every single time." You're like, "Pastor Jeff, you are so calloused." Listen, I'm trying not to be cynical and I'm trying not to be jaded.

    33:07-33:13

    And our leadership will tell you, my wife will tell you, we try to help as many people as we can.

    33:13-33:14

    We really do.

    33:16-33:21

    I just find it so interesting with the people that we help when we share the gospel with them.

    33:23-33:33

    The only way I can describe it is, do you remember that like in the cartoons, when the cartoon character runs through the wall, there's like a perfect shape of him on the wall, even like his hair outline?

    33:35-33:38

    That's what happens when I try to share the gospel with a lot of people.

    33:39-33:43

    Like, here's the groceries, can I tell you about the eternal difference Jesus Christ can make in your life?

    33:44-33:45

    Gone.

    33:47-33:49

    And it's just a modern day feelings, right?

    33:51-33:54

    I want something from the church as long as it's not Jesus.

    33:56-34:02

    And how many people, all the stories we could tell you.

    34:02-34:08

    We give and we give and we give, And as soon as we say, "You know, we don't have any more to give you right now." They're gone.

    34:08-34:23

    "Stick around as long as I can get what I want from the church as long as it's not Jesus." So the message to Felix is the message for any modern day Felix that's listening here or listening to this online or whatever.

    34:24-34:27

    God is not going to settle for second or third priority in your life.

    34:29-34:31

    He's everything or he's nothing to you.

    34:31-34:34

    Those are really the only two choices you have concerning Jesus Christ.

    34:35-34:37

    He's everything to you or he's nothing to you.

    34:39-34:48

    Verse 27 tells us that after he was succeeded by Porteous Festus, it's awfully nice the way Luke phrased that.

    34:48-34:55

    Actually Nero grabbed Felix by the scruff of his neck and the seat of his pants and showed him the door the hard way.

    34:57-35:04

    that after he was succeeded, Felix vanished from history, and there was zero evidence that he ever came to Jesus Christ.

    35:04-35:06

    I was thinking about that this week.

    35:09-35:20

    Zero evidence he came to Christ, and let's assume that based on the Bible, based on secular history, because you know if he came to Christ, Luke would be all over reporting that, right?

    35:21-35:25

    But I was thinking this week, what excuse do you think Felix had before God?

    35:25-35:28

    When he stood before God, What do you think he said?

    35:29-35:32

    Do you think Felix said, "I didn't know"?

    35:32-35:33

    Do you think he said that?

    35:34-35:41

    "Well, I didn't know about Jesus." Do you think Felix said, "Oh, you know what, Lord?

    35:41-35:57

    I was gonna, I was gonna." And I can just hear the Lord saying, "I had my missionary sitting on the porch with you for two years and you didn't.

    35:59-36:00

    You wasted your opportunity.

    36:03-36:06

    Listen, I'm telling you all of this because I love you, okay?

    36:08-36:14

    And I don't want you to think I'm a mean person just because I ask people requesting meat to come to church.

    36:16-36:18

    But I'm telling you this because I love you.

    36:18-36:20

    You don't have an excuse either.

    36:22-36:26

    So I'm begging you, if you would bow your heads with me.

    36:28-36:34

    I'm begging you, if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, maybe you have known about Jesus.

    36:36-36:44

    Maybe you're sitting here even agreeing with the message about Jesus, but you haven't personally turned from your sin and turned to Jesus.

    36:46-36:47

    Today is the day.

    36:50-36:56

    Everybody else, maybe you have, maybe you know somebody that's like a modern day Felix.

    36:59-37:00

    Today can be a new day.

    37:03-37:04

    I wanna encourage you to pray.

    37:07-37:14

    Maybe you're sitting here today and you're saying, you know what, Lord, I have known for a long time who you are, but I haven't acted on faith.

    37:16-37:27

    Maybe you're sitting here today saying, You know God, I've been feeling for a long time like I need to get right with you, but I've just been putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, and I don't know why I keep putting it off.

    37:28-37:32

    I don't know why I think tomorrow is gonna be a better day than today to get right with you.

    37:35-37:39

    I'm sure there are some people here right now say, you know what God, I know.

    37:40-37:46

    I have put some things, some lesser things ahead of you.

    37:49-37:55

    Maybe you're saying, you know, God, maybe I've been like Felix and I've cared more about what people think than what you think.

    37:58-38:07

    Maybe there's some people here that are saying, you know, I've cared more about money and stuff and my job than I've cared about you.

    38:10-38:15

    I've cared more about my secret sin than I've cared about you.

    38:17-38:25

    I've cared more about getting my own way than I've cared about allowing you to be the Lord of my life.

    38:27-38:29

    Today can be the day for you.

    38:31-38:32

    Cry out to God.

    38:34-38:53

    In just a moment, we're going to close the service and worship, and as always, there's going to be a prayer, people from the prayer team, rather, backed by the giant sign that says, "Pray." You can come for prayer for any reason, but especially today, like, you know, I need to receive Christ.

    38:54-38:55

    I need to get serious.

    38:57-39:01

    I need somebody to talk to and I need somebody to pray with me about this.

    39:02-39:03

    We will be so happy to do that.

    39:06-39:50

    And if today is the day that you've received Christ, your next step is to boldly declare your faith baptism and you need to see me about that as soon as possible because our Baptism service is next week and you will have opportunity like in the book of Acts you will have opportunity Immediately to publicly declare your faith in Jesus Christ Father I lift up my brothers and sisters here. I Lift up everyone the father who knows you and follows you But especially today, Father, I lift up maybe some Felix's that are sitting here.

