The Treasure of God's Goodness

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

good morning i want to welcome you to our prayer and share time uh this morning uh one of the things we do during prayer and share time is we mute the uh audio from our live stream so that those sharing prayer requests uh with us are able to do so without sharing them to the whole internet. So if there's something we could pray for you for, we'd love for you to share that with us. You can send us a message or you can text 888-296-4667 and we will add your prayer request to our prayer list. Just let us know if it's okay to share that with our congregation during our prayer and share time. One of my favorite prayers in Scripture is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 12, Jehoshaphat. Jerusalem, a vast army is coming toward them. And there's a

lot of things that we do when we find ourselves in the midst of crisis. Maybe we try to fix the situation or gather resources or figure out a way out of the situation. But what Jehoshaphat does is he goes to God in prayer. And I want to just read his prayer to you. He'll say this, And I love that picture of dependence upon God, that he sees God's strength in the proper life, that God is the creator, the one who has all the power and love for his people. He sees himself in the proper light, that we are powerless. And then he states his dependence in such a beautiful way. He says, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. So I just want to encourage you this morning to fix your eyes upon the God who created all things,

who cares for you and loves you. One of the ways in which we fix our eyes upon God is through prayer. And so I just want to pray with you this morning. So I'll just go ahead and do that. Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you that you use your strength and your power in the defense and help of your people. So we just ask this morning in a world full of distraction, some of them caused by ourselves, that you would fix our eyes on you, that our hope would be in you. Thank you for those who are watching online, and we just ask that you would watch over them and be with them. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So thank you for joining us. We will be back to our live stream in just a few minutes. Thank you. you

Tearing down the lies that I believed Breaking through the selfish parts of me Truth is calm and set this captive free Your love has opened up my eyes to see We're going to be singing Behold Our God

Who has held the oceans in His hands? Who has numbered every grain of sand? Kings and nations tremble at His voice. All creation rises to rejoice. Behold our God Seated on His throne Come let us adore Him Behold our King Nothing can compare Come let us adore Him God has given counsel to the Lord, who can question any of His words, who can teach the one who knows all things, who can fathom all His wondrous deeds. Behold our God, seated on His throne, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Let's pray. Bearing all the guilt of sinful man God eternal, humble to the grave Jesus, Savior, risen now to reign Behold our God, seated on His throne Come let us adore Him Behold our King Nothing can compare Come let us adore Him

In the 119th psalm, which is a psalm that is an acrostic, meaning each sort of stanza begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. If we were saying this and referring to English, it would be the A to Z of God's Word. And in sort of the middle of this psalm, in the 81st verse, the psalmist says, My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word. And then he will go on to explain all the troubles and all the difficulties that he has been having, the struggles, the hurts, and the fears, and how he finds comfort and hope in the word of God. A commentator from 200 or 300 years ago just simply said that David anchors his life with the anchor of the Word of God. And so as we gather around the table this morning,

what I wanted us to do is just to simply anchor ourselves with some hope that we find in God's Word. In the 107th Psalm, a book, a psalm that is titled Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So, we began our service with it this morning. I want to read to you just three of the stanzas that point to the fact that God redeems and that God rescues. And so I'm just going to go ahead and read some of these stanzas. I'm going to begin in verse 4. Some wandered in the desert wastes, finding no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them in their distress. He led them by a straight way until they reached a city to dwell in.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man, for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with good things some sat in darkness in the shadow of death prisoners in affliction and in irons for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the most high so he bowed their hearts down with hard labor they fell down with none to help and then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress he brought them out of darkness in the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wondrous works to the children of man he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts into the bars of iron

some were fools through their sinful ways and because of their iniquity suffered affliction they loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death and they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress he sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wondrous works to the children of man let them offer sacrifices and thanksgiving and tell of his deeds in songs of joy and so as we gather around this table this morning as we consider the cross and the fact that Jesus redeemed us from our sin by standing in our place let's remember the redemption of God let's remember with joy how he has brought those of us who

had no place to a place those of us who were in darkness into light and those of us who in rebellion were drawing near to death he has saved through his goodness so I'm going to pray and read just a few verses from the Gospel of Matthew and then we'll partake together. Father in heaven, thank you that you've redeemed us. You have brought us back, not with something like silver and gold or riches, but with the blood of your son, like that of a lamb without spot or blemish. And so we thank you this morning for your grace and for your love. Thank you for what you have done for your children. Help us to remember the sacrifice of Jesus being nourished by your grace. It's in your Son's name we pray. Amen. Matthew records it this way.

