Hope Worth Having

Pastor Mike will be speaking on God’s Providence and Our Assignment Part 1 . He will be reading out of Acts 28: 1-16.

And that greater goal is to take the gospel across the street and around the world. And through God’s providence, he puts you in circumstances and situations and relationships with people so that you can show kindness and tell them about Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders and we are delighted to bring to you Hope Worth Having radio broadcast today and we’re beginning a new series on God’s providence and our assignment.

Acts chapter 28 is where we’re going to be today as we begin this new chapter together and we’re going to study it and continue to understand how God works even as we are on assignment for him. If you have your Bibles this morning, join me in the book of Acts chapter 28 and the psalmist said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And even when we go through hardships, we know that his goodness is there.

His grace is ever evident. And this is really what we’re talking about in Acts chapter 28. We have made a long journey through the book of Acts as a church family.

We finally made it to that final chapter, chapter 28. We’ll try to get through chapter 28 before 2025. Is that possible? No, I’m just teasing you.

But we definitely will take a few times to look at this chapter and we want to help you out a little bit. And again, because we’ve had so many different breaks from the book of Acts to once again, kind of refresh our minds and our memory of what is really taking place in this great book, you know, at the outset that Jesus gave a great command. It is often referenced as the great commission.

It’s Acts chapter 1 in verse 8 and we are told that we are to take the gospel and we are to take it to the ends of the earth unto Jerusalem and to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And it is from that moment that Luke, who is the human author under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, begins to detail a narrative of all that has been done and was happening to fulfill that commission by the people of God. In Acts chapter 1 all the way through chapter 8, there is a lot of attention upon the ministry of the apostle Peter.

Then in chapter 9, the apostle Paul is knocked off, if you will, his high horse. He was a persecutor of the church. He was a very passionate and zealous Pharisee and religious person.

And he was determined that he would get rid of what he considered a cult or some kind of a sect of Judaism and that he was going to destroy Christianity. But little did he know that Jesus Christ himself, after his resurrection, would appear to the apostle. And he would have a great vision and he would hear the words of his Savior, why are you persecuting me? Reminding us that when you persecute the church, you are persecuting Jesus Christ.

And he takes it very personable. And so it is that the apostle gives his life to God. And from chapter 9 on, we witness this life-changing power of the Lord in the life of the apostle and how he is a faithful witness for God.

At the heart of the Christian movement that is undertaken after Jesus Christ commissions his disciples and he plants the local church, we see the work of the apostle Paul from chapter 9 all the way to chapter 28. Now when we come to chapter 28, we understand that the apostle has a great passion to get the gospel to Spain. But his desire is to get to Spain through Rome.

We know this through his other letters that he has informed the people of God of what his plans are. Now the apostle did not plan on going the way that God had orchestrated it to come to happen. And that is that the apostle wanted to go in freedom.

But he was a prisoner. He is now a prisoner. He is on a ship.

And if you’ve been following along, you know that Paul was a prisoner because he preached the gospel. Because he told people how to get to heaven. And so the religious crowd is upset with him.

The political crowd is upset with him. But now the apostle has been on this ship and chapter 27 is kind of the narrative of how all that drama unfolded. And now they have had a shipwreck.

And they, all these prisoners along with the apostle, are swimming to shore. And they are making it to land. And so what is it that we need to understand as we launch in? What is the theme of chapter 28? Write this down if you’re taking notes.

And I know so many of you have good memories. So you can do that as well. And that is that even though we cannot always see God, we can always be confident that God is working to accomplish his purpose.

Even though we cannot see God, he is always working in various ways to accomplish his purpose. So I’ve entitled the message, God’s Providence and Our Assignment. What is our assignment? Acts 1A, take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

And what is God’s providence? God fulfilling his great purpose of getting the gospel to every person on the planet. Using the circumstances of your life and my life. Using history itself, which is really his story of getting the gospel out to other people.

And so what we’re going to see in chapter 28 is that God is demonstrating his providence and fulfilling his purposes. But he is doing it patiently. The providential hand of God is seen at work in this great passage of chapter 28.

So what is the first thing that we must learn that I want you to hang on to this morning? Is that God’s providence supplies a platform for the gospel. We see this in verses 1 through 6. We come to verse 1 of chapter 28. Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta.

Now don’t think of it in terms of their escaping from their captors, but they are escaping from the waters, the shipwreck. They’re escaping and they’re making it to land. They avoided the danger of losing their own lives.

But Paul had already promised them in chapter 27, in midst of this horrendous storm that had come upon them, that God had given him the truth and the promise that they would all make it safely to land. But there was the shipwreck. And there they were floating out on the sea.

And they finally made it to land. The Bible says in verse 1 that they made it to the island was called Malta. Malta is an island that is 17 miles long.

It is 9 miles wide. It is just south of Italy. And so here we find the apostle in this very small place, an island, where there are over 200 prisoners.

And they all of a sudden show up on this island. And notice what verse 2 says, that the natives showed us unusual kindness. For they kindled a fire and they made us all welcome because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold.

But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, he laid them on the fire. A viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.

But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God.

Remember that I told you the point that I want you to see in verse 6 is that God’s providence supplies a platform for the gospel. How is it that the apostle, even through this trial in these first six verses, would be able to share the gospel? The first thing is that he experiences and he reciprocates kindness. Again, you saw that in verse 2, that here they show up, they’re cold, it’s wet, it’s raining, it’s probably early winter or late fall at this time, and they are freezing to death.

And the Bible says that God providentially moved these people to show unusual kindness. Probably not a really developed little island of people, probably not a very civilized group of people. Yet God providentially moves in their heart to extend kindness to the apostle, and to all the prisoners, and all those who had shipwrecked.

And they show this kindness to the apostle, reminding us that all of us are called to show kindness. For the scriptures teach us that we are to be kind to one another. Now, you say, Mike, that’s a simple thing.

But friends, I have to be honest with you. In the times we live in, kindness seems to be out of style. That people are getting upset about some of the craziest things.

People are getting upset because you took their parking spot. People are upset because you said this or you didn’t say this. People are getting upset because you support this group or you don’t support that group.

And so we see this happening even in our communities, and in our culture, and in our nation. We see it happening in our families. We see husbands and wives not showing kindness to one another.

We see sometimes that the children are not showing kindness to one another. It seems to be something that is absent from the home. And why is it? I am fearful that we have neglected the basic teaching of some of the virtues of the scriptures, and that we have not taught our children to be kind to one another, that we are not exemplifying it as a mom and a dad, that we somehow have decided that kindness is not necessary, that it is better to just kind of run over people and leave them on the side of the road.

But God is calling us to be kind to one another, certainly in the family of God. I have to be honest with you. We’re not all going to agree with one another.

Can we say amen? Because I know the reality of it. But it doesn’t mean just because we disagree in the family of God that we have to be unkind to each other, that we should not only strive right here in the family of God. Why should we expect the world to be kind when the people of God cannot be kind? Why should we anticipate kindness from others when we ourselves do not show kindness when we disagree with one another? Friends, disagreement is just part of life.

It’s part of maturing. It’s part of growing. There are rock-solid truths that we unite together as believers, like the fact that we’re getting ready to celebrate the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that he was born of a virgin, and that he lived a sinless life, that he went to the cross and died for our sins, that he resurrected three days later, ascended into heaven.

He’s at the right hand of the Father, even making intercession for you. Now, we can wave that flag, and we can all fly under that flag. Amen? Or maybe we might not only disagree about sports, but we might disagree on music styles, or we might disagree on different programs or ministries in the church, or we might disagree whether the lobby needs to be updated or it shouldn’t be updated.

But here’s the bottom line, that no matter what, we should always show kindness to one another, that we should strive as brothers and sisters in Christ. A husband and wife might disagree. We have our differences, but we can always be kind about it, church.

And let me say this about kindness, because I want to just take this moment to say that here, these folks were natives, and they showed unusual kindness to strangers. I may not know everybody, but I can still be kind to them, can’t I? People come from all walks of life and different backgrounds and ethnicities, but we can still show kindness to each other, can’t we? Let’s strive to be kind to strangers. Let’s strive to do that.

Why? Why is this so important? Because I believe in the providence of God, and I believe that through your kindness, God is going to give you a platform to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot, in your home, show hate, anger, and bitterness to your spouse and think that you’re going to have a platform to share the gospel with your own children. You cannot go out there and argue and fight and be bitter and mad at every person and think that you’re going to have a platform to share the gospel with strangers.

That’s what I want you to see, church, is that the impact of your kindness is not just that you check that off on your list of things that God wants you to do, but that you have a greater goal, and that greater goal is to take the gospel across the street and around the world, and through God’s providence, he puts you in circumstances and situations and relationships with people so that you can show kindness and tell them about Jesus Christ. I want you to see something else that helped Paul to have a platform. We’re going to see this unfold here in the chapter here.

How is it that Paul was able to share the gospel and have this platform through the providence of God? It was not only kindness, not only receiving it, but giving it, but Paul was a servant leader. I want you to notice back in verse 3 of chapter 28 when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks. Remember that the folks were already putting together, and verse 2, they had kindled a fire and made us all welcome.

Made us all welcome. That ought to be the theme of every church, made us all welcome, amen? Made us all welcome. So let me just, sorry to jump back a little bit, but some of you come in and you plop in your seat and you shall not be moved.

But what you ought to do is be the last ones to be seated. You ought to come in here looking for people who are by themselves, shaking their hands and getting to know them. And people say, well, I don’t want to know anybody else.

I understand, but listen, friends, when you come to the house of the Lord, it ought to be a place that all feel welcome. Amen. Let’s work hard on that church.

You can’t just depend on Pastor Mike. I’m doing the best I can, but I want you to get out there and do it. And make all feel welcome.

But in this filling them welcome, would you note in verse 2 that they kindled a fire? They kindled a fire. What is the apostle doing? Well, the Bible says in verse 3, he’s gathering sticks and not just a stick, but a bundle of sticks. And he laid them on the fire.

What I see in the apostle is a servant leader. I see him humbly serving others. That he could have just sat there and just received all the attention and received the warmth and been blessed by it and encouraged by it.

Certainly he was and he could have just sat there. But no, he recognized the fire was going down and he got up. He took the initiative and he was intentional and he went up and he said, let me help out.

Let me help put some wood in the fire. Let me help keep the fire burning strong. Now the apostle could have said, you know, I am the apostle.

And I have spoken to the Lord and received visions from God and I have this special title. I cannot be caught up and with this small details of stuff. But no, he is so different.

He is a servant leader. He’s not afraid to move a box. He’s not afraid to help with a door.

He’s not afraid to serve others. He’s not afraid to reach out to others and show acts of kindness through his humble service. What are you doing my friends to keep the fire burning to keep the fire burning in the church? What acts of service are you doing? It doesn’t have to be grand.

It doesn’t have to be glorious. It doesn’t always have to be on the platform. But what are you doing behind the scenes? Keeping the fires burning in the church and what are you doing to keep the fires burning in your home? Do you show acts of kindness of serving humbly serving your family helping out not thinking that hey, I’m too good for this and I’m better than this and I’ve been at this for so long and therefore I don’t have to do it anymore.

My friends when you get to that moment, hear me hear me. You’re done. You won’t have any influence on people.

You won’t have a platform to share the gospel. What are you doing? You want your neighbor to come to church? Are you serving your neighbor? What are you doing? To minister to your children and your grandchildren and your family what acts of service if the Apostle Paul could take time to gather the bundles of wood and put them in the fire? How much more should you and I be humble enough to find moments and opportunities to serve? There’ll be no platform without kindness and servanthood. You can minister to people by being an example to them.

People want the prestige. They want the glory of ministering the gospel, but I’m telling you there is no there is no connection with your community with people around you at work unless you are kind and you are willing to serve them be that example church be that person. Now the Bible tells us as we’re going through this that the Apostle that as he is gathering this wood or the sticks and he’s laying them in the fire that he gets bitten by a snake.

How about that? He came out the Bible says the Viper came out because of the heat and fastened onto his hand. That’s a nice way to say that he got bit by a snake this snake fastens on to the Apostle. I want you to learn important principle today.

We can’t even get through verse 3, but listen to me Church. The Apostle was bitten by the snake when he was doing good. He was doing good and doing good does not exempt you from affliction and trials and problems in your life.

Are you with me? You see some people do good because they get the pat on the back some people do good because they get the certificate some people do good because they get a plaque on the wall. Some people do good because people will talk about their goodness and the things that they have accomplished. Let me say that if there’s any goodness in you if there is any kindness in any of us it is because of the wonderful work of God’s common grace that he has blessed us with and that all goodness emanates from God and all kindness emanates from God.

And so we must keep that in mind. But even as you and I are doing good. We have to ask ourselves.

Why do I do this good for if I’m doing this good so that I can make sure that I would never face a trial in my life that I would never have an affliction in my life that I’d never well, let’s just be practical have a snake bite me. Well friends you’re in for a rude awakening. A rude awakening the psalmist said many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

It is that God does not prevent affliction in our life, but he promises that he will deliver us out of those afflictions. He will get us to the other side just as Jesus promised the disciples that they would make it to the other side. But in the midst from going from one place to the other through the sea there was a great storm, but Jesus met them on the other side and Jesus will get you through your affliction.

He will get you out of your affliction, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have an affliction. This false narrative that permeates so many in the Christian life that think that if I just do certain things that I’ll never have a problem in my life is not found in the Bible. Jesus had problems.

The Apostle Paul had problems. Do you think that they were less spiritual than you? Do you think that they somehow were less connected to God than you? No, my friends. We must understand that even when we do good, there will be trials.

They just will be. You think the devil’s going to sit on the sidelines and that he’s going to just say, hey, I’m going to just let the gospel go freely. You think the devil’s happy that the Apostle has showed up, that he has providentially showed up on this island and these people are getting ready to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do you think that the devil likes that? The Bible tells us in John chapter 10 that the devil is a thief and a liar.

My friends, he has come to kill and destroy. He wants to destroy your family. He wants to destroy every person.

He wants every person on this planet to go to hell. Do you know that? And now here in God’s providence, the Apostle has a shipwreck. He shows up on this island.

You think the devil is just going to say, hey, let’s sit back and see how this unfolds. He’s like, no, let’s start the fight. And when you start doing good, and you start making a difference for God, and you start making an impact and influencing others for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the devil wants to discourage you.

He wants to defeat you. He’s going to find every possible way to stop you from telling others about Jesus Christ. But yet God uses, and here’s the third thing I want you to see, this platform of the gospel.

I already told you kindness, those of you that are taking notes. And I already told you servant leadership, being a servant. But I want you to see the third way that God providentially gives Paul a platform for the gospel is through afflictions.

Because the Bible says in verse 4 that when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, no doubt this man is a murderer. They quickly judged the apostle and said the reason this happened to him is because he must have been a murderer. And now, even though he has not escaped the sea, yet justice, circle that word justice.

You’re thinking of in terms of justice in right and wrong. But this is a Greek goddess called justice. And what they believed on this island is that the Greek goddess was punishing the apostle because he was a murderer.

They believed that even though he had escaped the sea, that the Greek goddess justice was not going to allow the apostle to live. But what does the apostle do, like most of us would, when a snake bites you? He just shakes it off. Friends, if a snake bites me, I’m out of here.

I’m going to be screaming and hollering and panicking and falling apart and all the venom and the poison is going to run to my heart and my brain and I’ll be dead in minutes. Just want to pre-warn you. Me and snakes don’t get along.

Amen. The only good snake is a dead snake, minus a head, right? But what does this great, courageous man of God do? He shakes off the creature, the snake, into the fire and he suffers no harm. The people are like, well, once the poison gets to him, he’s a goner.

Just a little bit, he’ll be swelling and he’ll be dead. But you know what? That doesn’t happen. In verse 6, we see that it doesn’t happen and notice at the end of verse 6 that they changed their minds and they said, he was a God.

Man, he was a God. What the islanders saw was a visible display of the power of God. Power greater than all the false idols, all the false goddesses that they were already worshiping.

By the apostle experiencing immunity from the poison of a snake, and by the way, don’t think that you can just go out there and randomly be immune. I don’t want you to be crazy, but I want you to know that God uses this affliction to give him a platform to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Your afflictions are not purposeless.

We first and foremost know that every affliction we go through should always be that we would glorify God even in the hurt and the pain and the struggle. But second of all, it should be our intention that as people are watching our life and we’re giving praise to God through the tears that they can be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And third of all, the apostle said in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 6 that he had hoped that his afflictions would bring encouragement and comfort to the people of God.

That as others see you deal with suffering and you suffer so well and you suffer so godly and you suffer in such a way that brings praise and glory to God Almighty, that he would encourage the brothers and sisters in Christ to stay at it and be faithful to Jesus Christ. That even as they will one day suffer, that they will learn an example from you on how to handle the problems of our health, the problems of our trials. We can’t help but see the hand of God working in the apostle Paul’s life.

He truly understood he was on assignment from heaven and that he had a job to do and God wanted him to take the gospel to the ends of the earth and Paul worked tirelessly to make that happen. But within the scope of all that he dealt with, you could see God’s providence in his life. You and I are going to have some ups and downs.

We’re going to have different chapters in our life, new seasons and different challenges. But we always can see God’s providence and I hope that that understanding of his providence becomes a sustaining force in your life as you continue to walk faithfully for Jesus Christ. We encourage our listeners to check out our YouTube channel.

If you just go to YouTube, type in Hope Worth Having, you’ll see our channel. Subscribe to it. And on the channel, a new feature that you might enjoy is we’re creating playlists of different books of the Bible that I preached out of.

So if you wanted to go into the book of Isaiah, you could see all the different sermons I preached in Isaiah and this can help enhance some of your Bible study. So if you’re studying a particular book of the Bible and different chapters, then you can take advantage of this opportunity. There’s other great resources at our YouTube channel.

So check us out and subscribe and we would appreciate that. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post God’s Providence and Our Assignment Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Do We Do When Trouble Comes Part 3 . He will be reading out of Acts 27-1-44.

And you may not immediately see the results, but you know that God in heaven is standing up on his throne, and he is applauding every one of his servants, and he has not forgotten your good work on his behalf. And so let us, church, serve other people. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and we are delighted to have you on Hopeworth having broadcast. And today, we’re gonna be in acts chapter 27, and we’re going to be finishing up our series, what to do when trouble comes.

So let’s grab our bibles, and let’s begin to study this morning. Want you to take your Bible and join me in Acts chapter 27 in the New Testament. We have been studying a series entitled, What to Do When Trouble Comes. The apostle Paul in chapter 27 ventures out onto a sea voyage. He is a prisoner on this ship, and he is being taken to Rome, Italy.

And there he is to stand before Caesar and to give an account and to give testimony of some of the accusations that are brought before him. What is it that the apostle has done that has upset so many in the world at this time? He has simply preached and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. But wherever he has gone to teach the bible, to teach the wonderful good news of Jesus, there have been riots. There has been pushback.

There have been those who’ve been very upset. And so he has stood before religious courts, political courts, and now he is to stand before Caesar and to give an account. And as we have been going through this chapter Acts 27, we have been learning what do we do when trouble comes into our life. On this voyage, he encounters a violent storm, and this storm creates tremendous problems for those that are in the ship. And so we’ve already learned, first of all, that we should always spend time with God.

You know, one of the mistakes we make when trouble comes in our life is we tend to neglect our faith. We tend to kinda back away in our spiritual life. But the most important thing you can do is not to see God as an enemy, but to see Him as your refuge. To run to Jesus and look to Him when you are in trouble. But the second thing that we’ve already learned is that we should lift up others.

The apostle was not a negative person. He was not a person who was always claiming that somehow the sky was falling and everything was falling apart, but rather just the opposite. He was a person who tried to lift up, to encourage, midst of trouble, in the midst of every challenging circumstances in your life is not to focus on self and woe is me and have a self pity party, but rather to begin to lift up others. To always dig deep in your heart knowing that somehow, some way God is at work, and that your job is not to be a person who discourages others, but someone who is always encouraging to others. Now the third thing that we had learned was that we are to listen to God’s wisdom.

When we face trouble, sometimes we turn off our listening skills, and we tend to only think about or listen to what we’re thinking about. And I want to remind you of something that’s very important in your life. So important I would encourage you to write it down, and that is simply this, everything that you think and believe is not true. Everything that you feel in your heart is not always true. There have been times that maybe I thought something, and that in my anxiety or in my frustration, certainly it was never true, but from the way that I saw it, it was.

Or maybe a feeling, an emotion that I had as a result of maybe a person or as a result of a circumstance in my life, and it turns out those feelings were not accurate. And I want you to know that the most accurate and truthful thing in your life that needs to speak into your life is God’s wisdom. It is God’s truth. Everything that Mike believes and thinks is not always true, And that is also true for your life. So always make sure that you vet or filter your thoughts through the word of God.

Make sure that you vet and filter your feelings through the word of God and listen to God’s wisdom. That’s exactly what the apostle did. Last week we learned that number four, we’re to believe in God’s promises. How wonderful are God’s promises? In verse 25 of this chapter, we are reminded that God gave a promise to the apostle, and he reminded the apostle that they are going to make it.

They’re gonna be saved from this disastrous violent storm that has come upon them in their voyage, And the apostle has shared that with all who are on this ship, and he has reminded them that we are to believe the promises of God. I want you to hang on to this, and that is simply this, that God keeps his promises, and we should always trust those promises. Now there are times in my life that the circumstances are so difficult, it’s hard. It’s hard to move forward in life, but let me encourage you to hang on to the promises of God, because in the promises of God, you will find strength and courage to move forward in your faith, and so let’s believe in those promises. Now today, I wanna talk to you about the last three principles of what do we do when we are in trouble, and we’re gonna be beginning in verse 27 in the chapter today, and we encourage you to take time to read through this whole chapter so you can get full context to everything that is being taught, but we want you to remember that we have to stay on track.

Now let’s look at verse 27 of chapter 27 of the book of Acts. Now when the fourteenth night had come, remember they are in a very disastrous situation, and when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in the sea about midnight, the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land, and they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms. And when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be 15 fathoms. Then fearing, lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.

Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off. Now let’s understand what’s going on here. Remember the apostle has received a promise from God, and God is saying that if you stay together, you’re going to survive, and you’re gonna be okay, and you’re gonna get to land, and everything’s gonna work out. And all of a sudden what we find is there is a group that begins to sense that they are nearing land. And for one group, it is an idea of fear because they’re thinking, man, what if we crash into the rocks?

And what if this ship is destroyed even further and we were to drown? And there’s another group on the ship that’s saying, hey, we’re near land. Let’s just bail out and swim to the shore and do our best to make it. So each of them are putting together their own plans and their own schemes to do what they feel like is best. The apostle Paul steps in and he reminds the centurion who is the leader, who is responsible for many of the prisoners that are on this ship that, hey, we gotta stick together and we gotta stay on track, and we can’t disassemble here and we can’t move away from the promise of God and the plan of God or else we’re not gonna make it.

And Paul reminds them that if you stay together, then you will survive. But if you disband and you begin to work in your own way or get off track and do your own thing, it will lead to disaster in your life. And so the centurion at first, here Paul is one of his prisoners. He has a lack of trust in Paul, but in the midst of this storm, Paul has stepped up and proven himself to be a man of courage and faith and leadership. And so now the centurion is listening to the apostle, and he begins to call the men to work together and to stay on track and to finish out what God is doing here in that he wants us to stay on track.

Now I thought about that in our own personal life. There are times we get distracted, isn’t there? And you might wonder why people get distracted. And I thought of a few things. First of all, people are going through transitions in their life, and it gets them distracted on the purpose and the plan God has for them, and even the promises that God has.

There are times you say, look, you know what? I’m gonna break away, do my own thing, and I’m going to just kinda figure this out on my own, but God is teaching us that we can certainly do a whole lot more together than we could ever do separately, and that if we would corporately stay together, and be a part of what God is doing, and bringing people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, if we would band together, stay strong as a team, together everyone accomplishes more. And that is so important for us that when we are going through different transitions in life that we not lose focus and get distracted from the purpose and the plan God has in in our life. But the second reason that we get distracted is because of our own triumphs. Yes, God uses our life, we have success, we get promoted, we accomplish a few things, we’ve got some experience under our belt, And it’s easy to forget that God has blessed us, and God has provided for us, and God has smoothed the way for us that we might achieve what he has called us to do.

But yet so often we get our focus on ourself and we begin to pound our chest and we say look at me, look what I did, look what I accomplished. How many times have I as a pastor seen someone come to Christ who hardly had 2 nickels to rub together and they could barely make it in life, but all of a sudden God blessed them in many ways, and they began to do very well. And as soon as there was a little bit of money in their bank account, they forgot about God. They forgot about His blessings, and they forgot how he gave them the skills and the health to be able to think through and do all that they have accomplished through his grace. And so friends, let’s not forget that God is the source of all that we have, and God is the strength of everything that has been accomplished in our life.

And we don’t need to give credit to ourselves, but we always need to give praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see? Some people can’t handle prosperity. They can’t handle advancement in their life because it becomes about them rather than bringing glory to God, and they get distracted in their faith. Another way that we get distracted is through our troubles and our trials.

Trials come into our life, and all of a sudden we begin to look inward instead of upward. We begin to think about our emotions and our struggles and all that we’re dealing with in our life, and as a result, we no longer are looking to God as a refuge and a strength, and we get distracted, and we get off track, and we begin to go our own way instead of looking to Jesus Christ. I wish as a pastor that I could somehow convince all of those who love Jesus Christ and follow Him faithfully that trouble will come your way, but do not let it pull you away from your relationship and your fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Church, you’re gonna have trouble, you’re gonna have trials. I wish I could protect all of you from all the sorrows and the sufferings of life, but it’s impossible.

We live in a flawed world. We live in a world that is sinful. We live in a world, and I hate to tell you this, but it’s filled with people who are selfish. But friends, we cannot give up. We have to keep moving forward, and we can’t be distracted.

What are ways that’ll help me to stay on track? Number one, I would write the word patience. I would encourage you to be patient. As I’ve told you before, I’ve often been asked, should I pray for patience, pastor? Well, it’s the fruit of the spirit.

And patience is not the idea that I simply tolerate everything, but patience is the idea that I continue to endure even under pressure. That I just won’t quit. God teaches us that we’re to be faithful. And I always tell people it’s too soon to quit. And the Bible promises us that we will reap if we do not faint.

And we don’t even have to look to the Bible to see great examples of people who endured, even in mistakes, even in their failures. They kept going, they kept taking a step, and they were blessed, and they were able to accomplish much. I would also encourage you to write down the word flexible. We talk about how do I stay on track? Well, be flexible.

You know the bible says that the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. You see friends, I have to be flexible, and everything doesn’t work out the way you planned it. You sit down and you write your goals down, you write out your plans, what you wanna do, what you wanna accomplish, you have your next steps already put together. Now, I know some of you, you’re just trying to figure out what you’re gonna do in the next moment, amen? And you’re not even sure what you’re gonna do tomorrow, but here’s the key.

I gotta make sure that I’m flexible to the way God works Because man plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps. And you know your plans are not always his plans, did you know that? And sometimes what you put together is not the way God wants to work it. And you say, Well, I want God to fit into my plans and I want him to fit into my calendar. No, no, no, no, that’s not the way it works church.

We are called to fit into the plan of God. And if his plans are different than your plans, if he changes directions on you and he sends you a different way, then you must be willing to be flexible in staying on track for the Lord Jesus Christ. But I would also encourage you to be cautious. To be cautious. If I’m gonna stay on track, I need to be cautious because you see, the devil is always trying to tempt me to get away from God’s will for my life.

The devil wants you to live a disobedient life. He wants you to live a selfish life, he wants you to live for what you want, but God is saying, I want you to deny self, take up the cross, and follow me. You see, to be a disciple of Christ is not always a life of pleasure. It’s not always a life of ease. There are many challenges before you, and there are many times that you need to deny self.

The greatest marriage advice I could give to each and every one of you that if you want a successful marriage, you have to be willing to deny self. You can’t be selfish in a marriage. I didn’t realize how selfish I was until I got married. We have to learn to deny self. Quit being lazy, Mike.

Quit being selfish, and work together as a team with your spouse, and let’s work together to stay on track on what we’re all about. Now I wanna present a question to you this morning that I want you to think about. As you drift down the ocean of life, are you ready for the storms that will come into your life? It’s not will they, it’s when will they. You need to know that you will face storms.

And as you consider this question, will these storms cause you to get off track for God? Will they cause you to retreat in your faith? Or will these storms draw you closer to the Lord Jesus Christ? Stay on track. The next principle I’d like you to learn is to serve other people.

When I’m in trouble, I not only need to stay on track, but I need to serve other people. We already talked about how the apostle was such a person who lifted others up, and that he encouraged others. I want you to note that he was also a man who looked out for others. Look at verse 33. The bible says, and as the day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food.

He was telling them. He was admonishing them. Take some food, saying today is the fourteenth day. You have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing. I want you to think about this.

They’re in this storm, it’s so traumatic that they’re not even thinking about their need to eat, they’re not even thinking about nourishment, they’re so distraught with what they’re encountering that the apostle, rather than thinking about himself and say, man, look at all this food. I’m just gonna eat it myself and make sure there’s plenty for me. He goes to all the people on the ship and says, look, you need to take care of yourself. You need to make sure that you are nourished. He begins to serve others by helping them to nourish themselves.

The opportunity was before the apostle to minister to others, and rather than sitting down, he stepped up. And I wanna say to you that opportunities to minister will come your way every day, And the question is, will you serve others? You say, well, right now I’m hurting, pastor. Friends, do you wanna heal? The height of your healing is not only to be an encourager, but the height of your healing in your hurt is to serve others.

You’ve been there. You know what it’s like. You understand when you’re dealing with grief. You know what it’s like when you’re struggling with losing a job. You understand when your spouse walks out on you.

You understand. And though these things may not have been caused by God, here you are in the midst of them, and the question is what will be your response? Will you use this as a platform to help others who are hurting? You don’t have to go far before you’ll find hurting people. People are all around us hurting.

There are people who are struggling. There are people who are lonely. There are people who feel very hopeless. You have the opportunity to minister and to serve others. I love John Wesley’s motto.

He was the founder of the Methodist denomination, and he said do all the good you can, by all the means you can, by all the ways you can, in all the places you can, and at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can. Isn’t that great? And I wanna encourage you to say, Lord, help me to be a blessing to someone today. Help me to serve someone. The Bible tells us in Philippians two four, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

If you and I really believe in the hope and the promise of the return of Jesus Christ, then our lives should reflect that. And we can reflect that by living our lives with hope, humility, and a servant attitude. I love what the scripture says in first Corinthians 15 verse 58, therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Over and over again as a pastor, I interact with so many people. And sometimes I’ll say, well, how did you find out about us?

And they’ll tell me stories about our members planting a seed years ago, and now that seed is bearing fruit in their life. You never know the impact and the influence that you’ll have on someone as you continue to serve others. And you may not immediately see the results, but you know that God in heaven is standing up on his throne, and he is applauding every one of his servants, and he has not forgotten your good work on his behalf. And so let us, church, serve other people. The final principle that I want you to learn this morning as we think about what to do when we are in trouble, it is to choose a thankful attitude.

I want you to look again at verse 35. Having already encouraged them to eat, we note in verse 35, the Bible says, and when he had said these things, he took bread and he gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. Church, do you understand that here in the midst of this ship, the apostle has not only served in making sure that everybody is getting something to eat, and by the way, how many people were on this ship? 276.

And what does he do? Having gotten them all set up to where they are nourishing themselves and helping themselves having not eaten for fourteen days, he takes time to be thankful and to give thanks to God for the provisions. The Bible tells us in first Thessalonians five verse 18, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now he didn’t just say in the good times give thanks, but he said in everything give thanks. In everything, give thanks.

In your life, there will be good times and bad times. But I wanna ask you, will you give thanks to God? It’s a simple act that the apostle did. Before he ate the meal, he gave thanks to God. But no matter what, when, or how, may it be true of all of us that we take moments and times to give thanks to God for his blessings, for his provisions.

Thank you, Jesus, for what you have provided for us. Now there are two effects of being thankful that I want you to remember this morning, And number one is that our attitude determines our approach to life. You see, the apostle’s disposition in the midst of his trouble, in the midst of this violent storm that had come upon this many members on the ship, his disposition was one of thanksgiving. What is your disposition? You say, well, it determines how I feel.

Well, friends, it’s gonna be a roller coaster. When our children would get up, I would always go into their room to wake them up, and I would sing songs to them. And you know I’m not a singer, and so you know how difficult and miserable it was for our kids. But I loved getting up, and I love the new day. Now when it gets late in the evening, I start crashing, but I’m so excited for the day and ready for what the Lord has for us.

And I wanna ask you, what is your disposition? Do you have a negative attitude, or are you being positive and thankful that even in the midst of your trials you still are a thankful person? Philippians four four, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, what does he say church? Rejoice. Could you say that word one more time for me?

One, two, three. Rejoice. I love that. I’m looking forward to more rejoicing in your hearts. The second principle I want you to learn about is that a thankful attitude affects other people.

Did you notice that the apostle gave thanks to God in the presence of them all? He was not ashamed to recognize God. He was not ashamed to give credit to God and give thanks to God. That was his testimony. That was his attitude.

Would you look at verse 36 for me of acts chapter 27? This is after having given thanks, then they were all what? Then they were all encouraged and also took food for themselves. I would like for you to jump down to verse 44, the last verse of the chapter. It says, and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship, and so it was that they all escaped safely to land.

You see, Paul’s thankfulness impacted other people. That as he was a thankful person, they were encouraged. And as they were encouraged, their confidence grew, and they knew that God was gonna get them safely to land. And so it is my friends that as you and I get up every day and we rejoice in the Lord and we give thanks to God even through the hard times and even through the tears and even through the trouble in our life, you are impacting other people. Consider this church, we live in a world that is hopeless yet this world is watching you.

Family and friends are watching you. Oh, you profess to believe. You’re a person of faith. But as they watch your life, they say, yeah, it’s easy to believe when everything’s wonderful. But what will be your attitude when trouble comes your way?

Will they witness faith, love, and hope? Will they see within your heart that even as you walk through the valley, that you will be a person who is thankful to God and a person filled with the joy of the Lord. Would you pray with me this morning? Well, this section contains a detailed account of Paul’s sea voyage to Rome and Paul is sailing in some dangerous waters. He’s a prisoner, and he finds himself in a mess.

They get in a wreck and, well, he’s in trouble. And we learn some valuable lessons and principles on how to handle trouble when it comes our way. And we just pray that you and I can continue to apply these principles and that they could continue to help us as we walk through the different adversity that comes into our life. I want to remind you and encourage you to check out our website, hopeworthhaving.com. And on hopeworthhaving.com, you can see a lot of good stuff relating to our ministry and opportunities to communicate, opportunities to read, learn, and check, some of the archives out.

And so we hope that you’ll go to the website and take advantage of the resources there. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post What Do We Do When Trouble Comes Part 3 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Do We Do When Trouble Comes Part . He will be reading out of Acts 27-1-44.

Isolation will not help you impact the world for Jesus Christ. The key is insulation. I’m talking about insulating your life with the word of God, insulating your life with godly Christian friends, insulating your life by getting active and serving Jesus Christ. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church.

It’s the Hopeworth Having radio program, and we’re excited to have you as part of our program today. We’re gonna be in the book of Acts chapter 27, and we’re continuing our study on what to do when trouble comes in your life. So let’s definitely grab our Bible, and let’s learn together. If you have your bible, I want you to turn to Acts chapter 27, and the last message that I preached in Acts chapter 27 was what to do when trouble comes. Now when you come to the book of Acts to the end of it, there are a lot of narratives that Luke, the physician under the inspiration of the spirit of God is writing down what the apostle is experienced.

You recall that he has already been before the religious courts, he has been before the political courts, and they have been trying to mischaracterize him, and they have been trying to bring judgments against him falsely and accuse him of causing riots or perhaps even to try to dethrone the king or Caesar, but yet none of these are true. The apostle has a great desire to get to Rome, and God uses these circumstances, the pushback, the trials, and all the persecution and oppression that he was dealing with to get him to Rome. And that is where we pick up in chapter 27. He is getting ready to get onto a ship, and there is gonna be this immense storm. And what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna look what the apostle Paul did and how he reacted and handled things, and it’ll give us wisdom and guidance on what to do when trouble comes.

We think of this personally in our life. We understand that there are going to be storms in our own personal lives. There are going to be storms of sickness and sorrow, and that we even as believers will endure sufferings in our life. But the one thing, the overarching thing that I want you to see in this chapter, and I want you to make sure that you take careful note of it, and that it is hovering over your thoughts as you are reading through chapter 27 and eventually chapter 28. That God has a plan, and that the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ that was declared all the way back in chapter one of the book of Acts verse eight, where Jesus gave that commission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, beginning in Jerusalem, unto Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

That there is no circumstance, there is no violence of nature, there is no human being that can hinder the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that even though many will attempt to try to stop the plan of God and his redemptive work in the hearts of many throughout the world, that God’s will and god’s purposes will always be advancing. So let’s pick up in verse one again of chapter 27, and just to recapture where and what we’re dealing with. The Bible says in verse one, and when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, remember his desires to get to Rome, they delivered Paul and other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustan regiment. So here is the apostle, he is a prisoner, he’s now being put on a ship, and that ship is ironically going to Italy, which eventually will lead to Rome.

And so God is working even in our first verse. We see God at work in the midst of the difficult circumstances. Verse two, so entering a ship of Adramatiam, we put to sea, meaning to sail along the coast of Asia. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us. And the next day, we landed at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him liberty to go to his friends and to receive care.

And when we had put to sea from there, we sailed under the shelter of Cyprus because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the sea, which is off Sicilia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia, and there the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy, and he put us on board. And when we had sailed slowly many days, and arrived with difficulty off Cenidus, the wind not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete Of Salmone. Passing it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lascia. Now when I read these first eight verses, and I’m not done reading yet, but I just had to interject this.

I know that maybe some of you have flown on a plane, or maybe you’ve had to travel in your car, and every time, everywhere you get there’s difficulty. You show up, and all of a sudden there’s a backup, you get to security at the airport, and somebody accidentally brought a gun, and now the entire place is shut down, alright? And the entire place is shut down. Alright? Or they just announced that your plane has been delayed, and now you gotta find other arrangements.

So it is that the apostle as he is traveling, he is facing a lot of headwinds, and difficulty, and problems that’s all being explained. Luke wants you to get a sense of that. He wants you to feel the frustration of it. He wants you to capture what is happening. We pick up in verse nine.

Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them saying, men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster, and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives. Look at verse 11. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. Now, we’re not gonna have time to read every verse here in this chapter, you’re gonna have to do that on your own. I’m gonna highlight some things for you to help you.

But what do you do when you find yourself in trouble? What do you do when you’re dealing with difficult circumstances? The first thing that I noted about the Apostle was that he spent time with God. We talked about that last time when we were with you, and that is in verse 20 through verse 23. The Apostle is spending time with God, and God has given him a message that he is to share.

How important it is for you and I as we walk in this world where there are challenges and there are circumstances that can be difficult, and we find ourselves on detours, and and we find ourselves going down a path that we did not intend to be on, that we spend time with God. That we are accessing the wisdom of God. That we’re keeping our relationship with God strong. What I see in many believers’ lives, as soon as a tragedy enters their life, as soon as a trial comes into their heart, as soon as they face some difficulties, they run from God. But I’m here to tell you my friends, get closer and spend time with Jesus.

The second thing that we see in the life of the apostle is that he tried to lift up others, that even in this difficulty rather than just thinking about himself, he’s thinking about other people. I want you to look at verse 22. He said to those that were on the ship, and now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship. We look at verse 25. Therefore take heart men, for I believe God that it will be just as he has told me.

How would the apostle hear and know what God has told him? Because he has spent time with God, and he has been under the hand and the voice of God, and now he is taking that message of encouragement, and he is letting these other prisoners know, and others despair. They don’t have to come to that point where they’re ready to give up because he knows God has communicated to him, and he is trying to lift up others. The third thing we learned a few weeks ago is that we need to listen to God’s wisdom. We need to listen to God’s wisdom.

We think about those that were in charge of this ship, and how they refused to listen to the wisdom that the man of God had given them, that the apostle had shared with them, a man who walked with the Lord, a man who was in step with the spirit, a man who was truly knowledgeable and understanding because of his own experiences in traveling and crisscrossing the known world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and planting the churches, but they were stubborn, they were resistant, and they were determined to do what they wanted to do. I wanna remind you that as you go through difficulties, God will put people in your life who will speak to your heart, and they will give you the wisdom of God. And do not be that kind of person that is defensive and resistance, but be teachable and open and listen to God’s wisdom. Now the fourth thing that I want us to learn and where I want us to pick up where we did not get to last time we were together on this chapter Acts chapter 27. Therefore take heart men.

Take heart, which means to be encouraged or take courage for I believe God that it will be just as he has told me. You see, God keeps his promises, and the apostle knew that, and so he is challenging us to put our faith in God’s promises. We are to trust God, and we are to give him thanks. Paul was a man of great faith, and in this passage, we see his faith in action. What is this promise?

Well, let’s go back to verse 21 and begin to see. The Bible says, But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me.’ There it is, Should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. Now I urge you to take heart for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. Look at verse 23, for there stood by me this night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, do not, here’s the promise, do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar.

And indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you. Therefore take heart men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island. So he is laying out the promise and he’s saying we gotta trust God, we gotta believe in him. You know, the Bible tells us in Hebrews eleven six that without faith, it’s impossible to please God.

Now friends, your faith is not in darkness. Your faith is not in uncertainty. Your faith is not in the circumstances of the world, or even the thoughts of a philosopher, but your faith is in the promises of God. And what are the promises? They are clearly spelled out in the Bible.

Now we read the promises of God. We read our Bible. We see these promises emerging. We must always be alert to these promises, because many times a promise is all you got to hang your hat on, but keep in mind that as you’re reading the promises of God, that not all the promises are for you particularly. Some promises were unique to the circumstances that were given, and some promises were designed for the nation of Israel, and other promises are designed for us as believers that we can trust in God, and this is what the apostle is saying, that God has given me a promise.

He has shared with me that promise, and he is saying, we’re gonna make it through this storm, and that every one of you is going to be saved relating to the disaster that is upon them. And Paul is putting his faith in the promises of God. Now, Hebrews ten thirty six says this, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. What does he mean? Is that you and I are called to run the race of faith.

We are called to live a life of faith. The Bible says, the just shall live by what? Faith. We are called to live by faith. Hear me.

We do not live by explanations. We do not live by what we see, but we live by faith that is rooted in the promises of God. That’s why it’s essential that every one of you get you a bible promise book, and that you read that Bible promise book, and every day of your life that you claim a promise, you pray a promise, and you stand on that promise. Believe that promise knowing that God is at work in your life. Now as you are understanding, notice in Hebrews 10 verse 36, he says you have need of endurance.

The only way you’re gonna see the promises of God ultimately fulfilled in your life is through endurance. Now we live in the microwave generation, the instant drive through, get what I want right away, right now. But friends, when it comes to the promises of God, he wants you to be faithful and endure for him. Endurance, it’s the idea of persevering. It’s the idea of being under the weight.

Under the weight, but keep pressing forward. The pressures of life push down upon us. But what do we do? Do we retreat? Do we curl up into the bed and say, I give up?

Or do we keep taking a step? But I don’t feel like it, pastor. I’m there with you. I don’t always feel like it. I mean, let’s just be honest.

We always don’t feel like getting out of bed and going to work, but you know what? We do the right thing because you do the right thing by faith, believing the promises of God, enduring, keep moving forward. Notice again in Hebrews ten thirty six, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God. The second key of seeing the promises of God fulfilled in your life is not only endurance, but obedience to the will of God. You see, that’s the key if you wanna see the promises of God fulfilled in your life is being obedient to God.

It is being obedient to what His plan is, His purposes in your life. God has a universal will for all of us that applies to every person on the planet, and that universal will is that we would know him, that we would be saved, that we would trust Christ as our Lord and savior. Are you writing this down? You need to know him, second of all, you need to grow in him. God wants all of us to grow in our faith.

