Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message, all right, look at this from Acts
Speaker 2: chapter twenty seven. I pretyius message back in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: And this is the sequel. Back then, I did a message.
Speaker 2: Called it will happen. Touch somebody say it happens. However
Speaker 2: you want to take that. It's a message about faith
Speaker 2: and fear, and I want to get back into it
Speaker 2: today and share with you another level of it. And
Speaker 2: let me read Acts chapter twenty seven to twenty. Paul
Speaker 2: is in the middle of a miracle, but he's also
Speaker 2: in the middle of a mistake. And sometimes the two
Speaker 2: are the same thing.
Speaker 1: That's about perspective. Sometimes the two are the same thing.
Speaker 2: Well, the Bible says in verse twenty Acts chapter twenty seven,
Speaker 2: when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and
Speaker 2: the storm continued raging because it was one of those
Speaker 2: things that wouldn't let up. It was not the kind
Speaker 2: of trial that you go through and just.
Speaker 1: Get through it.
Speaker 2: It's like when you don't see any end in sight.
Speaker 1: It was that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: So what happened was they lost all their hope and
Speaker 2: they quit believing that they could be saved, that it
Speaker 2: could be different, that they could be delivered. And right
Speaker 2: at the time that they started to let go of
Speaker 2: their hope, God spoke to Paul in a powerful way.
Speaker 2: And of course Paul was that great missionary who took
Speaker 2: the Gospel to the Gentiles, and so it was a
Speaker 2: good thing for them that he was on board. Touch
Speaker 2: somebody said, you gotta be glad you're sitting next to me,
Speaker 2: because any boat that I'm on is better because I'm
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: Come on, Come on.
Speaker 2: So the Bible says, after they had gone a long
Speaker 2: time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, men,
Speaker 2: you should have taken my advice not to sail from crete,
Speaker 2: and then you would have spared yourselves this damage and lost.
Speaker 2: But now I urge you to keep up your courage,
Speaker 2: because not one of you will be lost, only the
Speaker 2: ship will be destroyed.
Speaker 1: Here's how I know.
Speaker 2: Last night an angel of the God to whom I
Speaker 2: belong and whom I serf, stood beside me and said,
Speaker 2: do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar.
Speaker 1: In other words, you can't.
Speaker 2: Go down in this battle because I got a bigger
Speaker 2: one ahead of you. And God has graciously given you
Speaker 2: the lives of all who sail with you. So keep
Speaker 2: up your courage, men, for I have faith that it
Speaker 2: will happen, just as He told me.
Speaker 1: Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.
Speaker 2: So three and a half years ago I preached a
Speaker 2: message called it will happen, And today I want you
Speaker 2: to announce my sermon title. Look at your neighbor and
Speaker 2: tell him, neighbor, tell him, neighbor, it had to happen.
Speaker 1: Father, I thank you for your word.
Speaker 2: I pray that it would go forth in clarity now
Speaker 2: to bless the people that you've brought here to hear it.
Speaker 2: Not only would they hear it God, but I prayed
Speaker 2: that they might apply it so that it can strengthen
Speaker 2: their lives.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name.
Speaker 2: Amen, on your way to your seat, touch your other
Speaker 2: neighbor that you hadn't talked to yet, and tell him
Speaker 2: it had to happen. Because Paul as spiritual as he
Speaker 2: is is apparently not above telling someone I told you so,
Speaker 2: because he had warned the sailors who were on this
Speaker 2: ship that was headed to Rome. They were trying to
Speaker 2: get to Italy, and Paul was on there for preaching
Speaker 2: the gospel.
Speaker 1: He didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2: But sometimes the reason that you go through things isn't
Speaker 2: because of something wrong that you did. You know that right,
Speaker 2: even as a Christian, and sometimes the things you go
Speaker 2: through are directly connected to something you did right, and
Speaker 2: you can't always know the reason, and that's difficult for me.
Speaker 1: I always want to know.
Speaker 2: The reason, and I feel like I'm really good at
Speaker 2: dealing with resistance if I know the reason for it.
Speaker 2: And even with people, I'm kind of skeptical. I don't
Speaker 2: always take people at face value for what they say
Speaker 2: they want in a relationship, and I probably shouldn't be
Speaker 2: so paranoid. Holly tells me I should trust people more,
Speaker 2: but I think she should trust people less, so we
Speaker 2: just balance each other out.
Speaker 1: I really do.
Speaker 2: I think you should trust people less because people will
Speaker 2: say that they want to be your friend for this reason,
Speaker 2: and sometimes there's.
Speaker 1: A deeper reason.
Speaker 2: I know he can't go through life living like that
Speaker 2: you should assume the best about people and all.
Speaker 1: But I know sometimes sometimes I.
Speaker 2: Get in situations where I'm like, hmm, I wonder what
Speaker 2: the real reason. Even with my kids, you know, if
Speaker 2: they're too nice to me, you know, if they hugged
Speaker 2: me a little too tight and they come running a
Speaker 2: little too fast, Hey, daddy, I know that behind the
Speaker 2: affection is an ask.
