Latest / HBCWestminster / 10.20.24 Acts 24:1-27 Pastor Sam Porges

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10.20.24 Acts 24:1-27 Pastor Sam Porges · HBCWestminster

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Let's pray. Father, this morning our desire is to meet with you, to commune with you through your
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spirit, to look to your word and see how we can become more effective witnesses for Jesus. Father,
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we want your son to be known. We want that name to be on not only our lips, but the lips of the
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people who live in this city. And so this morning I pray that you would help us to view our lives
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and our purpose through your eyes so that we can be effective to live how you want us to live and
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to bring much glory to your name. And we ask this in the name of your son Jesus. Amen. Amen. You can
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be seated. Well, we have entered into Paul's legal trials in various courts.
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As he makes his way from Jerusalem to Rome. And in chapter 23, we saw how Luke purposefully
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presents Paul's trials as similar to those of Jesus. And we ended last week with this idea,
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right? When the people of God, when the people of Jesus walk in the way of Jesus,
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their stories end up looking like his. Paul was committed to living without regret before
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death.
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And to walking as faithfully as he could to Jesus. If we want to live before God just as
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faithfully, if we today want to walk in the way of Jesus, we said that we must both accept
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the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Those comprise the way of
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Jesus, right? We don't get to keep what's dramatic and exciting and powerful, but discard what is
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difficult. And today, as we look to chapter 24, we're going to learn about some of the tools that
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God uses to shape our faith and witness as we follow the way of Jesus. I'm sure many of you
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are familiar with the process of how diamonds are formed, right? The element carbon is transformed
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from something commonplace into something incredibly beautiful and valuable.
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And three factors are necessary for the formation of a diamond. Heat, pressure, and time. Carbon-rich
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materials are trapped, they say, a hundred miles below the earth's surface. And they're subjected
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to temperatures of 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and pressure of 725,000 PSI. Which, if you're like,
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what does that even mean? It's 50,000 times the atmospheric pressure that,
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we feel, right now. There isn't an exact amount of time that is required for a diamond to form,
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but the internet says this, because I'm no geologist, so I don't know. But the internet
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says it could take days, weeks, months, even up to billions of years. Now, regardless of what you
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think about those numbers, the point is that it takes a long time. Once formed, the diamonds are
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then carried to the earth's surface by deep volcanic eruptions, and then once they come to
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the surface, we can extract them.
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Acts 24 shows that God utilizes the same factors in our spiritual formation as are necessary in
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diamond formation. He employs heat, pressure, and time to accomplish his will in us and for us.
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And so when it gets hot in the kitchen, when we feel the pressures of life, the outside world,
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or the inward pressures of the outside world, we feel the pressures of life. And so when we feel
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the pressures of temptation, and when we have no choice but to wait upon the timing of God,
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Paul's example invites us to see that God, in those things, is invisibly and silently
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working in us to shape us into the new creation that he wants us to be. And when we become that
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kind of person, who God wants us to be, then God is displayed more clearly through us.
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We become more effective witnesses.
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And so in today's study, we'll see how Paul handles heat, pressure, and time as he seeks
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to live out the will of God in his life. And so we begin with Paul in custody in the city of
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Caesarea. At this point, he's been handed over from Lysias, the tribune, who oversaw the military
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detachment in Jerusalem, right? And he's handed over to Felix, who's the governor of the province
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of Judea. Felix was, think about him this way, he was a handful of people, and he was a handful of
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successions after Pontius Pilate. They held the same position as governor of Judea, just 25 years
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apart. And so Paul is safely escorted up the chain of command from Lysias to Felix, and has been
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waiting at this point, as we begin chapter 24, he's been waiting for five days for his accusers
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from Jerusalem to meet him in court before the governor. And so let's look again at verse 1.
