Episode 39 - Paul Gets Arrested And Still Outworks Us

We trace Paul’s move from open-road missionary to “ambassador in chains” and challenge ourselves to serve when plans change. Clarity, contentment, and obedience shape a life that still bears fruit inside setbacks, with honest talk about boundaries, unity, and humility.

• Paul’s arrest in Acts 21–22 reframes mission
• Contentment as strategy under pressure
• Calling versus changing assignments
• God’s timing and unexpected routes to impact
• Boundaries that love without enabling harm
• Church unity through humility and confession
• We are not Paul, and honesty helps growth
• Practical discipleship from constrained places

If you're in Rockdale on Sunday, we are at the American Legion Hall. We have coffee, donuts, and fellowship at 10, followed by service at 11. We have a children's church and we have a nursery, and we look forward to seeing you

Transcript

Hellos, Weather, And Warm-Up

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to Let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters. One that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

All right, welcome into the Let's Connect Podcast, the official podcast of Connect Church right here in Rockdale, Texas. I'm your host, Bill Whitmeyer, and joined here as always by our pastor Ken Ansel. Ken, how are you doing today? Hey, doing great. Doing good. We're in that weird season where it's kind of like my weather in the morning, getting closer to your weather, and I mean it's 81 degrees outside, and you got a you got a down vest on, and I'm in here just a regular shirt. Yeah. It's not unlike at my house where the nurse would be under a blanket wrapped up, running shorts and a t-shirt trying to stay cool. So yards full of leaves. It is. I noticed that when I came in. Man, you got more leaves than you literally shake a stick at out there right now. Yeah, we're gonna be raking and bagging pretty soon. I just get on that mulching mower and just you know. Yeah, my mower didn't do that, I wish. Just blow it, just blow it to the far side. You know, just keep going in a pattern where you're blowing it out around the fence line. We don't have any neighbors next door, maybe. Oh yeah, you do have neighbors. Well, you got an alley, just put them out in the alley, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Kids love it. I love those people behind us. I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

So yeah, that's a that would definitely annoy somebody.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

It's a good thought, though.

Setting The Theme: Acts And Mission

Paul’s Arrest And Purpose In Prison

SPEAKER_01 1:49

You could just put them out there and run your car down the alley as fast as you can and blow them everywhere, you know. No kidding. So uh in uh in our uh Bible study classes, we've been in Acts, and Monday we kind of reread a little bit of the end of Acts 21 and went into Acts 22. And you know, before Acts 22, Paul's a free man. He can he can he he's kind of where we are in our lives or where we should be because we're we're free. We can when we live in a country where unlike where Paul was, we we can preach what we want to. And there may be some people that don't want to hear it, but it's not illegal for us to preach. You know, the the the the leaders of the Baptist church or the leaders of whatever church aren't gonna come tell us, hey, you can't do that. But in Paul's time, that's exactly what was going on. And so when you get into 22, right in the middle of 22, boom, yeah, Paul goes to prison and he's pretty much a prisoner the rest of his life. And a lot of the books that are his epistles were written actually while he while he was in jail, right? You know, very f very little of his writing was done when he was out, and a big part of that was while he was out, he was gonna preach, he was gonna reach out to people, he was gonna go minister to people. But when you're sitting in jail and he had the time on his hands, he could have easily given up. But he didn't. And in today's world, you know, when you think about it, he's in it, and I guarantee you those jails back there weren't like they are now, but he still found a way to do God's work while he was locked up.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Yeah, he's he said, you know, this has done nothing but but given me a new opportunity to share with different people, you know. And uh yeah, Paul's just all gas and no break. I mean, it just it looks like as we read scripture that he transitions really well, regardless of what is I mean, that's Philippians 4 11, you know. Like I've learned the secret of being content. He really shifts gears and we don't do that very well. We we get distracted, uh, we get down. I mean, depending on what those distractions are, they may cause us to go into a little funk, you know, a little depression, experience anxiety, and and Paul seems to really roll, and he's such a great example for that. And and Jesus is is the same, you know, better even. Uh he was perfect. But yeah, to think about here Paul's doing the greatest work, the greatest missionary, right? He's the greatest missionary as far as we're concerned. And and here God allows, right? Everything filters through God's hands. So it makes us think about the things we go through, which are typically pretty minor, right? I'm not discounting anybody going through something right now, but uh as far as God's concerned, here you know, we go through things pretty minor and and here he is doing this great work, spreading the gospel, planting churches, uh making disciples, and uh God allows him to to become an ambassador in chains here in Acts 21, 22.