Speaker 1: It happened today. I was coming out to preach.
Speaker 2: I heard a noise in the bathroom back in my
Speaker 2: green room, and I was in another room, and I
Speaker 2: knew it was Elijah, and because I heard the pop
Speaker 2: of the the product, my hair product, And I said,
Speaker 2: who's in here? And I knew it was him. I
Speaker 2: was messing with him, and he said, uh, is me, Daddy.
Speaker 1: I just came to say I love.
Speaker 2: You, and I said, and to use my hair product.
Speaker 2: I know why you're really in here. You want my product?
Speaker 2: And he said and because I love you? And I said, well,
Speaker 2: mostly because you want my product. And he said, why
Speaker 2: can't it be both?
Speaker 1: Pretty good? Why can't it be both? And for me?
Speaker 2: I hear, Paul, Okay, he's on a ship that he
Speaker 2: doesn't believe he rightfully belongs on, taking this prisoner for
Speaker 2: a crime that he didn't commit, being accused of things
Speaker 2: that he didn't do. And I hear when he's talking,
Speaker 2: I kind of hear two things. I hear faith it
Speaker 2: will happen, and I hear frustration this didn't have to happen.
Speaker 2: And I hear both because watch she says, if you
Speaker 2: would have taken my advice, you would have spared yourself
Speaker 2: this damage and loss. In other words, the reason we're
Speaker 2: about to wreck is because of a decision that you made.
Speaker 2: But if we stay too long in the reason, we're
Speaker 2: gonna drown. Because what matters at some point you have
Speaker 2: to get past at some point trying to figure out
Speaker 2: why it happened. And this is difficult. This is difficult
Speaker 2: for those of us who want to know a reason.
Speaker 2: Even storly, when I call someone and and maybe they've
Speaker 2: gone through a loss of tragedy, and I say, I'm
Speaker 2: just calling to pray with you, there's a temptation for
Speaker 2: me to try to give them a reason for why
Speaker 2: it happened. And when I was, when I was a
Speaker 2: rookie pastor before I became the sage of wisdom that
Speaker 2: I am before you today, can you feel me rolling
Speaker 2: my eyes and myself in sarcassm I would always feel
Speaker 2: compelled to give them a reason. You know, but God
Speaker 2: is going to use this for good, you know. Romans
Speaker 2: eight twenty eight, eight twenty eight, Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,
Speaker 2: every little coffee cup verse. I could spit out at
Speaker 2: them just as fast as I could.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a reason from that.
Speaker 2: And I realized at some point during giving people reasons,
Speaker 2: sometimes people don't need a reason when they're in the
Speaker 2: middle of a storm. They just need to reassure it, say,
Speaker 2: God will not leave you alone in it. So please,
Speaker 2: when someone that you love is suffering, don't be so
Speaker 2: quick to give them a reason. Don't be so quick
Speaker 2: to point your finger. Well, the reason your kids are
Speaker 2: rebelling is because no, no.
Speaker 1: Now's not the time for that.
Speaker 2: People don't need a reason, And when they're going through
Speaker 2: a great time, great trial, what they need is someone
Speaker 2: to reassure them that God is with you, and so
Speaker 2: am I. And here's Paul standing in the middle of
Speaker 2: a storm, and the reason it's happening is because of
Speaker 2: their dumb decision. Have you ever had to go through
Speaker 2: a storm because of somebody else's.
Speaker 1: Dumb decision. This is an.
Speaker 2: Awkward moment in my sermon because if you agree too much,
Speaker 2: the person.
Speaker 1: Next to you is going to know.
Speaker 2: Paul says, if we would have done it this way,
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, because not everything that happens to you happened
Speaker 2: because God wanted it to happen to you, And certainly
Speaker 2: not everything that happens to you happens because the devil
Speaker 2: did it. Because if the devil did it, then God
Speaker 2: had to allow it. Sometimes I think we got the
Speaker 2: wrong words sometimes because I think they both start with
Speaker 2: the letter D and we get confused. Sometimes it's not
Speaker 2: the devil, it's a decision. It's just too crowded in
Speaker 2: church today. I need to free up some seats for
Speaker 2: the next week, so I don't want you to have
Speaker 2: to sit in parking or anything like that. It is
Speaker 2: sometimes it's and so pol says, this didn't have to
Speaker 2: happen like this, And those are the hardest for me, really, really,
Speaker 2: the hardest for me is when I feel like this
Speaker 2: was avoidable, you know, and when I feel like I
Speaker 2: could have avoided it, but yet it's inevitable.
Speaker 1: And that's attention, isn't it.
Speaker 2: I was talking to one of my best friends the
Speaker 2: other day and I said, a year from now, we
Speaker 2: were going through something and we were talking through it
Speaker 2: and something that we couldn't understand, and I said, a
Speaker 2: year from now, we will understand why this had to happen.
Speaker 2: And he said, do you really believe that? I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: I believe that in time God will show us. He said, no, no,
Speaker 2: not that part. Do you really believe it had to happen?