When they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. Let's partake together. And then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. This morning's reading is from Acts 21.

When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its carbell, and having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days, and through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem. When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home. When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemy's, and we greeted the Lord, or we greeted the brothers, and stayed with them for one day. On the next day, we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house

of Philip, the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. That's really cool. I was thinking about how this passage that Brandon's going to preach on shows the international part of the church, but we read about Philip in the beginning of Acts, and we're kind of coming full circle where the church has exploded, and then Paul's coming back to Jerusalem. that is dumped out on me he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied while we were staying for many days a prophet named agabus came down from Judea and coming to us he told Paul oh he took Paul's belt and bound his feet and his hands and said thus says the Holy Spirit this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of

the Gentiles. When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready, not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, Let the will of the Lord be done. After these days, we got ready and went to Jerusalem. And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of the nation of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we should lodge. This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God.

I told Brent for his 35th birthday, I wanted to have him read 35 verses, I couldn't find anything that was really a 35 verses that fit, so I just added a whole bunch of names and cities that were hard to pronounce. So let's go ahead and have a word of prayer, and we'll dive right into it this morning. Father in heaven, I thank you for your goodness, and as we walk through these verses, help us not to take for granted the pictures of your goodness and your blessing and your love love for the church, warn us, encourage us, help us to see that even in the midst of fearful uncertainty that you are at work and you have a plan for your people. Thank you for Jesus and for grace. Help us this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So when my grandma was alive, some

years she would write a Christmas letter and it would generally when she was doing a lot of traveling for a lot of years. My grandma did a lot of traveling, spent like what two or three winters in Alaska, you know, in her 60s. And so she would write a letter kind of summarizing you know, her year. You know, I went here to Alaska and we saw them and I stayed with these people and driving through I stopped and saw these friends. And she was one of those people who had friends throughout the United States. And so she could go, you know, just about anywhere and not have to find a hotel because she could just stay with friends. And then when she wrote her Christmas letter, oftentimes she'd include a little update about all of them. So if you were a friend or

family, you would get this and you would read and you'd find all these people you knew and get a little update about them. And it was kind of an exciting thing. Probably not so much if you didn't know any of those people, right? You're like, well, that's great that you went there and saw these people, but I don't know who they are or where that is. And so I'm not sure how that applies to me. And when we come to a text like what we have this morning in these 16 verses, it sort of seems like Luke is writing a grandma Christmas letter to the church, right? You know, Paul went here, he got on a ship here, spent some time here, saw this person, that person, this other person that you may know or you may not know.

And it seems on the surface that maybe there's not a lot for us in this text. And so what I want you to see this morning as we walk through these 16 verses is that this isn't just an update letter or a list of Paul's travels or sort of a journal, diary entry of we went here and saw this person and went there, but rather what we find in these verses is this sort of treasure of God's goodness. But additionally, what you see is woven through all of these places and all of these characters and all these people. And Brent caught a little bit of it as he was reading this morning. You see this thread of God's goodness moving through this text sort of weaving it into this wonderful tapestry of grace. So treasure hunting, I think, is something that probably captures a lot of our imaginations,

maybe more so when we're younger, just the idea of solving a mystery. And then as we get older, it's the riches that kind of capture our imagination. And one of the things, if you look at some of these people who have maybe tried to do this full time, it's a difficult thing to be a treasure hunter, right? You've got to dig, you've got to dive, you've got to research, you've got to study, you've got to do it. You don't just sort of generally stumble across treasure. And so this morning, as we sort of unpack the treasures of God's goodness, it's going to take us a little bit of work, but I think it'll be encouraging for us. And in addition, as we mentioned, there's this tapestry of God's grace woven throughout this package. Rachel occasionally will send each other videos back and forth that we find online,

And she sent me one a couple weeks ago, and it's this guy, real thrilling content, who's making a rug. And you don't really, you're sort of watching him, and you're weaving these threads together, and you're like, wow, that looks like nothing, and this is terrible. And then what happens? He flips it around, and you see the intricate design, and you see the picture, and you're just like, that's amazing. Take all these things that from one perspective sort of look unrelated and he turns it into this wonderful work of art. And what God does with this text is all of these places and people, all of these characters, Paul's journey, even the timing of it are threads in the tapestry of his grace. In fact, if you remember Jesus as Peter makes a good confession about who Jesus is.

