This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to week six of our look together through the book of Acts,
day one. And this week six, as we look through Acts chapter by chapter, this is
our last week of looking through the book of Acts. So you are going to finish
the study as we walk with Paul together this week, as he gets closer and closer
to the center of government power in that day, to Rome, to preaching the gospel
in Rome.

But he's not there yet. We're still in Acts chapter 24. And in Acts chapter 24,
Paul, you might remember from last week, has been arrested.

He's been taken from Jerusalem to Caesarea, from the Jewish capital to the
center of Roman power in Israel. In many ways, it's like going from a local
court to now he's gone to the federal district court to hear the trial of what's
going to happen to the apostle Paul. And you have all the characters in this
trial, in this moment of drama in Paul's life in Acts chapter 24.

You have Felix, the governor, who is the judge in this trial. You have Ananias,
the high priest, and Tertullius, his lawyer. And then with all these powerful
people, you have Paul, who ends up, you're going to see, defending himself, as
people often did in that day.

Listen to what happens. In Acts chapter 24, verse 1, "Five days later, the high
priest Ananias went down from Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer
named Tertullius, and they brought their charges against Paul before the
governor. " And what do they charge him with?

They charge him with inciting riots. They charge him with just being, in
general, a troublemaker. And after they make their charges, Paul has an
opportunity to speak.

And so down in verse 10, "When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul
replied, 'I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this
nation, and so I gladly make my defense. You can easily verify that no more than
12 days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. My accusers did not find me
arguing with anyone in the temple or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or
anywhere else in the city, and they cannot prove to you the charges that they
are now making against me.

However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the way,
which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the law and that
is written in the prophets. And I have the same hope in God as these men, that
there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

And so I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man. " So here
you have Paul giving his defense before Felix. Now what's Felix going to do?

What's the judge going to decide? Paul says, "They have no evidence. I'm just
being charged with being a follower of the way.

" You remember from last week the "way" means a believer, a follower in Jesus.
That's how they were referred to in this day. What's Felix going to do?

In verse 22, here's his decision. "Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the
way, adjourned the proceedings. When Lysias the commander comes, he said, 'I
will decide your case.

' And he ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard, but to give him some
freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs. Several days later,
Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul, and he
listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus.

As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come,
Felix was afraid and said, 'That's enough for now. You may leave. When I find it
convenient, I will send for you.

' At the same time, he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe. And so he
sent for him frequently and talked with him. When two years had passed, Felix
was succeeded by Perseus Festus, and because Felix wanted to grant a favor to
the Jews, he left Paul in prison.

" Now to me, in Acts chapter 24, the two words that are the most striking are
those words, "two years. " Here's Paul in prison for two years. When life gets
stuck, what do you do?

Paul's example here shows us exactly what to do. When life gets stuck, and by
the way, there's all kinds of stuck. Life gets stuck in routine ways, in
temporary ways, sometimes in permanent ways.

Sometimes you get in the routine stuck. That's in the doctor's office or a line
in a store or a traffic jam, and you're stuck and you're frustrated. Sometimes
you're in the temporary stuck place.

It could be weeks or months, and you're stuck in prison for two years. It could
be months, and you just can't seem to get moving. Trying to get a business deal
going or trying to get a job or trying to make a relationship work or a dream
come about or a plan come into being, and you're just stuck.

Nothing is going anywhere. Some of you, you live in the place of you're
permanently stuck with something. For the rest of your life, you're going to
live with that health problem.

For the rest of your life, you're going to live with that grief. For the rest of
your life, you're going to live with that loss. For the rest of your life,
you're going to live with something that limits you in some way, and you're, in
one sense, feeling stuck by that.

What do you do when life gets stuck? Paul here is stuck in prison for two years
for none other than just political reasons. Felix wanted to please the Jews
because Rome, in that day, they kept peace by political power first and only
used military might as a last resort.

And so Felix wanted by political power to get some favors from the Jews. And so
he's going to use Paul as a political pawn to do that. That's what he thinks he
is.

And Paul could easily have thought himself just a victim of politics. Imagine a
guy like the apostle Paul who wanted to go places and do things and preach the
good news and be traveling. Imagine what this did to him.

What do you do when life gets stuck? When you feel for whatever reason you can't
move forward, you can't move backward, you're just stuck where you are. What do
you do?

These next couple of days, we're going to look at some things that Paul did that
helped me that help you to know what to do when you're feeling like you're on
the shelf, like life is stuck, because the truth is it isn't. God can work even
when we feel stuck. God can be using us even when we feel like we're on the
shelf.