    39:51-39:56

    People that haven't yet come to Christ for whatever reason.

    39:58-40:00

    Father, I pray that today is the day of salvation.

    40:02-40:09

    I pray, Father, that today is the day that lights come on because you, by your Holy Spirit, have renewed in them a sense of urgency.

    40:12-40:14

    Father, we thank You for Your grace.

    40:15-40:20

    You would be so gracious if You just offered salvation to us one time in our lives.

    40:21-40:32

    But the fact that You give an open invitation, that even for the person that may be sitting here today who has said no to You 10,000 times before, they can say yes to You today.

    40:33-40:34

    You don't hold it against them.

    40:35-40:35

    You don't condemn.

    40:36-40:37

    You welcome.

    40:38-40:42

    Like a loving Father, thank You for Your grace, Father.

    40:45-40:46

    Thank You for Your grace, Father.

    40:48-40:50

    Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 24:22-27 

  1. Felix was alarmed when Paul shared with him (Acts 24:25). What's the difference between being alarmed and being convicted?

  2. Why did Felix keep stalling in dealing with Paul (and the Gospel) (Acts 24:22, 25-27)? What is the danger of stalling? Read Hebrews 3:7-8.

  3. What was your big "take-away" from this passage / sermon?
     

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another.

I Will Not Fear Accusations.

Review / Introduction:



How to Fearlessly Defend your Faith: (Acts 24:10-21)

  1. Be Ojbective.

  2. Use the Bible.

  3. Stick to the Issues.

The Example for Paul:

  1. Broke Roman law? (Acts 24:11-13)

  2. Broke Jewish law? (Acts 24:14-16)

  3. Broke God's law? (Acts 24:17-21)

1 Peter 3:15 - but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect...

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint:
Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:26-00:31

    Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Acts 24.

    00:33-00:38

    Acts 24, where we left off last week as we walked through God's Word.

    00:40-00:49

    While you're turning there, if you haven't turned there already, some of you know this, but I know not all of you do, but this is an absolutely true story.

    00:50-00:54

    When I was in college, I was nearly arrested for attempted murder.

    00:55-00:56

    That is a true story.

    00:57-01:01

    And it's kind of funny now, but I promise you it wasn't funny at the time.

    01:02-01:05

    So, arrested, nearly arrested for attempted murder.

    01:05-01:06

    How did that happen?

    01:06-01:07

    I'm going to give you the short version.

    01:07-01:10

    If you want to hear the long version, I'll be glad to tell you.

    01:11-01:22

    But while I was going through college, I was a magazine vendor, and I had two Walmarts and two K-marts, and one of my K-marts, I was walking in to do my magazines, and I was eating Spree.

    01:23-01:24

    How many people know what Spree are?

    01:24-01:26

    that delightfully fruity candy.

    01:26-01:32

    And it came in a foil tube and I wouldn't like tear the foil because I didn't want little pieces of foil everywhere.

    01:32-01:33

    So I'd slide the spree up the tube.

    01:33-01:48

    Well, I was, that's important to the story, but I'm walking in and I'm like, to one of my Kmart's and I thought, well, I'm gonna, I better put this in my pocket because they sell spree and I don't want them to think I'm just like taking it off the shelf and eating it while I'm doing the magazine.

    01:48-01:54

    So I fold it up and stick it in my pocket and go in and I'm doing the magazines, right?

    01:54-01:57

    Rotating them putting out the tabloids and the TV guys. Do they still make TV guides?

    01:58-02:32

    That's still a thing Am I showing my age? Okay. Anyways They still make magazines All right. Um, so I'm doing the magazines and as I'm as I'm stalking the magazine shelf to police officers walk up to me Absolutely true story. No embellishment here whatsoever. But two police officers walk up to me and they like excuse me, sir. I'm like, yes and They said, "What are you doing here?" And I said, "Well, I'm trying not to be smart-alecky here, but I'm like, well, I work here.

    02:33-02:40

    It's not like I, in my free time, I just wander into stores and play with their magazines, right?" That would be weird.

    02:40-02:54

    But the one police officer said, "Do you have a knife on you?" And I said, "Yes, I do." He took a step back, he said, "I want you to pull it out nice and slowly." So I pulled it out.

    02:55-03:00

    He goes, "Nice and slow." And I went...

    03:01-03:02

    Now, this wasn't the actual knife.

    03:03-03:07

    No joke, the actual knife that I had that night was about half this size.

    03:07-03:10

    I used it to cut the bands off of the magazines.

    03:10-03:11

    So I'm like...

    03:11-03:36

    And he goes, "You can put that away." And I said, "Well, what seems to be the problem, officer?" He said, "Yeah, we got a report that you were coming in here to murder someone." I'm like, "But I work here." He said, "Well, that's the report that we got." I'm like, "Well, obviously you have the wrong person." So he gets in his little, you know, the shoulder radio thing.

    03:37-03:45

    He says, "Could you describe the suspect again?" I'm like, "This will clear it up right here." Came back through the radio.

    03:45-04:11

    "Caucasian male, approximately 200 pounds, "blonde hair, maroon dress shirt, "khaki pants, brown shoes." And I'm like, "Oh no, that is a weird coincidence." And they said, "Sir, we're going to have to frisk you." And I thought for a second, okay, this is gonna be really weird when some people, I was pastoring a church at the time in Ohio.