Contentment, Transitions, And God’s Timing

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah, I mean yeah. Nah, I just what you're saying, you know, no matter your station, no matter where you are, no matter what's going on in your life, there's a way to serve. You know, up until that point when he was in jail, Paul was an active evangelist, out talking to people, preaching the word, making disciples actively physically in the world, and now he's confined. And you know, it it's so so how does he keep getting that word out? And in our own lives, many times it's easy when things are going right and everything's working the way it should to get that word out. But you know, we we get challenged by things in our lives and we have things happen in our lives, and a lot of times it can cause us to shut down. Here's Paul, who's got you know the ability to go around, he's got a pretty good support network because we we we've talked about this before too, that as a world, um I would say that it would that it was a minority, a great minority that was following him and and and listening and and actually becoming Christians because the mass majority, you know, you're talking, you know, this is in the first century. We haven't even been a hundred years from the birth of Christ at this point. And so you know, talk about a new religion, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

And so what what he's doing is it what he's been instructed by God to do, and it's what he's always known, and now all of a sudden, wham, you're in prison.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

How many of us? First of all, we've talked about this too. How many of us would be willing to go to prison? Yeah. But then once we're there, how many of us would be able to keep moving forward and keep putting the word out and keep touching people's lives? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Yeah, he I mean, he probably is the father of prison ministry, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. We think about uh I forget who that tied in for the Oilers was that goes in, I don't know if he does anymore. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah. Kenneth something.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Keep talking, I don't remember what it is.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, and what you just said makes me think about assignments, you know. We tend to get in ruts. Like if you teach four and five-year-old Sunday school class and like that's your jam. If for some reason that that goes away or, you know, whatever, someone wants you to move up or do something different at church, man, we blow a gasket. You know, like we're the four and five-year-old teachers, and yeah, that's what we do. And and yeah, we need to be more fluid than that. Uh, you know, our assignments change, you know. I think a lot about that lately. Like, I want to make good on on my current assignment right now, and uh, and be open to whatever God, you know, calls me to do in the future, but right now I want to be faithful and true to what he's called me to do. And so yeah, his ministry changed, and he was gonna have to be faithful and obedient and creative and and and go where uh you know he was gonna get to Rome, right? Right that was one of his goals, it just wasn't on on a prison boat. That's not how he thought he was gonna get there, and he was gonna get to Jerusalem, and of course, that's where he got arrested finally. And um, you know, he wanted to get there, he had been delayed, but he finally got there, and then through that, you know, uh, and all this timing, you know, we know that there was a uh Shabbat was happening, so that's why some of the Jews that hated Paul were in Jerusalem at the time, and he would have been there earlier, but he didn't make it, and and it just makes you think about a lot of different things, right? God's timing and yada yada yada.

Serving Through Setbacks And Suffering

SPEAKER_01 8:47

It it it does, and and it and then you have to focus. This is like in the in the Bible, there's many times, but to me, this is always one of those glaring things where yeah, you're right. You say you wanted to go to Rome, you wanted to do this, and he was on this path where he was reaching people. Um, you know, and of course there were people that fought against him, tried to kill him, stoned him. Um when he was arrested, we talked about this at Bible study the other night. He was pretty beat up. Yeah, and and really messed up. And so um beat the heaven out of him, should they see. That's right. I mean, we we think about our disciples, we think about our apostles, and that you know, they had these wonderful lives that God planned for them, and they did. But part of their wonderful lives were the things that happened to them in their life, uh, whether they were, you know, most of them were martyred somehow, and then uh even Paul was in the end. But here, his plan is I'm gonna keep doing this, I'm gonna keep following what God he's gonna take me from town to town to town to town, and that's I'm pretty sure that's what he had in his head that was gonna happen. And then all of a sudden, boom. Yeah, before he goes to Jerusalem, people tell him if you go there, you're gonna get locked up.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

