Acts 23:12-24:27 - Of Plots and Plans

Well, good morning, church. In 2007, uh the umstead family was in the midst of little kids, and so that meant little kid programming, and a movie came out fromix.ixar, one of their better movies called Ratatoui, who has seen Ratatoui. So if you haven't seen Ratouille, we worth seeing, it's about a sewer rat who likes to cook food. So, you know, Pixar pushing the envelope there. Remy was a sewer rat who was this wanted to be an amazing chef. Linguine was a bus boy who really couldn't cook well at all. And there is a scene in Ratitui where Remy, the rat, is sitting on the skylight looking into the kitchen, where Linguine is sneaking ingredients into the soup in this high end restaurant, the most famous restaurant in the city. And he's putting ingredients in that Remy recognizes, well, just ruin this soup. And he can't stand it. And so what Remy does is he breaks into the kitchen this sewer rat and he starts throwing other things into the soup and by the time they serve it, it turns out to be the best soup of the night. It's a smash hit, but no one knows exactly what had happened that Linguine had this plot to make a soup that was going to fail. and Remy had a plan on how to make a soup that would work. Maybe in your life, you're experiencing something similar or you have is like, man, the plots of this world are just constantly conspiring to keep me from being faithful or to see how God is working in my life. I'm seeing all the plots, but I'm not seeing his plan. It's like in Ratui, there are all these pots and pans in the kitchen. and Ling Greeny was going to create a dish that was horrible, but Remy turns it into something that's amazing. We want to look at a story from the Book of Acts where Paul finds himself in prison dealing with the plots of people who want to destroy him and seeing how God's plan is accomplished. If you have your Bibles turn to acts chapter 2, if you take one thing away from the message today, let it be this, that God blends people's plots into the ingredients of his plan. God blends people's plots into the ingredients of his plan. We'll be in verse 12 of chapter 23 to start, but back up one verse to to verse 11. And look what it says, because this is so important to understand what happens through the rest of the book of acts. God makes a promise to Paul. Paul had found himself in Jerusalem where the Spirit had told him when you go to Jerusalem, it's gonna be tough times for you, Paul. And he was obedient. He went to Jerusalem, he finds himself in the temple, he gets accused of causing a riot. They start beating him. The Roman authorities grab him. They're about to flog him to find out what's going on, they find out he's a Roman citizen. So they put him in a holding place to wait and see kind of figure out what has happened. And in that night it says this acts 2311 the following night, the Lord stood by him that Jesus stood by Paul and said, take courage. He needed Paul to have courage. This wasn't going to be easy what's going to happen to Paul from here till the end of the book of acts. He says, take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome. That's the promise in a sense, God is cooking a meal called, Paul will testify in Rome. So let's see some of the ingredients that go into this meal. Now, in the coming weeks, you'll see more ingredients. We'll see four ingredients that go into this meal that God's making his plan, and all these ingredients are plots of men. Let's see the first ingredient in acts 23, 12 to 15. The first ingredient that we see is the plot to kill Paul. When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath, neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 who made this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, we have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste and no food till we have killed Paul. Now therefore, you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly, and we are ready to kill him before he comes near. So the plan, the meal that God wants to cook is Paul will testify in Rome, and there's 40 plus men, along with the Jewish high priest in the Sanhedrin, to kind of get an idea of what that means in our day and age is like the president and the Supreme Court. We're getting together with these 40 men to say, yes, let's do this. So these men said, hey, we got a plan. I got a plot to get rid of Paul. We'll put that into the meal we're gonna cook, which is called kill Paul And they want to make that. and they said, look, you ask for Paul to be brought down to the chambers and on the way, the 40 plus of us will kill them. You won't be implicated as a saying Sanhedrian, the high priest, he'll be gone. We'll be done with all of this. That's what they're plotting. That's the meal they want to make. But what we see right after this is in verses 16 to 24, the plot gets cooked into God's plan. The Jews wanted to kill Paul, but God uses that to advance his plan. When I started thinking about this idea of food and ingredients, I started thinking of what kind of foods can kill you? And I saw I did a Google search. I said, one of the most deadly foods in the world, not counting stuff that just kills you right away that you couldn't eat, but things that people eat. The most deadly one that I found kills you in about six hours is called fugu served mostly in Asia. It's puffer fish. If you've ever seen a puffer fish, they blow up. If you eat a puffer fish, you're dead. There's no cure for it, but you can go to restaurants and eat puffer fish because the chefs there have trained for at least three years on how to prepare this dish and have to pass a test that over 50% fail, so to become a puffer fish chef, you have to really know what you're doing. Otherwise you're going to kill somebody with what you're cooking. And so they want to kill Paul. They just want to give him the puffer fish and God says he knows what he's doing. He knows what's going. Look what it says here. Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so somehow, we don't know how Paul's nephew hears of this plan. So first we have to know that Paul has a sister, that he has a nephew, we read of Paul and we think he's just this guy running around on his own, but he has family. Everything he's doing is in that context. So he heard of the ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. So he says, Paul, they're trying to kill you. Paul called one of the centurians and said, take this young man to the tribune for he has something to tell him. Now the Tune's name is Claudius Lysias. He's the leader that had got Paul out of the mob. So he took him and brought him to the Tribune and said, Paul, the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you. As he has something to say to you, the Tribune took him by the hand and going aside asked him privately, what is it that you have to tell me? and he said the Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire something more closely about him, but do not be persuaded by them for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him, and now they are ready waiting for your consent. So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him till no one you have informed me of these things. Then he called two of the centurians and said, get ready, 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night, also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix, the governor, their plot that they were trying to stir up as they were cooking was to kill Paul. Paul, God has a plan to have him testify in Rome. They want to kill him. God doesn't want him killed. If Paul's dead, he can't testify. That's not a meal. It's like a steak dinner with no steak. If Paul's not in Rome, God's promise to him doesn't work. And so they're pl planning to kill him. Claudius gets this message 40 plus men. The Sanhedrin, the high priests are doing this. They're pluding together. They're waiting for your consent to send him down. They're going to kill him on the way. Now all that's happened before this with Claudius, if you remember, he was going to flog Paul. He was going to beat Paul to figure out what was going on. He thought Paul was just some Jewish man who had no Roman rights. He's about to beat him, and Paul says, I'm a Roman citizen. You can't just beat me like this, which would have gotten Claudius in quite a bit of trouble if he beat a Roman citizen unjustly. And so he's already nervous. He now hears 40 plus men plus the Sanhedrin, hy priests are willing to kill Paul. So what does he do? He sends, if he did your mathrite, 470 soldiers with Paul at 9 PM at night to get him out of the city. Paul's not going to get killed. They have made it clear. 40 plus men. That's a lot of guys wanting to kill someone. The San heat and the high priest Claudius goes, I gotta protect this guy. If they kill a Roman citizen, I'm going to be in trouble with Felix, the governor. And so he says, take 470 men, get out of Jerusalem, head to cesarea, put Paul on a horse. The plot gets cooked into God's plan. He knows what he's doing. Then we see the second plot actually happen with Claudius himself. Claudius plots a cover up in verses 25 to 30. So Claudius writes this letter to Felix, the governor. So Claudius, think of him as kind of he's over a county, like a mayor. He's sending someone off to the governor. So it's the next chain up the Roman chain of command. And he says, and he wrote I led to this effect, Claudius Lysius to his excellency, the governor Felix, greetings. Now, Felix was the governor of this area. He had been a former slave who had risen to the level of governor, and the people who wrote about him at the time said he was extremely intelligent, extremely ruthless. He would put down Jewish rebellions violently, the people of the land didn't like him, but they couldn't do anything about it. So Claudia sends Paul off to this guy. And he says, this man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him. You see what Claudius is doing, right? We call it covering your butt because he was going to beat Paul and now he's saying, hey, they were beating this guy up. I came and saved this Roman citizen. So he's elevating Paul in his letter to the status, having learned that he was a Roman citizen and desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. Now there is a side note that we don't feel today. The gospel was a very live issue in the Roman Empire. And when Luke writes the book of acts in several places, he has Roman authorities, say something to the effect of the Christian message, the Christian movement isn't contrary, shouldn't be persecuted by the Roman government. They should be free to do their thing. The Jewish people were free. and the Jewish people who weren't following Jesus, those who were opposed to the Christians were saying, hey, they're not part of us. They shouldn't have protections that we have. And so Luke's writing to go, look, numerous