    04:12-04:30

    It's gonna be really weird some of those church members come into Kmart and they see the pastor being frisked in the front like, "Hey, we'll see you tomorrow morning, bring your Bible." And so I'm being frisked in the front of Kmart and they obviously didn't find anything on me and the police, they seemed very confused.

    04:30-04:33

    They took my information, driver's license, wrote everything down.

    04:34-04:36

    They just seemed very confused and they left.

    04:37-04:41

    I remember thinking to myself, what was that all about?

    04:43-04:49

    And I finished my magazines, I walked out of the store, I pulled the spree out of my pocket.

    04:52-05:06

    I was like, "Wait a second, this was like 10 or 11 at night and it was in a foil wrapper?" I think what happened is somebody saw me with that foil wrapper folding it and putting it in my pocket and they thought that I had a switchblade.

    05:08-05:10

    And I was nearly arrested.

    05:12-05:15

    But I was falsely accused, for sure.

    05:16-05:24

    And I can tell you from that experience, and a few others that I'm not going to get into today, I can tell you from that experience that it is no fun to be falsely accused.

    05:26-05:31

    And that's exactly what we're looking at in the life of the Apostle Paul, is he is falsely accused.

    05:32-06:05

    see my ordeal was done in an hour. The thing that he was falsely accused of carries ramifications all the way to the end of the book of Acts, including this trial that we're going to be looking at today. So by way of introduction, again if you're just joining us, if you're just listening online for the first time, we're going through the book of Acts. Paul is at this point in Acts 24, he's falsely accused of bringing Greeks into the temple in Jerusalem, which he did not do.

    06:05-06:32

    And he was attacked by a mob of angry Jews and was promptly rescued/arrested by the Roman tribune Claudius Lysias, who sent Paul to Caesarea, not only for his own safety, but but also to send him to Felix, who was the governor of Judea, the Roman governor of Judea, and that's where Paul stands trial in the passage we're looking at today.

    06:33-06:43

    Paul was actually with Felix for two years, and his time with Felix is kicked off here in this first trial.

    06:45-06:51

    As we look at the text, again, we're going to see Paul has to once again defend his faith.

    06:52-07:02

    The question I want to ask you as you're looking through this passage with me today is, how well are you going to do when you have to defend your faith?

    07:03-07:05

    I know for many of you that has already happened.

    07:08-07:10

    For some of you it's going to be happening very soon.

    07:11-07:12

    Maybe it's going to be happening at Thanksgiving.

    07:13-07:15

    How many people here are the religious nut of your family?

    07:16-07:16

    Anybody?

    07:17-07:18

    You're like the religious nut of your family?

    07:18-07:18

    Okay.

    07:19-07:25

    And you're going to have people, maybe this Thanksgiving, putting you on trial, so to speak, for your faith.

    07:25-07:31

    Maybe you have that friend or co-worker that knows you're a Christian and they love to always try to stump you.

    07:32-07:34

    Throw out those hard Bible questions.

    07:36-07:44

    Maybe this week the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses will show up at your door and your faith is suddenly on trial, the question is, are you going to be ready for that?

    07:47-07:55

    I want to remind you, as we look at Paul's defense, defending your faith is not about winning or losing an argument.

    07:55-07:58

    And I get to tell you that because this is something I...

    07:58-07:59

    it took me a while to learn.

    07:59-08:21

    When I was a young Christian, you know, studying apologetics and studying the Bible, always loaded for bear, I always felt like, you know, there were times the Mormons would come to my house, and I'm like, "Come on in!" And I would just biblically trash them for like two hours, and they'd leave with their tail between their legs, and I'm like, "Victory!" And I was so proud of myself.

    08:21-08:24

    And did that really do anything for the kingdom?

    08:26-08:30

    My pride certainly did, and sharing the Word of God always does.

    08:31-08:35

    But I realized that it's not about winning the argument.

    08:38-08:39

    I mean, we can see that through the book of Acts, right?

    08:40-08:45

    How many times in Acts, Paul shares a gospel, it's like people get saved, they're lining up.

    08:45-08:46

    We wanna receive Jesus.

    08:46-08:48

    Oh, we saw plenty of that, didn't we?

    08:49-08:56

    How many other times in the book of Acts have we seen Paul preach the gospel and people are, all right, let's put the boots to this guy.

    08:56-08:57

    We've seen that too.

    08:59-09:04

    So understand that God doesn't gauge faithfulness on your perceived results.

    09:04-09:06

    It took me a while to get that, people.

    09:07-09:11

    If I don't win the argument, I lose, and God's disappointed in me.

    09:11-09:14

    And that is so not true at all.

    09:14-09:23

    God is honored when His Word is honored, when Christ is exalted, and we lovingly and humbly share God's truth with people.

    09:23-09:27

    That honors God, no matter how people respond.

    09:30-09:35

    Remember, Noah preached for 120 years, and not one person believed him outside of his own family.

    09:37-09:43

    It's not about results because, write this down, results are up to God.

    09:44-09:45

    Results are up to God.

    09:46-09:55

    What did Paul say in 1 Corinthians 3? "I planted, and Paul is watered." But what? God gives the increase. God gives the growth. Only God can do that.

    09:56-10:01

    I can't argue somebody into the kingdom. I can't persuade somebody to be born again.

    10:03-10:04

    God does the work.

    10:06-10:07

    And that's good news, isn't it?

    10:07-10:10

    Because if it was up to you and if it was up to me, we'd have a lot of fear.