He doesn’t want you to be a stagnant Christian, he doesn’t want you to be a limited Christian, he wants you to thrive for him. He wants you to grow in his knowledge, and to grow in his grace in in your life. He wants you to be thriving for Christ, becoming more like Jesus every day of your life. But the third universal will of God is He wants you to serve Him. God doesn’t want you to just come, sit, and soak, and do nothing for Jesus.

God doesn’t want you to just come and then go home and do nothing for Christ. He wants us to serve Him, get involved, get engaged, find your place, find your spot in the church family. We’re created unto good works, the Bible says. You are saved to serve. How about that one?

God wants you to serve, that’s His universal will. His universal will is God wants you to share Him with others. He wants you to tell others about Christ. Who are you talking to about Jesus? Who are you having spiritual conversations with?

Who are you inviting to bible study? Who are you inviting to your classes and to your events and activities that you’re having? Who are you reaching out to? You say, well they’re not events and activities that you’re having? Who are you reaching out to?

You say, well, they’re not responding to me. Friends, you don’t give up, do you? And I want you to consider this question, who are you talking to about Jesus? Who are you inviting? Who are you reaching out to?

And if that’s a big zero or no one, you need to get on your knees and say, God put somebody in my path. Forgive me for not being intentional, and forgive me for not taking the initiative. So we’re to be obedient to this universal will, but also we’re to be obedient to the unique will of God. What is the unique will of God? But I’m saying we all have a unique will, don’t we?

That’s unique to us. God has given us that peace. God has given us that understanding of this is what he wants us to do. So he says again in Hebrews ten thirty six, you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. Then he jumps into Hebrews chapter 11, he begins to talk about the great men and women of faith.

At the beginning of the chapter, it’s a lot of rah rah, excitement, and amazing miracles. You get to the end of the chapter, he reminds us that all the faithful people of God weren’t resurrected, that all the faithful people of God did not overcome on this earth. Some were cut in half, others were persecuted under death, others were burned at the stake. This is all in Hebrews chapter 11. We love the first part of Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of faith, these dynamic people that we read about that are such an inspiration to our life, rightly so.

But those who did not see the promise fulfilled on this side of heaven, they didn’t see it fulfilled until they entered in to the pearly gates before the presence of Jesus. The promises of God are for you, but you must also be faithful and know that sometimes those promises may not culminate until you get to heaven. Abraham didn’t see all that was promised to him. He was promised this great nation. Think about Abraham and Sarah and how long they waited for a child that was promised to them.

And so you must understand that God wants us to believe those promises whether they flesh out immediately or they flesh out later in life or they flesh out when we are standing in the presence of God before the throne of God. Do you have that kind of faith? Or do you have the kind of faith that only believes God when he does what you want? And he does it the way you want it. And as long as that happens, then you’re cool to believe in God.

But do you believe in God when you don’t understand? Do you believe in God when you have doubts? Do you believe in the promises of God when you can’t explain and you can’t articulate all that is happening and all that you’re experiencing in life? Are you there? Or are you only believing God when you know that somehow, someway God is gonna fulfill his promise?

Here or on the other side of heaven. We pray for our loved ones. We pray that God would heal them. We pray that God would raise them up. We pray for the sick.

And sometimes God doesn’t fulfill that on this side of heaven. Did you know that? But he raises them up in his presence to stand before God and when they get to heaven, they are fully healed. Nobody goes to heaven and walks with a limp. Nobody goes to heaven and says, I need my asthma medicine or I need my medications.

But I’m just telling you, what if God promotes you to heaven and that’s his answer? Do you have that kind of promise? Now what does it mean when we say believe in God’s promises? Well, let me give you four things that’ll help you to understand to believing and practically what that means in your life. First of all, when you are lonely, you need to know that God is your companion.

The psalmist said, turn to me and be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted. You see, I love the Psalms because they’re real. The psalmist is transparent. He’s honest. He’s sharing his heart.

He’s not a pretender. He’s not acting self righteous. He’s just being real with God, and he is saying, God, turn to me and be gracious to me. I am lonely. I am afflicted.

We live in a world that has never had more people living in it. There’s over 8,000,000,000 people, but yet we have never met so many people who are so lonely. We have so many people who are lonely, but as was already shared, we hang on to the promise that was given to us. I will never leave you nor forsake you. You see, God doesn’t always get you out of the mess, but He will not leave you alone in the mess.

Keep that in mind. And I want you to note second of all, when we think about the promises of God, that when we are worried, God is our confidence. I think of Isaiah 40 three:two, what a wonderful passage, one that you want to keep in your heart and mind and often read, is that when you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you, And when you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched nor will the flame burn you. You see, we are talking about even as we walk through the trials, even as we walk through this imagery that is given by the prophet as a way to help us understand that as we walk through these challenging times, that God Friends, I want you to know that God is our confidence, and he helps you to know that God is our confidence, and he helps Friends, I want you to know that God is our confidence, and he helps us. He is with us as we walk through the storms of life.

Now the next I want you to see is when you’re tempted, God is your counselor. When you are tempted, First Corinthians ten thirteen, there has no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. God gives us the promise that even as we face temptations, that He will show us the way of escape. Temptations are a part of all of our lives.

There is none of us that are not tempted. Temptation is not the sin, it’s that when we succumb to the temptation. And that’s why you’ve got to train your children, and you’ve got to develop in your own heart, not a heart of isolation, so that you’re never tempted. You know the monks, they would hide out in the caves. They would build these large monasteries, and they would stay away from people because they didn’t want to be tempted.

That’s not the answer. Isolation will not help you impact the world for Jesus Christ. The key is insulation. It’s insulation. Insulate your children, insulate your spiritual life.

You say, what do you do? What are you talking about pastor? I’m talking about insulating your life with the word of God, insulating your life with prayer, insulating your life with godly Christian friends, insulating your life by getting active and serving Jesus Christ. Friends, if you’re just sitting around doing nothing, it’s no wonder the Devil draws you away. Get active for God.

Stay involved for the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t let your mind wander. Stay focused on Christ. God will always provide a way out. As you face temptations and as you are in the word, God knows what you’re struggling with.

He knows what you’re dealing with, but he has prepared a way for you to escape. Willpower will never be enough. You will need the power of the spirit of God in your life. You’ll need the power of the word of God in your life. If you’re gonna fight temptation, you need the support and accountability of God’s people.

You’ve gotta stay connected into the family of God. These are the things that help insulate us and help us overcome temptation in our lives. How else do we understand and live out believing in the promises of God? Here’s my final one, when you’re discouraged, God is your comforter. Now if you’re discouraged, there’s one thing I can tell you with all confidence, it is that God will encourage and comfort you.

The psalmist said, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted. He is near and saves the crushed in spirit. God knows what we’re struggling with. He knows about our doubts and our questions. None of them surprise him.

You’re not the first Christian to have questions to God, and you’re not the first Christian to be mad at God. How about that one? People say, pastor, is it okay to be mad at God? Sure. He can handle it.

Be grateful through the grace of Jesus Christ and the cross that God’s not mad at you. But friends, it’s okay. Share your heart with Jesus. Tell him what you’re upset about, and I’m telling you that he will use all that to work in your heart, to bring comfort to your life. God understands.

He knows what you’re going through. He knows what you’re walking through, and he is very personable. That’s what I want you to note is that God is not a distant force out there that you’re trying to activate through some magical formula. God is not up there saying, I’m too busy to listen to you. Come back later.

He’s very sympathetic to our discouragement. He’s very sympathetic to our struggles, and the Bible says to be anxious for nothing. But in everything with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God will guard your heart and your mind. When is the last time you took your discouragement and you took it to God? You see, the apostle spent time with Jesus and he got a promise from God And he believed that promise even though he was dealing with problems in his life, even though his travels were going chaotic, and even though the people around him wouldn’t listen to what he had to say, he continued to believe in God because he knew that somehow, some way, God would fulfill his promises in his life.

And friends, I’m here to tell you that God keeps his promises and that they are guaranteed. And the greatest promise that Jesus gives us is that whoever believes on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. If you are here this morning, I want you to know first of all, if you’re a believer, do not be discouraged about the things that are going on in your life and the challenges you are facing, whether they’re health or circumstances or even maybe family problems. And I want you to be encouraged knowing that God is gonna right every wrong when we get to heaven. The Bible teaches us that when we have trouble, that we should learn to pray.

So many times as Christians, we try to handle it our way, but God is telling us that we need to pray. And so make sure that when trouble comes knocking at your door, that you are a person of prayer, and that you are standing strong in your faith, and you’re not letting the devil get the victory, and you’re not succumbing to the flesh, and you are honoring Christ in every possible way. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post What Do We Do When Trouble Comes Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Do We Do When Trouble Comes Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 27-1-44.

They say champions are born in the ring, but I tell you, they are revealed in the ring because those that are disciplined to practice outside of the ring, when that moment comes where the challenge is before them, their discipline, their strength, their courage is revealed. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and we are broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. We’re excited to have you today with our radio program, and we’re gonna be in the book of Acts chapter 27, and we’re gonna be learning what to do when trouble comes. Hey.

It doesn’t matter who you are. Trouble is coming. And so what do you do when trouble comes into your life? Well, let’s get our bibles and study together on this passage. If you have your Bible this morning, join me in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 27.

I wanna talk to you about what to do when trouble comes your way. When we come to Acts chapter 27, this section contains a detailed account of the apostle’s sea voyage to Rome. You remember that as we have tracked through the different chapters of this book, that the apostle has been having to defend himself before politicians and courts, and they have tried to accuse him falsely. His only crime was preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, helping people to come to the saving knowledge of the Lord. And in their effort to try to shut him down and to silence him, the apostle used his rights as a citizen of Rome to have an opportunity to go to Rome and to have his case heard before Caesar.

And so we come to chapter 27, and they are now sailing in dangerous waters headed to Rome. The apostle was a prisoner. We come down to verse nine of chapter 27. The Bible says, now when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them saying, men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss not only of the cargo and ship but also our lives. And the apostle is warning them saying, hey, we are headed towards disaster.

We are putting our own lives in danger. You will note in verse nine, he makes reference because the fast was already over. This is in reference to the day of atonement, which would identify the season because it was always, dangerous to travel in the open seas from mid September to mid November. The apostle knew this because he had been on the seas before. It wasn’t that he had received some kind of revelation.

He just understood the weather patterns and so he was letting them know that, look, it’s gonna be dangerous out there. We’re not gonna make a lot of progress on the sea and we’re putting our lives as well as our cargo in danger here and we need to probably rethink this. Well, that’s exactly what took place. This threatening storm caused tremendous problems, but you can read about that storm and the disaster that it caused. Reminds us that each and every one of us, we are going to face storms.

As believers, there’s going to be problems. There’s no child of God that’s gonna just simply skate through the journey of faith and never have to encounter any kind of storm in their life. Sometimes the storms that we face are storms of correction. God is correcting our hearts because maybe we have drifted, maybe we have gone down a path that is not honoring and glorifying to God. And so he uses a storm in our life to align our hearts with his.

But then there are storms of perfection. It has nothing to do with us or anything that we have or have not done. But here we are in this storm, following the will of God, obeying God, doing what God has called us to do, putting everything on the line for him, but yet we have what is often referred to as a storm of perfection. Meaning God is not using the storm to correct us, but to perfect us. That God uses the storms in this world to draw us closer to him and to help us to grow in our likeness to Jesus Christ.

You say, well I don’t like the way God does that and I don’t want him to do that. I hear you. But we’re not in charge. God is. Christians face storms of sickness.

People often ask me why. Why am I going through this sickness? Sometimes I visit some of the older saints of our church family and they say, you know, I’m ready to go. Why is God allowing me to still be here? To go through some of these physical health problems that I have?

Friends, we don’t know all the reasons of why we go through the storms of sickness. But we do know that he is our Jehovah Rapha. He is the God who heals and he is the God who works even in our sickness and he works through our sickness And that he is shaping our lives to be like him. There are storms of sorrow. There are many sorrows in this world.

There are many things that weigh heavy in our hearts. There are things that leave indelible marks upon us. Perhaps even change the way that we think or process the events and circumstances of life. But God uses these sorrows that we may look to him as our hope. Remember what was read to you, that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.

And that we are promised that he is near to the brokenhearted. Understand that God does not always take away our problem or our storm, but he always promises to be with us through the storm. You remember that the apostle prayed three times that God would deliver him from this particular thorn in the flesh that he was encountering. And he prayed and the Lord said, my grace is sufficient. Yes.

There are times that God can deliver us from the storm and out of the storm, but recall also that he delivers us through the storm. The psalmist said, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. God’s presence is always with us in our storms of sorrow. There are storms of suffering.

There are times that we are persecuted for our faith. There are times that there is resistance because we believe. That can take place in the family. It can take place on the job. It can take place in our own community or even in our nation.

But however it comes, we must remember that all that we sacrifice for God, all that we suffer in his name, all that we endure for the cause of Christ will be rewarded to us, the scripture says, a hundredfold. There is coming a time, and there is coming a place and a day, church, when you and I will be absent from all of this suffering and sorrow in this world. And that we will be in the constant presence of God. And the psalmist said, in thy presence is fullness of joy. Not half joy, but full joy in the presence of God.

In thy presence is fullness of joy. And at thy right hand, there are pleasures forever more. Friends, there is a day of hope for us who love the lord, who believe in Jesus Christ. When we come to this chapter, it is a very detailed and lengthy narrative from Luke under the inspiration of the spirit of God of what took place in this voyage to Rome. But I want you to see the overarching message that the apostle wants us to know, that God wants us to know.

And what you need to walk away with today is that God’s plan of salvation and the plan of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth that we learned about in Acts chapter one verse eight will not be thwarted or hindered by the violence of nature nor even the actions of other human beings, that the gospel will continue to march on. There is no political government. There is no natural disaster. There is no person that can stop what Jesus Christ has set in motion. In that, he is wanting to reach every heart and he wants to reach every home for the scriptures teach us.

That he is not willing that any should suffer, but that all should come to what, church? Repentance. You need to memorize that verse. God wants you to repent of your sins. He wants us to come to Christ to receive him as our lord and savior.

And, friends, there are many challenges, obstacles, but they will not stop the ultimate plan of God. And when you read acts 27, I want you to keep thinking about that as you’re reading those verses. Now what do we do? Let’s learn this morning on what we can do when we’re in trouble. The first thing I want you to see is that we need to always spend time with God.

We need to always spend time with God so we’re in verse 20 of chapter 27. Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, we’re not talking about Upstate New York, we’re talking about here in our life. No small temptus beat on us. All hope that we would be saved was finally given up. Would you get there?

Perhaps you have been there. Perhaps you are there. All hope was finally given up. They had encountered this dangerous storm. It had caused them to throw all the cargo over.

They were in a mess. And the Bible tells us that there was no sun, there was no stars, there was no light. It was just darkness because of all the clouds and the storm and the wind and the waves were beating down on those in this ship. They had given up and they said there was no hope. Verse 21.

But after long abstinence from food, then Paul what does Paul do? Then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you should have listened to me and have not sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night, an angel of the God of to whom I belong and whom I serve. Some translations say that an angel that stood to whom the God I worship, and the apostle is reminding us that he was a man who spent time with God, and it was his time with God that infused him with courage and strength for God when he was in trouble.

You know, they say sometimes champions are born in the ring, but I tell you that they are not born in the ring, they are revealed in the ring because those that are disciplined to practice, those who are disciplined to do the little things in their time outside of the ring, that when that moment comes where the challenge is before them, their character, their discipline, their strength, their courage is revealed. And so it is in the Christian life that each and every one of us are going to face storms. There will be storms in your life that’ll lead you to the point of hopelessness, and you will sense in your heart that it is time to give up. The apostle even said in second Corinthians that he despaired even life. His heart was so heavy that he didn’t even wanna live.

But friends, I tell you the one thing that made this man in the midst of this storm, the Bible says that he stood in the midst of them. He stood up in the midst of them. What is it that’s gonna help you to stand strong for God when you are in trouble? It is your time with the Lord. It is your time that you spend with God.

If you are rushing through your day and you are putting God on the back burner and you’re saying I don’t need God, I can do this in my own strength, then friends, when that moment comes when everything collapses and the rug is pulled from underneath your feet, you will be found anemic in your spiritual life. What I say to you this morning is spend time with God so that you can stand strong for God, so that you can be courageous for God. The psalmist said, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, oh God. Do you have a heart? And do you have a hunger?

And do you have a thirst for God? Like the deer is panting and thirsting for the rivers of water, the streams of water. Are you thirsty for God? Are you hungry for him this morning? If there is no passion in your heart for Jesus Christ, if there is no hunger for God in your heart, then you need to get on your knees and repent and ask God to forgive you and to give you a heart that longs for him, that loves him, that thirsts for him every day of your life.

Bible tells us, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God, his righteousness. Are you with me? I know many of you are passionate and I’m right there with you. You’re hungry and thirsty for football. Understand that as much as you’re looking forward to that game, I need you to be that hungry for God almighty.

I need you to be that thirsty for Jesus Christ and his righteousness in your life. So how do we spend time with God? It always begins with prayer. It’s easy, church, to become apathetic in your prayer life. It’s easy to become methodical in your prayer life.

It’s easy to go through the motions of your prayer life. I’m challenging you to get plugged in to one of these prayer groups and let God work in your heart and revive you. Let us pray that God would revive our church in the power of prayer. Would it be wonderful if God would anoint this church with a new sense of prayer? A new hunger for prayer?

That’s how we spend time with God. It doesn’t matter where you’re at. It can be a special place. It could be as you’re going through your day. It could be as you’re winding your day up.

It could be as you’re encountering different circumstances and people. But you and I need to be always shooting up arrows of prayer to God, and we need to be spending time with God in prayer and seeking Him in our prayer life. The second thing that helps me spend time with God is just good old fashioned Bible reading. Good old fashioned just reading His word. Just opening the Bible up and reading it.

Picking a chapter, perhaps a book in the Bible. I know that some of you like to just open it up and just randomly pick a spot and claim that verse, and I hope that the Lord doesn’t tell you to do anything that you shouldn’t do, because the Bible records the good the bad and ugly of all his servants. So let’s be wise in reading the Bible, but we should open the Bible up and we should spend time. When I was a young Christian, a new believer in Christ, my pastor told me every day read one chapter of the book of Psalm and one chapter of the book of Proverbs and one chapter of the gospels. And so that’s how I began reading the Bible.

And then he taught and trained me how to read the bible through in a year. And we did that. And then he taught me how to study. And so for some of you, you’ve never really studied the bible, you’ve never really been engaged, and the bible’s just something on your little phone or your device that you have and it really doesn’t have priority. I mean you’ve got fantasy football apps that are on the front of your phone and you don’t have the Bible app.

Hello? Let’s prioritize and take time to read our Bible every day. Whether you’re old or young. I’m not against fantasy football. Okay?

If you wanna live in la la land, that’s fine. Alright? If it helps you. Deal with the stress of this world. I understand.

Okay? But all I’m trying to say is I want the bible to be more important to you. I want you to read it every day of your life. Did you know the Bible gives you a promise? And that promise is that if you read the Bible, you will be blessed.

And you think, well, it’s so insignificant. It doesn’t make the front page. It’s not newsworthy. Friends, in heaven, all of heaven is cheering you as you read God’s word. Another way to spend time with God is meditation.

In Joshua chapter one verse eight, we’re called to meditate on God’s word. And when you think of meditation, sometimes it can be very confusing. What is meditation? Well, it’s just focused thinking. It’s not that you’re drifting.

It’s not that you’re so open minded that you’re empty minded. That’s not meditation, it’s that I’m focused thinking about what God is saying. And I’m thinking about how it applies to my life. I’m thinking about what it means to me. I’m just kinda reveling as it is revealing who God is to me.

As I’m rejoicing in the greatness and the glory of our God. I wanna encourage you that if you wanna be ready for that storm that is coming, that you spend time with God. I like what a w Tozer said in the preface of his book, the knowledge of the holy, which you have not read yet, please get it. We have lost our spirit of worship, he says. And our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence.

We always need noise. We always need something going, but God calls you to know him. The bible says be still and know that I am God. Someone once said that the complaint that church is boring is never made by people who are in awe of god. When you come, you might want to be entertained in the flesh.

Our goal is not to appeal to your flesh this morning. Nothing was designed to appeal to your flesh this morning, but everything was to appeal to your spirit, to awaken your heart to god, to use the spiritual means by which God has given us the tools to speak into your life, your need of not only knowing Jesus Christ, but growing in Christ and going out of this place and serving Jesus Christ. Church is never boring to those who spend time with Him and are in worship with Him, and they are in awe of God. The second thing I want you to learn, what do I do when trouble comes my way, is I need to learn to lift up others. You know, I know you’re saying to me, Mike, look.

Hey, we’re struggling. We’re going through trouble. Why would you call on us to lift up other people? Did you see what the apostle did again? I love this section of scripture because what I see is this dynamic man of God that in the midst of what we’ve already read about, that they were discouraged, the weather was not in their favor, there was no hope, Attitudes were down.

Everybody was ready to give up. And what does Paul do in verse 21? He stands up in the midst of them, and he said, men, you should have listened to me. I was trying to tell you. He already had revealed that in verse nine and ten that he was warning them that they were headed for disaster.

But here, look at verse 22. He says, I now urge you to take heart. I want you to be courageous for there will be no loss of life among you. Now that’s a promise that he is doing. He is declaring to them that they will not lose their life.

How does he know this? Verse 23. He stood by me, meaning that there was this angel that came to him and revealed himself in his time of worship, and he says, verse 24, do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar, and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you. You know, sometimes it’s good to hang around godly people.

Amen? It was good to be around godly people, but Paul stands up and he encourages them and he tells them to take heart, and he’s not like the power of positive thinking guy. He’s a guy who’s saying, look, I’ve been with God. I’ve been worshiping him, the God I serve, and he sent an angel to me, and the angel revealed to me that we’re all gonna make it. Now this ship is not gonna make it, but we are gonna make it.

And he encourages them in the promises of God. That is the key, is that you and I find encouragement in the promises of God. Sometimes the promises of God are all that I have to hang my hat on because my circumstances aren’t good and my heart is struggling, and the only hope I have is not in this world, but it is in what God has promised to me. That’s why you need a promise bible book. Go get you one.