But he knew he needed to go there. Yeah. And I don't, I mean, I wonder if when he was going there, if he really thought, okay, God, I'm gonna go here because you want me here, but uh, you know, it'll be all right. Yeah, and then now he's locked up for what essentially is the rest of his life in various different places. But it goes back to that thing that we say so often. It's God's plan, not ours. Yeah. You know, God's plan, I mean, I'm sure Paul's plan was to just keep going from town to town to town. Yeah. But God's plan was like, no, yeah, I'm gonna put you here. Yeah. You're gonna I'm gonna help you author these books, I'm gonna tell you what to say. You're gonna send these letters out, and then two thousand years from now, people like you and I are still here talking about them.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Still talking about them, and yeah, you don't get a sense in in those those other those letters you're talking about that that he's uh just really bummed out. Yeah. I mean, he's he's a time X, right? Just keeps licking and keeps on ticking. You talk about how bad he was beat up that they had to carry him uh you know uh into into the building. And yeah, why don't we, I mean, yeah, I I was just talking to Jennifer about something yesterday. I'm like, I don't, you know, I don't understand why why God, you know, started this, started that, you know, allowed this, blessing it, and and then uh why, you know, something might come to an end or whatever, you know. And and I'm like, you know, that doesn't make sense. Of course, you know, I'm from Rockdale, so I got a Rockdale High School education. Uh, you know, but I'm like, wow, just why, why, right? And that's what we would say if we were reading this, and it was just a fictional book, which it isn't, we'd be like, why did the author do this, right? Like keep blowing this thing out of the water, what Paul's doing for God.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yeah. And I mean and and when you do read those epistles and you read that and you hear that, you know, if you make all of those standalone books without knowing the background, yeah, most of them you have no sense that that's where he is at that time. Yeah. That that's what's going on in his life at that time. Yeah. Um and and that's what we have to consider is what's going on in our lives. We we get challenged by certain things, and many of us get really disappointed to the point where we just don't want to do anything else. Yeah. And that's not that's our plan. That's that's what we want to happen. That's not what God wants to happen. God's gonna tell you, okay, you're you're challenged by this. This is what's going on. You know, this is what you you know what you need to do. Now go do it. Yeah. And it's kind of hard for all of us. I mean, it's hard on me at times, you know, and I and I see it, and and I'm no better than anybody else. And so the the you know, that kind of goes back to what we talk about a lot, is none of us are any better than anyone else. And we all have these struggles, these the the you know, some of them are major struggles, some of them not so much. Some of them aren't very big of a struggle, but we make them out to be a bigger struggle. Um, I've done that, I know for myself. But um it's it's it's a matter of trusting in God and letting God work through us. He's gonna work through us no matter where we are, if we allow him to.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah.

Changing Assignments And Obedience

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Um, you know, a few weeks ago we to we talked about uh a few weeks ago in Bible study, we talked about how God how you have to let God work through you. You know, we often think we do something and we're like, well, I did that for God. But the the right way it should have been was that God did that through me.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Yeah, Galatians 2 20.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah. And so that's the you know, these are some of the things that and and and and I'm bringing this up because everybody, including myself, everyone I know, to some extent or another struggles with this. Because while you're working as hard as you can to praise God, to be a disciple, to make disciples, you're still in a place where bad things are gonna happen. And or maybe inconvenient things or challenging things, however you want to think of it, or whatever it is. And that's when our faith is tested.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

