Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message now,
Speaker 1: in all seriousness, welcome, We're glad you're here. What a
Speaker 1: privilege it is to gather together and praise God. I
Speaker 1: am going to I'm going to drive some of you crazy,
Speaker 1: and I'm not giving you my sermon title until the
Speaker 1: end of the sermon today. So if you have some
Speaker 1: anxiety medication in your purse for your disorder that you
Speaker 1: need to access at this point, that's just fine. But
Speaker 1: go ahead and be seated. Thank you, team. I love
Speaker 1: worshiping God with you. I love being the pastor of
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Is that bad? I wouldn't pastor another church
Speaker 1: if I was going to say, if God told me to,
Speaker 1: But I guess I would if he told me to,
Speaker 1: but I'd argue with him. I would argue a lot.
Speaker 1: Such a great joy to be with you. You You know
Speaker 1: the world needs these messages right now. We see mass
Speaker 1: shootings and terror on every side that we turn, and
Speaker 1: the world needs Jesus. As simple as that sounds, I
Speaker 1: just want to remind you that everything we're doing here
Speaker 1: as a church matters. People tell me about things that
Speaker 1: were averted in their life because of this church and
Speaker 1: this ministry, And to be honest with you, that's what
Speaker 1: keeps me going, pushing through all the self doubt that
Speaker 1: I experience, or even just the grind of like it's
Speaker 1: my sixteenth year being a pastor, But as long as
Speaker 1: God is changing lives, I think it's worth it. I
Speaker 1: think it's worth it. Today I'd like to give you
Speaker 1: something from the scriptures that I think could come as
Speaker 1: a real preventive measure for somebody. Go to Acts chapter
Speaker 1: twenty eight right now. No time to waste Acts chapter
Speaker 1: twenty eight. For the sake of context. Let me actually
Speaker 1: get verse forty two through forty four in X twenty seven.
Speaker 1: And the reason I wanted to have you be seated
Speaker 1: is because this is a little lengthier scripture. But I
Speaker 1: want to share everything that God gave me with you.
Speaker 1: We have so much to talk about. The soldiers plan
Speaker 1: to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from
Speaker 1: swimming away. And escaping, but the centurion wanted to spare
Speaker 1: Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan.
Speaker 1: That's really cool because they say that it's like cancel
Speaker 1: culture these days, and you hear a lot about canceling,
Speaker 1: But the only one who can really cancel something when
Speaker 1: you want to get down to it, is the one
Speaker 1: who created it. Therefore, Paul got to live, no matter
Speaker 1: what the captain of the ship did, or no matter
Speaker 1: what the prison guards decided. And it says in verse
Speaker 1: forty four the rest of the prisoners were to get
Speaker 1: there on planks or other pieces of the ship. In
Speaker 1: this way, everyone reached land safely. Now let's go verse
Speaker 1: one twenty eight. Once safely on shore, we found out
Speaker 1: that the island was called Malta, which means honey. Putting
Speaker 1: that in there, that's what it means literally or refuge,
Speaker 1: but literal meaning is honey. Cool. The islanders showed us
Speaker 1: unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all
Speaker 1: because it was raining and cold, And Paul gathered a
Speaker 1: pile of brushwood, and as he put it on the fire,
Speaker 1: a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on
Speaker 1: his hand. And when the islanders saw the snake hanging
Speaker 1: from his hand. They said to each other, this man
Speaker 1: must be a murderer, for though he escaped from the sea,
Speaker 1: the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live. But
Speaker 1: Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered
Speaker 1: no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up
Speaker 1: or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time
Speaker 1: and seeing nothing unusual happened to him, they changed their
Speaker 1: mind and said he was a god. That's how quick
Speaker 1: people can flip. By the way, there's no better time
Speaker 1: for me to say this than Palm Sunday. Remember what
Speaker 1: they were saying on Palm Sunday, Hoseena hosein. But they
Speaker 1: put the palm branches down Friday, didn't they? When he
Speaker 1: went to the cross crucified. That's how quick people can change.
Speaker 1: The people on Malta did what people do. They changed
Speaker 1: their mind because they're fickle, because they're finite. Didn't really
Speaker 1: matter what they thought of Paul, though, because what's what
Speaker 1: happens next in the story. There was an estate nearby
Speaker 1: that belonged to Publius almost named you that Elijah, the
Speaker 1: chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his
Speaker 1: home and showed us generous hospitality for three days in
Speaker 1: this cool How God is taking care of Paul through strangers. Amazing.
Speaker 1: How God has favor for you everywhere that he takes you.
