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4 Centurions | Centurion (Part 4) · The Travis Rutland Podcast

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  Speaker A: Foreign.
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  Speaker B: You're listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. Travis Rutland is a spirit filled pastor and ministry leader who has been featured on International Christian Television. He serves as lead pastor of Liberty Square Church in Cartersville, Georgia and as president of Global Servants. His sermons focus on clear biblical teaching, practical truth and encouragement for everyday life. Each message is designed to strengthen your faith and draw you deeper into God's word. This podcast is brought to you to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global servants, please visit globalservants.org now here's Travis Rutland.
• 0:42
  Speaker A: Now this morning we're continuing this series called Centurion, where we are looking at the centurions that are listed in the Bible. Some of them are given a name. We've talked about Cornelius, and some of them are not given a name. And so I've just kind of grouped these together, obviously, because they're centurions. This is all going to take place in the New Testament. No centurions in the Old Testament, but there are in the news. So this morning, if you will, turn to Acts, chapter 23. Acts, chapter 23. 23, excuse me. And we're going to read verse 10. This morning is four centurions. This morning is simply four centurions, none of them having a name, but they all go together. So this morning is four centurions. Turn, if you will, to Acts chapter 23. We're going to begin reading with verse 10. Now, when there arose a great dissension, the commander, fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him into the barracks. Let's pray. God, we ask in the next few moments that you will speak to us. We want to hear from you this morning. Our minds, our spirits are open. Speak to us in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Andy Kaufman was a comedian in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He died tragically about the age of 35 in 1985. So very young. He passed away from a rare form of aggressive cancer. But he was a very, very popular comedian in the 1970s and 1980s. What made him so popular after doing some standup was he had a role on the TV show Taxi. And so that's what made Andy Kaufman popular. He played a character that was from a foreign country named Latke. And so people liked him, they liked the show. But the thing with Andy Kaufman was that he was extremely avant garde when it came to comedy. He was very different, very, very different with his standup. So what happened was he became super popular on a TV show that people watch, millions of people watched all the time. And so then they bought tickets and came to Andy Kaufman's comedy show, but the comedy show, thinking it would be like the TV show Taxi. But Andy Kaufman was very, very odd, unusual, as I said, avant garde comedian. And so he would get on stage and the audience wouldn't know what to make of him because it wasn't usual stand up comedian stuff. And so if the audience liked it and you know, were with him, everything would go great. But if the audience began to turn on him, if they begin to heckle him, if the atmosphere in the club changed, Andy Kaufman had something that he would do. He would stop his show and he would. And get a copy of the novel the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. And he would come out on stage with a copy of the Great. Of the Great Gatsby. And he would begin to read the Great Gatsby, just read the novel. There was no shtick, there was no punchline. He would just read the novel and people would laugh initially, oh, this is funny, he's reading a novel. And then he would read page after page after page. And the audience becoming angrier and angrier, and they would get to boo him. And it would get louder and louder in the house. And Andy Kaufman would finally close the book and say, okay, fine, if you don't want to listen to me read the Great Gatsby. Then would you like to listen to me play this record? And he had a record player on stage with him. And audience would say, yes, yes, the record. And he'd say, no, we'll take a poll. Who wants to hear me read the Great Gatsby? Nobody. They'd say, who wants to listen to the record? Yeah, the record. He'd say, fine, if that's what you want, that's what you want. And he put the book down, he'd go over to the record player, turn it on, drop the needle on the record, and it would be a recording of him reading the Great Gatsby from exactly. And he started exactly where he stopped in the book. He would start exactly on the record where he stopped on the book. So all that to say, normally I don't give you a background. I normally give you a background on what we're doing. But if you notice, I just read a sort of obscure passage from Acts, chapter 23. And then we prayed. The reason being is this isn't part two of last week, but we are starting exactly where we stopped last week. So I'M not sure if you were even aware of that or not, but we. We're starting exactly where we stopped last week. You say, well, I came with my mom or my grandma. I wasn't here last week. That's okay. They're all standalone. This isn't, you know, this isn't like Godfather 2. You don't have to have seen the first one to understand the second one, it's a standalone message. But we are starting exactly where we stopped last