And Jesus says, you're Peter, and on this rock, the rock being Peter's confession, I will build my church. You're going to get a glimpse of that in these verses. Things that go all the way back, maybe even to the ministry of Jesus, in terms of some of these people, are being woven together in this wonderful picture. So three treasures of God's grace I want to share with you this morning. First of all, you see this sort of treasure of Christian community. So whenever I do a wedding, I always try to, before I encourage the bride and groom, I try to discourage them a little bit. And so generally, most weddings, I'll say something along the lines of, you know, marriage is difficult, right? You've got to balance jobs and, you know, your plans and your hobbies and all these things.

But the most difficult part of marriage is going to be each other, right? Because you're both sinners and you're both going to be in close proximity to each other. and you're going to annoy him and he's going to annoy you. She's going to do stuff you can't possibly understand, right? You're going to have all of these different things. And the biggest problem in a marriage is going to be the people who are in the marriage. In fact, Martin Luther, when he was writing about his marriage, he'll say this, there's a lot to get used to in the first year of marriage. One wakes up in the morning and finds a pair of pigtails on the pillow that were not there before. And then one of his biographers would go on to say, in Martin Luther's case, those pigtails belong to a very stubborn-minded, strong-willed, very smart woman who gave him a run for his money the entire time.

And what we find is when we're in close proximity, whether marriage or working together or even vacation together, eventually, right, we end up in some conflict. And so you come to the church and you have a whole bunch of people and we all have different backgrounds, different experiences, different roles in life at the moment, different places that we've been, different places that we want to go to. And then on top of that, we're all sinful people. You put us together into a room and before too long, right, there's going to be some struggles. And what you find is that church can be difficult. In fact, this is why Paul, when he writes in Colossians 3, he's going to say, bear with one another. And in fact, that word in the Greek means to endure unpleasant difficultness.

And so Paul looks at the church, he goes, some of you are going to be unpleasant, some of you are going to be difficult, and you're still going to have to be together and get along. And one of the ways in which you see the grace of God poured out in this world is that God takes a bunch of different struggling sinners and brings them together in this community that loves, that supports, that forgives, that prays for one another, that helps one another. And God does something that is so remarkable to take all of these different people from different backgrounds with different struggles and he puts them together in a community that ultimately glorifies him. And you see it so clearly in these verses that God has created this gospel community that That reaches outside of its boundaries, across lines of the culture that you should not cross.

So, for example, as Paul travels, one of the things that he is doing is he is bringing an offering from primarily Gentile churches to primarily a Jewish church because they're suffering a famine. Something that outside of the gospel would have been unheard of. And Paul writes letters to these churches, some of whom have barely enough to eat for themselves, and they save up their money, and they give it to Paul, and Paul is going to go give it to the Jewish Christians. And you even get this glimpse in Romans 15 that he's a little worried about how a gift from Gentiles to Jews is going to be received, because in Romans 15, he'll say that I hope that my service in Jerusalem will be acceptable to the saints, right? That the gospel crosses these cultural boundaries.

But you also see the gospel not just in the fact that Paul is carrying an offering to Jerusalem, But you have to remember that Paul, as he travels, hasn't always been Paul the apostle, right? Paul the gospel preacher, Paul the church planter. He has been, the first place we meet him, in fact, is at the execution of Stephen in Acts 7. They cast him out of the city that Stephen stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul, the very next chapter. And Saul approved of his execution, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen, made great lamentation over him,

but Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, and he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now, these verses that we're reading in Acts have been a long time since Paul has done that, but you know it's very easy to see, especially if we've been personally hurt by something, To hold on to those wounds for a long time. The church in Tyre that Paul comes to. When we came to come in sight of Cyprus, leaving on the left, we sailed to Syria, landed at Tyre. Their ship was there to unload cargo. And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit, they were telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem. And when our days were ended, we departed and went on our journey.