Speaker 1: What's really crazy about the passage, and what I want
Speaker 1: us to talk about a little bit today, is that
Speaker 1: God's favor on that island was not disqualified by the
Speaker 1: mistake that the sailors made in the sea. And so
Speaker 1: it's one thing to realize that God puts this favor
Speaker 1: on you when you make good decisions and you're wives,
Speaker 1: and you quote scriptures, and you had your time with
Speaker 1: God Jesus in coffee this morning, and you were nice
Speaker 1: to everybody. But this is a little different because God's
Speaker 1: favor was waiting for them in a place where their
Speaker 1: mistake landed them. And so Paul now gets invited to
Speaker 1: this dinner with this important guy on the island that
Speaker 1: they didn't even know the name of a couple days ago,
Speaker 1: and then an opportunity comes up. Now I want to
Speaker 1: try to convince you today to become a Christian opportunist,
Speaker 1: a Christian opportunist, because it says that while Paul was
Speaker 1: at this dinner, he discovered verse e that Publis's father
Speaker 1: was se in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. God
Speaker 1: was punishing this man for naming his son Publius. Is
Speaker 1: what I think. Come on, laugh with me the joy
Speaker 1: of the Lord. Okay, all right? And so Paul went
Speaker 1: in to see him, and after prayer, placed his hands
Speaker 1: on him and healed him. And when this had happened,
Speaker 1: the rest of the sick on the island came and
Speaker 1: were cured. They honored us in many ways, and when
Speaker 1: we were ready to sail, when we were ready to sail,
Speaker 1: when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with
Speaker 1: the supplies we needed. And after three months in a
Speaker 1: place where we didn't plan to be, we put out
Speaker 1: the sea in a ship that had wintered in the island.
Speaker 1: It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the
Speaker 1: twin gods Castor and Pollocks. I want to encourage you
Speaker 1: today to protect the vessel. That's not my sermon title.
Speaker 1: That's just something I want to say to you from
Speaker 1: my heart to yours as a pastor. And I know
Speaker 1: that seems like a strange thing to say. After reading
Speaker 1: a Bible passage about a ship that fell to pieces
Speaker 1: and landed on an island, because, as you saw in
Speaker 1: the text, like the vessel, as we use that term
Speaker 1: the ship, the vessel completely lost its former structure. However,
Speaker 1: that's not really the vessel that God is most concerned about.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of my problems in my own
Speaker 1: psychology come from protecting the wrong thing too much, protecting
Speaker 1: the right thing not enough. I don't mind admitting that
Speaker 1: I'm defensive. I was telling a story the other day.
Speaker 1: Somebody asked me, are you confrontational? I was like, let
Speaker 1: me tell you. We were going to this one guy
Speaker 1: who one time was telling me pastors ought to do this,
Speaker 1: and pastors ought to You were there, but I'm not
Speaker 1: going to say his name. Obviously on camera, you co
Speaker 1: can probably figure it out if you thought about it.
Speaker 1: He goes pastors out of this, and pastors out of that,
Speaker 1: and pastors out of that. And the thing is he
Speaker 1: wasn't doing anything that he said pastors ought to do.
Speaker 1: So I said, hey, real quick, show me the scripture.
Speaker 1: This is my Bible. Maybe you got a different one
Speaker 1: where it says that there's a different standard for a
Speaker 1: pastor than a regular person. Now, don't cheer for that.
Speaker 1: That's the stuff that God needs to get out of
Speaker 1: my heart. What's wrong with y'all? This is a confession,
Speaker 1: not a testimony. But I'm defensive, right, I'm defensive. I
Speaker 1: sometimes protect my opinion, my preference. Let me give you
Speaker 1: a scripture that Paul said, and I just had this
Speaker 1: one right before I got up on the stage. He says.
Speaker 1: And remember Paul is writing this scripture in two Timothy too,
Speaker 1: at pretty much the time where his ministry is about
Speaker 1: to close. It's quite possibly right at the same time
Speaker 1: after this shipwreck. But he's writing this letter to Timothy.
Speaker 1: This is why I told you to protect the vessel,
Speaker 1: Paul says in two Timothy two twenty. Do you have
Speaker 1: it in the King James? Yeah? Cool. I wanted to
Speaker 1: use the King James because of one specific word, he says.
Speaker 1: But in a great house there are not only vessels
Speaker 1: of gold and of silver, but also of wood and
Speaker 1: of earth, some to honor and some to dishonor listen
Speaker 1: to this, If a man therefore purge himself from these
Speaker 1: these things, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified,
Speaker 1: and meet for the Master's use, prepared for every good word.
Speaker 1: If he purges himself from these, he shall be a
Speaker 1: vessel that God can use. And I was excited. Now
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, because, uh, I got a case
Speaker 1: from my phone. So it's fine. It's fine, you got
Speaker 1: a case for your phone. I think the cockiest people
Speaker 1: in the world don't put a case on their phone.
Speaker 1: You mean you are that together, and that's sure of yourself.
Speaker 1: And did you hear how they gasped when my phone
Speaker 1: flew out of my hand. I practiced that fifteen times
Speaker 1: to try to make it believable because I wanted to
Speaker 1: show you that we have cases to protect our phones.