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It says,
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As we learned last week, this high priest, Ananias, and the chief priests were part of the
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corrupt Jewish aristocracy that really ruled over the Jews, and they specifically comprised
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or constituted the Sadducean contingent of the Sanhedrin. So the Sanhedrin is the ruling body,
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Pharisees and Sadducees, and Ananias and the chief priests were part of the ruling body,
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and the chief priests would have been Sadducees within that. And so they were theologically
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liberal and eager to compromise with the Romans in order to receive benefits from them. And they
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also vehemently, we know, hated Paul, whose preaching about the risen Jesus had challenged
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the status quo in their day. They are so dedicated to eliminating Paul that this says they've hired
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a professional legal orator named
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Tertullus to eloquently articulate their case before Governor Felix. And Tertullus was probably
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the Sanhedrin's legal expert on all things Roman law. He's like their lawyer on retainer, right?
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Continuing in verse 1, it says this,
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They laid before the governor their case against Paul. And when he had been summoned,
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Tertullus began to accuse him, saying,
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Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight most excellent,
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Felix, reforms are being made for this nation. In every way and everywhere we accept this with
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all gratitude. This kind of formal and honorable greeting was customary in this day, but if you
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know the history of Felix's governorship, you know that Tertullus, this silver-tongued
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attorney, is totally sucking up to him. He praises Felix for reforms and peace,
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but in reality there were no widespread reforms and there was no peace during his reign.
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And Felix became governor by the nepotistic petition of his brother. He was no stranger
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to cruelty and bribes, which we'll actually see in verse 26 of this very chapter.
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But this led to increased unrest and crime in Judea. And his rule, which was about AD 52 to
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AD 60, and at this point we're at AD 58 or so, his rule was marked with,
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Feuds and disturbances between Romans and the oppressed Jews and Samaritans,
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which Felix put down with severity. In fact, the high priest Jonathan, who, Jonathan was the guy
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who would succeed Ananias this very year in AD 58, not long after these events. But the high
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priest Jonathan was assassinated by men hired by Felix. Jonathan kept threatening Felix,
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by reporting him to Caesar. He says, I'm going to report you if you don't do better,
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if you don't govern well. And so Felix pays off one of Jonathan's close friends to hire assassins to
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kill him. And while worshipers are mingling in Jerusalem during a Jewish festival, these men with
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daggers under their cloaks murder Jonathan, flee the scene, and they were never caught. And so,
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we read, since through you we enjoy much peace. It was this kind of thing that was going on, right?
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Some peace. Tertullus' introduction is typical politics, right? He's buttering Felix up so that
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he will do the Jews' bidding. Look at verse 4. He says,
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But to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly.
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For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world,
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and is a
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ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him.
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By examining him yourself, you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we
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accuse him. The accusation here against Paul is threefold. He says, first, he's a plague,
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literally a pest. They think Paul infects people with his teaching. He's an undesirable infection
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infection that can only be cured by the Roman sword. So that's number one. Second, he's a
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political agitator. He stirs up unrest in all the synagogues, which would have been littered
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throughout the entire empire. And there is an element of truth to this, because did not riots
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follow Paul kind of wherever he went? Yes, but who was starting them? It wasn't Paul, it was the Jews
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who were opposed to his teaching. So he's a political agitator. And then third, they say,
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he's a religious extremist. They say he's supposedly this ringleader of the sect of the
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Nazarenes. Now, this is the only time when that word Nazarene is used to describe Christians,
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undoubtedly as an insult, right? Do you guys remember Nathaniel's question in John chapter
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one, verse 46, when they say, we found the Messiah and he came out of Nazareth. And Nathaniel looks
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kind of with some incredulity and says, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
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This podunk nothing town, right? So to associate them with Nazareth as these Nazarenes was
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an insult. But in the minds of these Jews, these way followers who believed in a risen Christ were
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an aberrant sect of Judaism who stood against Jewish custom. In fact, it's pretty much after
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the destruction of the temple that even in the minds of the Romans, the Christians were kind of
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forced out from under the umbrella of Judaism, okay? But these Jews think of Christians as this
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sect. They stand against us, and supposedly, they claim, their ringleader Paul tried to profane or
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desecrate the temple, which is a claim that had absolutely no evidence. And notice, if you were
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here last week, you may have noticed that in chapter 23, what they accused Paul of before
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the tribune Lysias is he did desecrate the temple, which held no water. And so here, they soften the
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accusation by saying, oh, he tried to profane the temple. And they're hoping that Felix will see
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these supposed disturbances under his rule as a liability to his own job security, because
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unrest in his province would reflect poorly on him. Additionally, Josephus tells us, he's an
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early historian,
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that Rome had given the Jews authority to put to death anybody who desecrates the temple.