Speaker 2: Because what he was doing, he was reverse engineering all
Speaker 2: the decisions that led to it.
Speaker 3: And what I kind of wanted to say to him
Speaker 3: that I wasn't smart enough to.
Speaker 1: Say in the moment.
Speaker 2: But I've thought about it for a few weeks now,
Speaker 2: and I want to tell you is that I've come
Speaker 2: to the place in my belief system where I no
Speaker 2: longer try to figure out whether God did it or
Speaker 2: the devil did it, because it has to.
Speaker 1: Pass through the same hands before it gets to me.
Speaker 2: And I've read enough of the Bible to know that
Speaker 2: God will use other people's bad decisions to get me
Speaker 2: to my destiny. And I've seen enough play out to
Speaker 2: know that Joseph, at the end of his life was
Speaker 2: only able to look at his brothers and say don't
Speaker 2: even worry about it because you meant it for eve,
Speaker 2: but God meant it for good. Which one was it
Speaker 2: evil or good? It was both? Why can't it be both?
Speaker 2: Why can't it be an attack from the devil that
Speaker 2: God used and put to good usage and repurpose in
Speaker 2: order to accomplish That's what Paul is saying.
Speaker 1: He's saying it.
Speaker 2: Didn't have to happen. I don't want you to blame
Speaker 2: this on God. We could have avoided this. You didn't
Speaker 2: have to date him.
Speaker 1: Your mom told you he was.
Speaker 2: Crazy, and you wouldn't listen to anybody. But if we
Speaker 2: stay stuck in the reason, we'll miss the revelation. Because
Speaker 2: Paul says, you know, there's a reason this happened, and
Speaker 2: it could have been avoided. But last night, while the
Speaker 2: storm was raging, last night, I was all alone, and
Speaker 2: God showed up and reminded me that his purpose is
Speaker 2: still intact even.
Speaker 1: If the ship goes down. It had to happen. It
Speaker 1: had to happen.
Speaker 2: Then God doesn't tell Paul a whole series of explanations.
Speaker 2: He doesn't give him a reason. He gives him a revelation.
Speaker 2: Revelation is more powerful than reason. So you can't fight
Speaker 2: the devil with the reason because sometimes you don't know
Speaker 2: the reason. Sometimes you have.
Speaker 1: To go back to who God showed you that he was.
Speaker 1: And God is very tactical in this. So he will
Speaker 1: create a situation for revelation.
Speaker 2: Can I preach about this for a minute. So he
Speaker 2: will let Lazarus die, and he loves Lazarus, and when
Speaker 2: they tell him that Lazarus died, he'll say, I'm glad
Speaker 2: it happened. Jesus actually said I'm glad he died. Why
Speaker 2: because now we've got a situation. And the situation is
Speaker 2: what enables the revelation. It's not just true because it rhymes.
Speaker 2: It's true because it's true. Up until this point, they
Speaker 2: knew him as healer. Now they needed to know him
Speaker 2: as resurrection. And so he said, I'm glad it went wrong.
Speaker 2: I'm glad it. When poorly Paul said we must run
Speaker 2: aground on some island, somebody say.
Speaker 1: It had to happen. It had to happen.
Speaker 2: And sometimes when you ask God for a reason, he
Speaker 2: will bypass the reason and give you a revelation. You
Speaker 2: still belong to me, You're still my child. See, I
Speaker 2: don't operate by reason. If I operate by reason, sometimes
Speaker 2: I'll be up, sometimes i'll be down. I operate by revelation.
Speaker 2: I know he is good and he does good. I
Speaker 2: know he's with me. I know he's for me. I
Speaker 2: know he'll never leave me nor forsake me. That's my
Speaker 2: revelation to somebody say I got a revelation. And so
Speaker 2: when you get in trouble, you don't need a reason,
Speaker 2: you need a revelation. Elijah looked at me the other
Speaker 2: day and I was telling him to do something. And
Speaker 2: he's eleven years old, and so he is being visited
Speaker 2: by demons of eleven year oldness and he's coming up
Speaker 2: to me talking about Dad. I'll do it if you
Speaker 2: tell me the reason, he said. I'm not the kind
Speaker 2: of person who can just do something without knowing the reason.
Speaker 2: Did you ever see The Simpsons? I know you don't
Speaker 2: watch TV. You read the Bible all the time. When
Speaker 2: Homer grabs Bart around the neck, and I know I
Speaker 2: probably couldn't do that. When he said, he said, I
Speaker 2: need a reason, and I look back at him.
Speaker 1: And the only thing that came to me was I
Speaker 1: looked at him. The spirit of Star Wars came on me,
Speaker 1: and I said, I got to be your father.
Speaker 2: You don't need a reason to do it, boy, you
Speaker 2: need a revelation of who I am.
Speaker 1: How big say say.
Speaker 2: Sometimes sometimes in your life you won't know why.
Speaker 1: But I know who. Paul said last night an angel?
Speaker 1: What the god who's eying on who I said?