    10:11-10:13

    We're talking about fear this year at Harvest Bible Chapel.

    10:13-10:14

    I will not fear.

    10:14-10:15

    And think about it.

    10:16-10:19

    If somebody else's salvation was up to you, you'd live in fear, wouldn't you?

    10:20-10:23

    I could have shared the gospel with this coworker, but what if I don't say it right?

    10:24-10:25

    Or what if I have a rotten attitude?

    10:26-10:29

    What if I come across as a bit of a jerk and he doesn't like Jesus because of me?

    10:29-10:32

    And you would have a lot of reason to fear.

    10:35-10:37

    But the reality is it's up to God, so you can be fearless.

    10:38-10:43

    God promised in His word, in Isaiah 55, His word always accomplishes the purpose for which it's sent out.

    10:43-10:45

    So when you share God's word, God's gonna deal with it.

    10:45-10:47

    I just have to honor His word.

    10:48-10:49

    He'll take care of the results.

    10:50-10:56

    So as we look at this passage, we're going to look at how Paul defended himself.

    10:57-10:59

    We're not going to look so much at what he said.

    11:00-11:05

    We'll do some of that, but I want you to see here how he defended his faith.

    11:05-11:07

    And we're going to do something a little different today.

    11:08-11:22

    Usually we sort of work through the outline as we go through the text, but I'm going to give you the whole outline first here, at least the whole first part, not the sub points in the bottom.

    11:22-11:23

    I'm gonna give you the whole outline.

    11:23-11:24

    You ready?

    11:24-11:25

    How to fearlessly defend your faith.

    11:28-11:34

    Since we're doing things different today, we have an acrostic. The acrostic is "bus." You see that on your outline? Bus, B-U-S.

    11:35-11:39

    Like, "All right, what's the acrostic mean?" I don't know. You can come up with that.

    11:39-11:40

    All right, I wrote the rest of the sermon. You write this part.

    11:43-12:04

    But here it is, church. Listen, kidding aside. When it comes time to defend your faith, you just have to know three things. And if you can nail these three things, and you can stick to these three things, then you will share your faith effectively every time. Every time. Number one is be objective. Be objective.

    12:05-12:26

    Meaning we're just dealing with facts here. We're just dealing with truth. We're not dealing with my opinion or your personality. You see it's not an effective way to share your faith if somebody asks you a question about the Bible and you're like well you're just a you're just ignorant you're just stupid and you just don't listen. That's not objective. Now you're making it a subjective, personal thing.

    12:27-12:28

    That's the first thing.

    12:28-12:29

    We're gonna see all this in the text.

    12:29-12:30

    I'm just giving you the outline ahead of time.

    12:30-12:31

    Say thank you.

    12:31-12:32

    Be objective.

    12:32-12:33

    Number two, use the Bible.

    12:35-12:36

    Use the Bible.

    12:36-12:39

    Again, not about personalities, not about my opinion.

    12:40-12:41

    Well, I think God's like this.

    12:41-12:43

    It doesn't matter what I think God is like.

    12:44-12:47

    What matters is how God has revealed himself to be in his word.

    12:48-12:50

    So you stick with what the Bible says.

    12:51-12:52

    So be objective.

    12:52-12:54

    And secondly, use the Bible.

    12:56-13:00

    And the third one, this is another thing I've had to learn the hard way people.

    13:01-13:02

    So let my pain be your gain.

    13:02-13:05

    The third one is, stick to the issues.

    13:06-13:07

    Stick to the issues.

    13:08-13:09

    We'll talk about this more in a minute here.

    13:10-13:13

    But I learned this the hard way.

    13:15-13:16

    Especially in prison ministry.

    13:17-13:20

    People ask a question and you start to answer it.

    13:20-13:24

    And as soon as you do, onto the next question, like, but I didn't even finish the answer.

    13:24-13:25

    And then you're trying to answer their new question.

    13:26-13:27

    And now they're onto the third question.

    13:28-13:30

    And now you're trying to answer that one.

    13:30-13:38

    And in your conversation, you and you want to encourage the other person to stick to the issues.

    13:39-13:42

    So this is how to fearlessly defend your faith.

    13:42-13:42

    Why fearlessly?

    13:45-13:50

    Because as soon as we talk about sharing your faith, evangelism, witnessing, There's people that are going to tighten up.

    13:52-13:54

    Because so many people are afraid of these moments.

    13:54-13:56

    What do I say?

    13:56-13:58

    What if they ask a hard question?

    13:58-13:59

    I don't want to look stupid.

    14:01-14:09

    I just like to lovingly encourage you of Proverbs 28.1, right, the righteous are bold as a lion.

    14:11-14:12

    Remember we talked about that in the beginning.

    14:13-14:17

    Adult lion's roars can be heard over five miles away.

    14:17-14:18

    Why do they do that?

    14:19-14:22

    Why would a lion roar and let everybody know where he's, because he's not afraid.

    14:23-14:30

    He's not an animal that camouflages himself, hides thinking a predator might get me if I'm not hidden.

    14:30-14:32

    I'm scared of what's out there.

    14:32-14:36

    A lion just steps right out there and lets everyone in the zip code know, here I am.

    14:39-14:42

    The Bible says that's the boldness that we have in the Lord.

    14:43-14:47

    If you wanna fearlessly defend your faith, be objective, use the Bible, stick to the issues.

    14:48-14:50

    Okay, that's the sermon.

    14:51-14:53

    Here's the illustration from Paul.