And every time you find yourself distraught and in trouble, you wanna make sure that you’re hanging on to the promises because you will never be able to serve beyond what you are receiving, and you’ll never be able to lift up others unless you are being lifted up by the Lord and his promises, and you’ll never be able to help others unless you are under the fountain of his grace and his hope that is being poured out into your life every day, and the apostle could stand up because God already stood up for him. Jesus gave his life on the cross for the apostle, and he gave his life for you. And he sent the apostle an angel and said, tell him the promise that I have given them. Friends, we need to lift up others. And the way that we do that is in our personal time with God, but also we need to remember that God wants us to encourage one another as believers.

I want you to back up for me just a second in verse one and verse three. I want you to see the apostles supporting. Look at verse one of chapter 27. And when it was decided that we, circle that word in your bible, we should sail to Italy. For several chapters, Luke has not referred to himself nor of the team that is with Paul.

But all of a sudden, knowing that they’re getting ready to face disaster, he reminds us that the apostle was not out there isolated fighting the storms of life by himself. But he says, we and friends, god didn’t call you to be a Christian lone ranger. Look at verse three of chapter 27. And the next day, we landed at Sedan. And Julius treated Paul kindly, and he gave him liberty to go to his, what, friends and receive care.

The great apostle Paul, what a dynamic, godly man. Courageous, willing to take on the devil, look him in the eye, and take on the world for the gospel. But even he needed friends and even he needed care. But let me tell you something, all of us need care. We all need Christian friends.

We all need to learn to care for one another and lift each other up. The apostle was not isolated. The scriptures tell us in Romans fifteen one, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Well, let me say this, that when the apostle uses this word weak, he’s not saying that there’s two categories of Christians, strong and weak. He’s just saying this, that there are times you might be weak in something and I’m strong in another.

And there might be times that I’m weak in something and you’re strong in another. But however it flows and rolls in our life, let’s help each other in our weaknesses. Let’s not beat each other up, let’s not hammer down on each other, let’s not burn bridges, let’s not separate each other, but let’s help one another and lift one another up in our weaknesses. In this verse, Romans fifteen one, he says an important statement, not to please ourselves. You see, friends, if you’re gonna help your brothers and sisters in Christ, if you’re gonna care for them, you are going to have to be willing to sacrifice.

It’s not always convenient to care for one another. Have you noticed that people’s problems and storms don’t always come right when you want them to? People’s problems and storms come when you least need it. Your schedule’s packed and you got to do one more thing and, friends, let’s care for one another and not please ourselves. Let’s put ourself on the back burner and say, I want to honor Christ by ministering to my brother and ministering to my sister in Christ.

We need people in our lives who will check up on us. We need people in our life who will pray for us. We need people in our lives who will encourage us. And that’s why it’s important for you to be in a prayer group. That’s why it’s important for you to be in a Bible study.

That’s why it’s important for you to be in a Sunday school class. That’s why it’s important for you to be connected to the local church. In second Timothy one sixteen, the bible says, the Lord grant mercy to the household or the family of Onesiphorus for he often refreshed me. He was not ashamed of my chains. Paul was in prison.

But Onesiphorus was not embarrassed to go visit Paul. He was not embarrassed to go minister to him and so we all need that ministering. Christian friendships are important, church. And when you’re going through trouble, it’s not that you should isolate yourself. It’s not that you should avoid the church.

It’s not that you should avoid Christian friends. And I know sometimes Christian friends don’t always say or respond the way that always should. But we’re human here, people, and sometimes people haven’t been trained. They don’t know what to say or how to say, but listen to me. God does not want you to stay at home, and he does not want you to close the blinds, lock the door, isolate yourself from others.

He wants you to receive the ministry of his body into your life. I know that’s hard when we’re grieving, when we’re hurting, when we feel hopeless, but we need Christian friends, church, And I’m gonna tell you that some of you feel like maybe you don’t have any Christian friends. I would first remind you what the scripture says in Proverbs, that if we want friends, we need to be friendly. You gotta be friendly. You gotta get out of your shell.

You gotta talk. We need each other, church. The Bible tells us to bear one another’s burdens and friendships are a gift from God and God gives you a friend. You remember that David was being persecuted and Saul was hunting for his life, but he was blessed with a friend, Jonathan, who loved him more than his own soul. We need Christian friends.

And church, we need to be Christian friends. And so many of you have done a great job at that, but let’s all continue to strive. How can we grow And being a Christian friends and lifting up our brothers and sisters who feel hopeless. People say, how can you be a Christian and feel hopeless? Because we’re human.

Because life is difficult. And so that’s why we need to support of each other. And I wanna encourage you to support one another and lift each other up. The third and final principle I want us to learn, I want you to listen in your time of trouble to God’s wisdom. I want you to listen to God’s wisdom.

Paul was a man of God, and he spent much time with God, and God was revealing his truth to the Apostle. And he had given the apostle already five other visions of what was to take place. And so God had blessed the apostle with great insight. What do we find is they didn’t listen. And the apostle Paul said to them, you should have listened to me.

As we walk in this life, we understand that even as a follower, there’s gonna be troubles. But even just because we live in a flawed world, there’s gonna be troubles. But how do we respond? Do we trust God? Do we look to him for wisdom?

Or do we react in the flesh? Well, I hope what you’ve been learning today has been a blessing in helping you to react in a way that honors Christ. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post What Do We Do When Trouble Comes Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Cause of Christ Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 26:1-32.

And you may be facing a situation today and wondering how is it that you can take a step? How is it that you can turn the page? How is it that you can march forward for God? I tell you, it will only be because you are relying on the help that comes from God. Hello, and welcome to Hopeworth Having radio program.

This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and I would like to give a big shout out to the Hopeworth Having radio ministry celebrating its twentieth anniversary. A happy birthday, Hopeworth Having. Today, we are going to be in Acts 26 verse one through 32, continuing our study on how to be a faithful witness. So let’s grab our bible, let’s get a cup of coffee, let’s get a piece of paper, maybe a pen, and let’s take notes together and get started. But I’ll tell you this, if you would identify with others, and you would help them see that you’re no different than them, You would open a door for them to be able to identify with you, and then you can share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The apostle was a religious man, but he was not a righteous man before he came to know Christ in Acts chapter nine. And you see, Saul was a man who would go on later in verse nine of chapter 26. He said, indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus the Nazareth. It’s not just that he said, hey, I don’t want nothing to do with Jesus. It’s not that he was just, agnostic about Jesus.

It’s that he defied Jesus, and he was against the name of Christ and the way, and he persecuted Christians, and he did everything that he could to hinder the gospel of Jesus Christ. And those zealous people who were bringing the apostle before the courts, those Pharisees that were determined to bring about his demise when they heard his testimony of how dedicated and passionate he was about being a Pharisee and hindering the gospel of Jesus Christ, they could connect, they could relate with what he was saying. Here’s what I’m trying to tell you, that many of you have walked through many trials and troubles in your life. You’ve had some detours in your life. You’ve had some challenges in your life, and God wants you to use that as a testimony to share with others who are walking through the same season of life, or the same chapter in life, and different challenges of life.

And He wants you to use that as a platform to reach them for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle was very dedicated to doing everything he could to hinder the gospel. And he wanted to reach those who were on that same path, who had that same ignorance about Jesus. And he wanted to say to them, Hey, I was just like you. My life was a mess.

And you say, some of you say, Well I grew up in a great Christian home. I got saved as a young child. And, man, I don’t have much of a testimony. We all have a testimony. It doesn’t matter that the grace of God has reached out to us.

But for some of us, I think about when I was a young child coming to Christ as a bus kid, but my life was so selfish and my life was all about Mike, and it was about what I wanted. And see, there are different ways that we can relate to people as we go through our circumstances. And I know you can one up me, and I know you can tell a better story than me, and I get it. I’m with you. I’m not against your story, and I’m for your story.

I just want you to use your story to get to His story. Meaning the story of Jesus Christ dying on the cross and giving us salvation, which leads me to my third point. How about that? Here we are. We’re not even that far down the road.

I’m not gonna tell you what time it is. All you already probably know. But if I start telling you what time is, you’re gonna start timing me. But I want you to know we’re on point three. And usually, I only have three points and I finish my sermon after three points.

Number three, aim to exalt Jesus, not self. Now we come down to verse 12. We come down to verse 12 of chapter 26. The apostle of the word of God says, while thus occupied as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, along the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me, and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goats. Now I wanna help you a little bit because sometimes terminologies are used that we don’t understand. But when he uses the word goads, it’s just a stick that was used to prick the ox or the cattle to get them to do something. And so, he’s saying that and sometimes they would kick the goat or they would kick the stick that the farmer was using. And that’s what he’s saying is that God was convicting Saul.

God was showing Saul that he need to give his life to Christ, but he was resisting the conviction of God. He was pushing back. And notice what Jesus said in verse 14, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Friends, when you attack the church, you’re attacking Jesus. When you attack other Christians, you are attacking Jesus.

Remember that God’s people are the bride of Christ. They are the body of Christ. And we have to keep that in mind. And then look at verse 15. So I said, who are you, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. You and I know the story. We know the story from Acts chapter nine. We know that Saul, who would later become Paul, gave his life to Jesus Christ on that road to Damascus. But I want you to see something here that Saul or Paul is not pouting.

He is not complaining. He is not trying to negotiate a deal to the king, but he is letting him know how he came to Jesus Christ as a savior. He’s exalting Jesus, not self. Our witness as believers should always be first about Christ and what he did in our heart. You see here, he continues to point people back to Christ.

We go back a little bit on Acts chapter 26 to verse eight. As he was sharing the gospel with them, he said, why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead. Why is that so stunning to you? He is wanting to engage their mind. He is wanting them to see that Christ is risen.

He is wanting them to understand that He is alive. Now hang on. Your story of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, the path and the direction that God used in your life, the people, the circumstances that God used to bring you to that point of forgiveness and salvation. Your story of forgiveness is ultimately a story about Jesus Christ. It’s a story of God’s good work in you, In that Christ found you, and that Christ saved you, and that Christ has been sustaining you, and that he’s been meeting every need in your life.

You need to make sure that when you share Christ, it’s not about you. It’s not about all the stuff you’ve been through, but it’s always about God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s strength, and what God has done in you and what God has done through you. Now, these people were looking for hope, and they wanted the hope of Christ. And the apostle was reminding them because they would have been taught about the resurrection as Pharisees, and they would have been taught about the Messianic hope that is found in Christ, the coming of Jesus. They would have been taught about that, and the apostle is just trying to point these people to Christ, and he’s trying to give a witness to what Christ has already done.

Now, let’s get point number four done. Now we get point number four done, guess what? We are halfway there. And so I figure in the next two hours, I should be able to get the last four points in. Amen?

I’m excited. I’m just trying to wake you up. Now nudge your spouse or elbow your husband and tell them to wake up. Now I tell people I’m not ashamed or I’m not even upset if you sleep while I’m preaching. It’s okay.

I just don’t want you snoring while I’m preaching. Amen? I mean, that’s ridiculous. You gotta quit the snoring. But number four, share the need, the need for and the benefits of the gospel with every type or all types of people.

So in verse 16, look at this. I’m in chapter 26 verse 16, And I want you to see what he says here. He says, But rise, this is the words of Christ. But rise and stand on your feet for I have appeared to you, and for this purpose to make you a minister and a witness. Both of those things which you have seen and the things which I will yet reveal to you.

I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles to whom I know, who I now send you, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me. The apostle is helping them to see as he’s sharing what Christ has said to him, what Christ has shared with him, that he has this role, he has this responsibility to go to the Jewish people plus the Gentile people, and he must tell them about the gospel. And not everybody will receive it. Not everybody will respond with great happiness. Others will reject it, but he has this responsibility to share to every person the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And he wants them to see the benefits of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What are some of those benefits? Well, again, look at verse 18, to open their eyes. To open their eyes. This is how I pray for lost people is that God would open their eyes, that God would help them to see the truth, believe the truth, and to embrace the truth, and to turn from their sin, and to receive the truth of Jesus Christ.

Unbelievers, unfortunately, are spiritually blinded by Satan. They are blinded from the truth. Sometimes people say, what’s wrong with these people? What’s wrong with this world? I tell you, it’s not that difficult to understand that the world is a mess because they are blinded by Satan to the truth of Jesus Christ.

What we consider to be common sense and understandable, and it just makes a lot of common sense to us that we should do A, B, or C, whatever it is. Friends, to the world, they are blind to the truth of God. That’s why Jesus says the truth will do what? Set you free. It’ll set you free.

But I’ll tell you another benefit, I want you to see it, it’s from darkness to light. Again, we’re still in verse 18, from darkness to light. So many people are walking in darkness. Think about that. They’re walking in darkness.

And I was witnessing to a young man, and he was already a Christian, but I was encouraging him to be a witness to his family, and he had some difficulties there. And I said, look, you have the responsibility to take the light of Christ to the darkness. To the darkness. Sometimes what we like to do church, is we like to curse the darkness. We like to throw bricks at the TV, or we like to be upset at everybody and their lifestyle and what’s wrong with them.

But here’s this, we need to remember they’re in darkness. And the best resolution, the best response is that we would take the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. You can’t hate on people who are in darkness, who don’t know any better. They’re ignorant to the truth. So what we gotta do is get the light to them so that they can know Christ as their savior and that they can receive him.

And so all throughout the Bible, we see the picture of light as a picture of salvation. And God wants you to help people to go from darkness to light. What is the next benefit? I want you to actually back up to verse six of chapter 26. Here’s what I want you to see, and now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers.

You see, we need to let people know that there’s hope in Jesus Christ. There’s no hope in this world. There’s no hope in circumstances, but our hope is in the promise of God. How many of you are ready to fly away today? Well, the rest of you can stay.

But for those of us that want to fly away, if God calls us and raptures us out of here, buddy, we are ready because our hope is not found in this world, but it is found in the promise of Jesus Christ that one day he will call his people out of this world, and we will live and reign with him forever and ever and ever. Amen. Yes. Go ahead and rejoice. Now people need hope.

Napoleon said that leaders are dealers in hope. The reason some leaders fail in their leadership is that they’re always negative. They’re always critical. They’re always hateful, but a leader is always bringing hope. A leader is always seeing the optimism that is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we are called to be a people who are out there fanned out into our community, bringing the hope of the promise of Jesus Christ to every person.

Now let’s get to number five. We need to stick to the message of the resurrection and call people to repentance based upon the Scriptures. Look at verse 19 of chapter 26. It says, Therefore King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should, what? Repent.

Just wanna make sure you’re awake. Turn to God and do works that are befitting to repentance. You see, the message of the resurrection, the message of repentance is what we are called to chair as believers. We are to emphasize that the Messiah suffered. He died and He rose again.

This is what He accomplished. And so again, we come down to verse 23 of chapter 26, that the Christ would suffer, that he would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim the light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. He did not get off track on the message, but rather, he stuck to the message of the gospel, which is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And I know that the message seems so simplistic, and maybe sometimes you feel like I’ve heard it so many times. It’s not as effective to me.

But friends, I would say to you again, taste again the preciousness and the beauty and the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection of our savior. Rejoice in it and do everything that you can to spread that message to every person that you can. Now, the Apostle stuck to the message and he stuck to the message so much that he called people to repentance. Now don’t be afraid of the word repentance. You don’t hear it a lot in churches.

You don’t hear it a lot among Christians. That’s too harsh. That’s too mean. No. But that’s what the Bible means, is that we’re to turn from our sin.

We are to turn from our selfishness, and we are to turn to God, and we are to love Christ, and we are to put him first place in our life, and we trust in what he did on the cross, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We trust it for our salvation. That’s what it means, friends, to come and to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. Now let’s look at verse 22, which brings us to our next point, point six. Rely on the help that comes only from God.

Rely on the help that only comes from God. Verse 22, Therefore, having obtained help from God, To this day, I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come. The apostle has not gotten rid of the Old Testament. He is helping them to see that the New Testament is the fulfillment of what the prophets and the patriarchs and the great men and women of God have proclaimed in the Old Testament, that they synchronize, they align together. But how is it that he was able to be so faithful despite all that he endured for the gospel of Jesus Christ?

How was it that he kept moving forward and did not quit throw in the towel and say, I’m done with that. Look at verse 22, having obtained help from God. You see, you’re not gonna be a faithful witness in trying times unless you obtain the help from God. And that you understand that without Christ, we can do nothing. We can do nothing.

We need His strength, we need His power, we need His energy, we need His wisdom, we need the help of God, church. When you consider that the apostle, for two years, has been sitting in prison, and throughout those two years, he’s been drugged before different courts, that the only way he could remain as confident and as positive and as determined and resolved as he did, was because his help came from God. And you may be facing a situation today, and you may be before a challenge today, and wondering how is it that you can take a step? How is it that you can turn the page? How is it that you can march forward for God?

I tell you, it will only be because you are relying on the help that comes from God. May God bless you and me to look to him in these troubling times for the help that only comes from him. The next point, point seven. And you know seven, my grandson, Colin, just turned seven. And I told him seven is the number of God.

It’s the favorite number in the Bible. It’s wonderful to be seven. Wouldn’t you love to be seven again? Amen. It’d be awesome.

Right? It’s a lot better than being 53. But I tell you that point seven also comes before point eight, which is the last point in pastor Mike’s sermon. We’re gonna make it after all. Be prepared for rejection and ridicule.

Verse 24. Now, as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you are beside yourself. Much learning is driving you mad. Now, I have considered saying that to many of professors in the educational world, that I think much learning has made them crazy. But here, the apostle defending the gospel, trying to share with others how to become a Christian is Whoops.

I’m sorry. I jumped to the last point, didn’t I? I just looked at my notes here. But we’ll make eight seven and seven eight PowerPoint people. Alright?

And that is that Festus, he called Paul insane. He called him crazy. Now when you go out there and stand up for God, I just want you to understand something. That not everybody’s gonna get saved. Not everybody’s gonna get saved.

But you you and I don’t witness for God because of the results we see. We witness for God because we are commanded by God. That we are to be a witness and we want to honor Him and we want to obey Him. God is looking at our life and He wants to see faithfulness and He wants to see obedience to God. We think about Noah for a hundred and twenty years.

He preached righteousness to the people, but only his family responded. We think about Isaiah the prophet who preached to the people and God said, I’m just gonna tell you upfront, Isaiah, that when I send you out to these people, they’re not gonna listen to you. They’re not gonna even respond to you. And some of you are frustrated because this person hasn’t responded or that person hasn’t responded. Your success is not determined by the response of others, but it is determined by your obedience and faithfulness to God.

So keep that in mind. Remember that Paul the Apostle said in first Corinthians one verse 23, we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. They look at the gospel and they they don’t understand. The Greeks, they want to be stoic. They wanted to achieve.

They wanted to win something. And so they wanted to get into heaven based upon what they achieved. But friends, we don’t get to heaven based upon what we’ve achieved, but based upon what Christ has achieved. Amen? And it’s not always the most fittest that wins in the faith.

But God gives grace upon grace upon grace to us. We rely on Him, and we recognize His good work in our hearts. To the Jews, it was a stumbling block because they had all these rules, they had all these regulations, they had everything that they had to follow, and they were doing their best, and they were ranking themselves based upon their ability to follow these rules. Sometimes Christians and churches get trapped into these rules, and they make these lists, these long lists of rules. Like one church, I heard one church said that you weren’t allowed to watch VHS, And I said to the pastor, what are you gonna do when VHS no longer exists?

If the rule is from God, it should always be permanent. Right? See what I’m saying? We make rules up that aren’t rooted in the Bible, and then we think our salvation or our maturity is rooted in rules. No.

You don’t need a rule from pastor Mike. Okay? What you need to do is be led of the spirit of God. If the spirit of God says you shouldn’t do it, then bam, don’t do it. If the spirit of God says you should do it, then do it.

Sometimes people say, if you don’t do this, pastor Mike, I’m not gonna do that. And I say, well, let’s get on our knees right now and pray to God and say, God, is this what you want me to do? One man said to me he was not gonna tithe anymore unless we made a decision that he wanted. I said, let’s get on our knees and let’s pray to God and say, God, I’m not going to tithe anymore. Let’s see how God thinks about that.

You see what I’m saying? I love it when I call people out. I love it when I call them out because they think that they can operate in the flesh. That they can manipulate in this flesh instead of being led of the Spirit of God. Do you understand the difference?

Do you see that church? What I wanna encourage you is to be a person who is prepared, knowing that it’s not religion that saves you, it’s a relationship with Christ that saves you. Knowing that even as you are faithfully sharing Christ, there will be others that will ridicule you. Now, the last point. I’m gonna mess up.

You know, I told you I had eight, but I actually have nine. But we’re not gonna make it to nine. But PowerPoint people, I know you are totally confused. Okay? Just follow me.

Okay? Do not go by what the PowerPoint says. But that is this, because this is my I I do want this point to get across, and I want us to finish out this way. Is that we need to pray for people that we’re trying to witness to. Now we come down to verse 29, and Paul says, I would to God, that not only you, but also all who hear me today might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.

And what he is literally saying, he is expressing his prayers. He’s expressing his prayerful desires for everyone to know Christ. The power in evangelism is prayer. You got a family member that needs to come to Christ? Get on your knees and pray for them.

When I was in bible college many, many years ago, they taught us to make a list of God’s most wanted. And they said, start with your family. And we would write that list down. We would write that list down. And the first person I wanted to be saved was my mother.

And it took a long time, but she came to Christ, received Jesus as her savior. And I wanted to pray for my aunts, because they had such a big part of our life. And I just made a list of people. And what’s been so neat is to watch one by one to come to Christ and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, I want you to know that prayer is powerful and that you need to be a praying people.

Now, I know you wanna pray for grandma’s ingrown toenail, and God bless you, I hope you do, but you need to first pray that people will get saved. Adrian Rogers, the great preacher in Memphis, Tennessee, who was the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, over 20,000 people every Sunday, he used to say, we pray harder to keep people out of heaven than we do to keep people out of hell. I would encourage you to pray like never before and to make it a priority to pray for people that you work with, friends, family members, to pray for them to be saved. May God grant us help to make His grace known to a broken world in loving ways, and may He give us the grace to be able to share his grace with every person that we come in contact with. Let’s pray together.