Speaker 2: So look high five, somebody say, I got a revelation.
Speaker 1: Work.
Speaker 2: And Paul says, we're gonna make it. But the boat isn't.
Speaker 2: The boat has to break, but we're gonna make it.
Speaker 2: We will suffer loss, but we will not lose what's
Speaker 2: most important. That's the promise, all right. So you know
Speaker 2: what's amazing about this story. It happened just like Paul
Speaker 2: said it would. And they all got to the shore,
Speaker 2: and they got to that island, that island. Look at
Speaker 2: this in X twenty eight verse one. Somebody say it
Speaker 2: had to happen. That's the word for you today. It
Speaker 2: had to happen. And when they got there, the Bible
Speaker 2: says X twenty eight, verse one. Once safely on shore,
Speaker 2: we found out that the island was called Malta. Malta
Speaker 2: means refuge. So the grace of God does not always
Speaker 2: prevent the consequence, but it gives you a place to land.
Speaker 2: And so we must run aground on some island. And
Speaker 2: when we got there, we found out the island was
Speaker 2: called Malta. And it must be a relief now that
Speaker 2: we're no longer on these open seas, because they spent
Speaker 2: weeks thrashing around, wondering if they'd ever see dry land again.
Speaker 2: And then they get to the place, and the Bible
Speaker 2: says in verse two that the islanders showed us unusual kindness.
Speaker 1: Now islanders is a kind term.
Speaker 2: The actual word that is used here from Luke who
Speaker 2: wrote the Book of Acts, is barbarians, and he called
Speaker 2: them that because they didn't speak his language. Malta is
Speaker 2: an unfamiliar place, and it's an unfamiliar place. Not only that,
Speaker 2: but they built a fire and welcomed.
Speaker 1: Us all because it was raining and cold. Now imagine this.
Speaker 1: Can we empathize with Paul.
Speaker 3: For a minute, because he survived a.
Speaker 2: Shipwreck only to shiver in the cold of an unfamiliar
Speaker 2: island and an unfamiliar language. And he survived, but now
Speaker 2: the place where he is is unfamiliar to him. I
Speaker 2: mentioned that because many times in my life I have
Speaker 2: found myself on Malta. Have you ever been to Malta?
Speaker 2: Oh sure you have, Sure you have? Is that place
Speaker 2: I'm gonna show it to you.
Speaker 1: Let me show you in the map here in my Bible. Look,
Speaker 1: that's where Paul started.
Speaker 2: That's where the wind blew him around for like several weeks.
Speaker 4: And that's Malta where they landed. Look usual that a
Speaker 4: tiny island called Malta.
Speaker 1: A little.
Speaker 2: See how small Malta is. See how tiny it is,
Speaker 2: how small it is, how strength. That's where Paul was going,
Speaker 2: and that's where the wind blew it. That's where Paul
Speaker 2: had always wanted to visit Rome, where he would stand
Speaker 2: in tribal for Caesar and be used as God's great spokesman,
Speaker 2: the most powerful place in the world in his day.
Speaker 1: And that's Have you ever ended up somewhere you never
Speaker 1: planned on being? That's what I'm trying to say. Have
Speaker 1: you ever been to Malta?
Speaker 2: I need somebody over here in this section has been
Speaker 2: to Malta. Now, Malta is the place you didn't plan
Speaker 2: on staying. Malta is the season you didn't plan on experiencing.
Speaker 2: Malta is the layoff you didn't see coming. Malta is
Speaker 2: the relationship you didn't see ending. Malta is the emotional
Speaker 2: place you never thought you'd experience. You saw other people depressed,
Speaker 2: you never thought you'd be depressed.
Speaker 1: You saw other people's.
Speaker 2: Kids act crazy, you thought yours would act right. Malta
Speaker 2: is that place where you're twenty eight in single. Malta
Speaker 2: is that place where someone who was there for you
Speaker 2: is no longer there for you.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been to Malta?
Speaker 2: Okay, what is somebody as important as Paul doing somewhere
Speaker 2: as small as Malta.
Speaker 1: Let's find out. Let's find out. I love the Bible. Man.
Speaker 2: Bible says that Paul got to Malta, survived the shipwreck.
Speaker 1: Have you ever survived anything? Have you ever survived anything?
Speaker 1: Have you ever gave up hope?
Speaker 2: And just when you gave up hope, hope didn't give
Speaker 2: up on you and grabbed hold.
Speaker 1: Of you in the depths.
Speaker 2: I've been preaching this all weekend, but I feel something
Speaker 2: special happening right now.
Speaker 1: For somebody who is in it.
Speaker 2: Unexpected place, a strange place, a small place, a stock place.
Speaker 2: And the Bible says that those islanders were so kind
Speaker 2: to the prisoners two hundred and seventy six of them
Speaker 2: in all that they built them fire, and Paul was
Speaker 2: such a good dude that he decided to help.
Speaker 1: So they're building a fire, and Paul didn't want to stand.
Speaker 2: Over there like me at a love Week event, looking
Speaker 2: like some lazy preacher who doesn't know how to do anything.