And they all, with their wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. Kneeling down on the beach, we prayed and said farewell to one another. Then we went aboard the ship and returned Paul. So Paul, in a hurry to get to Jerusalem, he has some downtime as they unload the ship. Load it up, he goes and finds this group of believers. And you see, this is a church that loves and cares about Paul. As they hear about Paul's suffering, their response isn't go to Jerusalem and suffer for Christ. But their response is, we don't want you to go to Jerusalem. You see it as they're leaving, as the whole church comes out. Men, women, children, and they have this prayer meeting on the beach. And I imagine it's like many of our goodbyes,

especially if we know it's going to be a difficult journey for the one leaving where there's probably not a lot of dry ice. There's probably a lot of sorrow and a lot of struggle. And I want you to think in light of their love for Paul that we sort of glimpse in this text. Do you know how this church begins? This church begins from Acts 11 where it says this, Those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen. Who's the head of that persecution? That's Paul, who's the head, or Saul at the time. They traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch, speaking the word to no one but Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who coming to Antioch spoke to Hellenists also, preaching to the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them.

And a great number believed and turned to the Lord. This church entire, even though it's not explicitly mentioned in Acts 11, This region, where this region hears the gospel is a direct result because Paul was persecuting the church and the Christians were on the run. This church is technically begun by Paul because he chased all the Christians out of Jerusalem and they ended up preaching here. And here, the same guy who displaced these families because of persecution is now being prayed for by the same people on the beach. Isn't that a wonderful picture of the gospel? Going on to Caesarea, We have finished the voyage from Tyre. We arrived at Ptolemy's. We greeted the brothers, stayed with them for a day. The next day we departed and came to Caesarea. We entered the house of Philip the Evangelist,

who was one of the seven, stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. So we have this guy, Philip, who we've met in Acts chapter 8. In Acts chapter, you know, there's a couple places in the early part of Acts. He has a good family. They love Jesus. They're telling people about Jesus. Do you know how Philip gets to Caesarea? in Acts chapter 4 and 5 or Acts chapter 8 verses 4 and 5 he runs when they begin persecuting in Jerusalem and he goes to Samaria and preaches the gospel there he'll go to a desert road and preach to the Ethiopian and after the conversion of the Ethiopian he's going to end up in Caesarea it'll say this in Acts 8.40 Philip found himself at Azotus as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns

until he came to Caesarea the catalyst for his move to Samaria and then to the road and then on preaching the gospel was that Paul has just killed one of his friends. It's no accident that Luke records that he was one of the seven. You know who else was one of the seven? Stephen, whose death Paul had approved of and sat there guarding the clothes of the people who were murdering him. And now this guy, Philip, with his family is going to invite Paul into his house. There's a lot of people I like, but I don't want them living in my house, right? It's like, hey, I like you. It's great. We can sit in the front yard and talk, but you're not staying with me, right? And here is Paul, the reason that Philip has had to leave

Jerusalem, the reason that one of Philip's co-laborers in the gospel has been brutally murdered. And what happens? He's now inviting Paul into his house, letting him stay there in their ministry. You see how the gospel changes things? How the gospel transforms our history, how it allows us to forgive and to love even the most horrible things. The gospel changes where we are. And then we find in verse 15 and 16, after these days we were ready and went to Jerusalem. And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of nation of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we should lodge. A couple things. First of all, these people from Caesarea know what awaits Paul, right? They've had this picture from Agabus where he takes off Paul's belt, binds his hand, say, if you go to Jerusalem, this is what's going to happen to you.

And they go with Paul anyway. And they get to the house of this guy, Nation. We don't know a lot about him, although the church in the past, like the 13th, 14th, 15th centuries, really liked this guy because he's a picture of hospitality. Some will identify him with those 72 that Jesus sends out. Some will say he's converted on the day of Pentecost, likely this guy, because he's an early believer. He's been around the church a long time. He's also experienced the persecution or seen the persecution of Saul who has become Paul. And now Paul gets to Jerusalem and he stays in his house. These people are glad to see Paul. And I don't think it's one of those things where they're just glad that he's there. Or they pretend he's glad that he's there.

And then as soon as he leaves, they're like, man, I'm glad that guy is gone. You find this picture of true emotion, true love, and true care by the church. You see, the gospel brings people together, and they help us, they comfort us, they walk with us together, even when we have this kind of broken history. And I want you to see that God can use you, that God can heal some of these broken wounds, that God can change what has happened in the past, and he can bring you into the church. And so we see the first treasure in this text are these gospel-transformed relationships. Secondly, we kind of get this glimpse of a warning and correction in the text. Now, in general, most of us don't like to be corrected. Most of us don't like to be told that we're doing wrong.