Whenever you’re witnessing for Jesus Christ, you always need to exalt Jesus and not self. Sometimes there’s the temptation to tell such an amazing story about ourselves and how we came to Christ that we’re not exalting Christ, we’re exalting self. So our witness should first always be about Christ. And that’s what I want you to take home with you today. Make sure you’re witnessing for the Lord and about the Lord.

Now we encourage you to check us out at hopeworthhaving.com. We would encourage you to reach out to us. And if you just send us some prayer requests or how the Lord’s working in your life, then we would love to send you one of our free books that I recently wrote, daily dynamic devotions. And these are just some devotions that will encourage you in your walk with God and help you to keep your focus on him and not on your problems. So reach out to us so we can send you a free copy of dynamic devotions.

This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post How to be a Faithful Witness Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Cause of Christ Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 26:1-32.

Many of you have walked through trials and troubles in your life. You’ve had some challenges in your life. And God wants you to use that as a testimony to share with others who are walking through the same season of life. And he wants you to use that to reach them for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hello.

This is pastor Mike Sanders, and you’re listening to Hopeworth Having radio program. We’re excited to have you with us. Today, we’re going to be in Acts chapter 26 verse one through 32, and we’re gonna be learning how to be a faithful witness. What a wonderful opportunity you and I have to be a witness for God. So let’s grab our bible, a cup of coffee, maybe a notepad, and let’s get into the word of God.

I want you to take your Bible to Acts chapter 26 this morning, Acts chapter 26. I wanna keep going because I wanna finish up the book of Acts. Nothing wrong with the book of Acts. It’s just we’ve been in it a long time. It’s a long book, but we’re gonna get there.

We’re in chapter 26. Now when we have been studying the book of Acts, one of the things that I want you to know is that six times Luke records the apostle giving a defense of the gospel. That is that the apostle has been brought before a court. Sometimes that court has been a religious court like the Sanhedrin court. Sometimes it’s been a political court, or has been before kings as it is today before King Agrippa.

And he has given a defense of what he believes. And we are here today in Acts chapter 26 learning about that fifth defense. So there’s still one more to go. And we are learning from the life of the apostle how to be a faithful witness for God. How to be a faithful witness for our savior.

Because he is calling all of us in these unique times to be a faithful witness. It is easy for us as believers to get our eyes off of the ball and forget what is most important in life. And that is that people know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. Wouldn’t you agree with that church? Amen.

Well, we better get a better hearty amen than that. How about we try that again? The most important thing in life is that we would know Jesus Christ as our savior. Amen. But I want you to be on fire for Christ no matter what.

And I want you to always be ready to bring your a gang. But here’s the thing that we need to note. That as we are observing the apostle in chapter 26, defending the gospel, being a faithful witness, we realize that he is not defending himself, but rather, he is seeking to convert King Agrippa and others to the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to just jump down to verse 28 of chapter 26. Again today we will not be able to read every verse in the chapter.

You do that on your own time, but we’re gonna highlight different things in the chapter today that will help us to be a faithful witness. But in verse 28, then Agrippa said to Paul, you almost persuade me to become a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains. Meaning, he wanted them all to be believers. He wanted them all to follow Christ.

He wanted them to put Jesus as number one in their life. That’s what the apostle was desiring in his heart. That’s why he was not afraid to stand before kings. He was not ashamed to be brought and dragged before courts because he saw it as an opportunity to be a faithful witness for God and to be able to preach, teach, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, today, we wanna learn how to be a faithful witness.

And we already read, and I want to emphasize it again because it’s so powerful, about John. John was a witness. John was a great man of God. The Bible says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. And the same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe.

Think about this. What was John’s life like? It was a life that was committed that he would bear witness to the light, which is Jesus, and that all who observed his witness that they would believe in Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about that God wants you to be a witness, and God wants you to bear witness to his name, and that all who observe your life, who are watching your life would believe in Jesus Christ. Now I know that sounds like a very monumental task and perhaps even more that we could ever do in our own strength.

But as we begin our study in this book, the book of Acts chapter one, we are reminded of the promise and the commission that Jesus gave to his disciples. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. How is it that we will be a witness for God? It’ll be through the power of the Holy Spirit of God. You know, sometimes people say there’s no way that I could ever be a witness for God, that I could ever talk to anybody about Jesus.

I tell you my friends, when you are filled with the Spirit and anointed of the Spirit, you have the capacity, ability to be a great witness for Jesus Christ. Now, you might think about this great task. He says in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And you say, well Pastor Mike, I really cannot go around the world and be a witness for God. Well listen, here’s what God means when he tells us this great commission he gives us, that we are to be a witness across the street and around the world.

And that we are gonna coop together as the family of God, as the people of God to reach others for Jesus Christ. So every time we’re supporting the ministries of the Open Door Church that is reaching people in our neighborhoods or even our community, and every time we get behind a missionary that is going to other lands, we are being partners in the gospel of reaching people around the world for Jesus Christ. And believe it or not, you’re a witness for God. Now God wants you to be a visual witness. He wants you to be the kind of witness that when people look at your life, they see something unique.

They see something distinct in your life. And then He wants you to be a verbal witness. People say it’s good enough for me to just live a good life, and that’s all I’ll do. But no, wait a minute. God wants you to talk to others about Jesus Christ.

God wants you to articulate His plan of salvation. Now you say, well, I haven’t been to Bible college. That doesn’t limit you. That doesn’t excuse you. Friends, all of us need to continue to expand and being prepared to be a witness for Jesus Christ and to be able to articulate and say what we need to for the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this morning, I wanna teach you some very practical principles on how to be a faithful witness for God. How to be faithful witnesses for God. Now, I want you to know, I don’t wanna scare you, but I have eight points for you this morning. And you say, pastor, what did you do on vacation? I prepared this sermon.

But in between my conversations with my mother, I prepared this sermon. But I want you to know that I will get through them quickly, and that if there any reason I see that alarm clock going off right up here, they’ve got a little clock up here to remind pastor Mike to stay on task, stay on point, then I’ll cut it off, and then we’ll turn it into a class that you could take later, and you can get all eight points. We’ll turn it into an eight week class on how to be a faithful witness. How about that? Would you like that?

Now, number one, we’re taking notes because if you’re not taking notes, then you’re not remembering. So let’s take some notes this morning. Number one, address unbelievers respectfully. Now we come to chapter 26 verse one. Again, the apostle Paul has been brought before King Agrippa, and notice what he says.

Then Agrippa said to Paul, you are permitted to speak for yourself. So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself, I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you, concerning all the things of which I am accused of by the Jews, especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore, I beg you to hear me patiently. Now in a gesture of respect, the Apostle Paul extended his hand to this King. He reached out to him.

It was a sign of respect. Sometimes, you and I, maybe we might stand in respect to God or in respect to someone. We might stand to honor someone. And in the Jewish custom, it was that they would extend their hand as a symbol of respect to the person, acknowledging them and appreciating them. And that’s exactly what the apostle is doing.

He is not only is he showing a great respect to this king, but you’ll note in verse two and three that he gives generous comments and courteous comments to the king. And it reflected the spirit and the attitude of the apostle as he was striving to be a witness for God in this culture. Now I want to say something to you this morning. I wanna say that if you are a disrespectful Christian, if you treat people like trash and you’re rude and obnoxious, you’ll never be an effective witness for God. Now, I have been places with Christians, and I have watched how they treat other people, and I have been so embarrassed.

I was afraid to tell anybody there that I was a Christian and that I was a pastor because I did not want to shame the name of Jesus Christ because of the conduct of other people. We have to be careful and remember that wherever we go and whoever we interact with, that we are believers in Jesus Christ, and we are called if we’re gonna be effective for God to be respectful. You say, what do you mean, pastor? Well, listen to the words of the apostle Peter who said in first Peter three fifteen that we are to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts. That is, we are to make him number one and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

That word fear is the idea of respect. You’re to do it with meekness, meaning you’re humble, and you are to do it with respect. God has not called us to be rude. He has not called us to be demanding. He has not called us to be obnoxious in this culture that we live in, but just the opposite.

Yes, we’re courageous. Yes, we are bold for Christ, and we’ll talk more about that, but we are not going to effectively reach others by being disrespectful to them. The content of what we say is more important than how we say it, but the manner in which we deliver it and the tone that we use matters to god, and it matters to the people we’re speaking to. We should therefore strive to combine truthfulness with tenderness and courage with compassion. Hear me out, church.

You and I may not agree with everybody’s lifestyle in this culture that we live in, but you’re not called to be hateful. I may disagree with how you live your life, but it doesn’t mean I have to treat you like less than human. Right? And I want to encourage you to remember that if you wanna reach people for Christ, you’re gonna have to show some respect and kindness to them. Because it will be a barrier in your ability to reach them for Christ.

Now I remember that when I first came to the Open Door Church, there was a missionary that came to see me. And this missionary was in my office, and he was expressing how his son had chosen a lifestyle of homosexuality. And he didn’t know how to respond to it. He didn’t know what to do. And he said, Pastor Mike, what should I do?

Here’s what I told him. Are you ready? Love him in Jesus Christ. I said you love him. You may not agree with his lifestyle, certainly understandable because it contradicts the word of God, but we do not disrespect them.

We want to reach them for Christ. We want them to know the Lord Jesus as their savior. And so as I walk in this world and I live in this culture as a believer, I’m not out there to destroy everybody, burn every bridge, and show hate, but rather I am striving to show the love of Jesus Christ. That I am courageous, yes, but I’m also compassionate. I am a person who is willing to tell the truth, but I do it with tenderness, and I acknowledge the situation and the circumstance that I might be speaking to someone who disagrees with the gospel, disagrees with the Bible, but I still want to leave the door open.

I wanna plant a seed and leave the door open that I can come back later, and maybe that seed has born some fruit, and I can help this person to come and to know Jesus Christ as their savior. Some of you are dealing with family members who disagree with you about your faith, and they disagree with you about your lifestyle relating to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Or they may disagree with you about a decision, and they may disagree with you about some of the choices you make in life. But remember this, friends, that it’s not your job to destroy and correct everybody, but it is your job to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to them and to do it with meekness and fear. And let the chips fall where they may.

Let them fall where they may. Now the second thing that I want you to learn, I could probably spend a whole sermon on that, but we’d never get beyond verse three. But the next I want you to see is that we need to express what it is like to not believe. In verses four through 11, as well as verse 14, look at verse four. My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know.

They knew me from the first, if they were willing to testify that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. Now the apostle says that he was a Pharisee. Now remember that his audience is a Jewish audience. His audience is an audience that have buy into Phariseeism or Sadduceeism. And they would they would respect what the apostle Paul had accomplished.

We know that Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter three that the Pharisees were hypocrites, and that they sometimes said one thing but they did another. But the apostle did not take the time to condemn Phariseeism, but rather he identified with them. He was saying to them, look, my background is that I was a Pharisee. I was a religious person. I kept the law, I did my best to cross every t and dot every I.

He wanted them to know that he was just like them. And we’re not all like everybody out there, But I’ll tell you this, if you would identify with others, and you would help them see that you’re no different than them, you would open a door for them to be able to identify with you, and then you can share the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle was a religious man, but he was not a righteous man before he came to know Christ in Acts chapter nine. And you see, Saul was a man who we go on later in verse nine of chapter 26. He said, indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus the Nazareth.

It’s not just that he said, hey, I don’t want nothing to do with Jesus. It’s not that he was just, agnostic about Jesus. It’s that he defied Jesus, and he was against the name of Christ and the way, and he persecuted Christians, and he did everything that he could to hinder the gospel of Jesus Christ. And those zealous people who were bringing the apostle before the courts, those Pharisees that were determined to bring about his demise when they heard his testimony of how dedicated and passionate he was about being a Pharisee and hindering the gospel of Jesus Christ, they could connect, they could relate with what he was saying. Here’s what I’m trying to tell you, that many of you have walked through many trials and troubles in your life.

You’ve had some detours in your life. You’ve had some challenges in your life, and God wants you to use that as a testimony to share with others who are walking through the same season of life or the same chapter in life and different challenges of life, and He wants you to use that as a platform to reach them for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The apostle was very dedicated to doing everything he could to hinder the gospel. And he wanted to reach those who were on that same path, who had that same ignorance about Jesus. And he wanted to say to them, hey, I was just like you.

My life was a mess. And you say, some of you say, well I grew up in a great Christian home. I got saved as a young child. And man, I don’t have much of a testimony. We all have a testimony, it doesn’t matter that the grace of God has reached out to us.

But for some of us, I think about when I was a young child coming to Christ as a bus kid, but my life was so selfish and my life was all about Mike, and it was about what I wanted. And see, there are different ways that we can relate to people as we go through our circumstances. And I know you can one up me, and I know you can tell a better story than me. And I get it. I’m with you.

I’m not against your story, and I’m for your story. I just want you to use your story to get to his story, meaning the story of Jesus Christ dying on the cross and giving us salvation. Which leads me to my third point. How about that? Here we are, we’re not even that far down the road.

I’m not gonna tell you what time it is, all you already probably know, but I start telling you what time is, you’re gonna start timing me. But I want you to know, we’re on point three. And usually, I only have three points, and I finish my sermon after three points. Number three, aim to exalt Jesus, not self. Now we come down to verse 12.

We come down to verse 12 of chapter 26. The apostle of the word of God says, while thus occupied as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, At midday, O king, along the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me, and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. Now I wanna help you a little bit because sometimes terminologies are used that we don’t understand.

But when he uses the word goads, it’s just a stick that was used to prick the ox or the cattle to get them to do something. And so he’s saying that and sometimes they would kick the goat or they would kick the stick that the farmer was using. And that’s what he’s saying is that God was convicting Saul. God was showing Saul that he need to give his life to Christ, but he was resisting the conviction of God. He was pushing back.

And notice what Jesus said in verse 14, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Friends, when you attack the church, you’re attacking Jesus. When you attack other Christians, you are attacking Jesus. Remember that God’s people are the bride of Christ. They are the body of Christ, and we have to keep that in mind.

And then look at verse 15. So I said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. You and I know the story. We know the story from Acts chapter nine.

We know that Saul, who would later become Paul, gave his life to Jesus Christ on that road to Damascus. But I want you to see something here that Saul or Paul is not pouting. He is not complaining. He is not trying to negotiate a deal to the king, but he is letting him know how he came to Jesus Christ as a savior. He’s exalting Jesus, not self.

Our witness as believers should always be first about Christ. And what he did in our heart, you see here, he continues to point people back to Christ. We go back a little bit on Acts chapter 26 to verse eight. As he was sharing the gospel with them, he said, why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? Why is that so stunning to you?

He is wanting to engage their mind. He is wanting them to see that Christ is risen. He is wanting them to understand that He is alive. Now hang on. Your story of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

The path and the direction that God used in your life, the people, the circumstances that God used to bring you to that point of forgiveness and salvation. Your story of forgiveness is ultimately a story about Jesus Christ. It’s a story of God’s good work in you, in that Christ found you, and that Christ saved you, and that Christ has been sustaining you, and that he’s been meeting every need in your life. You need to make sure that when you share Christ, it’s not about you, it’s not about all the stuff you’ve been through, but it’s always about God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s strength, and what God has done in you, and what God has done through you. Now these people were looking for hope, and they wanted the hope of Christ.

And the apostle was reminding them because they would have been taught about the resurrection as Pharisees, and they would have been taught about the messianic hope that is found in Christ, the coming of Jesus. They would have been taught about that, And the apostle is just trying to point these people to Christ. And he’s trying to give a witness to what Christ has already done. Now, let’s get point number four done. Now, we get point number four done.

Guess what? We are half way there. And so I figure in the next two hours, I should be able to get the last four points in. Amen? I’m excited.

I’m just trying to wake you up. Now nudge your spouse or elbow your husband and tell him to wake up. Now I tell people I’m not ashamed or I’m not even upset if you sleep while I’m preaching. It’s okay. I just don’t want you snoring while I’m preaching.

Amen? I mean, that’s ridiculous. You gotta quit the snoring. But number four, share the need. The need for and the benefits of the gospel with every type or all types of people.

So in verse 16, look at this. I’m in chapter 26 verse 16, And I want you to see what he says here. He says, but rise, this is the words of Christ. But rise and stand on your feet for I have appeared to you, and for this purpose to make you a minister and a witness, both of those things which you have seen and the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles to whom I know, who I now send you, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

The apostle is helping them to see as he’s sharing what Christ has said to him, what Christ has shared with him, that he has this role, he has this responsibility to go to the Jewish people plus the Gentile people, and he must tell them about the gospel, and not everybody will receive it. Not everybody will respond with great happiness. Others will reject it, but he has this responsibility to share to every person the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he wants them to see the benefits of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What are some of those benefits?

Well, again, look at verse 18, to open their eyes. To open their eyes. This is how I pray for lost people is that God would open their eyes, that God would help them to see the truth, believe the truth, and to embrace the truth, and to turn from their sin, and to receive the truth of Jesus Christ. Unbelievers unfortunately are spiritually blinded by Satan. They are blinded from the truth.

Sometimes people say, what’s wrong with these people? What’s wrong with this world? I tell you it’s not that difficult to understand that the world is a mess because they are blinded by Satan to the truth of Jesus Christ. What we consider to be common sense and understandable, and it just makes a lot of common sense to us that we should do A, B, or C, whatever it is. Friends, to the world, they are blind to the truth of God.

That’s why Jesus says the truth will do what? Set you free. It’ll set you free. But I’ll tell you another benefit, I want you to see it, it’s from darkness to light. Again, we’re still in verse 18, from darkness to light.

So many people are walking in darkness. Think about that. They’re walking in darkness, and I was witnessing to a young man. And he was already a Christian, but I was encouraging him to be a witness to his family, and he had some difficulties there. And I said, look, you have the responsibility to take the light of Christ to the darkness.

To the darkness. Sometimes what we like to do church is we like to curse the darkness. We like to throw bricks at the TV, or we like to be upset at everybody and their lifestyle and what’s wrong with them. But here’s this. We need to remember they’re in darkness.

And the best resolution, the best response is that we would take the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. The apostle is making a defense for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He uses it as a platform to be a faithful witness for God. And so we learn how to do that as we are talking to unbelievers, as we are interacting and having spiritual conversations with others. We can learn how to live faithfully and be a bold witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We wanna encourage you to check out our website, hopeworthhaving.com. That’s hopeworthhaving.com. Make sure you go to our website, check out all the opportunities how you can be involved and that you can be ministered to and take advantage of the tools to grow your faith. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post How to be a Faithful Witness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Cause of Christ Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 25:1-19.

Jesus is the only one that can deliver you from the slavery of sin. Jesus is the only one who can wash your sins away and take them and cast them as far as the East is from the West to be remembered no more. It’s only Jesus that gives you a new beginning in him. Hello. This is Hope Worth Having radio program with your host, pastor Mike Sanders.

And today, we are looking forward to sharing our hope in Christ with you. We pray that as we study the scriptures together, that we will be encouraged and our faith will be strengthened. Today, we’re gonna continue our study in the cause of Christ in Acts 25. So let’s grab our bible and maybe a cup of coffee, and let’s begin to study together. But when I think about prayer, I think about that great leader, Nehemiah.

Remember, Nehemiah was not like a priest. He was not a pastor. He was not any kind of a religious leader in the Old Testament. He was just a guy who was responsible to make sure that nobody poisoned the king. He was the the cupbearer.

He was the head of the secret service, if you will, and he had the responsibility, but then God put a calling on his life and God touched his heart and moved him to respond to a need that existed in Jerusalem as the walls had been torn down, and God called Nehemiah to rebuild the walls to go in there. In the midst of all the disaster, in the midst of all the tragedy, to walk into Jerusalem and rebuild the walls, and more than that church, but to rebuild the city and to rebuild the spirit of the people of god and to go in there and lead them to be a people of victory. Jerusalem was a significant and is a significant city because it is referred to in the Bible as the city of God. The city of God. In Nehemiah chapter six, the great leader Nehemiah is dealing with hostility.

I mean, you’d think that with such a noble mission that the people would rally behind Nehemiah and get all excited and say, let’s get the job done. And the majority of them did, but there was those within and those without who did not want the walls to be rebuilt. And what is it that Nehemiah did? Well, Nehemiah chapter six verse nine says, for they all were trying to make us afraid. Now that’s what the devil does.

That’s what the world does. That’s what the enemies of God do is they try to intimidate, they try to cause fear in your heart, they try to get you to walk back from the will of God, and to not embrace the plan of God, and they want you to be afraid of the call of God on your life. But notice what Nehemiah says, their hands make us afraid saying their hands will be weakened in the work and it will not be done. You can’t do it. You can’t do it.

And here’s Nehemiah’s response to them. Now therefore, oh God, strengthen my hand. I just love that. What is his response to hostility? It’s prayer.

What is his response to the naysayers? What is his response to the haters? What is his response to those who don’t want to make a difference and they don’t want to see the will of God advance? It is prayer. And church, we have a mission.

We have an assignment. We have a plan that we’re to fulfill for God. And whatever the dynamics and all the crazy that’s going on this world, our response is prayer. And we want God to strengthen our hands that we might advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Can God’s people say amen?

Here’s another one. You’re not gonna like it. I like to prep you. I like to get you ready, okay, so you can digest. It’s kinda like you’re feeding your little kid green beans or broccoli.

I know some of you people like broccoli. I don’t know what’s the matter with you, but, I mean, you’re out there. These people like it, but here it is, patience. One time, a lady in the church came to me and she said, pastor, should I pray for patience? I just looked at her.

I was trying to figure out how to answer this one because it’s a little complicated. We’re called to be patient. But if you pray for patience, God might just put you in the position that you need to demonstrate patience. Are you with me? But here’s what the Bible says, first Thessalonians five fourteen, we exhort you brethren, Warn them that are unruly.

Comfort the feeble minded. Support the weak. And here’s the kicker, be patient toward all men. We gotta be patient not only with each other, church. I don’t know if you’ve checked out lately, but nobody’s perfect.