Speaker 1: Paul grabs a pie said wood, look, it's right there.
Speaker 2: In verse three, he gathered a pile of brushwood, and
Speaker 2: as he put it on the fire trying to help,
Speaker 2: a snake came out. So let's let's go back to
Speaker 2: everything that's happened to Paul. He's imprisoned for preaching the gospel.
Speaker 2: He's shipwrecked because the sailors are too stupid to follow
Speaker 2: his advice. Now he's cold on Malta, you're talking about Malta.
Speaker 1: Stuck in strander, shivering and cold, uncertain.
Speaker 2: In an unfamiliar place, and just as he thinks he's
Speaker 2: made it to safety, he gets struck by a snake.
Speaker 1: This is almost comical unless you've been there, when just
Speaker 1: when you thought the fight was.
Speaker 2: Going to be over, here comes something else.
Speaker 1: Have you ever.
Speaker 5: And this snake pops up out of the fire that
Speaker 5: Paul was simply trying to help them build on an
Speaker 5: island called Malta, where he never even planned to go.
Speaker 5: And the Bible says it fastened itself to his hand.
Speaker 5: So this is not some quick little this is snake
Speaker 5: bit down on Paul. And what's what the people did?
Speaker 1: Because you gotta be careful about people.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you got to be careful about people,
Speaker 2: because when that happened, people will always assign a reason
Speaker 2: to why you're going through what you're going through. Well,
Speaker 2: if I were her husband, I would have left to
Speaker 2: People will say stuff like that not to you. They
Speaker 2: never say it to you. They just think it about you.
Speaker 2: They think that the reason bad things happened to you
Speaker 2: is because of something that you did. Well, the islanders
Speaker 2: are watching this guy who's got a snake on his hand,
Speaker 2: who just came crawling out of the sea with some
Speaker 2: seaweed around his ears, and he claims to be a preacher,
Speaker 2: and he claims to.
Speaker 1: Be a servant of God.
Speaker 2: And so if you're a servant of God, why isn't
Speaker 2: God protecting you? Has the devil tried to convince you
Speaker 2: lately that if you really had a God, you wouldn't
Speaker 2: be going through what you're going through. And so they
Speaker 2: stood back. They stood back and said this, dude. When
Speaker 2: they say, well, the snake hanging from his hand, which
Speaker 2: means it was there for a minute. When they saw
Speaker 2: the snake hanging from his hand, they drew their own conclusions.
Speaker 2: He must have done something wrong. He must be a murderer.
Speaker 2: He must be out of the will of God. For
Speaker 2: though he escaped the sea, the goddess Justice.
Speaker 1: Has not allowed him to live.
Speaker 2: I love the next verse because Paul preaches one of
Speaker 2: the most powerful sermons in the New Testament.
Speaker 1: Watch this. When Paul saw them all looking, he knew
Speaker 1: he had a captive audience.
Speaker 2: And verse five says that when Paul saw him looking,
Speaker 2: he said, and this may not be in your Bible,
Speaker 2: I'm reading from the TSV, the Taylor Swift version.
Speaker 1: He said, he said, players.
Speaker 2: Gonna play, play, play, play play.
Speaker 1: Come on, y'all, go back to twenty fourteen with me
Speaker 1: for a minute. And haters.
Speaker 2: Gonna hate hate, hey, hey, hey five times. That's a
Speaker 2: quintuplet in the New Testament Heartbreaker's Gonna break break. We
Speaker 2: get the point, pastor you don't have to quote the
Speaker 2: whole chorus and the verse Paul's response, that's the word response.
Speaker 1: Watch this. He didn't say a word.
Speaker 2: He didn't try to convince them that God was with him.
Speaker 2: He didn't feel sorry for himself. He didn't go on
Speaker 2: Facebook and write a response post. What's what he did.
Speaker 2: He did what you've got to learn how to do
Speaker 2: when you make it through the storm and all hell
Speaker 2: breaks loose on the shore. Come on when they talk about.
Speaker 1: You, when it looks like this is the end, when
Speaker 1: you've been through it and it keeps coming.
Speaker 2: The Bible said Paul, took it off to what'severn People say,
Speaker 2: shake it off, Shake it off, Shake it off right
Speaker 2: now before it gets in your system. Shake it off
Speaker 2: right now before it kills you. Shake it off right
Speaker 2: now while they're standing around watching you.
Speaker 1: You gotta do it right now, right now. You gotta
Speaker 1: shake it off.
Speaker 2: You don't take a vote from the Island committee to
Speaker 2: see whether or not they think.
Speaker 1: God is with you. No, Paul said, I got a revelation.
Speaker 1: God already told me I'm going to Rome, so I
Speaker 1: can't die on de sign.
Speaker 2: I already know he'll never leave me or forsake me.
Speaker 2: I already know I'm more than a conqueror. I already know,
Speaker 2: so if I'm going to Rome, I can't die on Malta.