week because these centurions all kind of run together, and many of them are in the story of Paul. So I want to remind you of where we're at. Last week we talked about this. Paul goes to Jerusalem. He goes into the temple to purify himself. And he goes with some other Jewish people. And the people in the temple think that Paul has brought gentiles into the temple. And so they freak out and there's a riot and they're trying to kill Paul. And the commander of the Roman barracks and a centurion rescue Paul. They rescue him from the crowd. The following day, they take Paul to appear before the high priest, the religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, and they get furious with Paul as well, argue with each other. They fight with Paul. And so Paul is just causing riot after riot. And what we just read, Acts 23 and 10, is the. Is the culmination of that religious meeting that the commander of the Roman soldiers thinks that these guys are so mad, they're going to tear Paul apart, literally pull him apart. They are all religious leaders, by the way, in that meeting. So he takes Paul back to the barracks. So that's what happened last week. We're going to go straight into this week, but this week we want to deal with. Last week we talked about hearing from God, how God speaks, what we do, those kinds of things. When God is speaking to us. Today is when we go. Today is more about bad times. Now, here's the thing. Everybody goes through bad times. You ever hear any preacher preach a sermon on how there's no such thing as bad times in life? There's bad times. The Bible is full of folks that love God and serve him and go through really terrible moments and seasons of life. So this is not a sermon that there's no such thing as bad times. I also want to make it clear this is not a message about what we learn in bad times. That's not a bad message. That's not a bad message. And I may preach that sometime in the future. What you learned in the wilderness, experience what you learned in the desert experience. There's nothing bad and nothing wrong with that. But that's not what this is. This morning. This morning is, is, is. Who is God in the terrible moments? Because that really, in my opinion, is the most important thing. That is really the thing, the thing that sustains us in the terrible seasons of life is not, gosh, this is a wonderful learning experience. Go through some terrible moments, walk through some awful times, and then say to yourself, wow, I'm really learning a lot in this terrible moment that is not going to sustain you. What sustains us in the terrible seasons of life is knowing who God is in the midst of the problems. And that is what God shows Paul in these next little verses. He reveals to him and to us who he is in the midst of terrible, awful, bad, horrible seasons of life. And that's what this is about. So turn, if you will, right where we stopped Acts 23 and 11.
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  Speaker B: If you'd like to stay connected with what God is doing through Global Servants, we'd love for you to check out our Free We Serve magazine. Each issue shares stories, ministry updates and photography. From our work across West Africa and through our House of Grace girls homes in Thailand and Ghana, it's a closer look at the lives being impacted and the work taking place. Through Global Servants, we publish new editions throughout the year along with our annual report each fall, so you can stay connected with the ministry year round. If you live in the US you can sign up to receive a free copy by mail and for Those outside the US, digital editions are available online. Sign up today at globalservants.org weserve-magazine
• 9:05
  Speaker A: the following night, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul. This is Jesus himself appears to Paul. Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome. And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now there were more than 40 who had formed this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and the elders and said, we have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul. Now you therefore, together with the count, suggest to the commander that he be brought to you tomorrow as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him. But we are ready to kill him when he comes near. Verse 16. So when Paul's sister's son, that's his nephew. When Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions to him. That's our first centurion. Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, take this young man to the commander for has something to tell him. And he took him and brought him to the commander and asked Paul, the prisoner called me to, called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you. So there is this group of conspirators that have decided to kill Paul. And what they're doing is they're working with the, the chief priests and the religious leaders. They say, hey, tell Paul to come to this meeting again tomorrow. And when he walks through the narrow streets of Jerusalem, there's 40 of us. The soldiers won't be expecting an ambush. We're going to jump out and at least one of us going to be able to plunge a dagger into Paul's heart and we're going to kill him. So we're going to ambush Paul as he walks through the narrow, winding streets of Jerusalem making his way to the Sanhedrin. We're going to kill him. Paul's nephew finds out about it. He goes and tells Paul. Paul calls a centurion and says to the centurion, take this kid to your