As a matter of fact, if you are perfect, would you stand now and make yourself known to all? The truth is there is nobody perfect. How about that one? We got flaws, we got issues, we got problems, we got weaknesses, we got blind spots. The only way it’s gonna work within the family, and the only way it’s gonna work within the church, and the only way it’s gonna work within our responsibilities and our calling is that we’re gonna have to be patient towards all.

Now I know some of you are good fixers, and you’ve been fixing people all your life. The problem is that as you’ve been fixing people, they haven’t stayed fixed. And that’s really frustrating to you, isn’t it? You spend your life fixing people, they don’t stay fixed, and you’re all frustrated about it. But there’s only one person that can fix people, and that’s Jesus Christ.

And sometimes, we have to be patient, and we have to give them to God, and we have to give circumstances to God, and we have to give situations to God, and we just have to say, Lord, help me to be patient with all. I know you don’t want to say that, but the truth is that as believers, we’re all gonna be in situations that we just are gonna have to be patient. That the answer is not right there in front of us, but we just have to be patient because patience should characterize every Christian. That should be a part of who we are and that we are grateful that God is still at work. And how about this one?

You remember that song we used to sing, He’s still working on me. Amen? You know, Jesus said, take care of that old plank in your own eye. You’re out there spec finding and you’re looking for the speck in everybody’s eye, but you got a big old log hanging out of your own eye. You might wanna deal with it first.

Amen? Deal with it first. And so that’s what we’re called to do is to be patient. So in this hostile world, let’s not only be patient with each other as believers, but let’s be patient with a world that has gone lawless, a world that is becoming more hostile towards the gospel. Let’s be patient because I’m telling you that it’s all a part of the great plan of what God is doing.

Now many many years ago, I pastored in Indiana, And a gentleman came up to me, and this was back in the day, and I know it’s hard to believe, but if especially for our young people that there was a time where credit cards never existed. And people don’t know that. And we used to have these things called phones, and they hung on the wall. How many of you had a wall hanging phone? Okay?

I like to talk about these things. And I know it ages me and dates me and all that stuff, but it’s funny. But anyways, here’s the thing, is this man came up to me and he said, pastor Mike, you need to tell the people not to use the credit cards. And I said, why? He said, because it’s all a part of the plan of bringing the mark of the beast in the world.

And I said, if it’s part of the plan, let’s get our credit cards out so we can get there quicker, and god will call us out of here, and let’s start racking up the debt. Oh, I’m just teasing. But be patient. Be patient, church. We’re on a timetable.

We’re in a plan, and God is always fulfilling His purpose. So we learned, first of all, that we have to be prepared for hostility. But the second thing we learned from the apostle blindness Because these religious leaders wanted the apostle Paul murdered and killed, they could not convict Paul on legitimate charges, so they trumped him up and they just made up these lies about him. And it was so embedded in their mind and their hearts that they were determined that even in the switch of politics and the politicians and one politician ends and another one comes on the scene, they immediately wanted to be in the presence of the new governor so that they could bring up maybe helping the poor? No.

Maybe finding a way to have more peace in the community? No. Their number one topic, we got to get rid of Paul. He’s in prison. We want him dead.

That’s what they brought up to the governor. That’s what they brought up, and it reminds us of just how blind sinners are. Second Corinthians four four tells us that it is the god of this world, meaning Satan himself, who has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Without a savior, we are blinded. And we are not only blinded by our own sin, but we are blinded of the sins of others.

And the reason that I share this with you, church, is that I know your spirit grieves, and I know you’re troubled in your heart, but friends, I’m just gonna be honest with you. Because we are sinful in our nature and because sinners are blinded by their sin and they’re walking in darkness, it’s no wonder they haven’t already burned up this whole country. That we should not be shocked that sinners sin. And when we spend all our time trying to curse the darkness rather than take the light to the darkness, we are failing to understand that sinners sin. You can condemn their sin.

You can beat them over the head with their sin, and you can continue to identify their sin, but I’m gonna tell you that they cannot get out of their sin unless they believe in the lord Jesus Christ. For Jesus is the only one that can deliver you from the slavery of sin. Jesus is the only one that can lift the blindness off the eyes. Jesus is the only one who can wash your sins away and take them and cast them as far as the East is from the West to be remembered no more. It’s only Jesus that gives you a new start.

It’s only Jesus that gives you a new beginning in him. That’s our task. That’s our task. The Bible says in Ephesians four eighteen that unbelievers have their understanding darkened. They’re alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts.

In his book, True Spirituality, if you haven’t read it, it’s an older book, but you should read it. It’s an easy read. But in his book, True Spirituality, Francis Schaeffer said the fall alienated man not only from God, but also from himself and from other people. My point is simply is don’t be shocked. It’s sinner’s sin, church.

And we see how these people are treating the apostle and we get infuriated at the injustice that he sits in a prison for two years, and it’s not the nice prisons that we have today, but he sits in this prison for two years. He should not be there. All he is doing is telling others about Christ. All he is doing is effectively planting churches. All he is doing is making a difference for the cause of Jesus Christ, but there he sits.

It is because of the blindness of people who are lost in their sin. The third thing I want you to learn this morning is that we need to be confident in the sovereignty of God. Let me just walk you through chapter 25 a little bit just to show you some of God’s hand at work behind the scenes. I already kind of mentioned one of them in verse one. We see you remember last week when we studied chapter 24, and we learned about Felix and what a wicked man he was, and how he was a man who was very much able to be easily bribed by others.

And you could take time to do your own research on that again if you want. That’s great. But the Bible says in verse 27 of chapter 24 that he left Paul. We know through Josephus, the historian, that Felix would eventually be in the midst of a revolt and a riot and that would lead to his death. He was eventually replaced by a man named Festus.

God has a way of working those who would attack God’s servants. He has a way of balancing the scales. Even though the apostle was two years in prison, he’s still living. He’s not done yet. God’s still gonna use him.

But what is the legacy of Festus? The legacy of crime and bribery, hate and vengeance, incompetency as a governor. That’s his legacy. And God judges him. God judges him.

We’re reminded in the gospel of Luke chapter one verse 52 that he has brought down the mighty, referring to God, from their thrones, and he exalted those of humble state. The second way we see the sovereignty of God is that He has used this new governor. He has used the new governor to protect Paul from his enemies. You could take time lead later, but as we mentioned earlier, they wanted him and they wanted to bring judgment upon him. Verse five says, therefore, he said, let those who have authority among you go down with me and accuse this man to see if there’s any fault in him.

Festus didn’t buy into the religious passion and the zeal that they had to get rid of this man named Paul. And God was using this new governor to protect Paul because God is the one who truly governs the nations. He’s the one who governs the rulers. The psalmist said, for the kingdom is the Lord, and he rules over the nation. And I know sometimes many of you are troubled by the direction of our country or even some of the problems of our politicians, and you’re startled by that.

Well, first of all, listen. It’s been going on for a long time. It’s just that the curtain’s been opened, the rug’s been lifted. So I don’t want you to get too startled, but I want you to remember this, God is sovereign over all nations. God’s in charge.

God’s in control. I don’t wake up worried. I don’t wake up frazzled because God’s in control. And my confidence and trust is completely in him. I want you to understand another truth about this sovereignty of God working.

You think about Felix, you think about Festus, and you think about, eventually, when we get to chapter 26, King Agrippa, how that none of them would have heard the gospel if the apostle had not been arrested. And in our trials, we sometimes ask the question, why? And I don’t always have those answers and I cannot in any way explain everything. And if we spend all our life trying to understand the whys of life, we’re very much like the dog who is chasing his tail. It’d only lead to our emotional and spiritual downward spiral.

And the response is really not so much, why? But we are asking what, God, are you teaching me? How can I make it through this, Lord? These are the things that we ought to bring to God and let him work effectively, but I think about what the apostle is enduring and what he went through. But because he was arrested, people at high levels in the Roman government heard about Jesus Christ.

I don’t know who was all around. I know these kings and I know these governors never meet alone. I don’t know if the cabinet was there, I don’t know if guards were there. I don’t know if the secret service was there, but I just know this through history that the Roman Empire became known as a Christian Empire. And it is most likely the seeds that the apostle planted into the hearts of those who were in these high ranking responsibilities.

And the gospel, it flourished among the people, but it also flourished in the courtrooms, and it flourished in the king’s room, and it flourished in the political rooms, it flourished throughout all of Rome, and it became known as a Christian empire. And so God works in mysterious ways. We as believers must trust God’s sovereignty, which simply means that he’s in charge. He’s in control. I don’t like it.

I don’t want it. I don’t wanna deal with this. But friends, we must remember that god is always at work, and there may have been doubts in Paul’s heart. And he said that there were times in second Corinthians that he despaired even life. He didn’t wanna go on living.

He kept resting in the sovereignty of God. Each of us are called to faithfully serve Jesus and to keep trusting him to work even when we cannot see what he is doing. And as the great Charles Spurgeon said, if you cannot see his hand, trust his heart. And there are times that I cannot see the hand of god, but I can trust his heart for me because if God is for me, who can be against me? The final thing that I want you to learn this morning out of this chapter is that we are called to be knowledgeable in our citizenship.

We are called to be knowledgeable in our citizenship. Look at verse 11 of chapter 25, For if I am an offender, this is the apostle responding to the governor. He said that if I am an offender or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying. But if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me of, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.

As a Roman citizen, the apostle knew that the religious leaders nor the governors had the power or the authority to kill anyone without the approval of Rome. And so he wanted to be brought before Caesar. He used his rights as a citizen to leverage the gospel of Jesus Christ. Festus tried to persuade the apostle to just admit you’re guilty and this would all be over. Just admit it.

Just say it. And the apostle said, no. I’m not guilty. And he said, if I was guilty, I’m not afraid to die for what I did was wrong. But he says, I appeal to Caesar.

You do not have the right to deliver me in the hands to these religious leaders who have lost it and are vindictive towards me because I am preaching the gospel. No. You have to let me give my due process. Where did due process come from? The Bible.

And you have to give me my due process and I get a chance to appeal to Caesar. And so the apostle understood his citizenship. He understood and was knowledgeable of the rights that were given to him as a Roman citizen. Let’s understand this this morning real quickly, church, that the government is ordained of God. It is ordained for good.

The Bible says in Romans thirteen four that referring to those in government that he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. God set up government for a purpose, and it certainly mainly was that good would be accomplished, evil would be punished, and would be dealt with in society. And government is established to prevent anarchy, and it is here to punish those who do wrong. And so what is our response?

Well, church, as Christians, we should always be honorable citizens. There should be no people that are better citizens and law abiding citizens than God’s people. Whatever country you’re in, we should do our best to abide by the government. But also, we understand that we are taught in Acts chapter four, we’re taught by the life of Daniel that we obey God rather than men. And that there are times that when the government tries to oppress the cause of Christ and tries to hinder the work of God and tries to stop what God is doing, that we have a right to use our citizenship to appeal to the highest courts and the highest decision makers so that we might continue to prosper the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, this is important. It’s good that we would talk about this a little bit. We see that Paul makes use of his citizens’ rights to appeal to Caesar, but it’s something we must keep in mind. It’s good that we can talk about it now because we’re not in the dynamics of all the energy that was going on a few years ago with COVID-nineteen, right? And some have struggled.

You know that our church, we were down for six weeks only because we were concerned, the elders and I, about the health of people. But once we began to understand things a little bit better and that it was mainly affecting those who were of an older age group, we wanting to be obedient to the commands of the word of God that said you should not forsake the assembling of yourselves, we did whatever we could to reopen the doors. In which we did, and yet there were some who were mad and they were upset, and they said you’re violating the laws, which we were not. Thinking that somehow we’re just reactionary and emotional, and we just kind of just woke up one day and made a decision, that’s exactly what we did not do. But rather, doing our research and making sure that all the lawyers understood and gave us great advice, all the insurance people gave us great advice, and all the CPAs gave us great advice.

Whenever I have to make a big decision, the elders and I always seek three people. Number one, what do the lawyers say? What do the insurance people say? And what does the CPA say? And that is just because we want to abide by the law.

We want to do the right thing, and we want to mitigate any liabilities on this campus and among God’s people. We want to do our best. But no matter what anyone says to us, we will always obey God rather than men. Amen. Go ahead.

Some of you are half hearted about that clap. I understand. Don’t worry, I hear you, because some people left our church because we reopened. Some people are still mad at Pastor Mike because we reopened. The church, the governor, even though I know many of you do not like him and hate his guts and all that, he’s gone, let it go, move on, move forward in your life.

But listen, he gave exemptions in the state of Pennsylvania to churches. He gave exemptions, I had teachers upset at me because we reopened the school. Friends, we got to move forward. We got to move forward. Why?

Because we wanted to leverage our rights as citizens that were given to us so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could go forward. Church, listen to me. You shut down this ministry and you just need to understand you’re shutting down the gospel. You’re shutting down the opportunities for us to witness to people, to gather together and encourage God’s people. You’re shutting down the many opportunities we have to reach people for Christ.

And if I could, I could share with you many, many stories of people coming to Christ through the ministries of this church. But we are not ashamed that we reopened and we are not ashamed that the gospel went forward and we’re not ashamed for those who came to Christ and we’re not ashamed for those who’ve been encouraged and we’re not ashamed for those who were reached out to and those who were lifted up and those who were given wisdom and those who were strengthened in their faith and would not retreat because we reopened and said, let’s get back at it, church. Let’s stay on track. Let me say something to you. You’re not gonna like it, but I need to prepare you because I’m getting ready to call you to a decision.

Listen to me, church. Hear me. Hear my heart to you. If you want to play church and you want to be a pretender, you’re at the wrong church. If you wanna be a fully devoted, surrendered follower of Christ, you’re at the right church.

This is a place where we are all in for God. We are all in for the cause of Jesus. As we’ve been studying the cause of Christ, we’ve been learning about how to be prepared for hostility because we know that it’s out there. Jesus said if the world hates you, know it hated me before it hated you. So we have these challenges.

Should that cause us to retreat from our task and our assignment? No. We should be ever more committed to the cause of Jesus Christ, doing everything we can to make sure that the gospel goes forward and we continue to tell others about Jesus Christ. Have you checked us out on our YouTube channel? If you’ll go to YouTube, type in hope worth having, and you can even get this message and different messages that we preach throughout our time together, and we just encourage you to take advantage of them.

We’ve been designing new playlists where you advantage of them. We’ve been designing new playlists where you have different studies in the books of the Bible. And so you can actually pull up the book of Acts, and there’s a playlist telling you all the sermons and teachings in the book of Acts. So take advantage of those opportunities to help you to grow in your faith and to be rooted in your walk with Jesus Christ. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post The Cause of Christ Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Cause of Christ Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 25:1-19.

We know how it all ends, and we have the book of Revelation, and we’re told in prophecy what direction the world’s going, and we see it all unfolding before us, and we’re excited about what God is doing because these are exciting times to live in. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and I’m delighted to welcome you to the Hopeworth Having radio program this week. I’m excited to share God’s word with you as our source of salvation and inspiration. Today, we’re going to be in the book of Acts chapter 25 verses one through 19, and we’re gonna be talking about the cause of Christ.

So I want you to grab your bible and join me as we study together. You You have your bible this morning. I want you to join me in Acts chapter 25. Acts chapter 25 is where we’re going to be. And while you’re turning there, let me just give you a little bit of background so that you’re caught up with where we’re at as we’re tracking through the book of Acts.

And we are now in chapter 25. Remember that the apostle has already been before the Sanhedrin court. The religious leaders were wanting his death, and so he appealed that the governor would hear his case, and he was brought before Festus who was the governor at the time in the province. And he made his case, and, of course, Festus did not have the apostle killed, but did leave him in prison. We pick up in chapter 24 in verse twenty six and twenty seven, just so we understand, the Bible says that meanwhile he also hoped that money, meaning Festus was hoping that money would be given him by Paul.

That he might release him and therefore he sent for him more often and conversed with him. But after two years, Festus succeeded Felix. And Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul bound. For two years, the apostle has been in prison. And I’m certain there were moments and times in his life that he was questioning God’s plan for his life.

I’m certain that the apostle was wondering what exactly is God doing because the reason that the apostle was in prison was not because he was a rebel rouser, that he had led some kind of a riot against the government, but just the opposite. He was effective in discipling others. He was effective in spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, and therefore, he was in prison. And so in this passage of chapter 25, we see that the apostle was making his fourth defense against false charges that had been brought against him. But this time it’s not Felix that is now dealing this.

But in verse one of chapter 25 it says, when Festus had come to the province, meaning he’s the new governor, the province after three days, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. And then the high priest and the chief men of the Jews informed him against Paul, and they petitioned him. Verse three, asking a favor against him that he would summon him to Jerusalem while they lay in ambush along the road to kill him. It’s been two years. It’s been two years that the apostle’s in jail, but the religious leaders are still vindictive.

They’re still angry. They’re still upset at the apostle of being so effective of winning people to Jesus Christ and seeing the power of God move miraculously among them, and they want him dead. We know back in chapter 23 that they plotted for the demise of the apostle. Now in chapter 25, they want to use the governor, Festus, to set up the plan that while the apostle is being transported to have his case heard, that they would ambush those that are transporting him and have the apostle murdered. But the Bible tells us in verse four, but Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea and that he himself was going there shortly.

Now in this passage of scripture, the whole chapter of 25 is a narrative of how this all unfolded, of Paul giving his defense of why he was not a guilty man, and that if there is any crime that he has committed, it is only that he has honored God and that he is trying to advance the good news of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. It is for the cause of Christ that the apostle is suffering. It is for the cause of Christ that he is receiving so much pushback in his life. And as we examine this text, I want us to learn some important lessons that we must embrace as we serve in the cause of Christ. This great mission that we are on, this assignment that has been given to us, that as we are taking the gospel to every heart and to every home, as we are reaching those who are across the street, as well as those who are around the world, that we must understand that there are principles that must guide us in this great effort of the cause of Christ.

And the first thing that I want you to learn this morning is that we should always be prepared for hostility. We should always be prepared for hostility. Again, we see in verse three that they wanted to ambush the Apostle. They wanted to kill the Apostle. You jump down to verse seven, and note again it says when he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood about and laid many serious complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.

They got so desperate in wanting the demise of the Apostle that they just started making up charges. They didn’t have any evidence, they just start making them up. What can we do to stop the Apostle Paul? We gotta make sure my friends when you’re over the target, and when you’re really hitting home and you’re really getting the message out and you are effective in reaching people for Christ, you need to be ready for hostility. We see that unfolding in the Apostle Paul’s life.

We also look down to verse 15 of chapter 25. It says about whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me when I was in Jerusalem asking for a judgment against Him. So even though the apostle has not had a fair hearing, and that he is only sharing the gospel with others and trying to win others to Christ, the religious leaders want a judgment against Him, and they want the conclusion that would lead to His death. When you study the life of the Apostle, this has been his life, is that town after town tremendous hostility, and a lot of pushback against the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to remember that the forces of evil are antagonistic towards God, and they are against his people, and they are against his work, and believers must be prepared.

We cannot be a naive group of believers. We cannot follow Christ and think that everywhere we go people are just going to be in love with the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, even though we love the message, and we preach and teach that it is good news, and we are proclaiming it from the mountaintop, and we’re letting everybody know by every available means that we can. We have to be realistic, church, and alert that there is hostility. And so much to the point that the devil will use false witnesses against believers. We have to anticipate this.

We have to expect this. Why? Because we are living in a world that no longer tolerates Christianity and biblical values. We live in a time and a season of this world in which even our own nation and our own culture is doing everything it can to shed the influence of Christianity upon this culture. And as we are experiencing this, we have to be ready for the hostility.

Jesus put it like this in John fifteen eighteen, that if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. You see, this pushback we’re experiencing is not so much against you personally as much as it is against Jesus. As we lift up Christ, he will draw, but also he will offend. The apostle tells us that the cross is offensive. He reminds the Galatians, man, have you suffered in vain?

If you’re gonna change your message of salvation by grace alone, have you suffered in vain? I mean, you proclaim this message that you don’t work your way to heaven and that it’s through the power of God and through the grace of God that you come to know God and believe in Christ and the work of Christ on the cross that accomplished this redemptive power in your life, and you went out and you sacrificed for it, you suffered for it, and now you’re switching messages on me? That’s why he said to the Galatians, who bewitched you or who mesmerized you? Who cast a spell upon you? The church cannot retreat from its message just because there is hostility.

The church cannot run from its message just because not everyone agrees with us. We must continue to be bold because what is it that will penetrate and cut through the pluralism of our culture? It is the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ. It cuts through. We are reminded in Colossians one twenty one that those who do not believe were alienated, that they’re hostile in mind, even doing evil deeds.

Sinners are hostile towards the gospel, and it is because they hate God. They oppose Christianity not because somehow we have failed, because you think about the very movement just on a philanthropic level about Christianity and how many orphanages have been started, how many hospitals have been started, how many good deeds have been accomplished, how many organizations and ministries that are constantly moving forward for helping others who are hurting and going through tragedy. It is the Samaritan purse that is down in Maui, Hawaii before the United States government even is. Why is that? Because we are compelled as believers to be on the front line showing compassion, serving our fellow man, and doing everything that we can to minister to people not only spiritually, but physically and emotionally, and to do our best efforts.

But even though we may do wondrous things through the power of Christ in touching lives and ministering to the helpless, I’m telling you that the devil is working overtime, and he is pushing back against those who love Jesus Christ. And so, church, we must be ready because the American culture is growing increasingly hostile towards Christianity. So how do we deal with this hostility? I want you to write these four things down real quickly. You say, how do I deal with this hostility, pastor, because it’s getting annoying to me.

It’s getting frustrating. You know, for many years as believers, we didn’t see much of this hostility, but now this is the season we’re in. This is what god is allowing, and this is what god is doing. And so how do we deal with it? First of all, I would submit it to you that we should grow in grace.

We should grow in grace. We cannot forget the words of the Apostle Peter in second Peter three verse seventeen and eighteen, in which he said, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the air of lawless people, and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Here’s the point, church.

Don’t start losing your stability. Don’t become so frazzled in your faith, in your walk with Christ because of all the dynamics going on around us in the world that we lose our stability. And what is the alternative? It is to grow in grace. Think about that.

The apostle Peter says, but grow in grace. Grow in grace. And you say, man, how is that gonna help me, pastor? Well, see, here’s the problem is that many believers, they only see grace in the scope of salvation. But I want you to know that the scriptures teaches us so much more about grace.

