Castaway Series

CONCLUSION

Now I want to concentrate the remainder of my sermon on some observations from Paul’s life. Here was a man who had been through the wringer for the last two years. Well-meaning, Spirit-filled brothers and sisters in Christ warned him not to go to Jerusalem, and yet convinced that this was the plan of God, he went anyway.

Once in Jerusalem, he was misunderstood, misinterpreted and maligned by Christian brethren, nearly killed by a mob, became a victim of a case of mistaken identity with a notorious criminal wanted by Rome, was falsely arrested, was falsely accused by Jewish leaders from Jerusalem, was stalled for two years by Roman leaders hoping to extract a bribe from him and was kept in prison the whole time.

Then, after appealing to Caesar, Paul and other prisoners were put on a ship bound for Rome, and after a considerable journey with some difficulty, they experienced two weeks of unrelenting hurricane weather, followed by shipwreck on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean, and finally, HE BITTEN BY A VENOMOUS SNAKE!

With all that in the back of your mind, notice three big-picture lessons we can see from Paul during this period and some little-picture applications too.

1) First, I want you to see that Paul was never “off-duty.”

In whatever situation Paul found himself, he was doing the work and will of God. There was never a point where Paul said, “I’ve got to take a break from this ‘Christian thing.’” There was never a time when Paul took a vacation from the demands of discipleship. So, here’s the thing I want you to get: We are “on duty” 24/7/365 for life!

With that 24/7/365 perspective, Paul didn’t separate his life into compartments—into the “sacred” and the “secular;” the “holy” and the “profane.” When he was a free man to preach before his prison years, Paul was “on point” and “on mission” in serving God; and then when he was imprisoned and couldn’t preach and had to spend hours a day just sitting around in prison, he was still “on point” and “on mission” with serving God. He didn’t let his situation life interfere with bringing glory to God in his life.

No wonder he says to the Corinthians, “Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Let me hit you with some of the ramifications of Paul’s attitude and that verse:

a) First, everything you do matters to God. – Everything you do, and every place you go, and every word you speak, and every thought you have, and every motive that motivates you, and every attitude you display: EVERYTHING matters to God.

b) Second, you can bring God as much glory by doing your work “as unto the Lord” as you can standing here singing His praises or sitting here hearing God’s Word. – In fact, if you park yourself in these seats, but your mind and heart are 1000 miles away, it brings God less glory than if you perform some mundane task with a heart to serve God and serve others, at work or at home.

c) And third, there is not one standard for the workplace, or the ballfield, or the movie theater, or in front of the TV, or in the neighborhood, or on the internet, and a different standard for the “religious stuff” we do.