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That's why they're pushing this so hard, right? Because this is like the capital crime, right? If
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they can prove he desecrated the temple, then Paul is done for. And so the Jews hope Felix will see
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all of this, just squash Paul, and be done with it. And overall, their accusations are broad,
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right? They're exaggerated. They are unsubstantial.
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And they are false. Now we get to verse 10. Paul states his case, and notice he doesn't flatter
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Felix with praises for any fictitious peace or justice. He simply keeps his greeting respectful
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and concise. And so look with me at verse 10. And when the governor had nodded to him to speak,
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Paul replied, knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation,
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I cheerfully make my defense.
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Paul states that their accusation regarding the temple is false, right? He says, I've only been
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in Jerusalem for 12 days, or I got to Jerusalem 12 days ago. Remember, he's been here for five,
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okay? So I just got to Jerusalem 12 days ago. I haven't even had time, if I wanted to, to organize
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a revolt or a riot. His motive for traveling to Jerusalem was worship, not revolution. And then
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notice this. He transitions from defending himself to the gospel in verse 14. He says,
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but this I confess to you, that according to the way which they call a sect, I worship the God of
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our fathers.
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Believing everything laid down by the law and written in the prophets, having a hope in God,
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which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the
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unjust. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.
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Paul is so good at steering conversations toward the gospel. He just effortlessly
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weeps.
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He weeps the truth about Jesus into his defense because he's not ashamed of the message. He's not
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afraid of the consequences. And if you think about it, these verses are completely unnecessary to his
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defense because couldn't he go from verse 13 to verse 17? Verse 13, neither can they prove to you
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what they now bring up against me. Verse 17, now after several years, I came to bring alms to my
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nation, right? And just continue on his defense. These are not necessary.
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So why does he include this short testimony? And I think it's this.
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Because in the opportunity to defend himself legally, he saw an opportunity to present the
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gospel. He saw an opportunity to present the gospel. Paul's just committed to getting on the
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topic of Jesus, getting on the topic of the truth. And I think that there's a lesson for us in this.
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If we were as persistent,
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and strategic as Paul, at getting on the topic of Jesus, at getting on the topic of the truth,
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I bet our opportunities for witnessing would increase in frequency and in effectiveness.
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And I wonder if the reason that we don't witness often is because
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we're not that interested in bringing Jesus up. We're just okay with
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people not knowing Jesus. We're just okay with flying under the radar at work,
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with flying under the radar in our neighborhoods. And I wonder if we need to be real today and
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confess to God that we are just fine if his name isn't brought up. Like, we don't spend time
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strategizing about how to bring up the gospel in conversation, about how to steer the topic
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toward Jesus. We don't spend the time doing that and pondering that because we don't want to.
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You know, if you don't know me well, I love Lord of the Rings, okay? It's one of my favorite
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stories. The books are great. The movies are objectively the best. Looking at my office,
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I have a map of Middle Earth on my wall. I have a sword that was given to me that's from Lord of
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the Rings on my wall. I just love it. And just the other day, we had Reese and Anna Davidson. I don't
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know if they're here or not, but they're new members. We announced them last week, and they
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had come over on Thursday night for dinner. And Reese asked me, I don't even know how the
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conversation got to Lord of the Rings, okay? I really don't. But Reese, at some point, he just
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asked me about the Christian imagery. Like, what Christian imagery is there in the Lord of the
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Rings? And I had to restrain myself from just launching into this sermon. It's like, oh my gosh.