    14:54-14:54

    Look at verse one.

    14:54-15:06

    "And after five days the high priest, Ananias, came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus.

    15:07-15:11

    They laid before the governor their case against Paul.

    15:12-15:51

    So in just five days, they managed to put a case together and they even got a lawyer." that's that Tortullus. He's their lawyer and they're showing up to court and it says they went down. Why? Because Jerusalem's on a hill, right? So if you're leaving Jerusalem, you're always going down. They went down to Caesarea. Now this Tortullus was an expert in Roman law and the Jews took him because they knew the only way they were going to get any punishment put upon Paul was to prove to Felix that Paul broke Roman law.

    15:53-15:55

    Look at verses 2-4.

    15:56-16:02

    It says, "And when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him." Accused Paul.

    16:03-16:08

    Okay, so it's like you have the courtroom scene in your mind, that's what's going on here.

    16:09-16:13

    Okay, so the prosecuting attorney stands up, Tertullus.

    16:14-16:16

    Here's what he says, opening statement.

    16:18-16:51

    "Since through you, Felix, we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation in every way, and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude, "But to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly." Everybody say, "Gag." This is just flattery. Nobody was buying this.

    16:54-16:55

    Here's the real story. You study history?

    16:56-16:59

    Here's the real story. Do you want to know what was good about Felix?

    17:01-17:03

    Alright, write this down. I'm going to tell you everything that was good about Felix.

    17:03-17:04

    You ready?

    17:05-17:07

    He stopped the Sakari, the assassins.

    17:07-17:10

    Remember we talked about them being led by the Egyptian.

    17:11-17:16

    He stopped the Saqqari and that was it.

    17:17-17:24

    That's the only good thing about Felix that anybody has ever said about him in all of history, period.

    17:25-17:28

    This is flattery. They're just trying to butter him up.

    17:30-17:37

    Felix was the Roman governor of Judea from about 52 to 59 AD.

    17:40-17:46

    In fact, two years after this trial, we're going to see in verse 27, he was removed by Nero.

    17:48-18:06

    Look at verse 5, it says, "For we have found this man," Paul, "For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world, and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." Wow, that's...

    18:07-18:11

    I've been called a lot of things in my life, but that one's just harsh.

    18:11-18:13

    They call him a plague.

    18:14-18:16

    He's not just like a virus or a disease.

    18:16-18:18

    They're like, "This guy is a plague.

    18:19-18:26

    Everywhere he goes, he just infects everybody with his nastiness." All the Jews throughout the world...

    18:26-18:29

    That's a bit of an overstatement, I would say.

    18:30-18:38

    He goes on, he says, "He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him." That was a lie.

    18:38-18:40

    The Jews didn't seize him, the Romans did.

    18:43-18:55

    Verse 8, "By examining him yourself, you'll be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him." Okay, so there's three charges brought against Paul here.

    18:56-18:57

    Three charges.

    18:58-18:59

    Very systematic.

    19:00-19:02

    The first charge was against Roman law.

    19:03-19:03

    Verse 5.

    19:05-19:07

    And they say he's constantly stirring up riots.

    19:09-19:13

    One thing the Romans never tolerated was disturbing the peace.

    19:14-19:17

    You've ever heard of the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome?

    19:18-19:19

    They were all about that.

    19:19-19:22

    They didn't have anything to do with people that would disturb the peace.

    19:22-19:27

    And if somebody was disturbing the peace, they would squash that immediately.

    19:29-19:34

    So the first accusation here is he broke Roman law because he's constantly disturbing the peace.

    19:34-19:36

    Secondly, he broke Jewish law.

    19:38-19:41

    He's a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

    19:42-19:44

    Talk about that in a second.

    19:45-19:49

    And then the third accusation, the third charge, is he broke God's law.

    19:50-19:52

    He broke God's law.

    19:53-19:55

    He profaned the temple.

    19:55-19:57

    Remember, that was the whole accusation.

    19:57-20:04

    This all started because he was accused of taking Greeks into the inner parts of the temple, which he didn't do.

    20:05-20:13

    Remember, the only substance they had for that argument was they think they saw him out in the city somewhere with a Greek, maybe we saw him.

    20:14-20:24

    I think he was like, you know, in the city with the Greek and that turned into, oh yeah, Paul's constantly taking Greeks right into the temple where it's forbidden.

    20:27-20:29

    Now, I'm gonna answer this question real quick.

    20:31-20:41

    The second part of verse six and the first part of verse eight is left out of a lot of Bible translations.

    20:41-20:45

    And actually, if you look down at the bottom of your Bible, You'll see a footnote.

    20:47-20:48

    You see that?

    20:48-20:49

    My Bible has a footnote.

    20:49-21:08

    It says, "Some manuscripts add, and we would have judged him according to our law, but the chief captain Lysias came and with great violence took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come before you." Why is that a footnote?

    21:08-22:12

    Because when they're putting the Bible together, they had many, many, many, many thousands of different copies of the manuscripts and these verses were in some but they weren't in others. So what do we do with it? Well, if they don't belong, and you read this passage straightforwardly, they're just simply urging Felix to examine Paul. In verse 8, "By examining "Him," that "him" refers to Paul then. Like, "Hey, we want you to examine Paul, but if these verses really do belong, here's the thing, verse 8, that "him" refers to Claudius Lysias, the Roman Tribune. And what they're saying is, "By examining Claudius Lysias yourself, you'll find out about everything we're accusing Paul of." And basically they're throwing Claudius under the bus. Hey, that's where that acrostic fits. Right there. Bus. I knew we'd find something.