commander. And he does. This is what I'm talking about just a second ago. Difficult times come for all of us. There are always difficult times. But this is the most important thing. God remains sovereign in difficult times. This is what we hold on to. God remains sovereign in difficult times. That is what, that is what sustains us. That is what sustains Paul. Jesus himself appears to Paul and says, what does he say again? Be of good cheer. You must also go to Rome. So he says, look, I'm sovereign. This may not be what you were praying for, because let's be honest, Paul is probably praying, I want to be released. God says, you've done what you're supposed to do. Now I've got more for you. You're going to have to bear witness of me in Rome. So he is sovereign over the situation and he is calling Paul to make an appearance before Caesar himself in Rome. God is sovereign over the whole thing. No matter the stuff that comes against us. God remains sovereign. I, I, I'm reminded of this when I go and visit with certain people in difficult moments, especially in, in health things or, or hospitals. You're always, it's always, I'm always reticent to mention people by name because the problem is then People go, well, why didn't you mention me by name, Pastor? Don't you love me as much as you love them? And that's what happens when you're pastoring. Having said that, I want to mention two people by name. I didn't ask their permission, but it's too late now. So. No, I talked about this. We've talked about it. I've told their story the last couple years, basically since I've got here. Eddie Lynn got sick, and I visited Eddie and Addie numerous times in the hospital and then the cancer home. Every time I would go and visit them, I would leave. Built up on my faith, I would leave with them encouraging me. But the end, I felt silly. I was like, well, do you want me to pray for you? Because I felt like y' all should be praying for me. And it was. There's. But not everybody you visit is like that. Not every time you visit is it like that. But there's another couple where that same thing is happening. Gary and Leslie Darussa are going through some stuff. Leslie's going through some things. Every time I talk to Leslie, every time I visit her in the hospital, she is fired up and shey, God is sovereign. He's going to be okay. All these things. And. And I used to think to myself, that's the difference between optimism and pessimism. I used to think to myself, these other people that I go visit in the hospital, and they're so defeated. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. Exactly. You're going through a difficult time. I'm not trying to put anybody under condemnation. What I'm saying, though, is that. What is the difference? I used to say to myself, well, certain people are just more naturally optimistic. Certain people just have a natural propensity to be positive. Positive that. That Addie and Eddie are probably just positive all the time. That Gary and Leslie are probably just positive all the time. I really. The longer I pastor, the less I believe that I believe. Instead, I don't know whether they are optimistic or pessimistic when it comes to their own life. I don't know if they approach the glass as being half full or half empty. I can't speak to that. What I know is what I believe, having spent time with them and others like them. What I know is that they have decided that no matter what, God is sovereign over this situation. And it gives them the ability to rejoice, no matter what the circumstance is, because they know that God is above it all. And that's What God is calling us to be about. The difficult times are going to come. What we hold on to, what we learn in the difficult times, is who God is. And what we learn is that God remains sovereign. In the hospital, God remains sovereign. In the nursing home, God remains sovereign. When the doctor says, this is the diagnosis, God remains sovereign. When your kids are far from him, God remains sovereign. When you lose your job, God remains sovereign. That's what we hold onto. I'm not saying that we enjoy the difficult times. I'm not saying it's fun. But I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that bad stuff never happens, terrible things happen in life. But our God is sovereign. That's what we hold on to. That why do some people react the way that they do and others react differently? And I believe it is that. That they have tapped into the understanding that God is over all of it. He's sovereign. We're in the New Testament, but I want to give you a couple of verses from Psalm, because they are so good. Look, if you will, at Psalm 93. Psalm 93 and verse 1. The Lord reigns. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed. He has girded himself with strength. Surely the world is established so that it cannot be moved. Your throne is established from of old. You are everlasting. Now look at what happens. The floods have lifted up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters. I love that the floods are threatening to drown me. The floods are threatening to overwhelm me. And yet the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters. Do you see that? It says noise. Doesn't say strength, it says noise. He says all that stuff that the waves are threatening you with are nothing but noise compared to the majesty and splendor of a sovereign God who spoke the universe into existence. That's what we hold on to. These guys have made a pact that they're not going to eat or drink anything until they kill Paul. And