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Somebody asked, finally, you know? And I gave him my short answer, which was probably still too long.
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But Lord of the Rings is just something I love, I've thought about, and I'm just unashamed. Like,
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I...
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if you think of me as a nerd, I just don't care. I just don't. And I don't know what that thing is
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for you. Maybe it's not Lord of the Rings. I know it is for Brendan, me and you, dude. The brotherhood,
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as it were. But your thing probably isn't that. But what is it for you? Just that thing you're
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just not ashamed of bringing up in conversation. You love it. If it's your work, your family,
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maybe your kids, maybe God help us all in this season, it's politics, right? Maybe it's exercise,
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your hobbies. You love talking about it. You think about it often. And you're just,
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you just don't care if people think of you differently when you bring it up. I would hope
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today that as we consider Jesus,
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if we search our hearts,
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and find complacency when it comes to witnessing to him, that we would confess that and repent.
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We would change. I hope that as we consider Jesus and how much more glorious he is than
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fitness and work and Lord of the Rings, Star Wars for some of you, whatever it is,
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that we would really consider what it would mean to make Jesus, think about it like our
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conversational,
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true north. Like, I just want to point people that way, man. Like, that we would just be able to say,
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I've thought a lot about the worth and the glory of Jesus, and I just don't care if my co-workers
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think of me differently because I'm a Christian. I do not care if the clerk at King Soopers as I'm
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checking out thinks of me differently, or if my family members think of me weirdly. I just don't
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care, right? I hope that he would be able to say, I don't care if my family members think of me
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that way. I hope that he would become that for us. Paul was an expert at this kind of conversational
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evangelism, and I don't know about you, I want to be as well. I want to be as well. Let's continue
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in verse 17. He says,
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Now, after several years, I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. While I was
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doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from
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Asia, they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation.
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Should they have anything against me? Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they
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found when I stood before the council, other than this one thing that I cried out while standing
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among them. It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this
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day. Paul's defense can be summed up this way. He says, they say I'm a plague, but all I've been
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doing is preaching hope. They say I'm a political agitator, but I've never instigated any riots.
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They say I'm a political or a religious extremist, but I've never instigated any riots.
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But my belief in the resurrection of the dead is actually in consonance with their
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Old Testament. It's the answer to everything my accusers claim to believe, right? I even like that
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he says, the followers of this way, they call a sect. It's like Jesus isn't some sectarian form
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of Judaism. He's the very heart of true Judaism. Paul says, I don't have to discard the law or the
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in order to believe in Jesus. Because
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Jesus is actually the fulfillment of what they believe in. The resurrection is actually the hope
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of our nation, Israel. And so he just says, my political record is clean and my religious record
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is clear. None of the charges stick to him because none of them are true, except for one, which he
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confesses in verse 21. He says, I'll admit this though. I will admit that they started fighting
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over my belief in the resurrection. That's why I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.
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That's what I'm guilty of. Other than that, he calmly tells the truth and entrusts the results
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to God. And Paul's witness I find here is like a diamond. It's shaped by heat and the pressure of
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this moment. And he responds to the pressure by pressing into the gospel. Notice that not by
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shying away from it, right? He doesn't fold. He doubles down. And we would do well to consider
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his example.
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Highlanders, when the heat is up and the pressure's on, how do you respond?
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What happens to your witness to Christ? Like when you're talking with someone and you can feel the
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tension rising in the conversation, right? When the tension is rising in that conversation with
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a neighbor or when you feel that awkwardness, when you're conversing with a family member who
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does not appreciate your faith in Jesus Christ, what happens to your witness to Christ?
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What do you do? Or God help us if the day comes in this country, when opposition to the church
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becomes more normative, becomes more strategic, more planned, more normalized, how will we react?
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Do we freak out and start demanding our rights? Do we anxiously plead for our innocence and we
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sweat over vindicating ourselves? Do we sweat over vindicating ourselves? Do we sweat over vindicating
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and proving ourselves right?