In fact, our instinct, when somebody tells us we're doing something wrong, we like to justify or try to explain why we're doing the thing that we're doing. And so we struggle a little bit with that. And so you might say, how is being corrected something that we should treasure? And what we find is when we are corrected by God, it is a picture of His love toward us. In Hebrews, the 12th chapter, it talks about how God corrects us in His sons. And it says this, For at the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The correction for us reminds us of God's love. It reminds us that He seeks our good. And so what we find here in Acts chapter 21,

in verse 4 and around verse 12, is there's a place that has been a disagreement in the church. And if you remember, as Brent was reading in verse 4, it talks about how they prophesied about the Holy Spirit, and they tried to keep Paul from going to Jerusalem. It says this, verse 4, Having sought out the disciples, we stayed for seven days. Through the Spirit, they were telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem. And then in verses 10 through 14, when we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea, coming to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own feet and hands, and said, thus says the Holy Spirit, this is how the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the man who owns the belt, deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles.

When we heard this, the people urged him not to go to Jerusalem. So the question is, is Paul here ignoring what God is trying to tell him, right? The church is saying, don't go to Jerusalem, don't go to Jerusalem. And Paul says, guess what? I'm going to Jerusalem. Now, I would say this. Paul has had some experience in his life listening to the Holy Spirit. Especially when the Holy Spirit says no. For example, in Acts chapter 16, you remember when they're going through Perga and Galatia, they're forbidden to speak by the Holy Spirit, speak the word in ages. They don't. They came to Mycenae. They attempted to go into Bithynia. The Spirit says, no, don't do that. And so they listen. So Paul has obeyed the Spirit before. Paul also knows that this suffering is in his future.

In fact, Ananias, in Acts 9, God will say to him this, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. Paul knows what's ahead of him. Additionally, in Acts 20, Behold, I go to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there. Paul says, the Spirit is sending me to Jerusalem. And in chapter 19, Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem saying after I've been there I must see Rome. So Paul I don't think is ignoring what the Holy Spirit is telling him and I also don't think that the Spirit is telling Paul one thing and the church the other thing. I think the problem is that we struggle to differentiate between what God says and what we want. We struggle with our desires coming into

alignment with the Word of God. And what you find, especially in the second section, where Luke sort of fleshes out what happens. The prophet Agabus comes and says, this is what they're going to do to you in Jerusalem. Takes off Paul's belt, binds his own hands, his feet, says this is what they're going to do to you. He doesn't make any judgment about whether Paul should go or not. But look at what the church says. The church hears what's going to happen, and they say, we don't want you to go. You see, the issue here is not, is Paul listening to the Holy Spirit? Is Paul not listening to the Holy Spirit? Is Paul being contradicting, you know, this Holy Spirit contradicting himself? The issue here is that we as Christians struggle when it comes to following our desires and

following what God has said. And the church here, and it's an understandable reaction. And Paul understands this reaction because when he's going through and he's going by Ephesus, he won't go to the city of Ephesus because he knows it's going to be too hard for him to leave. So he calls the church to come to him because he knows if he goes there, he's going to be overwhelmed with emotion and not be able to leave. And in fact, in our text this morning, it says, verse 13, what are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I'm ready not only to be in prison, but even to die in Jerusalem. Paul is not angry when he says those things. He's overwhelmed by the love of the church, but he's standing firm in the truth. Because all of us have this desire to choose what we want.

And the church doesn't want Paul to suffer. They don't want him to be arrested. They don't want him to face those trials. And God says that's what's in store for him. John Stott says this. Luke's statement is a condensed way of saying that the warning is divine, but the urging was human. You say, well, how does this whole thing with Paul and the Holy Spirit apply to me? We have the same tendency that these Christians in these two towns have. Where we, so many times, rather than hearing and submitting to the Word of God, we seek. And they're doing it out of good motives, right? They don't want Paul to suffer. But we would seek our own desires, maybe our own comfort over following the Word of God. And this example, I think, stands as a warning to us, or in some cases even stronger, as a correction.