yet God remains sovereign. In that moment, in the most difficult times of our existence, God remains sovereign. So back to the story. In Acts 23, Paul's nephew goes to the commander with the centurion, goes to the commander and tells him the plot that he has heard to to kill Paul. Look, if you will, at Acts 23 and 22, he tells the commander about the plot. Acts 23 and 22. So the commander let the young man depart and commanded him. That is the nephew, tell no one that you have revealed these things to me. And he called for two centurions. There's the next two. That's Centurion 2 and 3. And he called for the. For two centurions, saying, prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night and provide mounts to set Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor. Verse 31. Then the soldiers, as they were commanded, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatrus. And the next day they left the horsemen to go on with him and returned to the barracks. When they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him. This is an amazing sort of Hollywood type moment. He calls two centurions. What did we say? They're called centurions because they oversee a hundred men or a century. So he tells the centurions, he gets them to get their 200 men. They get a bunch of horsemen, they get all these guards, and then they get one extra horse and an extra set of armor. They put this armor on Paul, they put a helmet on his head. He looks like the rest of the soldiers. They put him on the horse. And Paul just rides to Caesarea with all the rest of these centurions and soldiers, right? And so they ride out to Caesarea, they get Paul out of danger in Jerusalem, and they get him to this Roman city, Caesarea, that's on the sea, that's on the coast. God remains sovereign in difficult times. And if we know that, then we know that God sends protection in dangerous times. God is sovereign. And if God is sovereign, then he can do everything. And if he can do everything, then God can send protection in dangerous times. Now, probably this is not the answer that Paul has been praying for. Again, Paul has probably been praying something like, keep me safe in Jerusalem so these guys don't murder me when I'm walking down the street. Instead, God sends his own protection. He sends what he wants to do when God remains sovereign, that we could trust that the protection that he sends is the protection that we need. That is super important for us when we remember these things, is that the protection of God may not always look like what we thought the protection of God was going to look like. At the last church that I pastored had a guy that was a friend of mine. He worked with me at the church. His name was Tim. He's been here a few times. On a Wednesday, he spoke at our men's breakfast a few Months ago. He's an interesting guy. Interesting guy. You could not have found two dudes more unlike each other to be friends. I am totally unlike Tim, but Tim is a great friend of mine. He has an interesting issue. Problem. Let's say that he has a proclivity to lock his keys in the car. And I mean, all the time. He's a grown man that locks his keys in the car often if he's watching Tim, you know, you do it. One time we were at a men's retreat. We're packing up the cabin. We're up in the mountains, we're leaving. Everybody's got all the stuff in the car. We lock the cabin door. We go, okay, everything done? We're done. I said, are we ready to go? We're ready to go. Tim goes over to his truck and he has locked his keys in the truck while the truck is running. I'm like, how do you even do that, Tim? I'm not even sure how that's possible. So the car is. The truck is running. The keys are locked inside. We had to. There was like, you know, 30 Christian men on a retreat trying to break into his truck. And so, you know, it's just. It's always, always. Tim is always locking his keys in the car. Here's what his wife always says. She always says, well, it's okay. She said, don't worry about it. It's okay. She said, God is probably protecting us from something that might have happened if we had left when we were supposed to leave. Now, that may be spiritual or that may be practical. You know what I'm saying? If your husband constantly locks the keys in the car, you got to figure out something to say so you don't drive yourself crazy. That may be just a practical approach to living with a guy that constantly locks his keys in the car. On the other hand, that's sometimes how the protection of God works. It doesn't always look like what we thought it was going to look like, right? Paul is probably praying for angels to protect him from the people in Jerusalem. And Instead, God sends two centurions with 200 men with them to protect him. The protection of God works in unusual ways, and we're okay with that because it ties back into the first thing that we talked about. If God is sovereign in difficult times, then he is going to send protection and blessing. And all the stuff that he does in the dangerous times may not look like what you thought it was going to look like. It may not be what you thought it was going to be. But that doesn't mean that God isn't doing something. So that's what we hold on to, is those dangerous moments, those difficult times, that he is both sovereign and he sends blessing and protection in ways that we might have not have thought of or fully realized. Now, Paul is not done yet. This story, this little section of Paul. So within a few days, the religious leaders in Jerusalem send a lawyer