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Do we shy away from mentioning Jesus
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because we're afraid of the consequences
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or, like Carla mentioned earlier from 1 Peter,
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do we entrust ourselves truly to God?
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Do we handle ourselves with dignity and respect
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and then simply present the truth?
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Because your response,
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when the temperature's high and the pressure's on,
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shows two things.
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Number one, it not only shows the quality of your faith,
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but even more importantly than that,
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it shows beyond your faith who the God is that you serve.
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And so if we get all anxious and defensive, combative,
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that shows that our God is anxious
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and defensive and combative.
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And that is not who he is.
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On the flip side, though, if we respond just with grace
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and just say, I will take whatever's coming,
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and man, if you've been coming
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to the Tuesday morning men's book study,
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I'm not gonna try to vindicate myself.
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God will vindicate me,
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whether it's on this earth or on the last day.
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But if we say, I'm just gonna handle myself with dignity
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and with grace and leave the results to God,
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that also reflects who God is.
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And so we can display Jesus well in that regard.
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Most of us hate the idea
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that heat and pressure shape us
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because heat is painful.
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Pressure's uncomfortable.
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But these are the very tools God uses
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to sharpen our witness
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so that we can be effective
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in making Jesus known.
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Look at these verses from 1 Peter 1 3-9.
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He says this,
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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According to his great mercy,
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he has caused us to be born again
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to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
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from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable,
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undefiled and unfading,
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kept in heaven for you,
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who by God's power are being guarded through faith
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for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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In this you rejoice.
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And can we just pause and say, yeah, we do.
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Yeah, we do.
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In this you rejoice,
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though now for a little while, if necessary,
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you have been grieved by various trials
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so that the tested genuineness of your faith
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more precious than gold that perishes,
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though it is tested by fire,
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may be found to result in praise and glory and honor
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at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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Though you have not seen him, you love him.
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Though you do not now see him,
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you believe in him and rejoice with joy
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that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
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obtaining the outcome of your faith,
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the salvation of your souls.
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I want to give you guys an encouragement today.
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And today, if there's pressure
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that you're feeling from the outside,
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maybe it's some unspoken rule not to bring up Jesus,
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or maybe it's just blatant opposition to you
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by a friend, family member, co-worker, whatever it is,
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or today, if you feel the pressure within
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of temptation and fear,
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know this,
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God uses the very thing you try so hard to escape,
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to form you into the person you should be.
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And when we try to stiff arm that heat and that pressure,
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we don't like those situations.
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No, God, I don't want it.
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God says, no, it's actually exactly what I've ordained
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to shape you.
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A diamond witness, if you will,
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is only shaped under these conditions,
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and this is God's desire for you.
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And so this chapter ends with Paul witnessing
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to Felix in private after,
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an undecided, yet again, public case.
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And so look with me at verse 22,
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and we'll finish it out.
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But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way,
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put them off, saying,
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when Lysias the tribune comes down,
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I will decide your case.
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Then he gave orders to the centurion
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that he should be kept in custody,
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but have some liberty,
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and that none of his friends should be prevented
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from attending to his needs.
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After some days, Felix came with his wife, Drusilla,
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who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul
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and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.
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And as he reasoned about righteousness
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and self-control and the coming judgment,
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Felix was alarmed and said,
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go away for the present.
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When I get an opportunity, I will summon you.
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At the same time, he hoped that money
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would be given him by Paul.
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So he sent for him often and conversed with him.
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When two years had elapsed,
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Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus,
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and desiring to do the Jews a favor,
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Felix left Paul in prison.
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So apparently this governor Felix
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knows that Paul is in prison,
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and knows about Christianity,
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but this works not in any way in Paul's favor.
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He keeps Paul in fairly liberal custody,
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which would have been a benefit of Roman citizenship,
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right, your friends could come and visit you.
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And he, Felix, and his wife Drusilla
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make frequent visits to converse with Paul in private.