    22:13-22:35

    But here's the point. Don't get all caught up in this. The point is it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter. Whether the verses belong or they don't belong, the point is this. These Jews were before Felix saying, "Look, we don't like Paul, and we want you to do something about him." That's the bottom line. So verses 10 through 21, we're going to see Paul's example of how he defended himself.

    22:37-22:38

    Paul didn't have a lawyer.

    22:39-22:43

    Paul didn't even really have a lot of time to put his case together.

    22:45-23:06

    Verse 9, it says, "The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so." Verse 10, "When the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied, 'Knowing that for many years You have been a judge over this nation, specifically five years at this point.

    23:07-23:13

    Paul says, "I cheerfully make my defense." Now, he's not buttering him up here.

    23:14-23:22

    What he's saying by knowing for many years you've been a judge over this nation, what he's saying is, "Listen, you know how things work around here, Felix.

    23:23-23:28

    You know the dynamic between Romans and Jews and between Jews and Jews, and you understand how all this works.

    23:29-23:34

    So because you're not a rookie, because you know what's going on, I cheerfully, he says, I make my defense.

    23:36-23:39

    So Paul makes a systematic defense.

    23:39-23:42

    Number one, first of all, the accusation was, did he break Roman law?

    23:44-23:45

    Here's his answer in verses 11 through 13.

    23:46-23:47

    Did he break Roman law?

    23:49-24:07

    He says, you can verify that it is not more than 12 days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem And they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city.

    24:08-24:17

    Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me." Stop right there.

    24:17-24:19

    Paul's saying, "Okay, first of all, here's my defense.

    24:19-24:20

    Did I break the Roman law?

    24:20-24:21

    Well, let's look at the facts.

    24:22-24:25

    It's been 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem.

    24:25-24:28

    Five of those days have been in Caesarea, we just saw in this passage here.

    24:29-24:32

    Plus there was a time that Paul went through the Jewish purification.

    24:32-24:42

    Paul's point is, "I really didn't have much time to start a revolt, did I?" Not much time to amass a gang and start rioting and disturbing the peace.

    24:45-24:47

    I want you to see first of all, we talked about being objective.

    24:48-24:49

    It's exactly what Paul did here.

    24:49-24:50

    He didn't make it personal.

    24:52-24:56

    He didn't make it about the personalities, Not Felix, who doesn't have a great reputation.

    24:56-25:00

    Not Claudius Lysias, not the high priest, who we saw was a violent thief.

    25:00-25:05

    He could have brought all of that stuff up, but he didn't.

    25:07-25:11

    We're going to see in this passage, Paul stuck to the three accusations.

    25:11-25:13

    He goes, okay, these are the three things that are on the table.

    25:13-25:15

    These are the three things that we're going to address.

    25:15-25:21

    And that takes us to the, you know, other principle that we're seeing in the play here, that he stuck to the issues.

    25:23-25:24

    He stuck to the issues.

    25:25-25:28

    You see the accusation, you broke Roman law, you broke Jewish law, you broke God's law.

    25:29-25:36

    And Paul, in his defense, okay, here's the answer to the Roman thing, here's the answer to the Jewish thing, and here's the answer to breaking God's law.

    25:37-25:38

    Very systematic.

    25:40-25:42

    Again, stick to the issues and do not get sidetracked.

    25:45-25:49

    Several years ago, in my old church, I got a phone call from a guy.

    25:51-25:54

    He said, "I'm going to commit suicide.

    25:54-26:13

    I have some health problems, and I decided I can't take the health problems anymore, and I'm going to kill myself." And I said, "Well, why did you call me, if that's the case?" He said, "Well, I don't know what happens to a person when they die.

    26:15-26:16

    And I just wanted to call and make sure.

    26:16-26:20

    I heard that if you commit suicide, you go straight to hell.

    26:20-26:24

    And I just wanted to call a church to make sure that's not the case.

    26:27-26:34

    I said, "Let me ask you a question." I said, "You said you're not sure, right?" He goes, "Yeah, I'm not sure." I said, "Do you really want to step into eternity, not sure where you're going to land?

    26:35-26:36

    Is that your plan?

    26:36-26:55

    You're going to step into eternity, you have no idea what's waiting for you, that's your plan?" And he said, "You should work for a suicide hotline." I said, "Well, I'd like to get together and like to talk to you about what the Bible says." Remember last week we talked about Providence, do you remember that?

    26:56-26:58

    So this guy gave me his address, I went to his house.

    27:00-27:22

    I show up and as soon as I saw him, I'm like, "Dude, I know you." He looked at me and looked at me, he goes, "I know, I know you too, but I can't think of where." And I said, "We worked together when I was 15 at a local restaurant." He's like, "Oh yeah, that's right." And I said his name. I'm like, "Yeah, your name's so-and-so.

    27:22-27:28

    And you remember we worked out at this restaurant together?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." So, I'm talking about Providence.

    27:30-27:34

    So I said, "I'd like to tell you what the Bible says." And I started to share the gospel with him.

    27:34-27:38

    And he's like, "What do you think about creation and evolution?" And I started answering that.

    27:38-27:40

    And I'm like one minute into that.

    27:40-27:43

    And he's like, "Well, what about the dinosaurs?" And I start to talk about the dinosaurs.

    27:43-27:47

    "Okay, well, what do you think there's life on other planets?" And now we're talking about that.