to evaluate where it is we are following ourselves and our desires rather than listening and being anchored by the Word of God. It's not an easy treasure, but it's an important one to differentiate between what God has said and what we desire. Nobody wants what is about to happen to Paul. In verse 13, Paul says, Guys, you've got to stop crying and weeping because I can't handle dealing with that. The third treasure we find is that God uses all things for good. There's emotion and sadness in this text. Paul knows what's in front of him. He's been told about it. You might say, well, how does God use the suffering and imprisonment of Paul? Let me just give you a couple examples. Paul is going to be given the opportunity to preach Jesus from Jerusalem

all the way to Rome. Frequently before powerful political leaders and their advisors and their courts. And Paul will stand up to give a defense and he's going to preach a sermon about Jesus all the way to Rome. And his protection is going to be cared for by the Roman government. During his imprisonment in Rome, Paul will write Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. These letters that have encouraged and strengthened the church in so many ways throughout the centuries of Christianity are written while Paul is imprisoned in Rome. And then in Philippians 1, you find this. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has served to advance the gospel. So it has become known throughout the whole imperial or praetorian guard. And to the rest, am I imprisoned? And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment,

are much more bold to speak the word without fear. And Paul says, even in prison, God is using this. He's chained to a Roman soldier from the praetorian guard. And as he writes, as he teaches, as he preaches, he literally has a captive audience. Which is kind of a funny turn of events that God does. They think Paul is the captive, but Paul is preaching the gospel. And the Roman soldiers who are guarding him are truly the captive. And they begin to know and hear Jesus. And Paul will say that some even become Christians, right? They've heard about this. At the end of the letter, he's going to say, some in Caesar's household greet you. That literally, members of Caesar's household, because of Paul's imprisonment, have become Christians. And additionally, other people seeing the example of Paul and his trust in God have begun to preach even more

that God uses the imprisonment of one man, where it looks like this powerful preacher and church planter has been taken off the board, but God expands it, not just in Paul's influence, but in the fact that people in the church go out and preach even more. That God uses this imprisonment and this suffering of Paul for the good of the church and the furthering of the gospel. And I think the treasure we see here as Paul gets ready to go to Jerusalem is found in what follows next in the book of Acts. The fact that God works all of these things together for good. You see, God creates a new community among believers who love each other, help each other, forgive one another. He calls us through his word to change how we're living, right?

No longer following my desires, but seeking his. And a struggle that will be ongoing until the day that we see him. We must constantly, as Paul, as this picture sort of warns us, not to mix the two up. But we also see that as we face the darkness and struggles of life, that God can use those in a powerful way for our good, for the good of the church, and for the good of the kingdom. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for grace. I thank you for the hope that you give us through him. So help us this morning as we consider Paul's journey, and we consider this wonderful picture of Christian community, as we are warned by the example to not put our desires ahead of what you have said.

Help us as we look to the future not to be discouraged, but to know that you are at work. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to go ahead and stand and sing How Great is Our God.

Oh, the majesty, that all the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice. He wraps himself in light, and darkness tries to hide, and trembles at his voice, and trembles at his voice. How great is our God Sing with me How great is our God Oh, see how great How great is our God And page to page he stands And time is in His hands Beginning and the end Beginning and the end The Godhead dream and one Father, Spirit, Son The Lion and the Lamb The Lion and the Lamb How great is our God Sing to me How great is our God Oh, see how great How great is our God How great is our God Sing with me how great is our God Oh, see how great, how great is our God Name above all names

Worthy of all praise My heart will sing How great is our God Name above all names Worthy of all praise My heart will sing How great is our God How great is our God Sing with me How great is our God Oh, we'll see how great How great is our God

A couple of announcements as we get ready to close. We'll be here Wednesday night. We are in 2 Thessalonians. We were going to start this last week, but with sickness and everything, we pushed it back to this week. We're going to talk about Paul as he began sort of his Thanksgiving section of the letter where he talks about things that he is thankful for. But in doing that, he also encourages a struggling church. And so it's an encouraging section of the book of 2 Thessalonians, and we are here 7 p.m. Also, this Thursday at 1 p.m., this is the Ladies' Bible Study. They meet the first and third Thursday of the month, and it's already May. We're coming up on the first Thursday this week. That's here at the church at 1 p.m. So I'm going to go ahead and pray, read a section of Scripture,

and then we will sing the doxology and be dismissed. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your church. I thank you for how you take our brokenness and turn it into something that is good. So help us to fix our eyes on you and to put our hope in you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I'm just going to read a verse we read earlier from the 70th Psalm, verse 8 and 9. And then I want to read the very last verse of the chapter. let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wonderful works to the children of man for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with good things and the psalmist ends this way whoever is wise let him attend to these things

Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.