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And when we read that, our hope is that,
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man, you're talking with the apostle Paul.
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Maybe something's gonna change in you,
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something he says is gonna strike
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a chord in your heart.
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Maybe he'll want to hear more,
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but unfortunately that isn't the case.
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Verse 26 says that Felix actually is,
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oh, Felix actually is hoping
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that Paul will give him some sort of bribe
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in order to get out of jail.
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And so he sends for Paul often,
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and Paul speaks as we saw the same gospel.
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He talks about the same Jesus.
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He reasons for the same standards of moral living
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and tries to persuade Felix to join the truth.
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And this is another one of those similarities
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between Paul and Jesus that we talked about last week.
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Paul is trying to convince Felix of the truth
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just like I think Jesus was trying
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to convince Pontius Pilate.
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Do you remember that story in John chapter 18?
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Jesus is brought before Pilate in his kind of headquarters.
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And he's asking Jesus about if he's a king
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and Jesus says, you have said so.
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And he's like, well, what kind of a kingdom
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are you even running here?
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And Jesus says, this kingdom,
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my kingdom is not of this world.
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I came into this world to testify to the truth.
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And Jesus is trying to lure Pontius Pilate in
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because then do you remember the question Pilate asks him?
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It's maybe one of the greatest questions
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anybody could ever ask.
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What is truth?
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But sadly, Pilate doesn't stick around.
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For the answer, he resigns the conversation
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and he walks away.
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He asked, what is truth to the one
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who not only knows the truth, but who is the truth?
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And he walked away.
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And the same thing is happening here with Felix.
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He's so close to the truth.
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In fact, it says he's even alarmed by Paul's message
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when he talks about righteousness, self-control
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and the coming judgment,
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probably because those things are convicting Felix.
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And sadly, he leaves convicted,
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but he doesn't leave changed
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because he cares more about his career
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and about money than about the truth.
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He takes the don't call me, I'll call you method.
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And in a political move that wastes everybody's time,
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he keeps Paul in prison for two years
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as a favor to the Jews.
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Now this morning, we've talked about
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how God uses heat and pressure to shape our witness.
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But what about that third factor?
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What about time?
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Imagine for a moment, if you're Paul in this situation,
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waiting in prison for two entire years
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because the corrupt Roman governor
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is doing the corrupt Jewish aristocrats
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a political favor, all at your expense.
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It would probably seem pointless,
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but these two years were part of God's plan
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because it's only after these two years of waiting
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that Paul is going to, number one, appeal to Caesar.
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Which gets him to Rome.
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And then number two, he actually witnesses to King Agrippa
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in the next couple of chapters.
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And interestingly, this two-year waiting period
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is very likely the period when Luke, the author,
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compiles a lot of his details for these stories,
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begins composing the book of Acts, which we're studying.
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And so God, in his infinitely wise plan,
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keeps Paul waiting.
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And we've touched on this in our Wednesday night study,
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as we've studied,
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especially the patriarchs this last Wednesday,
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with Abraham,
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who received the promise of God at 75 years old,
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and then that promise was not fulfilled
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until he was 125 years.
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Or Joseph, who was kidnapped and sold by his brothers
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into slavery,
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and then he waits in prison
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for God to deliver him,
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for someone to look favorably upon him,
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and he just waits.
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And waits and waits.
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There are all these examples in the Bible
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of people who are called to wait upon God
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and trust in his timing.
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Paul sits in a prison cell for two years.
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He knows he's going to Rome.
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We saw that last week.
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God has, Jesus told him,
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it's time for you to go to Rome.
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So he knows that.
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He knows what God has called him to do.
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He trusts that God will be faithful.
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And yet, he waits.
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And maybe you're waiting today.
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Maybe you're waiting for a family relationship
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to be restored.
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Maybe you're waiting for God to answer your prayer
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that someone's life be turned around.
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Maybe you're waiting for God to provide a job
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or for a clear diagnosis from your doctor.
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Waiting somehow for God to break in
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to your current situation
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and show up and do something.