to Caesarea to argue the prosecuting attorney, so to speak. They send the prosecutor attorney to Caesarea to try and convince Felix, the governor, to kill Paul. So the lawyer talks, and then Paul serves as his own lawyer, his own counsel, and he defends himself. So the lawyer and Paul go back and forth, and that's in the beginning of Chapter 24. Turn, if you will, to Chapter 24, Acts 24 and 22. Now, when Felix heard these things, having more accurate knowledge of the way, he adjourned the proceedings and said, when Lysias, the commander, comes down, I will make a decision on your case. So he. That's Felix. So Felix commanded the centurion. That's Centurion number four. So Felix commanded the centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty and told him not to forbid any of his friends to provide for or visit him. So Felix says, all right, we'll decide this later on, figure out the details of all of this. So you got to stay in jail, Paul. You got to stay in prison. It tells us in a later date that Paul was there two years. Felix kept him locked up for two years, and yet look at what it says. So he commanded the centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty. To let him have liberty. The final thing is this. God provides freedom. Freedom in demanding times, God still provides freedom. When you are going through the difficult times, the hard times, the terrible seasons of life, what you think is you are chained to that thing, whatever that thing is. What you assume. What we assume is that we are chained to that thing, but we are not. We are not chained to that thing. We might be in prison, but it is not a prison that we. We don't have liberty in, that we don't find new levels of freedom in. Paul is still visiting with people. His friends come to see him. He probably writes letters to some of the early church. Him and his buddy Luke probably are working on the Gospel of Luke and the story of Acts. They're writing it together. These two years are not wasted, and they're not terrible. Even in the midst of the most horrible moment of your life, where you Feel like I am chained to this hospital bed, for example. You say, I am chained to this hospital bed. But you still are provided freedom from God in that moment. There is still liberty for you. I know that it's difficult to understand or get a hold of, but it is. It is true. That is factual. There is still liberty in the most difficult moments of life. We had lunch together as a staff this week, and I was telling this story. And then when I was working on my message, I was like, oh, I'm going to tell that story again. So as I have made no, you know, I've tried not to pretend like it wasn't true. I was a lot, a handful in middle school and high school, high school in particular. So on this Mother's Day, let me apologize once again to my mother and father for my shenanigans, infinite and exhausting. So I spent most of my high school career constantly in detention. Constantly in detention. One of many things. Name something that you can do at a school, and I've done it in school. Suspension, check. Saturday school, check. You're going to lose some respect for your preacher on Mother's Day. Expulsion, check twice. You know, legalistic Baptists that run Christian schools just have no sense of humor about things. They have no sense of humor whatsoever. So my shenanigans were infinite and exhausting. So I just spent all my high school career in detention, all the time, just weeks, months of detention, just forever and ever and ever and ever. So the Christian school that I went to in central Florida, where I met Courtney, where Courtney and I started dating when we were in high school, the Christian school that I went to, they had detention after school for an hour, one hour detention after school. But it wasn't just that they had to find a teacher to run detention. And so in order to find a teacher to run detention, that little Christian school didn't want to pay that person extra money to stay after school for an hour. So every student that attended detention had to pay $2 to the teacher when you showed up. So if he had 20 kids in there, he made 40 bucks, right? So here's the thing, though. I had detention every day for weeks and weeks and weeks. So on Monday, I'd show up and give that guy a $10 bill because I was going to be in there all week, and he knew I was going to be in there the next week. He knew I was going to be in there the next week. He's making 40 bucks a month on me. So here's the thing about detention. I was there every day. $10 every week he's making on me. So guess what? I did whatever I wanted in detention, which didn't actually serve the purpose it was designed for. I would go up to. You're supposed to sit there. Now, this is decades ago, so there's no devices, there's no smartphones. There's no nothing. You're supposed to do homework and nothing else. You're not supposed to read, you're not supposed to look at a magazine. You're not supposed to do anything but homework. You're supposed to study, write. But the thing is, I did whatever I wanted. So I'd go up to the teacher's desk and we'd sit there and talk about basketball. I'd leave to use the bathroom. I'd wander around school. I'd come back in, some kid would raise his hand, how come Travis gets to leave? And the teacher would say, shut up. He pays $10 a week. You know what I'm saying? So I was like the king of detention. I did what I wanted. I came and went. I hung out, Read magazine, look at Sports Illustrated, sit up at the teacher's desk, talk