So what do you do when you feel that way? Number one, the first example Paul
gives us is you put your confidence in God. You just keep putting your
confidence in God because you realize that God is greater than anything that has
you stuck.

All throughout this experience that we're going to read with Paul, he continues
to talk about his confidence in God, to trust in him, to trust in his promises.
He never goes away from that confidence because he's somewhere he does not want
to be. God's plans, listen, God's plans are not being held hostage by your
circumstances.

How do I know that God has a plan for you? Because he has a plan for every one
of us. God has a plan for your life and for my life and those plans are not
being held hostage by your circumstances.

How do you know, how can you hold on to that fact that God has a plan for you?
You look behind you and you look in front of you. You look behind you and you
realize that all of God's servants have become stuck at one time or another.

Moses was stuck out in the desert for 40 years, Israel was stuck in Egypt in
slavery for over 400 years, David was stuck in exile, Daniel was stuck in
Babylon his entire life, Paul is here stuck in prison for two years, Joseph is
stuck as a slave for 13 years, Hannah waited for a child stuck year after year.
Every one of God's servants at some point felt stuck. So you look behind you and
you realize feeling stuck does not mean God has stopped using you and that his
plan for your life has stopped.

You never think that God's delays are God's denials. You look behind you. Then
you also look in front of you.

Jeremiah tells us that God has plans to give you a future and a hope in Jeremiah
29, 11. You look in front of you and the plans that God has for you in this
world and into all eternity and because of that the first thing you do when
you're stuck is you put your confidence in God. The second thing you do when
you're feeling stuck is you don't try to manipulate your way out.

Now I don't know about you but when I get stuck the first place that I look to
get me unstuck is my own energy, my own plan. I try to figure out a solution and
then that doesn't work and then I get more frustrated so I try harder to figure
out a solution and then that doesn't work and pretty soon I get stuck on being
stuck. I'm not thinking about anything else but the fact that I'm stuck.

That's what happens when you're trying to manipulate your own way out and the
problem is of course we're starting in the wrong place. You don't start with
you, you start with him. Paul instead of trying to manipulate his way out of
this he could have given a bribe, he could have tried to get a bribe.

Instead he just keeps speaking the truth even though he might have tried to
bribe or lie his way out. The problem is this, when we manipulate ourselves out
of a situation we're doomed to repeat the same situation, the same process over
and over and over again. I'm not saying you shouldn't try in some physical way
to get out of a traffic jam or try in some physical way to solve a problem at
work.

You know the difference between a problem that can be solved and something
you're stuck with that you just can't solve on your own and when you're facing
one of those situations you go to God and say God I'm not going to lie to get
out of this. God I'm not going to let go of my character to get out of this
because if you do that you're going to go through the same process again and
again and again. You don't use manipulation to get out of it.

Paul refused to do that. First of all you put your confidence in God, secondly
you don't manipulate and the third thing you can do, I can do when I'm feeling
stuck, is you choose to serve others. When you get stuck, when you feel stuck
it's easy to have a pity party, to change the focus and put it all on you.

To get unstuck from that feeling you turn the focus back on others. You do what
God's called you to do. Even if you have to do it in a different way you serve
while you're feeling stuck.

You don't wait to serve while you're feeling stuck, some day I'll do something
good again. No you serve even when you're feeling stuck. Paul continued to serve
even when he was in prison.

He continued to meet with his friends, we just read, even while he was in
prison. In fact in one prison he was even chained to the guards later in his
life. And even being chained to the guards he kept telling them about the good
news of Christ and one of those guards that he was chained to, to faith in
Christ.

He served even his captors. You continue to serve others even when you're
feeling stuck. Now tomorrow we're going to take a look at some more lessons from
Paul on what to do when we're feeling this way in life.

But as we close today I want to just take a few minutes to pray for you in where
you are, the circumstance you're facing right now today. Let's pray together.
Jesus, when we feel stuck you know we just want to get out.

That's what we focus on. Lord I pray you'd help us today to put a focus on you
so that we can put our confidence in you. So that we can look to you for
strength instead of using some manipulation to try to get out of it.

It's just going to get us more stuck in the end. So that we can Lord think about
others and not just ourselves. Lord I pray that instead of focusing so much on
the circumstance that it seems to be the only thing in our lives, help us today
to focus on you.

To realize who you are, that you're there no matter what. In Jesus name we pray
for this, amen.