Roman authorities have said, this guy hasn't done anything. The Christians haven't done anything, and now Claudius writes it in a note to the governor to protect himself. He said, I didn't see him doing anything wrong, and when it was exclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man. I sent him to you at once ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him. So he's going to something big going on. 40 plus men with the highest levels of Jewish power, the Sanhedrin and the high priest, conspiring. And so Claudius writes a letter and he goes, you know what? I think I'm going to put a little bit of my cover-up plot into this so that I'mected. But in doing that, God cooks Claudius's plot into his plan. Look at verses 31 and 35. So the soldiers, according to their instruction, took Paul and brought him by night to and heatris is about 25, 30 miles outside of Jerusalem. So they took off at 9 PM, get him out of the city. And on the next day, they returned to the barracks, so all the soldiers came back, letting the 70 horsemen go on with him. when they had come to Caesare and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. on reading the letter, he asked what his province he was from, and when he learned that he was from Silesia, he said, I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive, and he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's praetorium, so Paul shows up with this massive escort. It wasn't like some rabble criminal this one guy brings in. It's 70 spearmen who had had 400 soldiers just 20 miles away before he got to Caesarea with him. He shows up with a letter from the Tribune Claudius, and now he has arrived. And when Felix says, where are you from origin? He says Cicia, which is where Paul's hometown was, which was in Felix's territory, he says, I'll give you your hearing when your accusers arrive. And then he his guarded in Herodsetorium, which was this massive complex Herod, who was the leader over even Felix, had built on the coast. just stunning. We were there a few years ago and got to see potentially the place where Paul may have been in prison, where he was kept right on the Mediterranean. Beautiful scenery, you know, seaside place, but he's just in a prison cell. He didn't have windows. So he wouldn't have seen any of that. But he's there. Under the protection of Felix, Felix' own plot that elevated Paul's importance in his letter, I saved this Roman citizen, God works to have Paul in the praorium, but that's not the only ingredient. We had a third ingredient that gets added in verses one to nine of chapter 24, and this is a little more material to kill Paul, another plot to kill Paul. Look what happens. And after five days, the high priest Ananiias came down with some elders and a spokesman one Tertullus, a spokesman would be like a lawyer. He was he had this official role of presenting cases before the governor. They laid before the governor their case against Paul, and when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, since you, since through you enjoy much peace and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. Tertullus is what we call blowing smoke. but it's artificial smoke. It's that fake smoke that people use in barbecue that's no good to make it taste better because he doesn't mean it. The Jews don't like Felix, but they're gonna kiss up to Felix and hopefully get the verdict that they want, and they want a guilty verdict for Paul. And so he says all these flattering things which are standard at the time. but he said, but to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly, for we have found this man a plague. Some of your translations may say a pest or a pestilence. He has caused trouble where he is gone one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world, and in fact, riots had happened where Paul went. He didn't cause them, right? Remember, if you've been with us, he would go places, share about Jesus, people would be offended by it. They would then cause a riot in light of that. So Paul wasn't going around causing riots himself. He definitely didn't cause one in Jerusalem. and he is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. This is another name for Christians and Antioch they were first called Christians. That's the name that we've kind of as a movement, as a followers of Jesus, we've just said we're Christians, but they were called Nazarenes because Jesus as hometown was Nazareth, so you're following the Nazarene. It'd be like the Kansasidians if you if Jesus had been from Kansas City, they would be the Kansas Cityians. He says, you're a you're a follower of the sect, the Nazarenes and you're a ringleader. He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him by examining yourself, you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him. The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so. This guy stirs up riots all over the empire. He's a follower of this guy named Jesus, and he profaned the temple. That profaning of the temple is an action that Felix would take very seriously. We don't feel the weight of what like how delicate the balance was in the first century in that part of the world with temples, especially the temple in Jerusalem. Riots could break out very easily in that area if someone profaned the temple. it could be ginned up into this massive problem. in the land today in Israel. It's the exact same way. If you' going into the temple mount where the temple