You know.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah, Paul had had clarity. That's something I don't think a lot of people have. And then and then because of that, maybe they're maybe they're not as faithful and as obedient and trusting as they should be. I mean, Paul, you you brought up earlier and earlier in Acts how yeah, they told Paul, don't go. They wept, right? And Paul's like, I'm going, I'm going. And even even the church people are like really going against God. Paul's like, hey, this is my calling, this is my assignment right now. And they're like, Don't go. And he's like, you know, shut up, man. I I want to do what God wants me to do. And yeah, the difference between, you know, major and minor surgery is is major's on me and minors on you. So yeah, sometimes what we think is, you know, uh something, you know, we might be talking to somebody and go, yeah, okay, so that's that's keeping you from fulfilling God's plan for your life, but you know, if it's more serious to those people than it is for us because it's not in our life. And yeah, we need to really really relate to Paul, really understand Paul's a real person, man, that that um that that was willing to die, right? I mean, that's his point. I mean, he was go ahead. No, that yeah, it's he said the spirit said, you know, all I know is everywhere I go. You re you talked about this last week, I think in Acts 20, 23, and 24. He's like, hey, all I know is the Spirit tells me that everywhere I go there's trouble, but but I have to finish the work God has given me or my life isn't worth anything.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Yeah, that's right. And and you know, I think over the years and and but but you know, we talked about this on Monday night too. We we look at the Bible, we read this stuff, and then we think back to the Cecil B. DeMille movies and stuff like that, and about how the whole world was so different, and I mean obviously it was different. They didn't have cars, they didn't have planes, but the thoughts, the dreams, the loves, the passions that people had were still the same.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Yeah, people are people.

Why God Allows Hard Detours

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yeah, and I mean there were people that when when he would go preach, there were people that were in there that were all in, there were people in there that wanted to be all in but couldn't quite get there, and then there were people like man, that guy's nut. I'm not listening to him, you know. It's just it's too much. And and that went on with Paul, and it goes on all the way up to today. And so it can be difficult to talk to people about Christ because more and more over the years we've been faced with kind of that you know, people look down their nose at us if you say something, or you might your your friends might think you're you're you know you're crazy and they don't want to be around you. And you know, Paul just walked off from those folks and and kept doing his thing, kept kept letting God work through him. He had arguments with others uh uh you know, other of the apostles that would and and you know that would cause a brief schism between them, but they would come back in the end. And too many times today we have these brief schisms in our churches or in our congregations, or I mean the churches as a whole, you know, they like the entire Episcopalian church 20 years ago, that was a huge schism. You have one right now in the Methodist church that's fairly predominant, but you have them inside of individual churches too. I've seen that in the past growing up in churches where you have one group of people that think it should be this, and the others thinking it should be that. And and the funny thing is is that there's always a little group in the middle that's thinking, what does God want? Yeah. And that's where Paul was, no matter where he was. What does God want me to do while I'm here? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

We're so selfish, huh?

SPEAKER_01 17:55

We are.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

I mean, it's it's it's the way we're born. The heart wants what the heart wants, yeah. And then you know, you talk about Paul walking away. Jesus was an expert at that, you know, and he told us, you know, that you can shake the dust off your feet. And Paul did that. I mean, I mean, that was a Jewish thing, so he would have he would have known that. He had the tattoo about it. But yeah, we're just unwilling sometimes to to to follow Christ. You know, like Paul, we're gonna have to make hard decisions, and some of those are breaking. I was talking to a guy the other day, he's like, Man, I got some relationships, I got to break off. They are not healthy for me as a Christ follower, and I can't hang with these people because, you know, bad company corrupts good morals. And and well, I don't want to do, you know, I want to be like Jesus. Well, Jesus would have said, Hey, shake the dust off your feet. You know, it doesn't mean we don't love those people, that we don't try to devise a plan. I was talking to Jennifer at lunch today. I said, you know, it's so hard to love our enemies and yet keep them at arm's length so that we can bless them, but not keep them so close that they can hurt us, right? Like we forgive them, but we don't put ourselves back in a position to where we can be hurt again by them. I mean, fences make good neighbors, and so it's a lot to unpack there, and it's complicated and complex, and probably every situation's different, but we've got to be able to make those tough decisions like Paul and then leave the results up to God.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