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And the waiting, you know,
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can just be soul-gnawing.
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You know how hard this can be.
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It can be difficult to accept the fact
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that God just has no problem
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taking his time
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to work in your life,
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to shape you into the image of Jesus.
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It can be hard to accept the fact
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that God is very patient.
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But the call of,
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the call of God for us
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is to keep the faith
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while we're waiting.
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He just asks you to hold on.
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Just hold on.
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Every one of us at some point
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wishes the process could be sped up.
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Don't we?
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Like, I'm just waiting.
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Speed it up, please.
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And I don't know if you've ever taken
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a Polaroid picture, right?
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They've come out with new Polaroid cameras
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for this next generation.
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But it's kind of the same thing, you know?
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Just a sleeker design.
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I guess, whatever.
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If you've taken a Polaroid picture, right?
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You click that button,
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flash goes off,
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and then it spits it out the front.
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And what do every single one of you guys,
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including me,
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do when you get that picture?
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You got to shake that thing, right?
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Shake the Polaroid picture.
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Why?
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Why do we do that?
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Because we think that it'll develop
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the photo quicker.
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We're just like, come on, you know?
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The faster I shake it,
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the quicker I can look at the image.
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And it feels really good.
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You really feel like you're doing something.
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But in reality, it doesn't actually
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make the photo develop any quicker.
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In fact, shaking it can actually damage the photo
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if you shake it really hard.
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And while we wait, is that not the temptation?
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While we're waiting on God, we're just like,
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God, can you just, like, hurry this thing up?
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Please.
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And we think that maybe I can hurry up
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this process that I'm in by worrying.
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Or being anxious.
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Or taking things into my own hands, right?
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That I know God would not have me do.
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Maybe I can help God.
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But in reality, you know those things,
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they don't actually ever help us.
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They have a tendency to make things worse
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and damage us in the process.
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But if we truly believe that God is good
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and that his timing is perfect,
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we will endure the long nights of waiting.
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Because we know he's said
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that one day the dawn will come.
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And so, today, as we consider our spiritual formation
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and specifically our witness,
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I think Paul models for us
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what it means to remain faithful
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under pressure over the course of time.
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And so if you need to confess
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and repent of your lack of boldness in witnessing,
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do that today before you leave those doors.
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Do that today.
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And change.
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March forward in the boldness of the gospel
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for the glory of Jesus.
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Today, if you need to view your circumstances
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through heaven's eyes instead of your own,
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viewing hardship as formational
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rather than just frivolous,
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do that today.
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Become aware of how God is using the hard things
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in your life to get you to proclaim his goodness.
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There's a purpose in them, right?
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If you're in a period of waiting,
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which I know that some of you are,
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then keep the faith.
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Trust that while you may feel nothing,
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God is doing 10,000 things in you.
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Even if you're only aware of three of them.
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Trust that he's good and that he's got a plan.
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And over time, he'll use
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heat, pressure, and time that you've endured
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to shape your life.
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To shape your witness to Christ
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into something that is incredibly beautiful
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and valuable, just like a diamond.
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Let me pray for us.
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Father, we glorify you today
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as the one who is all wise.
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You are our king.
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And God, we are just so prone to wander.
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Lord, we feel it.
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We're prone to leave you, whom we love.
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But, God, today,
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revive us by your spirit.
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Help us to handle the things that life throws at us
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with trust, faith, grace, and dignity.
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Knowing that none of those things have the final say.
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You do.
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I pray that the gospel witness about Jesus
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would ring out from this church,
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that we would just say,
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I'm just not ashamed of Jesus.
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I don't care what people think of me.
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I care what God thinks of me.
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And so go before us this week, I pray,
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that you would give every person in this room
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who trusts in you
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opportunities to share their faith this week.
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And that they wouldn't chicken out,
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but would remember the glory of Jesus and his worth,
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and that would testify to the truth.
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Give us success in this, Father, we pray,
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in Jesus' name.
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Amen.