Speaker 2: And when the shap fell off of Paul's hand and
Speaker 2: died in the fire, it wasn't a surprise to him.
Speaker 2: He knew it had to happen. It had to happen.
Speaker 2: Somebody said it had to happen. I had to survive.
Speaker 2: I had to make it. I had to get through it.
Speaker 2: God had to prove his power. I'll fill your presence, Lord,
Speaker 2: for everybody who's been wondering why you've been stuck on
Speaker 2: the why land.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: You've been so busy trying to figure out a reason,
Speaker 2: and God is trying to give you a revelation, not
Speaker 2: just you, but everybody watching you. God wants everybody to
Speaker 2: see you shake it off. God wants everybody around you
Speaker 2: to see you trust him though he slay you. And
Speaker 2: that's why the snake had to bite him. Because faith
Speaker 2: doesn't prevent me from getting bid. Faith doesn't prevent me
Speaker 2: from washing.
Speaker 1: Up on the shore.
Speaker 2: What I love about it is that after Paul shook
Speaker 2: the snake off, the people stood back and watched to
Speaker 2: see what was gonna happen next, because that's what they do.
Speaker 2: They don't bring you an ice pack or an ass
Speaker 2: for him talk to me. They will stand there and
Speaker 2: watch you. And the Bible says that they were shocked
Speaker 2: because they expected him to swell up. You know, you
Speaker 2: got some people that are surprised that you made it
Speaker 2: and surprised you're still happy. You know, they thought when
Speaker 2: they broke your heart, you were gonna quit. But look
Speaker 2: at you in church, worshiping God, serving God, believing God.
Speaker 2: Look at you, look at you. So they're like, they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: let's see what happens next. That's somebody said, let's see
Speaker 2: what happens next. So they waited a long time, and
Speaker 2: then when they saw that he didn't swell up or
Speaker 2: turn into a walker, they changed their minds. This is
Speaker 2: why you cannot put your confidence in people. They changed
Speaker 2: their minds and said, he's a god. One minute, he's
Speaker 2: a murderer. Now he's a god one minute, Hosanna. The
Speaker 2: next minute, crucify him. That's why your response cannot be
Speaker 2: to people.
Speaker 1: Even when I preach, I love you, but I can't
Speaker 1: preach for you.
Speaker 2: I can preach to you, but I can't preach for you,
Speaker 2: because the thing that I say that you need to
Speaker 2: hear might make you cry us their arms and get
Speaker 2: an attitude. Well, sit back and take it, honey, because
Speaker 2: if God sent it, I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: It all right. Now watch this.
Speaker 2: Let's show one more thing so he shakes up the
Speaker 2: snake they think he's gonna die, doesn't die. And cool
Speaker 2: place to end dis sermon, I think, but I want
Speaker 2: to give you something that will maybe help you. Let
Speaker 2: me just see from a show of hands, is there
Speaker 2: anybody in here who has found yourself in Malta recently?
Speaker 2: It could be a season, it could be Malta represents, yeah,
Speaker 2: that stuck place. I think these are the kinds of questions,
Speaker 2: generic questions that people ask because we know that it's
Speaker 2: guaranteed to get one hundred percent participation. I mean, who
Speaker 2: doesn't feel stuck from time to time? And that's kind
Speaker 2: of the point, isn't it is that we all must
Speaker 2: go through Malta. Wow and Paul at this point, and
Speaker 2: the story has a decision to make misery or mission.
Speaker 2: Misery or mission because we already read that it was
Speaker 2: rainy and cold, we already read that it was unfamiliar.
Speaker 2: We already read that the man almost died, and now
Speaker 2: he has a decision to make, and so do you
Speaker 2: about this season of your life. Paul didn't decide to
Speaker 2: go to Malta. Now he has to decide what to
Speaker 2: do while he's there. And he can sit and wait
Speaker 2: to get off this stupid island, or he can.
Speaker 1: He can do on Malta what he did in Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: all right, So so Paul, they think he's a god.
Speaker 2: Now, right, So they're like, they're like, hey, this guy's important,
Speaker 2: and apparently the chief of the island hears about.
Speaker 1: It, and he wants to have dinner with this guy
Speaker 1: who can survive a snake bite.
Speaker 2: So your opportunities in life will be the byproduct of adversity.
Speaker 1: That you go through. And he gets invited to the
Speaker 1: home of.
Speaker 2: The official on the island because he was able to
Speaker 2: stand up under the trial. You keep praying for the opportunity,
Speaker 2: but you don't want to stand up under the adversity.
Speaker 2: So somebody say it had to happen. I had to
Speaker 2: go through something. I had to prove perseverance. That's the
Speaker 2: only way my faith could grow to enable the opportunity.
Speaker 2: So there was an estate nearby look at this. In
Speaker 2: verse seven, there was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius,
Speaker 2: which is incidentally a baby name that is available to
Speaker 2: any of you who are looking for something to name
Speaker 2: your child that will get them beat up. And this
Speaker 2: guy's important, and he wants to see the guy who
Speaker 2: was able to stand up after the snake and survived
Speaker 2: the shipwreck, and he welcomed all of them into the
Speaker 2: home and showed generous hospitality for three days. And I'm
Speaker 2: imagining Paul's thinking this is nice. But at some point
Speaker 2: during Paul's stay he learns that Publius.