That's right. And, you know, to go along with that, as we talked about on Monday, we're not Paul. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll hear a lot of churches try to make it out to when they teach like David and Goliath, you know. I know that's a good thing. You can be David too, because you can pick up that rock of faith and kill your or slay your David or your Goliath. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not that guy, we're not them, we're not Paul. We are who we are. We're the guys standing on the side, every one of us watching, wanting to be like that, yeah, but still trying to figure it out. And so, you know, a lot of times in church, a lot of times on podcasts, a lot of times um just in in your Christian life, it's oftentimes, you know, you preachers or people that are d spreading the word, often a lot of people want to put that stigmatism on there of, oh yeah, you think you're perfect. And the fact is none of us are. None of us are, every one of us sin. And none of us are perfect, none of us are, you know, we're far from perfect. Yeah. And but it's gonna be non-perfect people that spread the word. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

You know? Yeah, I and that that's what Christ is that's plan A. Uh Christ is hanging his hat on that, and yeah, I mean, I can't even slay the run of the litter, let alone the giant. That's right. You know, it'd be great Sunday. We're not gonna do this connect church people if you're listening, but I mean we would sit in a circle and just, you know, we'll start with you and and just share one of your sins from this past week, you know, and just go around. Like we'd probably be so close as a church after that, and we'd be like, wow, I mean, when when when we say we struggle, it's real because I just heard you know, Bill Whitmeyer say what he and then you know Melissa and and Lampshade Lucky and you know and and his other you know I'm saying we're not gonna do that, so don't be scared, come to church. But but like there's I mean, we need smaller groups where we confess those things. Well we can do that stuff, yeah.

Real People, Real Resistance, Steady Faith

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, and that's you know what we talk about a lot. You see people in church that are if you want to call them stalwarts of that congregation or whatever. But so many of those folks, I'm not gonna say there's not somebody that thinks they're better than everybody else, because it seems like Yeah. It's gotta be a token. There's somebody out there that's like that. But for most of us, we know, hey, I'm I'm no better than anybody else sitting around me. I have my faults, I have my flaws too. Yeah. And you you have to do a lot of you know self-reflection and and and just look at it and then listen and and realize that when the sermons, when the Bible studies, when when somebody's talking to you about Christ, when they're doing that, if they're doing that with the true faith, they're doing that and God's working through them, not them just telling you this because uh for lack of a better way to put it, they're holier than thou.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I think in some ways, if we did go around the circle like that, you know, and some some some weeks you might go, Well, I'm doing pretty good. And you know, maybe you need some encouragement because you thought you were the the worst Christian in the room, and you found out that you're not as bad as somebody else.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

I agree. I think a lot of people feel like that when they come into church, like, man, I I I don't even know why I'm here. I've been so bad this week or whatever, you know. Wow. And that's why you come, you know, come and spend that time, sharpen yourself, get yourself ready, and then motivate yourself to go out and and be better. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Follow Christ more closely.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

So it's good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

All right, this is episode thirty-nine. Well, so I guess it's my turn to pray this week. All right. Dear Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us, and we love you so much, Father. We thank you for being there and to pick us up, to put us where you need us, and then to use us where you've put us for your glory. And Father, we ask everybody that's listening to this podcast today to get in the get in the Bible and and pray and talk to you and and just come closer to you, Father, and pray that you would help many of us that can to be there for those folks, and that folks are there for us as well, so that we can stay sharp and build our community for you to have a closer and better walk with you in our daily lives. I thank you for all that you do for us, for it's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.

unknown 23:49

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

All right, that is episode 39 of the Let's Connect podcast. I want to thank everybody for listening. Uh, if you're in Rockdale on Sunday, we are at the American Legion Hall. We have coffee, donuts, and fellowship at 10, followed by service at 11. We have a children's church and we have a nursery, and we look forward to seeing you. If you're not around Rockdale, we'll be back every Thursday with another episode of Let's Connect. God bless.