used to be the temple that stood in the time of Jesus, the temple's not there, but you have the dome of the rock and the Alasamas, which are Muslim sites. to go up on that, you have to go through armed security guards, you have to behave exactly like they tell you to behave. In 2000, Ariel Sharon, who was the prime minister of Israel at the time, went on the temple mount with his security detail. It set off the second intada, the Aa intefada, 6,000 people later, and five years later, it kind of quieted down. That piece of the world is still the exact same. It could immediately spark off a fight, a war that would spill well out beyond just the small beginning. So when they said he profaned the temple, Felix would have listened and said, if you're messing at the temple, you could have all this disruption, and I don't want disruption in my kingdom. I'm charged from Rome to keep the peace. And if you're disturbing the peace, there's a problem. So they want to get him killed. Paul cooks their plot in the gods plan. Look what he says. And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied knowing that for many years, you have been a judge over this this nation. I cheerfully make my defense. Paul didn't kiss off at all to Felix. He said, you've been a judge here for a long time. I'm happy to make my defense. You can verify that it is not more than 12 days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city, neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. So he says, according to the first charge, they won the poor an ingredient called get me killed. I'm telling you, I didn't do it. You can ask around, there's no evidence to this charge. I wasn't stirring up a riot at all. He says, I'm not guilty of that charge. But this I confess to you in verse 14, that according to the way, that's another name for the Christian faith, those who follow Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life, the Nazarene, says as according to the way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law and written in the prophets, having a hoping God which these men themselves accept that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust, so I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. So he says, I'm not guilty of causing a riot in Jerusalem. He says, I am guilty, guilty as charged of being part of the group of the Nazarenes, being a follower of the way, committing my life to Jesus, who Paul said, is the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament hopes that his people had. He said, all his accusers, he said, they all believe as I do in the Old Testament, that God had made promises to us that he was going to fulfill, and in that promise is this hope of resurrection. Now, Paul, before he met Jesus, would have believed this, that at the end of the age, when God fixes everything and there's no more sin and no more death, that he would resurrect everyone, those who were righteous to be in God's kingdom, those who are unrighteous to judgment. That would have been Paul's belief. He said, there will be a time when we all come back. And then he meets Jesus and he says, oh, I had it wrong. It's not everybody at one time. It's Jesus first and then everyone else later while we wait to bring more people in. He still believed in the resurrection, but now Paul saying, I'm not just believing it will happen at some point. He's saying it has already happened and he's going around telling all of the Jewish people. It's happened. The thing we're waiting for has happened. says, I've kept a clear conscience. Absolutely. Guilty is charged. And then he says this to the third charge of profaning the temple. Now, after several years, I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings, Paul had bring this gift offering, remember, from the Gentiles to Jerusalem, he says, I came to bring relief and help to those who were suffering. And while I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, Said I followed all the rules, I did everything they told me, I wasn't doing something wrong. He had been charged with being a Gentile into a part of the temple that they couldn't come into. And Paul said, I didn't do it. You can ask around. I said there was no crowd there a tumult, but some Jew Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you in to make an accusation, should they have anything against me, or else let these men themselves say what wrong doing they found when I stood before the council other than this one thing that I cried out while standing standing among them, it is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today. He says, not guilty for causing a riot, guilty of following Jesus, not guilty of profaning the temple and happy to have an investigation, Felix. You ask the guys who are here plotting to have me killed what's happening. And while they're plotting, God's just busy cooking and doing his thing, because he has a plan for Paul to be in Rome and not left in Caesarea. But it's not the last plot that we see in this story. We see one more, and it's from Felix himself, the fourth ingredient in this plot is Felix's plot to get paid. Look what happens here in versus 22 to 27. But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, so he knows about Jesus. He understands what they've been teaching to some level, put them off saying, when Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case, so he's waiting for Claudius to come down from Jerusalem to