Speaker 1: Has a problem.
Speaker 2: Touch somebody say, Publius has a problem, And Publius's problem
Speaker 2: is about to become Paul's opportunity because Publius's father was
Speaker 2: sick in bed with the Malta fever.
Speaker 1: And it's bad.
Speaker 2: He's got temperatures in dysentery, and Paul, when he heard
Speaker 2: about it, went in to see him. Now the way
Speaker 2: I picture it, and maybe I'm using too much imagination,
Speaker 2: but I imagine that they're sitting down to a meal
Speaker 2: and Paul sees somebody wheeled into the room and says,
Speaker 2: who's that, and Publius says, it's my dad, and Paul says,
Speaker 2: what's wrong with him?
Speaker 1: And Publicia says he's sick and there's nothing we can
Speaker 1: do about it.
Speaker 2: Imagine about right here is where Paul started smiling, which
Speaker 2: seems kind of weird, but maybe this is the moment
Speaker 2: that Paul realizes there was a reason I went through
Speaker 2: the storm. There was a reason the hurricane hit. There
Speaker 2: was a reason the ship had to break apart. There's
Speaker 2: a reason we had to run aground on Malta.
Speaker 1: Paul said, can I see you? Can we have a moment?
Speaker 1: And the Bible says that when Paul went in to
Speaker 1: see him, he prayed for him. Wow, and watched the
Speaker 1: next part. You can love this. You look kind of military.
Speaker 1: Can I use you for an example? Sit down, everybody,
Speaker 1: sit down. Paul went in.
Speaker 2: And prayed for him, and after prayer, somebody say, it
Speaker 2: had to happen. Come on, Missouri, it had to happen.
Speaker 2: You had to be here at this sermon today. There's
Speaker 2: something God wanted.
Speaker 1: To speak to you.
Speaker 2: You had to be here with the zz top beard
Speaker 2: go to You had to be right.
Speaker 1: There in that section. And Paul put his hand on Publius'.
Speaker 2: Dad's head, and when he put his hand on his head,
Speaker 2: the Bible says he was healed, which is a miracle
Speaker 2: all in its own. But what made it even more
Speaker 2: amazing to me was to realize that the same hand
Speaker 2: that the healing came through was the same hand that
Speaker 2: had a snake hanging from it just three days ago.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, you all start praising God right now.
Speaker 2: What you went through? That didn't tell you that? So
Speaker 2: let me have your check station. Paul says, I can't
Speaker 2: keep the snake from biting me. Touch somebody say it
Speaker 2: had to happen. The other day, Abby came up to
Speaker 2: me and she said, Elijah.
Speaker 1: Just bit me. I said, did you bite him back?
Speaker 1: She said no, sir.
Speaker 2: I said, go upstairs and tell your brother. You can
Speaker 2: bite me again if you want to. But Daddy said
Speaker 2: to tell you, if you bite me, I bite back.
Speaker 1: Now that might not be good parenting, but this is
Speaker 1: good preaching. Somebody tell the devil I'm bite that, I'm
Speaker 1: bite back. Same hand that the snake bit became the
Speaker 1: hand that the healing came from.
Speaker 2: What did you go through that you wish you wouldn't
Speaker 2: have gone through? That you never should have gone through
Speaker 2: I came to declare over your life. It does not
Speaker 2: matter the reason. What matters is your response. You're on Malta. Now,
Speaker 2: Malta is what you make of it. The Bible says,
Speaker 2: after he laid his hands on that man's head, word
Speaker 2: got around.
Speaker 1: The whole island.
Speaker 2: This guy's got something, This guy's got something.
Speaker 1: This guy knows somebody.
Speaker 2: When he put his hand on the father's head, the
Speaker 2: Bible said, the whole island came and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: now Publius had to turn his house into a certain building, and.
Speaker 1: The whole island got healed. It had to happen. It
Speaker 1: had to happen. It had to happen. Island got you.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I messed up your hair, but it had
Speaker 1: to happen.
Speaker 3: I feel like I got something on me right now
Speaker 3: to tell somebody the release. It's about the release.
Speaker 2: When Paul was going through the storm, he said, we
Speaker 2: must run aground on some island. Somebody say it had
Speaker 2: to happen, and Paul thought he needed Malta. But it
Speaker 2: turns out Malta needed Paul.
Speaker 1: There's a purpose for it. I don't need a reason.
Speaker 1: I got a revelation. God is with me. He is good,
Speaker 1: he does good. It had to happen. It had to happen.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying God did it. I'm saying he'll use it. Now.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do on Malta? That small place.
Speaker 2: You've been changing diaper still and like nobody appreciates you.
Speaker 1: That's your Malta. You've been praying for a ring and
Speaker 1: you can't even get a text back. That's your Malta.