with him. I was like the vice principal of detention. Now, far be it from me to compare myself to Paul the Apostle. But listen, that's what it was. I wasn't locked in there with them. They were locked in there with me. You know what I'm saying? And that's Paul. They got Paul in prison. But Paul says, no, sir, I've got liberty. I'm going to tell every centurion about Jesus. I'm going to tell every soldier about Jesus. I'm going to tell the jailers about Jesus. He said, everybody that comes into my cell to bring me food, I'm going to tell them about Jesus. I'm going to write the epistles that go to the early church that we still read. I'm going to write those while I'm in prison. Me and Luke are going to finish the Gospel of Luke in prison. Me and Luke are going to start writing acts in prison. You see that? You think, I'm chained to this moment, I'm chained to this season. I'm chained to this terrible thing that's happening in my life. But you are not. There are chains, but you have liberty. You have freedom. That is. That is what we hold on to. That is what Paul knew, and that's what we hold onto. God doesn't always promise to take the chains away. What he always promises is to give us new and exciting moments of freedom. And liberty while the chains still exist. I could counsel you for anything. Stop praying now. I want to make it clear. Let me back up before I start that sentence. I said stop praying, and then I quit talking, didn't I? All right, all right. Let me make clear this. I'm not talking about addiction. I'm not talking about the chains and the bondage of addiction here. What I am talking about is the chains of the difficult season. All right? So you're going through something at your work. Let's use that as an example. Not the chains of addiction. What I would encourage you to do is stop praying for the chains at work to be taken away and instead start praying for God to show you how you can access new levels of liberty within the confines of that prison. Not that work should be prison, but sometimes it is. Let's be honest. Everybody had a job like that, right? The prisons, the chains, the bondage, the bars, that stuff is always going to be there, and we're desperate to get out. But sometimes what God is showing us is the freedom that we actually have inside of that instead of just constantly, you know, doing our little tin cup of grins to bars. I want out. I want out. I want out. Paul stayed locked up in Caesarea for two years. God did not free him from that jail. Between, by the way, between now and the end of the Book of Acts, Paul is never free again. He just goes from chains to chains, to chains to chains. The Book of Acts ends with him in chains in Rome. He's never going to be free again in the Book of Acts. He's going to stay locked up from chapter 22 to the end of the book, but he's not really locked up. Paul is freer than anybody that's on the outside of the prison because God has given him the liberty in that prison. That's what we hold on to. So what does it look like? Let me close with this. The first church I ever pastored. I learned a lot in that first church, that first little church in Toccoa, Georgia. Some things were not great in that church, as I've made clear year, but I learned a lot. One of my favorite people that I ever met in that church was a couple named Brownie and Jim. Her name was Brownie. Never forgot it, and she was wonderful. They were a great couple, older couple, and when I got there, Jim had already started into issues of dementia. But at the time, they were still able to come to church. So I got to know him at church, talk with them, visit them four or five months After I'd been there, they quit coming on Sunday morning because Jim just couldn't get up and do it anymore. And so this was. This was a long time ago now, and it was a smaller church, so we didn't do a live stream. She had no way to watch, so I would just go and visit her occasionally. And Jim got worse and worse. Any of you that have ever watched somebody you love struggle with dementia? It's a terrible, awful, horrible disease. It took my grandfather, and I just watched Jim just waste away. And towards the end, I would come over there and she'd have to have him strapped into the wheelchair because otherwise he'd fall out. And it just got worse and worse and worse. One day she called me and she said, pastor Travis, I want you to come over and talk with me. She said, I've just learned something wonderful. I thought, great. What does that mean? I don't know. So I've learned something wonderful. She went to the house. I went to the house. She was there. And I went in the kitchen, and he's there in the wheelchair, strapped in. She's sitting at the kitchen table. We sit, Jim beside her. We sit and talk. And I say, what have you learned, Brownie? And these are her words. I'm not saying this because of what I just talked about. These are the words that she told me. She said, travis, I have found a new level of freedom. I have found freedom. And I said, okay, how have you found freedom? She said, for the last three years, I've been praying for God to heal Jim. And she said, last night, I heard from God, and He told me that I should just be praying that his will be done. See, that doesn't feel like freedom. That doesn't feel like freedom. Because, see, what you want is him to be healed so that he's out of the prison of dementia. But see, God never promises us that he will deliver us from every prison. What he promises us is that he gives us freedom in the midst of the prison. That's