That not only do we need saving grace, but we need sustaining grace, and we need sufficient grace, and we need serving grace, and we need speaking grace, and God has called us to have these different graces that are to be bestowed upon us, and we’re to grow in all these means of grace that God is pouring out upon his people, and so he encourages us to grow in grace. And how do we do that? Grow in grace. But notice this, and the knowledge of our Lord. I I think you get closer to Jesus.

I think the more you see Christ and you see how he handled hostility and how he dealt with those who disagreed with him, that I think that as you emulate and mimic him, that the grace that God will give you and show you will be manifested in your life and that our response is not that we’re gonna go out there and take them out, but we’re gonna continue to grow in grace. The second way to deal with hostility is to keep a right perspective. We talked about this verse a little bit this morning in our Sunday school class, but I love this verse. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Have you lost perspective, church? Have you been so inundated with the negative news and the information that’s filtrating through your family and through the workplace and through different people that you’re interacting with that you’ve kind of lost perspective, that you forgot that you’re on on the winning side? Have you forgotten that God is for you, and if God is for you, who can be against you? Have you lost sight of the fact that we know how it all ends, and we have the book of revelation and we’re told in prophecy what direction the world’s going and we know what has to happen next and we understand how it all comes together and we see it all unfolding before us and we’re excited about what God is doing because these are exciting times to live in. I mean, our forefathers could not fully understand all the prophecies that we read in the book of Revelation.

But today, because of technology, you and I do. Example, when we think about how the Bible says that the two witnesses will die in the streets of Jerusalem and that all the world will see their dead bodies lying in the streets of Jerusalem. I mean, that was incomprehensible to our forefathers, but France, through technology, through these things I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them, but they’re called a cell phone. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of social media, YouTube, and all these different platforms that are out there that, you know what, something can be played around the world. It can go viral.

I mean, long before we understood things going viral, the Bible was already talking about the two witnesses going viral. How about that? And I’m just telling you, you’re living in some exciting times, church. You’re living in some times where we are seeing the signs of the times, and the tea leaves of the signs of the times, and it’s all coming together, and it’s working out God’s great purpose in our lives as well as the world’s life, and let’s not be defeated. Let’s get up every morning, let’s be filled with the joy of Christ, and let’s keep perspective, and let’s get our head up, and let’s go make a difference for Jesus Christ.

How do I deal with hostility? How about this one, prayer? I think it’s important for us to be a people of prayer. Our church is gonna take some time for the next six weeks and just hone in on prayer. And I think it’ll be enriching to the church family.

I hope every one of you will get plugged in, find a place, and get connected. And if you need help, let us know. But when I think about prayer, I think about that great leader, Nehemiah. Remember, Nehemiah was not like a priest. He was not a pastor.

He was not any kind of a religious leader in the Old Testament. He was just a guy who was responsible to make sure that nobody poisoned the king. He was the the cupbearer. He was the head of the secret service, if you will, and he had the responsibility. But then God put a calling on his life, and God touched his heart and moved him to respond to a need that existed in Jerusalem as the walls had been torn down, and God called Nehemiah to rebuild the walls to go in there.

In the midst of all the disaster, in the midst of all the tragedy, to walk into Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. And more than that, church, but to rebuild the city and to rebuild the spirit of the people of god and to go in there and lead them to be a people of victory. Jerusalem was a significant and is a significant city because it is referred to in the Bible as the city of god. The city of God. In Nehemiah chapter six, the great leader Nehemiah is dealing with hostility.

I mean, you’d think that with such a noble mission that the people would rally behind Nehemiah and get all excited and say, let’s get the job done. And the majority of them did, but there was those within and those without who did not want the walls to be rebuilt, and what is it that Nehemiah did? Well, Nehemiah chapter six verse nine says, for they all were trying to make us afraid. Now that’s what the devil does. That’s what the world does.

That’s what the enemies of God do is they try to intimidate. They try to cause fear in your heart. They try to get you to walk back from the will of God and to not embrace the plan of God, and they want you to be afraid of the call of God on your life. But notice what Nehemiah says. Their hands make us afraid saying their hands will be weakened in the work and it will not be done.

You can’t do it. You can’t do it. And here’s Nehemiah’s response to them. Now therefore, oh God, strengthen my hand. I just love that.

What is his response to hostility? It’s prayer. What is his response to the naysayers? What is his response to the haters? What is his response to those who don’t want to make a difference and they don’t want to see the will of God advance?

It is prayer, and church, we have a mission, we have an assignment, we have a plan that we’re to fulfill for God, and whatever the dynamics and all the crazy that’s going on this world, our response is prayer. And we want God to strengthen our hands that we might advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Can God’s people say amen? Here’s another one. You’re not gonna like it.

I like to prep you. I like to get you ready, okay, so you can digest. It’s kinda like you’re feeding your little kid green beans or broccoli. And I know some of you people like broccoli. I don’t know what’s the matter with you, but, I mean, you’re out there.

These people like it, but here it is, patience. One time, a lady in the church came to me and she said, pastor, should I pray for patience? I just looked at her. I was trying to figure out how to answer this one because it’s a little complicated. We’re called to be patient.

But if you pray for patience, God might just put you in the position that you need to demonstrate patience. Are you with me? But here’s what the Bible says, first Thessalonians five fourteen, we exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly, Comfort the feeble minded. Support the weak. And here’s the kicker, be patient toward all men.

We gotta be patient, not only with each other, church. I don’t know if you’ve checked out lately, but nobody’s perfect. As a matter of fact, if you are perfect, would you stand now and make yourself known to all? The truth is there is nobody perfect. How about that one?

We got flaws. We got issues. We got problems. We got weaknesses. We got blind spots.

The only way it’s gonna work within the family, and the only way it’s gonna work within the church, and the only way it’s gonna work within our responsibilities and our calling is that we’re gonna have to be patient towards all. Now, I know some of you are good fixers, and you’ve been fixing people all your life. The problem is that as you’ve been fixing people, they haven’t stayed fixed. And that’s really frustrating to you, isn’t it? You spend your life fixing people, they don’t stay fixed, and you’re all frustrated about it.

But there’s only one person that can fix people, and that’s Jesus Christ. And sometimes, we have to be patient, and we have to give them to God, and we have to give circumstances to God, and we have to give situations to God, and we just have to say, Lord, help me to be patient with all. I know you don’t want to say that, but the truth is that as believers, we’re all gonna be in situations that we just are gonna have to be patient. That the answer is not right there in front of us, but we just have to be patient because patience should characterize every Christian. That should be a part of who we are and that we are grateful that God is still at work.

And how about this one? You remember that song we used to sing, He’s still working on me. Amen? You know, Jesus said, take care of that old plank in your own eye. You’re out there spec finding and you’re looking for the speck in everybody’s eye, but you got a big old log hanging out of your own eye.

You might wanna deal with it first. Amen? Deal with it first. And so that’s what we’re called to do is to be patient. So in this hostile world, let’s not only be patient with each other as believers, but let’s be patient with a world that has gone lawless, a world that is becoming more hostile towards the gospel.

Let’s be patient because I’m telling you that it’s all a part of the great plan of what God is doing. Now many many years ago, I pastored in Indiana, and a gentleman came up to me, and this was back in the day, and I know it’s hard to believe, but if especially for our young people that there was a time where credit cards never existed. And people don’t know that, and we used to have these things called phones and they hung on the wall. How many of you had a wall hanging phone? Okay?

I like to talk about these things, and I know it ages me and dates me and all that stuff, but it’s funny. But anyways, here’s the thing, is this man came up to me and he said, Pastor Mike, you need to tell the people not to use the credit cards. And I said, why? He said, because it’s all a part of the plan of bringing the mark of the beast in the world. And I said, if it’s part of the plan, let’s get our credit cards out so we can get there quicker, and god will call us out of here, and let’s start racking up the debt.

Oh, I’m just teasing. But be patient. Be patient, church. We’re on a timetable. We’re in a plan, and God is always fulfilling his purpose.

So we learned, first of all, that we have to be prepared for hostility. But the second thing we learned from the apostle in chapter 25 is that we need to be aware of the blindness of sinners. We need to be aware of the blindness of sinners. You think about how deep seated their blindness was, Because these religious leaders wanted the apostle Paul murdered and killed. They could not convict Paul on legitimate charges, so they trumped him up, and they just made up these lies about him.

And it was so embedded in their mind and their hearts that they were determined that even in the switch of politics and the politicians, and one politician ends and another one comes on the scene, they immediately wanted to be in the presence of the new governor so that they could bring up maybe helping the poor? No. Maybe finding a way to have more peace in the community? No. Their number one topic, we got to get rid of Paul.

He’s in prison. We want him dead. That’s what they brought up to the governor. That’s what they brought up, and it reminds us of just how blind sinners are. Second Corinthians four four tells us that it is the god of this world, meaning Satan himself, who has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

Without a savior, we are blinded. And we are not only blinded by our own sin, but we are blinded of the sins of others. And the reason that I share this with you church is that I know your spirit grieves, and I know you’re troubled in your heart, but friends, I’m just gonna be honest with you. Because we are sinful in our nature, and because sinners are blinded by their sin and they’re walking in darkness, it’s no wonder they haven’t already burned up this whole country. That we should not be shocked that sinners sin.

And when we spend all our time trying to curse the darkness rather than take the light to the darkness, we are failing to understand that sinners sin. You can condemn their sin. You can beat them over the head with their sin, and you can continue to identify their sin, but I’m gonna tell you that they cannot get out of their sin unless they believe in the lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 25, we find that the apostle is a prisoner in Rome because of the cause of Christ. He was a man who was faithful to witness and reach out and boldly declare the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And what was his reward here on this earth? It was simply that he would have to suffer and be in prison. But as we look at this passage today, we are learning about how to deal with hostility in this world towards the gospel. So I hope these principles have been a blessing to you and helpful to understanding how God works in our lives. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post The Cause of Christ Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Faith on Trial Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 24: 22-27.

And if we have trusted Christ, we’ve obeyed the gospel, then my friends, heaven is our home and we can live in the full assurance no matter how tough and difficult life gets. We have the promise and the confidence that we are gonna spend eternity with Jesus Christ. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and we are glad to be able to bring to you today hope worth having. We are going to be in Acts chapter 24, and we’ll be studying verses 22 through 27, and we’ve entitled it faith on trial.

This is the second part of this message. So I hope that you will catch that first one as well and be able to be encouraged in it. So let’s grab our bibles, and let’s get studying. In Acts chapter 24, our section that we’ll be covering is verse 22 through 27. So we’re continuing our study on faith on trial.

This is part two. We’ll finish it out here with this chapter. And you remember that there’s a trial going on and the apostle Paul is in the midst. He’s already gone through a religious trial before the Sanhedrin court, and now he is before Felix, the governor of Judah, in which Paul’s faith is on trial. He is being brought before the religious people back in chapter 23, but now chapter 24, the political people because of his determination to lift up Jesus.

His determination to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. As he is speaking the truth, there are false charges that are made against him. The apostle denies those false charges in verses 10 through 13, but then verse 14 through 16, he quickly confesses Christ, and he pulls everybody to understand that all that he is doing is because of Jesus Christ. And that he takes the opportunity to point out any legal and logical inconsistencies in verse 17 through 21. And what we learn from this chapter, if you forget everything that the pastor says, but if you can just hold on to something out of chapter 24, hold on to this.

We can be faithful witnesses even in stressful situations. We can be faithful witnesses in stressful situations. Here’s the thing, the Bible says that we will and we are in these perilous times. And we get so frustrated, not only of what’s going on in the world, but what is going on in our personal life. And think about the apostle, Think about what he’s been facing.

All he’s been doing is trying to get people to heaven. All he’s been doing is telling the truth. All he’s been doing is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. But he’s been in prison. He’s been dragged before different courts, and now he’s standing before Felix.

But don’t forget that promise that God gave the apostle here in chapter 23 verse 11. But on the following night, the Lord stood by him. And I want you to know as the family of God that the Lord is standing by us, and that he has not given up on you, and you don’t need to give up on him. And you can be faithful. We have to be aware that as we are being faithful to be his witness in stressful situations, that the enemies of the gospel will oppose us.

They’re gonna oppose Christianity. And look, the enemies come from many different angles. Sometimes they’re religious enemies. I mean, you see these religious churches that have gone woke and they don’t wanna believe in Christ. You see these false teachers out there trying to redefine what it means to be saved and what it means to believe in the gospel.

Friends, there are enemies out there of the gospel, and you gotta know that. Some of them are religious, but some of them are political. And that if you just stand up for God, they might arrest you. I heard about a teenager who was recently arrested for street preaching. Friends, I mean, I’m just shocked and stunned that in America these things could happen.

And that we should be allowed to proclaim the gospel. You say, well, we don’t like that method. Well, listen to me friends. You be like, understanding a DL Moody. He was out there.

He had forgotten he had made a commitment to God that he would witness and tell someone about Jesus every day of his life before he went to bed. Well he went to bed and forgot. It hit him. The Spirit of God had prompted him. And he got out of bed at midnight, and he went out on the streets of Chicago and started witnessing to people.

And a lady complained to him. And she was saying, I don’t like the way you’re telling people how to get to heaven. And he said, well, what do you do? And she said, well, I don’t do anything. He said, well, I like my way better than your way.

Amen? I mean, at least he’s doing something. And so you may not like the street preachers, but at least they’re out there doing something for Jesus Christ. Amen? And the apostle was being a faithful witness of the gospel, and he was speaking courageously for God.

And in our passage today, the apostle seizes the opportunity to witness for the gospel, for Christ publicly. You remember in Acts chapter nine that the apostle was given a promise, and that God would use him in a very unique way and that he would stand before kings and governors, and that he would give a testimony before Christ and Ananias who was responsible when Saul at the time came to Christ. He met with Saul because he had lost his sight, and God said, lay your hand upon him so that he could see again. And Ananias said to the Lord, don’t you know who this guy is? He’s been persecuting the church, and I’m not sure you got the right man.

And here’s what God said to him in Acts chapter nine verse 15. Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. So here, Saul, who would become Paul, was this chosen vessel of God that he would stand before these political leaders. He would testify of God, and that’s where we find him today in verse 22. I want you to pick up with me.

The Bible says, 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 commanded the centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty and told him not to forbid any of his friends to provide or visit him. Verse 24, and after some days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. He verse here, verse 25. Now as he reasoned about this is the apostle.

He reasoned about righteousness, self control, and the judgment to come. Felix was afraid and answered, go away for now. When I have a convenient time, I will call for you. Meanwhile, he also hoped that money would be given him by Paul, a bribe, that he might release him. Therefore, he sent for him more often and conversed with him.

But after two years, Porcius Festus succeeded Felix, and Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul bound. Now, I wanna hone in on verse 25, and I want you to see how the apostle communicates the gospel. Perhaps in a way that you have never considered, and one that you have never given much study to. But I’d like you to meditate upon this and let the word of God teach you. And if you’re visiting today, we hope and pray that God awakens your heart, that you would see the truth, believe the truth, that you would trust Christ as your lord and savior.

But the Bible says in verse 25 that the apostle reasoned about righteousness. And here, the apostle starts with the missing ingredient that is in every heart of every person, and that is righteousness. Any individual can be a moral person, but no one can be righteous until they obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. It includes everything by where a sinner must come to Jesus and be justified and reconciled. And you say, pastor, obey the gospel?

What do you mean? Well, the apostle Peter, when he stood before the thousands of people on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. Here’s what he said to them. Here’s what he told them to obey. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the holy spirit.

Throughout the scriptures, the commands of the gospel are given to us. And not only are we called to believe, but we are called to repent. And we are called to turn away from our sin. And we are to receive Christ and trust him as our lord and savior. The will of God towards all of humanity is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said in John chapter three verse 17. I know you’re familiar with verse 16, but have you ever considered verse 17? For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Aren’t you glad that Jesus came to save the world? Because you’re a part of that.

You’re a part of that. Now, when the apostle was reasoning with Felix about righteousness, he was teaching him the facts of the gospel. And what are the facts of the gospel? First Corinthians 15 verse one through three, the death and burial and resurrection of our savior. He taught him that, but he also was communicating to him that he was to respond and obey the commands of the gospel.

A full presentation of the gospel of Christ is not just the facts, but it is the commands. And you’ll see this in Romans 16 later. The apostle would tell the church at Rome that they were to obey the gospel and that there was judgment for those who do not obey the gospel. And so when one says, what is it that I’m supposed to obey about the gospel? It’s what Jesus taught in Mark 16 that we are to repent, and we are to believe in Jesus Christ.

It’s not sufficient for you to just know the facts. Parents, listen to me. It’s not sufficient that your children know the facts. That’s the building block. Now you have to get it from their head to their heart.

And how do you get it from their head to their heart? By them obeying the gospel, repenting of their sin, and believing in the lord Jesus Christ. You cannot just say, I believe, but I’m not gonna repent, pastor. You can’t say that. Because to just believe the gospel is to just add another god to your life.

Many times, the missionaries will remind us that they have to be careful as they’re presenting the gospel because, yes, in other lands, they may be hungry to add another god. They’re okay to believe in many gods. We’ll take every god we can get, like we learned in Acts chapter 17. Every God we can get to help us through our trials and tribulations in life. But here’s what the call of the gospel truly is.

It is that we are to only believe, for Jesus is the only way to heaven. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father except by me. And you say, well, I like the morality of these other religions, and it might be so. But you can never be righteous before God until you not only believe the gospel, but that you repent of your sin. And there are many who would love and and and you know some of you are saying, what happened to my child?

What happened to my child? I’ll tell you what happened. They believed, but they did not repent. They had the facts of the gospel, but they did not have the obedience of the gospel. So please be alert this morning as the apostle is teaching Felix.

He is trying to show Felix why he needs Jesus. And he’s also helping us understand why we need Jesus. Why do you need Jesus? Why do I need Jesus? You say, I’m a good person, pastor.

I go to work every day. How about that? I’m better than 90% of society. I show up. But let me tell you something, it’s more than showing up.

You gotta be willing to acknowledge your sin, and you got to be willing to say that I have sinned against God. Now as the apostle in verse 25 is reasoning about righteousness, he’s not only addressing why we need righteousness, but he’s also addressing the righteousness and holiness of God. You see, Jesus said unless you’re perfect, you can’t enter into the kingdom. He also said to that crowd of listeners on the Sermon on the Mount as they were eating up everything he was teaching them, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, the most religious group among them. Unless your righteousness exceeds the Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Oh, he was not asking you and I to be more religious, just the opposite. He was asking us to acknowledge that we could never be religious enough to get to heaven. He was challenging us to recognize that our morality will not save our soul. That we have a perfect and righteous and holy God, and therefore, God is calling us to believe in Christ. That’s the power of the gospel, to repent of our sins and believe in the gospel, to believe in Christ because on the cross, Jesus took my unrighteousness and your unrighteousness.

And the prophet Isaiah said that our righteousness is as filthy rags before god. And I know some of you pound your chest symbolically on the good things that you’re doing, but the best of you and the best of might comes miserably short of the perfection of God. And so the Bible tells us that Christ took our unrighteousness on the cross, paid for our sins. And guess what he did? Every time you repent, every time you obey the gospel and repent and believe in Christ, he wraps you with his righteousness.

Wow. That’s what the apostle was teaching him. He was teaching him that we have a holy and righteous God, and the only way you’re gonna get that holiness and the only way you’re gonna get that righteousness that gets you into the kingdom is to believe in Christ. We, as God’s people, as we are testifying for Christ out there in this world that we live in, we should never shy away from the truth. We should always be willing to help people understand Hebrews ten thirty one that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living god.

We should remind them that our god is a consuming fire, Hebrews twelve twenty nine. And we should call them not to flee to religion, not to run to their morality, but run to Jesus. Flee to Christ and find him to be a refuge for your unrighteousness. For if you come and obey the gospel, he will save your soul. The second thing we see in this text is not only did the apostle teach about righteousness, this missing ingredient, but he taught about the missing discipline, self control.

Again, here we go, verse 25. Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self control. You might think to yourself, man, why would the apostle take time as he’s standing before this political figure, this governor of Judah? Why would he take time to talk about self discipline and the ability to have a self control? Well, we’re under this false impression that all political leaders are disciplined leader.

But that’s not true, is it? We like to say the cream rises to the top, but that’s not with politics. I’ll tell you that right now. Amen? That’s not with politics.

I hope it is in your workplace the cream rises to the top, and I hope in your home it rises to the top. But I’m just gonna be honest with you, it does not in politics. And if that makes you mad, then you’re just gonna have to deal with it. But here’s what I want you to know, that the Bible says look at verse 25, that Felix was afraid. As a matter of fact, in the King James, it says he trembled.

He trembled. The idea of the word is to be terrified. Here is the apostle. He is teaching him about the holiness of God, the righteousness of God. How that all of mankind misses out and falls short of the righteousness of God, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And here, the Bible says that he is dealing with self control. Why would he do this? Well, Felix was trembling, even though Felix had been called a noble man. Back in verse three, if you remember, the lawyer stood before Felix trying to accuse the apostle that Felix was a noble man, but there was nothing farther from the truth, For Felix was a man who was very cruel in his reign as governor. Historians said that he was beastly cruel.

That’s how they defined his leadership. He was a man who had persuaded his current wife, Drusilla, to leave her husband and marry him. She was formally married to the king of Emesa, and he had arranged the assassination of the Jewish high priest. He was undisciplined in his conduct. He was foolish in how he behaved.

He was reckless in his temperament, and he was a volatile volcano, if you will. He was always exploding, out of control anger, and here is what the apostle is dealing with in verse 25. Go back to the text. Self control or his temperament. And so sometimes to help people understand their sinfulness, you have to hit home, don’t you?

You have to go right to where the problem is in their life. Because let’s just be honest, we love to lie to ourself. We love to imagine ourself to be something that we are not. And it is hard for us to see our own sin. And so what the apostle is doing as he is confronting the sin of Felix, the Bible teaches us that he trembled.

He trembled. He was afraid. Why would he be afraid? Because as he began to realize the judgment of god upon him and he began to realize how much of a sinner he was, he trembled. And then I want you to notice in verse 25 that not only the apostle dealt with that missing ingredient of righteousness and that missing discipline of self control, but the appointment that he has with God.