Speaker 1: I never wanted to be on Malta, but Paul said,
Speaker 1: now that I'm here, who can I heal?
Speaker 2: A matter of fact, y'all got any more snakes? I
Speaker 2: wish another snake would bite me because if that much
Speaker 2: power could come from the pain, who.
Speaker 1: Else can I heal? Who else can I heal? God? Won?
Speaker 1: Did you bring me desmoss me Malta?
Speaker 2: And while they were getting ready for a wreck, God
Speaker 2: was positioning them for a revival.
Speaker 1: This is the mistake that turned into a miracle, that
Speaker 1: turned into a mission.
Speaker 6: And I want you to know today, whoever is for
Speaker 6: the forty eight percent of you that God sent me
Speaker 6: to preach to, who are spending three months on Malta
Speaker 6: right now?
Speaker 2: I want you to know that your supply is in
Speaker 2: your assignment. Did you get it over here? Your supply
Speaker 2: is in your assignment. He could have sat there on
Speaker 2: Malta moping about what he went through on the age
Speaker 2: at sea, but he turned it into a mission and
Speaker 2: the whole island got healed. Maybe what you went through
Speaker 2: wasn't even about you. Maybe it's generational. And that's what
Speaker 2: I told my dad before he died. I said, I
Speaker 2: know your life was hard. I know it was a
Speaker 2: living hell. I know your father abused you.
Speaker 1: I know you had to suffer through many things, but
Speaker 1: you broke it. You broke it.
Speaker 2: It had to You had to go through it so
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have to, so I could preach, so I
Speaker 2: could stand Sometimes it's not about us. And Bull decided
Speaker 2: to bite back, with his hand still swollen from the
Speaker 2: snake bite, sucked that.
Speaker 1: Poison out and turn it into power.
Speaker 7: I thought, am I calling the sermon? I'm bitter, but
Speaker 7: I'm not bitter. I'm a pretreci that in three years.
Speaker 7: I'm appreciate that in bars, in battles in two weeks.
Speaker 7: But for now, God wanted you to know that it
Speaker 7: had to happen.
Speaker 2: It had to happen, even the rejection. My friend said,
Speaker 2: do you really believe that it had to happen?
Speaker 1: And I said, well, I don't know, but you know
Speaker 1: what I choose to It made me who I am.
Speaker 1: What I went through, it made me who I am.
Speaker 1: I want to look in the.
Speaker 2: Camera because we have fourteen locations right now, and I
Speaker 2: want you to stand on your feet at every location
Speaker 2: and realize that healing is in your hands. That God
Speaker 2: brought you to Malta, and when you're in the middle
Speaker 2: of a storm, it seems like there's often no sense
Speaker 2: of guidance, and when your boat is being blown around
Speaker 2: and you have no control over it, it's a scary
Speaker 2: thing to be out on the Mediterranean Sea with nothing
Speaker 2: to look at for light, and to arrive at a
Speaker 2: cold place only to be met by the sting of
Speaker 2: a viper.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I've been there before in my own life, but God
Speaker 2: sent me with a message for you today. It had
Speaker 2: to happen because while the wind was controlling the boat,
Speaker 2: God was controlling the wind. I'm not saying he did it,
Speaker 2: but if God allowed.
Speaker 1: It, you can accept it. And if you can accept it,
Speaker 1: the very place where you were injured will be the
Speaker 1: very place that your purpose comes forth.
Speaker 8: From It had to happen. It had to happen, even
Speaker 8: the mistakes. It had to happen because God needed me
Speaker 8: here in Malta.
Speaker 2: Right now, Father, I have declared your word to your people,
Speaker 2: and you have promised your blessing upon it. Father, I
Speaker 2: pray that today would represent a shift in the perspective
Speaker 2: of everyone who has seen themselves as stuck on Malta. Church,
Speaker 2: I want you to repeat this out loud after me.
Speaker 2: It's a paradigm. Chief say, I'm not stuck. I'm stationed. Now,
Speaker 2: clap your hands and give God praise that He's got
Speaker 2: you right where. Come on, He's got you right where
Speaker 2: he wants you. There is an assignment on Malta with
Speaker 2: your name on it. Even if they did it, God's
Speaker 2: gonna use.
Speaker 1: This is my Malta.
Speaker 2: And the Bible says in verse ten that when they
Speaker 2: were ready, when the assignment was completed, they honored us
Speaker 2: in many.
Speaker 1: Ways, and when we were ready to sail, they furnished
Speaker 1: us with the supplies we needed. God said, if.
Speaker 2: You'll do what I put you there to do, I
Speaker 2: will give you what you need for where I'm taking you.
Speaker 1: Who is this message for this is my mam, This
Speaker 1: is my mall.
Speaker 8: Tom.
Speaker 2: I'm done crying, I'm done regretting, I'm done wishing.
Speaker 1: God here, I am lit your asks. God, you brought me.
Speaker 5: Here to this season, to this comment dot doll therecle,
Speaker 5: this is me.
Speaker 1: This is my thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.