what we hold onto. That's what we sink our fingers into. That's what we believe in, is the sovereignty of God. And his sovereignty gives us new levels of freedom in prison. And she said, what I'm going to start praying is for God's will to be done. And I said, brownie, that's great, but are you okay if Jim passes away? And she said, yes, I have the freedom that God has given me. It's his will. God is sovereign in this moment, and I'm giving him all of it. And I said, okay, then that's how we'll start praying. A few seems like maybe weeks, it might have been a month or more. Brownie called me at about 11 o' clock at night and she said, jim's dying. I drove over to the house. I got there before the ambulance. I was in my 30s at the time. It was the first time I'd ever been in the house when somebody passed away and Jim was gone, just like that. And the ambulance guys came and they asked me to take Brownie in the other room while they took his body out. And we went on the back porch about midnight and I just asked her to tell me about how she met Jim. She told me stories and things that they had done and they wheeled her husband of more than 50 years into the back of that ambulance. And I'm going to be honest with you, it didn't feel like freedom to me. It just didn't. Brownie and Jim were snowbirds. And so they spent the summers up in the mountains of North Georgia. And then in the winter they'd go back to Florida. But because of Jim's health, they hadn't been to Florida in several years at that point. So we did Jim's funeral. And a few weeks after that she got the house cleaned up and all those things, and she went back to Florida to visit this other house that she hadn't been to in two or three years. She said, I'll be back soon. I said, great. But she was there and she'd call me every once in a while. And she stayed longer and longer and longer. And I thought, well, Florida's probably good for her and Toccoa has bad memories and the house here has bad memories and all that. Then one weekend she called and she said, I'm going to be at church on Sunday. And I said, great, I'm so glad. And she said, yes, I'm going to be there. And she said, I'm so happy I'm bringing a friend with me. I said, a friend? What kind of 80 year old woman has a friend? And she showed up on Sunday with a little guy in a suit and tie. And I said, hey, Brownie, how you doing? She said, fine. She said, this is my friend Jim. So of course we're a small country church. So everybody called him New Jim. So I got to know Brownie and knew Jim. He rented a little place in Toccoa. And I realized very quickly that they were much more than friends. And Brownie and New Jim decided to get married. And the Saturday before my Last Sunday in Toccoa. The next day, I preached my final message at that church. But the Saturday afternoon before that, at a little outdoor garden in downtown Toccoa, I married Brownie and New Jim. I did not say Brownie. Do you take New Jim? I did just. I did just say Jim. This is a picture of me and Brownie on her wedding day. Huh? Leave that picture up for me for a second. Second. God is sovereign. God blesses and protects us in ways we could never think of or imagine. And he gives us freedom and liberty in the midst of chains. And if we hold on to that, he does something in our life that we could never think of or imagine. I love that picture because that picture reminds me of the faithfulness of God in every moment, in every situation, in every terrible season of life. Our God is sovereign and our God is faithful. That is what you hold on to, and that's what Paul held on to. The bad times will come. I'm sorry. I hate it for you, but I'm not going to lie to you. On Mother's Day. The bad times will come. What our job is, is to remember who God is in the bad times. Who is God in the worst moment of your life? If you believe that he is sovereign, if you trust in his protection and blessing, and if you access his freedom, then I promise you, you can make it through. Our God is God in the great and in the horrible. He is still sovereign in every moment. That's what we hold on to. Let's pray. God, ask that you would finish this sermon in the hearts of every person here. Not everybody this morning may be going through difficult times, but many of us are. God, I ask that you would bless every person here, that you would remind them that you are sovereign in this situation, that they are not alone, that this terrible season that they're going through, that you are sovereign. God, I ask that you would pour out your protection and your blessing on them in new and unusual ways. And above all, God, remind them that you are giving them liberty and freedom. The chains do not hold them because you have given them liberty and freedom. Even when the chains are still there, the chains do not really hold them. Pour your spirit and your presence out on every person here. Bless them, strengthen them, guide them, and remind them that they are not alone. You are sovereign and you will never leave us or forsake us. We thank you and we worship you, God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you for being here. God bless you, everybody.
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  Speaker B: Thank you for listening to the Travis Rutland podcast. If you enjoyed this message and you're in the Carter's, Georgia area. We invite you to join us at Liberty Square Church. You can also watch online and connect with us on Facebook and YouTube. We'll see you next week for another message from Travis Rutland.