    27:47-27:49

    This went on for like 20 minutes.

    27:52-28:15

    And finally I just closed my Bible and I said, "You know, I'd really like to help you, but I don't think you're ready to listen." He goes, "Well, sure I am." And I said, "No, you're not actually, because every time you ask a question, you don't listen to what the answer is, you just ask the next question." And it was extremely frustrating.

    28:18-28:46

    But I just want to encourage you, he's still with us today, in case you're wondering, but I just want to encourage you, don't let people sidetrack you because it will be a fruitless conversation and you have, I think, the responsibility to lovingly say to that person, "Look, you asked me some very specific questions and those are the questions I want to talk about." and you get sidetracked and they're trying to throw all these things at you and...

    28:46-28:48

    You're not teaching and they're not learning.

    28:49-28:50

    So stick to the issues.

    28:51-28:53

    You want to talk about this, let's talk about this.

    28:54-28:54

    All right?

    28:57-28:59

    Number two, Paul's accusation here.

    29:00-29:02

    Did I break the Jewish law?

    29:02-29:03

    Look at verses 14 through 16.

    29:05-29:06

    Did I break the Jewish law?

    29:07-29:37

    He says, "But this I confess to you, that according to the way," that's what they called followers of Jesus, "which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law and written in the prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

    29:38-29:48

    So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man." To Paul's defense here, the second accusation is I broke Jewish law.

    29:48-30:00

    Paul's saying, "I'm a Christian, but that's not exactly heresy." Paul says, "Listen, I worship the God of the Jews." And do you see here, again, using these principles, Paul used the Bible.

    30:01-30:02

    Paul used the Bible.

    30:03-30:07

    Don't make the issue between you and the person.

    30:07-30:11

    Don't make the issue between my church versus your church.

    30:13-30:17

    When your faith is on trial, you want to make the issue between that person and the Bible.

    30:18-30:21

    Like here, that's what you think, but I want to show you what God said.

    30:21-30:27

    You say, "I used to think this way too, but I want to show you what God said." Make the issue between them and God's Word.

    30:30-30:38

    By the way, if you don't believe the Bible, then your discussion is just gonna be opinion versus opinion, and that just isn't gonna get you anywhere.

    30:38-30:39

    You might as well talk about football.

    30:42-30:43

    Here again, Paul sticks to the issues.

    30:46-30:53

    He decides to circle back to the main issue, the real issue that enraged him.

    30:53-30:56

    It wasn't the Greek in the temple thing.

    30:57-31:00

    The real issue that enraged was his belief in the resurrection.

    31:01-31:02

    But look at how he words it here.

    31:03-31:12

    He says in verse 15, "There will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust." What does that mean?

    31:12-31:13

    Well, jot these references down.

    31:13-31:17

    We're not going to look at them today, but you can do a little Bible study yourself.

    31:17-31:21

    John 5 28-29.

    31:23-31:25

    John 5 28-29.

    31:25-31:27

    And I write down Revelation 20.

    31:29-31:31

    Revelation 20 verses 11 through 15.

    31:34-31:36

    The Bible teaches that there are two resurrections.

    31:38-31:40

    The first resurrection is for God's people.

    31:40-31:43

    People that are born again receive Jesus Christ.

    31:43-31:47

    The Bible says, I'm giving you the very short general version here because we could spend hours on this.

    31:48-31:54

    But the Bible teaches that if you're a believer in Christ, when He returns, you will receive a glorified body.

    31:55-31:56

    What's that like?

    31:56-32:02

    Well, 1 Corinthians 15 says, it's kind of like the one that you have, but it's gloriously different.

    32:03-32:09

    It's like the difference between a watermelon seed and a watermelon, and I don't mean your new body's gonna be put like a watermelon, that was a bad example.

    32:12-32:21

    It's the difference between a seed and a fruit, basically, that's made of the same stuff, but gloriously different.

    32:21-32:26

    And you're gonna have a glorified body that you're going to enjoy forever.

    32:26-32:30

    It's not going to get sick, it's not going to die, it's not going to get weak.

    32:31-32:34

    You're going to have it to enjoy in Christ's presence forever.

    32:36-32:38

    That's one resurrection, but there's another one.

    32:38-33:04

    After the millennial reign of Christ, Revelation chapter 20 teaches that every person who's rejected God, every person who has refused to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, who has seen the gift that God offers of eternal life and grace and mercy and says, "I don't want your stupid gift." Every person that does that, after the thousand year reign of Christ, the Bible says that they will receive a glorified body too.

    33:06-33:07

    See, here's the horrifying thing.

    33:09-33:22

    Just like a believer's body is eternal and indestructible, the unbeliever's body also will be eternal and indestructible because it will be in hell to constantly suffer but never be destroyed.

    33:23-33:26

    A body that's constantly on fire but never consumed.

    33:28-33:29

    It's a horrific thought.

    33:32-33:33

    The Bible clearly teaches that.

    33:34-33:37

    You are going to be somewhere forever.

    33:40-33:43

    And it's not based on how good of a person you were.

    33:43-33:56

    It's not based on, "Did I go to church? Did I keep the rules?" The issue is this, "Am I forgiven of my sin?" As I stand now by nature in the flesh, I am guilty of sin.

    33:58-34:03

    But when I receive the gift, the God that I sinned against gave me this gift.

    34:06-34:12

    When I receive that gift, I'm pronounced in God's courtroom not guilty, forgiven.