He said to him, and the judgment to come. The judgment to come. The appointment with God. The coming judgment. Paul, the apostle showed Felix that he would face God’s judgment as a sinner.

All sinners stand before God as being under his judgment. As believers, we are grateful that we are no longer under the judgment of God, and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because the judgment that should have been ours was taken for us on the cross by our savior, and God’s people said, but what about those who do not obey the gospel? What about those who will not repent, will not believe?

My friends, we must tell them about God’s salvation. But we must also help them understand that they are lost and that they are under God’s judgment. I realize talking about God’s judgment is not popular today. I know that as we speak of God’s wrath, that it is certainly not something that we look forward to. I mean, rarely does the church gather and sing about the wrath of God.

We sing about his love. We sing about his grace. We sing about those things that mean so much to us, like his forgiveness and mercy and the hope that he gives us. But what about his wrath? We live in a culture that would rather believe in a God of love than a God who judges sin.

People say, Mike, what’s wrong with America? Listen, you don’t need to look any further than the judgment of God. America is under the judgment of God. For years of not obeying the gospel, for years of putting self ahead of God, for years more interested in money than our own hearts before God. And we could give you the laundry list this morning, but that’s not necessary because most of you already know it.

But I want you to understand, God’s judgment is upon America. But that’s nothing new. When we went through the book of Amos, we saw that God judged Israel. We saw that in the book of Daniel on Wednesday nights that God judged Israel and plucked Daniel out of this pagan culture, and he was called to be a light in that culture. So we know that God’s judgment is upon us, but here’s the thing.

Individually, do you understand as an unbeliever that God’s judgment’s upon you? Do you understand that God warns us about his judgment? Do you understand that God warns us about a place called hell, church? You understand how real that is? Jesus said in Matthew 25 verse 41, then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

It’s easy to forget that there’s a place called hell. It’s easy to forget that our loved ones who do not obey the gospel are going there if they do not repent and believe. It’s easy for us to be soothed by all the wonderful joys of the gospel and the blessings of salvation that are upon us as believers that we forget that hell is real. And Jesus said it was a place prepared for the devil and his angels. It wasn’t even prepared for you.

It’s not God’s intent to send you to hell. As a matter of fact, I remind people it’s harder to go to hell than it is to heaven. Did you know that? It’s harder to go to hell than it is to heaven because if you go to hell, you’ve got to climb over the cross. And you’ve gotta climb over the Bible, and you’ve gotta climb over the church, and you’ve gotta climb over the prayers of your mother, and you’ve gotta climb over all those who have faithfully witnessed to you and tried to persuade you and convince you to come to Jesus and to believe in him.

But my friends, if you would just repent and believe the gospel, devil likes to deceive and make us think differently. When we talk about salvation, we know that sometimes even that term can be foreign in a culture like ours. But if you think about it like this, being saved from drowning means that you were about to die and someone rescued you. I want you to think of it like that. To be saved spiritually means that you were on your way to hell, and then Jesus Christ rescued you.

Thus, the gospel is really not about living a better life, but rather how to have eternal life. That’s what I want you to see, church. It’s not about here’s the five created ways that you can mow your lawn, and there are sermons out there like that, and or even how you can be a better this and a better that. Really, what we need to be focused on is where are we gonna spend eternity. And if we have trusted Christ, we’ve obeyed the gospel, then my friends, heaven is our home, and we can live in the full assurance no matter how tough and difficult life gets.

We have the promise and the confidence that we are gonna spend eternity with Jesus Christ. Now, how did Felix respond to Paul’s message there? I mean, Paul didn’t come with a message of, hey, I wanna teach you how to be a better governor. Or, hey, I wanna help you to be more moral, Felix. You got some issues.

But he came and he reasoned with him about righteousness, self control, and judgment to come. What was Felix’s response? Unfortunately, it was not repentance of sin. It was not placing his faith in Jesus, but just the opposite. Notice what he says.

Felix was afraid. He’s convicted. And how does he answer Paul? Go away for now. When I have convenient time, I will call for you.

You see, Felix was convicted, but he was not changed. He was not repentive. There were three idols in Felix’s life. I want you to remember these idols. They are always tempting us.

First of all, Felix wanted to preserve his career, his political career. Remember that? Remember how he held on to Paul in prison? How long was Paul in prison? For two years?

Some kind of a house arrest situation. He was allowed visitors. He was allowed liberty under Felix, but he couldn’t just get up and leave. But he wanted to have favor with the Jews, verse 27 says. He wanted the Jews to continue to support him.

He he needed to get that particular group to vote for him, that political favor. He had to keep that career going. And sometimes we compromise the Bible and the gospel. We compromise the truth because we don’t wanna lose our job. We don’t want to lose what we’ve worked so hard or what we’ve accomplished.

As we continue to look at faith on trial, one of the things that emerges is that we can cultivate hope in our lives as we continue to demonstrate faith through the struggles. It’s not that our life’s gonna be easy, but rather we understand that there are gonna be trials and troubles, But we continue to keep our focus on the lord Jesus Christ. And so I hope you’ve been encouraged and that you’ll continue to be strong for the lord as you face the different trials of life. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope, worth,

The post Faith on Trial Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Faith on Trial Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 24:1-21.

As a believer, we are rewarded for our good works at the resurrection. We are rewarded for our faithfulness and our obedience to God, and we will receive those rewards based upon our commitment to the cause of the gospel here on this earth. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. And today, you are listening to our radio broadcast, Hope Worth Having.

And we wanna welcome you to this radio program, and we are broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and we’re excited to be able to share God’s word with you today. We are beginning a new series, Faith on Trial, Acts chapter 24, and we’re gonna look at the life of the apostle, and we’re gonna learn more about his faith being under trial. Now I want you to take your bible this morning to the book of Acts chapter 24. We’re gonna be covering verse one through 21. When we come to Acts chapter 24, the apostle Paul was called on to defend his faith in a hostile world.

When even some of the Jews were known for their doubt about what they even believed, Paul was accused of being a troublemaker. He was accused of being someone who was leading a divisive sect. There was misinformation out there about the apostle. If you remember the last time we were together relating to the book of acts, that we were addressing the very issue where he was brought before the Sanhedrin a religious court. And he had learned and was wise enough to recognize that it was a mixture of what we call Sadducees and Pharisees, which were different religious points of views within the Jewish faith system.

And so the apostle was wise enough to get the Pharisees and the Sadducees to disagree. But it almost led to a riot. And so the commander who was in charge of the apostle decided that he would get the apostle out of there, and he would take him before a governor, and his name was Felix. Now Felix was not the most upright of a person. He was known for being susceptible to bribes.

He loved that people who were in trouble or were dependent upon his judgment, that he would go their way if they would give him money. And you could see politicians haven’t changed much, have they? But I want you to understand this is the kind of person the apostle is standing before, and that’s what we see in chapter 24. All throughout the scriptures, especially the book of acts, we have been seeing the different ways that religious people, unbelievers, have been persecuting the church. We saw in Acts chapter six that they were using deception, and then they were making threats in Acts chapter four.

They were ridiculing the apostle, ostracizing him, and even sometimes it came to the point of violence. But here in chapter 24, we see something very important, and that is how does the apostle respond when his faith is on trial? He stands as an example for you and I. What do we do in living in a world today that is hostile to the gospel, is hostile to the truth, is hostile to believing that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven? When our faith is on trial, how do we respond?

Well, let’s pick up in verse one of chapter 24. The bible says, now after five days, Ananias, the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul. And when he was called upon, Tertullus began his accusation saying, seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity is being brought to this nation by your foresight. So he’s buttering up the governor because he wants the governor to agree with him.

Verse three. We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear, by your courtesy, a few words from us. For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law.

But the commander, Lysias, came by and with great violence took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come to you by examining yourself, you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him. Now I want you to jump down to verse 14, and here we see that the apostle is giving his response. I want you to follow along beginning in verse 14. The apostle says, but this I confess to you, that according to the way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.

This brings so I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and men. Now after many years, I came to bring alms and offerings to my nation, in the midst of which some Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple neither with a mob nor with tumult. They ought to have been here before you to object if they had anything against me, or else let those who are here themselves say if they found any wrongdoing in me while I stood before the council. Now what I want you to focus on this morning is the different ways in which the apostle responds to the hostility, the false accusations, and the mischaracterization of his ministry and his life. And the first thing that I want you to see is that we have faith in all the bible, and that definitely is not naive on our part.

That’s how the apostle begins his rebuttal to these accusation. Tertullius was a orator. He was a lawyer. He was eloquent, and he stood before Felix, and his job was to persuade the governor to convict the apostle of being a rebel rouser or someone who was trying to defy the government and cause problems and to somehow resist the government. But the apostle talks to us in verse 14 in his rebuttal and says, this I confess to you that according to the way, the way, that being the way of salvation.

In the early church in the book of Acts, they referred to those who believed in Jesus Christ as the way. The people who followed the way. Remember that Jesus said in John fourteen that I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the father but by me. And so that’s how this was picked up, and they were referred to as the way. The apostle picks up on that description of the believers, and he says the way which they call a sect.

So I worship the god of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. Paul argued that his faith had its roots and its history in Judaism. He was trying to show them that he was not a part of something that was contrary or conflicting with what the prophets had already said because they had made the accusation that he was going against Judaism, that he was going against the Jewish faith. And the apostle says, no, I worship the God of our fathers. I’m right there with you.

I worship Jehovah Yahweh. I worship Elohim. He is the God of our fathers, and I worship him. And then he goes on to say, I believe everything. And not only do I believe it, but I agree with all that the old testament, the law has given us.

And what I want you to see here is that it’s essential for us as we are dealing with a hostile world, that it’s important for us to be people who have faith in the bible. We are blessed in the new testament. We are blessed in this new covenant. We are blessed as believers in the age of grace to be able to have the old testament and the new testament to understand that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the old testament and all that the prophets proclaimed and all that they prophesied about our savior are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We don’t reject the law.

We don’t reject what the prophets have taught us. We don’t say that the Old Testament is nonessential or it is not even helpful or that it is even biblical. No. We say just the opposite, that it is the inherent, infallible word of God, and every aspect of it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Now the reason that we believe in the second coming of Jesus, and the reason that we believe that it is a literal second coming, and that it is a physical second coming, and that it is a visible second coming, is because the prophets said that from the seed of David, there’ll be one referring to Christ who was of the seed of David, that he will sit in the seat of the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem, the city of God, and that he will rule and reign in his kingdom, and we will rule and reign with him.

And we have great anticipation in the fulfillment of these prophecies. The Bible prophesied in the old testament about the first coming of Jesus. It prophesies about the second coming of Jesus. And if God fulfilled the first coming, how much more will he fulfill the second coming? We walk in this world, and we say, what’s the matter with this world?

Friends, you are witnessing the tea leaves of the signs of the second coming of our savior, Jesus Christ. Do not be shaken. Do not be startled, but be excited. Be excited that you are living in some amazing times. And how would you like to be a part of the generation that is raptured out of here, and that we get to be a part of the unfolding of the prophecies of the old testament.

Think about that. I mean, that’s part of our hope. That’s why we’re so excited. Church, do not be upset that you are seeing the tea leaves of the signs of the coming. Do not be frazzled because you may be a part of that generation that gets to experience all that is unfolding in God’s redemptive plan.

And so I want you to rejoice. I want your head up. I want you to be excited for God. And the way that we can be sustained and fortified to be excited for the Lord Jesus Christ is to have faith in all of the Bible, is to believe it from Genesis all the way to Revelation, is to understand as the scriptures teach us in second Timothy chapter three verse 16, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Here’s what I want you to know about the Bible. It is inspired of God, not just some moment of inspiration, but rather it is the very breath of God. It’s the idea of that word that it came from the mouth of God. We know in first Peter chapter one and verse 19 through 21 that the spirit of God moved upon the prophets and moved upon the apostles, and they pinned down the very words of God. You are blessed to live in America where you have the freedom to carry a bible to church, and you have the freedom to open that bible, read it, and study it because there’s many countries, church, that cannot have a copy of the literal word of God.

You give praise to God today because you can hear the word of God taught, that you can go home and study and see if what these things are true that the pastor has proclaimed to us, you have the inspired word of God. But I want you to know something else. It’s not only inspired, it’s infallible. Now every once in a while, I run into somebody who wants to try to tell me that the Bible is contradicting, and that only parts of it are right and other parts are not. But I’m here to tell you friends that from beginning to end, the Bible is infallible.

That means it has no fallacies. It has no airs. It is the literal word of God, and we have been blessed with the word of God. And you need to understand that it is the perfect word of God. But not only is it inspired and infallible, but here’s what I want you to get, and this is what I think the church is facing the most challenge today, that the word of God is sufficient.

The word of God is sufficient. Did you see that in the text? That he not only taught us that it’s inspired of God, which only concludes that if it came from the mouth of God and God doesn’t lie, it has to be perfect. It has to be infallible. But he says it’s profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

That means it is sufficient to do what God intended the word of God to do. Many people have given up on the Bible, and they don’t get up and stand and declare it to you, but they show it in their actions. They rely on every other trick and razzle dazzle to try to move people to come to salvation rather than proclaiming the word of God. The Bible teaches us that God’s word will not return void. That doesn’t mean that everybody will get saved, but what it does mean is that God’s word will do its work in the hearts of people.

Now people have to respond to it, people have to receive it, and some people don’t receive it, they reject it. We understand that, but that does not negate the power of the word of God that it’s sharper than any two edged sword and it pierces the very soul. We need to get back to believing in the word of God that it’s powerful enough and sufficient enough that we don’t have to rely on other people. We need to get back to believing in the word of God that it’s powerful enough and sufficient enough that we don’t have to rely on other mechanism to win people to Christ, but rather we can proclaim the word of God. There have been doubters of God’s word in every age, but the word of God has withstood every attack.

Jesus put it like this. He said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Kingdoms, empires, leaders, kings, presidents, powerful people throughout this world have tried to ban the Bible, burn the Bible, destroy the Bible, get rid of the Bible. Many of the great reformers, men and women who stood strong for the word of God and in secrecy would translate the Bible in the common language of the day. John Huss, for standing up for the Bible and translating it from Latin to English, he was burned at the stake.

He was burned to death, church, just so people could read it in their known language. And friends, I want you to understand, even though John Huss was burned, that what happened, that the word of god just spread more. It spread more. Tyndale was a great man of god. I’ve read many biographies about Tyndale.

So many people have sacrificed so that we could have the word of God today, and we need to have faith in it. We need to have faith and understand that the Bible is an amazing book. It is a living book. It is a lasting book. It is a life giving book.

It is a book that is powerful, profitable, and it is productive. If you will read the word of God and study the Bible, it will do a great work in your heart. When your faith is on trial, go back to the bible. Don’t be afraid to stand and speak the truth as the apostle did. He did not back down.

Now the second thing I want you to see that the apostle did is that, I’d put it like this, we have hope for all the dead. That is not narrow. Look at verse fifteen and sixteen. I have hope in God. Now here he is.

I want you to know something. The apostle is he’s in custody. He’s already been brought before a religious court. Now he’s brought before Felix. He is not gonna get justice.

Felix is a crooked governor, and he’s hoping that the apostle will give him a bribe, give him money, whoever gives him the most money. That’s the way this decision’s going. There’s a lot of injustice going on here. And he is not in a situation that would make us say, well, man, he ought to be happy. But you know what?

The bible says that the apostle stood before them, and he said in verse 15, I have hope in God. I want you to go back to verse 10. Go back to verse 10 of chapter 24. Then Paul, after the governor had nodded to him to speak, answered, in as much as I know that you have been for many years a judge of this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself. Now look, the apostle wasn’t a negative person.

He wasn’t always hateful and rude, and he wasn’t always the kinda guy, just because he was facing tough times, that he was just all discouraged and defeated and ready to throw in the towel. But rather just the opposite. He was cheerful, the Bible says. The Bible says that he declared to Felix, who was an unbeliever, who was crooked in his morals. He said, I hope in God.

I hope in God. Back in verse 15, he says, I have a hope in God, which they themselves also accept that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. Friends, he had a hope, and that hope was rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we think of hope, sometimes we think of something that is vague and something that we anticipate that might happen depending, but I want you to know the Christian hope is different from the world’s hope. The world’s hope is a dying hope.

You think about people that don’t know Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m not even certain why they have a smile. Because they get up every day and all they got to do is live for the day. Whatever they can please their flesh with, whatever their desires can be fulfilled, that’s all they have to live for. But for you and I who love Jesus Christ, we know that there is life beyond the grave. Amen?

We know that we have something to look forward to that’s even better and greater than anything this world can offer. So the hope of the world, it is a dying hope, but the hope of the believer, It is a living hope. Romans eight twenty four says this, for in this hope, the hope of Jesus, we are saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? Friends, our hope is in the future.

Our hope is that one day, God is gonna raise us from the dead, and that our hope is that one day, we are going to live with Christ, and we are gonna live with Him forever. And you say, pastor, how do you know that’s gonna be true? Well, let me put it to you this way. Jesus Christ is the hope of the believers. And the reason that He is the hope of the believers, it is because of his resurrection.

The psalmist said, you are my hope, oh lord god. You are my trust from my youth. The hope that we have is in the resurrection of Christ. Is it any wonder that we love to sing? Because he lives, I can face tomorrow.

Because I have a living savior, not a dead savior, not a savior like the dead religions of this world where their leader is still in the grave, still in the tomb, our savior lives, and we have a hope, Jesus said in John chapter 14, because I live, you shall live also. You understand that? Now I was telling my Sunday school class a little bit of this, and helping you understand as well. And that is this, that his life is my life, and that his death is my death. His resurrection is my resurrection.

You say, how do I know? The bible says that Jesus is the firstborn of the resurrection. And then in first Corinthians 15, it tells us that he is the firstfruits of the resurrection. Now sometimes when you read the bible, you gotta make sure you take it into context. Firstborn, firstfruits has nothing to do with chronological order.

Firstborn has to do with the fact that he is the leader, or it is a title of exaltation. We could say it like this. He is the captain of the resurrected. He is the leader of the resurrection. He is the prototype of the resurrection, the first fruits.

The farmer goes out and he sees that crop coming up and he says, you know what? As I see this early fruit coming forward, I know that this is what is to come. So it is. You look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you know what is to come for you and your loved ones, those who have died in Jesus Christ. What is coming forth for them is the Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise, and we which remain will be caught up together with them.

I don’t want you to forget that, that part of this great hope is reunion with our loved ones. Can God’s people say amen? And the Bible tells us that the righteous will arise, and we will share in the heaven’s joys. We will be blessed. Again, first Peter one verse three.

Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I know sometimes that life gets tough, and I know it’s hard. And I know sometimes the challenges and the trials that we face in our life can be very difficult for us to process and to work through. But friends, the hope of the resurrection and the hope of eternal life should continue to inspire and stimulate us to keep moving forward for the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want you to remember what second Corinthians four verse 14 says, knowing that he which raised up the Lord hang on to this church.

You ought to mark this in your bible, you ought to memorize it, and you ought to read it to yourself over and over again, knowing that he which raised up the lord Jesus shall raise up also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Here’s what he’s saying. He’s gonna raise up us also. He’s gonna raise up us also by Jesus. This same God who raised up Jesus is gonna raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you.

Colossians chapter one verse 23, we’ll be presented as blameless and holy and above reproach. We’ll be presented in his sight, not because of our perfection, but because of the perfection of Jesus. Not because of our achievements, but because of what Jesus achieved in the crucifixion and resurrection of our savior. Not because somehow we were more religious than somebody else, but because Jesus was righteous and obedient and dedicated, and he was obedient to the father that you and I will stand before God one day as a holy people and a blameless people and a people who are above reproach, and we will be presented by the savior to the father in his sight, Colossians one verse 23 says, and this says that we shall present us with you. Paul is saying that just like I’ll be presented, you’ll be presented to the father, and we will be resurrected again.

Can God’s people say amen? Now here’s the thing I want you to understand. I don’t want you to miss out what the apostle said here as he taught us in verse 15 at the end. He says both the just and the unjust. Maybe some of you as believers have not really put a lot of thought into this, but not only will the righteous be resurrected, but the Bible teaches us the wicked will arise and receive their judgment.

Jesus put it like this in John chapter five verse 28 through 29. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. Think about that.

You and I, our resurrection is under life, eternity with Jesus. And for those who do not believe, it is the resurrection unto condemnation. Now I don’t want you to misunderstand the words of Jesus. I don’t want you to think that somehow he’s teaching us to those who are good, the resurrection of life. To those who have done evil, the resurrection of condemnation.

He’s not saying that you are saved by your good works, But he is saying this as a believer. We are resurrected, and we are rewarded for our good works at the resurrection. We are rewarded for our faithfulness and our obedience to God, and we will receive those rewards based upon our faithfulness and obedience and our commitment to the cause of the gospel here on this earth. Do not, church, think that somehow that if you get a more conservative president, you’re gonna save America. Friends, the only way you’re gonna save America is being a part of the great movement of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and winning souls to the lord Jesus is what’s gonna save America.

It’s gonna save the world. I mean, we’re not just limited to America. The gospel’s about winning the whole world to Jesus Christ. Now he says to those who’ve done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation, that there are degrees in hell. That Jesus said, you mess with the kids, you mess with the little ones, you have a greater condemnation.

You might as well tie a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the ocean. I want you to know that there is a greater degree of punishment. And Jesus spells those things out, and we’ll learn more about them. There are degrees in hell, and you say, why is he judging their evil works? Because they will be punished in different degrees of hell based upon their evil works.

Now sometimes people say to me, I don’t believe in hell, and I don’t believe that if we go to hell that we have a physical body in hell. I like to take them to John chapter five verse twenty eight and twenty nine because here Jesus taught us that the wicked will be raised in a body of flesh, and they will be judged and they will be condemned. Jesus also said in Matthew chapter 10 verse 28, fear not them which kill the body, but also not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now I wanna encourage you to make sure you go to our YouTube channel, Hope Worth Having. Just go to Hope Worth Having, and there you will be able to subscribe to our channel, so take advantage of that.

This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

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