Caesarea. Then he gave orders to the centurium that he should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs. So in first century Roman prisons, here is how it worked. You got put in prison and everything was on you. So Dalton, if you got thrown in prison in the first century, they weren't providing you three square a day. They just gave you a cell, a small little place, and your people had to come take care of you, had to bring you food, had to bring you blankets, anything like that. So Felix says keep him in prison, Paul's in prison, but let his friends come and tend to his needs. have them come and take care of him. After some days, Felix came down with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus, so Felix's wife shows up. This is this third wife, by the way, we know from Roman history. His third wife, Drusilla, who is Jewish. If you start tracing Drusilla's heritage, she was pretty highplaced as far as like the ruling families at the time. Here's who her father was. If you remember from way back in Acts 12, there was a man named Herod Agrippa the first. He was ruling over the area at the time. That is Drusilla's father. He killed James, the brother of John, the apostle of Jesus. So back in acts 12, when James is killed, Herod Agrippa is the one doing that, that's Drusilla's dad. Her great grandfather is none other than Her Herod the Great who killed all the babies in Bethlehem during the Easter during the Christmas story. So she is connected in the power structures of the Jewish people that were ruling and reigning at the time. And so Felix and Drusilla show up, and it says he would call and he spoke to Paul and Paul would speak about faith in Christ. and as he reasoned about righteousness and self control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, go away for the present. When I get an opportunity, I will summon you. Let me pause here and make a side note. If you're here and you've heard the gospel and you're not a believer in Christ, there is a tendency when we hear the gospel, when we hear about God and righteousness and that he wants us to live a certain way, even if we're a believer, there is this tendency to go, I don't wanna hear that anymore. How about you go away and when I get a chance we'll talk some more. Don't do that.ond and say yes, I'm gonna follow. I'm gonna listen. But Felix will say, I'm hearing what you're saying, Paul. I don't wanna hear anymore, so go away, have an opportunity. I will summon you. At the same time, Felix hoped that money would be given him by Paul, so he sent for him often and conversed with him. Here's what Felix was doing. He says, I don't like what you're saying, Paul. You're convicting me, but I would really like some money, so I'm going to put this plot in here. I'm going to call for you regularly and see if you will just give me some money. If you'll pay me some money, you can get out of prison. He was wanting Paul to bribe him. And because of his desire to bribe him, Paul would show up regularly and talk about Jesus that made Felix uncomfortable. And here Paul is talking to the governor of the land on a regular basis about Felix. In fact, how regular says in verse 27, when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porseus Festus and desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. How long did these times with Felix go on as he plotted for a bribe? Two years? One little sentence in acts that we can read over so quickly, two years. Paul was in prison. It's not luxury prison. It's not a vacation resort on the Mediterranean. He was in a very small cell being tended to by his friends, and that's what he had, and when Felix would call, he would go talk to him about Jesus. We find Paul left here as as God had Felix had worked to get paid. God was cooking Felix's plot into his plan to have Felix here the gospel over and over again. Felix eventually leaves and he leaves Paul in prison as a favor, which sounds like, again, another bad thing for Paul. We're going to see in future sermons that it is part of God's plan. Back to the main idea of this story. God blends people's plots into the ingredients of his plan. How can we go forth from our place today? We're not Paul in a prison cell, in Ceseria 2000 years ago. We're here in Kansas City. The first thing I would say is this, know this that God's plan is guaranteed by his promises. Acts 231. Jesus said to Paul, take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must also in Rome. God knows what he's doing and he's made promises. He knows the meal that he's making in all of our lives. And he puts promises into that meal. Let me just give you a few of the ingredients. First p of five, six and seven says this humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. That's a promise from God. He just puts it right into the meal that he's making. Here's another one. Matthew 6, 31 to 33. Jesus himself, says, therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heaven father knows that you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. He takes that promise and he just puts it right into his meal. Isaiah, the prophet in 4110 said, fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your god. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. He drops it right in and he lets it be a part of his promises to you. He is one more. Isaiah 46, nine, 10, remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purposes. God drops that right into our lives. That's his promise. He begins to stir and said, this is what's this is what I'm doing in your life. God's plan is guaranteed by his promises. Second, though, as we recognize that and absorb that, it's one of the reasons why we tell you to read your Bible and share your faith with others, both believers and non-believers to hear what God has done. The more you know scripture, the more you know the promises that he's given you. The more you can then say, I can trust you in those promises, you've seen him accomplish his plans. in scripture with Joseph from Genesis 50, what you intended for evil, God intended for good. You can see it throughout scripture where God works that we know his promises. God's plan is guaranteed by his promises, second maintain your integrity when you encounter the plots of man. As you go out this week, next week, next month, and just every time you're cooking, every time the pots and the pans are out on your stove think of the plots in God's plan. because you're going to go to work this week and someone, maybe a boss is going to say, I need you to do something that God wouldn't want you to do. You're going to talk to some family members and it's going to sound like, man, everything about them. They just opposed to me following Christ and it's just difficult and everything's hard. and they have these plots to get you. Maybe you have neighbors that you're just not getting along with and they're just plotting and everything's getting added that just seems like bad things. People ought to get you. In fact, if we're honest, we're probably there ourselves going, I just made a horrible decision in life. I got my own plots that I'm doing as a follower of Christ and I just keep adding them to this. Maintain your integrity when you encounter the plots of man. That's what Paul did. He could have bribed Felix and got out. Chances are if he did that, 40 plus men would have killed him. I'm sure they've eaten by that point. There was stipulations in their pledges that we won't eat till he's dead, that they couldn't kill him, they would they could eat, but there had been 40 guys still wanting to kill Paul. We're gonna see that in next week' sermon. If he'd have been set free from the prison, he would have been outside of the protection of the of the pretorium of Herod's castle. And he maintained his integrity. Even in our failings, our own failings, God can use them. Yes, absolutely. He can take mistakes that we make and use them for his plan. That doesn't mean as followers of Christ, we go, you know what, God? I'm gonna do horrible things. I get to do all the bad things I want and you can use it for your glory. You can make it into your plan. Paul counted that in room in six. He said, we can't go on sinning to bring God more glory. How can we who have died to sin still live in it? There's no way we should think that way. maintain your integrity as you encounter the plots of man in this life. And then finally, just know this, God's plan sometimes requires patience. Two years, two years, Paul was in a prison in Cesarea. In the distant past, he remembers Jesus saying, you will testify to me in Rome. You'll testify in Rome. That's the meal that I'm making with you, Paul. and he's two years in Cesarea just sitting there. I'm sure there are moments of doubt and concern and emotional distress during that time. It takes a while for what he's doing to happen. God's plan is like good barbecue. It just takes a while for it to happen. You can go to Arby's. I learned today that Arby's has barbecue. It has to be horrible. It just has to be. There's no way. It's fast food and and barbecue can't be fast food. It takes a long time to to have the burnt ends, and I don't want to advertise certain places, but Q 39 to be that good, to be that amazing. It just takes time and patience for that to happen. Paul was in prison for two years. Don't expect God to give you fast food answers in the meal he's making. It may take years and years for us to see what he's doing. That's why he told Paul, take courage. Take courage. You will testify in Rome. Take courage, church. God is working in your situations, the struggles in your life, the difficulties you're encountering, the grief you're going through, the job frustration, the marital troubles. God can work in all of those. The plots that are coming against you, the plots that you've put on yourself, God can work in all of those as we follow him. and trust the process of what he's cooking, trust what he's doing. Let God cook in your life. Let him cook the meal that he wants to have for you. It's his plan. It's what he's doing. God is going to blend people's plots into the ingredients of his plan. And may we be found faithful as we wait for him to do that, knowing that that's what he's promised. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for today for your grace and mercy that you know the end from the beginning and that your purposes will stand probably we can see that in Paul's life in all the situations he encountered, as he was faithful to you as he was serving you in difficult hard places where people plotted against him, and it seemed like he would never reach the promise you had given him. But father, you are faithful help us to know that in our life to absorb the promises that you have given us, father help us to have integrity in our lives as we serve you as we patiently wait for your son's return for all of your promises to be true and yes in him, since the name