    34:15-34:18

    A gift of eternal life that can never be taken from me, by the way.

    34:19-34:26

    When you're pronounced not guilty, when you are forgiven, when you are born again, there is not a power anywhere that can undo that.

    34:28-34:29

    You are eternally secure.

    34:32-34:34

    You're going to be forever somewhere.

    34:36-34:37

    Where are you going to be?

    34:39-34:50

    Number three, finally, and systematic, "I didn't break Roman law. I didn't break Jewish law." Well, the last accusation is, "Did you break God's law, Paul?" Look at verse 17.

    34:52-35:02

    He says, "Now after several years, I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings." Do you remember? That's why Paul was in such a hurry to get to Jerusalem.

    35:02-35:07

    He wanted to... There are all these poor Christians, and all the Gentile churches took an offering.

    35:07-35:23

    And Paul's like, "I've got to get to Jerusalem. I've got to get this offering to them." I was like, "Guess what I was doing? I was bringing money to poor people." He says, "While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult.

    35:24-35:33

    But some Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, should they have anything against me.

    35:35-36:08

    Or else, let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them. It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day." The last part of Paul's defense, he says, "I was bringing relief. And by the way, I was purified in the temple, so I wasn't breaking Jewish law either. I went through the purification.

    36:09-36:15

    He said there was no rioting. Paul says, "By the way, where are the witnesses?" Shouldn't a trial have witnesses?

    36:17-36:24

    If there's all these accusations that I was causing, all these problems, where are all the people that can give testimony?

    36:24-36:34

    "Yes, we saw him here doing this, saying this, and these were..." He says, "Where are they?" They no-showed, if there are any.

    36:36-36:37

    Again, be objective.

    36:37-36:38

    Be objective.

    36:38-36:42

    Paul says the only accusation really, here's the real issue, let's just be real objective here.

    36:42-36:49

    The only accusation that they have against me is that I believe in a resurrection, which by the way, the Pharisees also believe in that, and they're part of the Sanhedrin.

    36:49-36:54

    So you can't even say believing in a resurrection is a crime because some of the Jewish council believes in a resurrection.

    36:57-37:05

    So Paul's basically saying here, You know, "They're beef with me. These Jews, they're beef with me." It doesn't belong in a Roman court.

    37:07-37:15

    So do you see in this passage, Paul employs these three things, these three principles that I would commend to you.

    37:15-37:22

    And if you can get these down, it's not going to matter who comes after you.

    37:22-37:30

    You're going to, with a cool head, be able to fearlessly, And Christ exaltingly defends your faith.

    37:30-37:32

    And the first one is be objective.

    37:33-37:35

    Use the Bible and stick to the issues.

    37:37-37:58

    1 Peter 3.15 says, "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy." But look at this, "Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

    37:59-38:03

    Yeah, do it with gentleness and respect.

    38:04-38:15

    It's important to know now so that we can be prepared for when, because we don't always know when we're going to need to make that defense.

    38:18-38:21

    We saw in Paul's case, he didn't exactly have time to prepare a case, did he?

    38:22-38:23

    He didn't even have a lawyer.

    38:24-38:28

    He didn't have time to get his documents in order, or call in expert witnesses.

    38:31-38:36

    You could say he didn't have time to prepare, but you could also say he was already prepared long before this trial.

    38:39-38:39

    So what about you?

    38:40-38:43

    When your faith is in the hot seat, are you going to be ready?

    38:45-38:50

    When your faith is on trial, you too can be fearless.

    38:52-38:56

    Be objective, use the Bible, stick to the issues.

    38:57-38:57

    Let's pray.

    38:59-39:03

    Father in heaven, thank You for the example of Your Word today.

    39:03-39:11

    Father, just as I confess to my brothers and sisters here, and to You God, I have messed this up so many times in my life.

    39:13-39:30

    What a great example You've given us in Your Word of how to lift high your word and make a defense of the faith without being personally abrasive, personally offensive.

    39:32-39:40

    God, in Your sovereignty and Your providence, You know when every single one of us are going to have to make that defense.

    39:40-39:42

    For some of us here, it might be this week.

    39:43-39:44

    For some of us, it might be at Thanksgiving.

    39:45-39:52

    that the questions, the accusations, it's going to be coming after us, and we're going to have to defend ourselves.

    39:54-39:57

    For some of us, Father, the cult might show up at our front door tomorrow.

    39:59-40:05

    Some of us might be going to a hostile work environment that knows we're Christians and loves to try to make us look foolish.

    40:08-40:11

    God, You know every context, everyone represented here.

    40:11-40:25

    I pray, Father, now that You're using Your Word and Your Holy Spirit, Father, is working in our hearts in such a way that whenever that time comes, we can make a defense.

    40:27-40:31

    And again, Father, it's not about us winning or losing a debate.

    40:34-40:47

    It's about by Your grace, by Your mercy, Lord willing, It's about you using our testimony to lead others to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

    40:49-40:50

    We trust you, Father.

    40:52-40:56

    Let us be prepared to proclaim your name.

    40:57-41:00

    Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 24:1-21 

  1. Paul made his defense "cheerfully" (Acts 24:10). How can we have that attitude when we feel on the defensive?

  2. Acts 24:15 talks about the resurrection of the just and the unjust. Explain what that means. See John 5:28-29, Revelation 20:11-15.

  3. Why is it important to stay objective when sharing? What are ways we can make it subjective? Why could this be a problem?

  4. What is your big take-away from this passage?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another - to be fearless.