Speaker 1: How much was your phone? Five hundred dollars, seven hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars. We have a case for our phone,
Speaker 1: which you can get another one off. But but, but,
Speaker 1: but they don't make a case for your soul, for
Speaker 1: your heart, for your faith, for your expectation. And you
Speaker 1: can still use a phone with a cracked screen. It'll
Speaker 1: still work. But when the lawyer started speaking to me
Speaker 1: about this message, he said, tell them that they are
Speaker 1: spending more time protecting things that can be replaced. I
Speaker 1: want to use an example because Paul says, to Timothy,
Speaker 1: these things. Protect yourself from these things. You know what
Speaker 1: the things he mentions are, you can look it up.
Speaker 1: He's talking about false teaching. He said, it spreads like
Speaker 1: gang green. That's disgusting. He said, you got to really
Speaker 1: protect yourself from those things. You got to protect yourself.
Speaker 1: One thing he calls it is godless chatter. And see
Speaker 1: this is the thing about it. I didn't know Paul
Speaker 1: had Twitter, so I read him say protect yourself from
Speaker 1: godless chatter man, he said in one thing he said, avoid.
Speaker 1: This is the same passage two, Timothy, to look it
Speaker 1: up later and check check me out. See if I'm
Speaker 1: telling you the truth. It says, avoid stupid arguments. Avoid
Speaker 1: stupid arguments. And the reason that I chose to go
Speaker 1: off of Acts twenty eight today talking about protect the
Speaker 1: vessel is because even though the boat that was carrying
Speaker 1: Paul broke into pieces, it really wasn't as important what
Speaker 1: was carrying Paul as it was what Paul was carrying.
Speaker 1: There's a couple ships in the passage. One of them
Speaker 1: is nautical, one of them does what boats do. But
Speaker 1: the other vessel in the passage, of course, is the
Speaker 1: apostle Paul, who was going to Rome because he had
Speaker 1: a case double meaning right to stand before Caesar for
Speaker 1: the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so as he's on
Speaker 1: his way to Rome, of course there's a shipwreck. I've
Speaker 1: preached about this before us an amazing story. You don't
Speaker 1: have time for it today, but there's something in this
Speaker 1: passage for us to realize that there's something that happens
Speaker 1: after Paul survives the crash that is even more important
Speaker 1: than what caused the crash to begin with. I spend
Speaker 1: a lot of my mental energy trying to figure out
Speaker 1: why things are the way they are, and a lot
Speaker 1: of times I can come to conclusions that aren't necessarily accurate.
Speaker 1: I've noticed this about myself that a lot of times
Speaker 1: I connect things, and I think that the reason this
Speaker 1: happened is because that happened. Right now, I wouldn't consider
Speaker 1: myself prone to self pity necessarily, but I do have
Speaker 1: my moments, and even Paul did as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: when he was in the storm. Let me just bring
Speaker 1: this up to refresh your memory. And it became apparent
Speaker 1: that there was going to be a crash. He tells
Speaker 1: all the people that are in charge of the ship
Speaker 1: the other prisoners. In verse twenty one, Men, you should
Speaker 1: have taken my advice not to sail from crete. Then
Speaker 1: you would have spared yourself this damage and loss. But
Speaker 1: now I urge you to keep up your courage, because
Speaker 1: not one of you will be lost, only the ship
Speaker 1: will be destroyed. Right which vessel is God interested in protecting?
Speaker 1: Read the passage again. He says, you have got to
Speaker 1: keep your courage even in the midst of really horrible conditions,
Speaker 1: because the important vessel isn't the one that carried you.
Speaker 1: The most important vessel or the most important container isn't
Speaker 1: something that carries you. It is the heart that God
Speaker 1: has given you, the calling, the assignment, the gift, the ability,
Speaker 1: the imagination that God has given you to carry something
Speaker 1: to the world. Now we're not all Paul, so we're
Speaker 1: not all carrying what he's carrying. But the significance of
Speaker 1: this story would apply to anybody in the room. I
Speaker 1: promise you there is something that you are carrying that
Speaker 1: only you can carry. I don't know if you see
Speaker 1: yourself this way or not, but it's like Paul knew
Speaker 1: that whatever happens to the boat that I'm in, there
Speaker 1: is something in me. That is more significant to God.
Speaker 1: So whatever is breaking apart in your life at any
Speaker 1: given point in time is not as important as what
Speaker 1: God has put on the inside of you. So protect
Speaker 1: the vessel. Protect the vessel. Don't put a case on
Speaker 1: your phone, but then use the same phone to expose
Speaker 1: your heart. Do you want me to preach. I'm going
Speaker 1: to read a poem and go home. I already got
Speaker 1: the revelation. As a matter of fact, please do not
Speaker 1: email me about this. I barely even open emails, so
Speaker 1: it would be pointless. I heard one person one time
Speaker 1: who talked about how they eat clean, eat clean, eat clean,
Speaker 1: eat clean, and all of that. And granted, I have
Speaker 1: my own certain way that I eat, and I am
Speaker 1: very very picky, and I am very very I guess
Speaker 1: disciplined in my own way. But the only thing is
Speaker 1: I get to eat unlimited bacon on the eating lifestyle
Speaker 1: that I have chosen that God has given me any
Speaker 1: forward day through doctor Atkamps, don't email me. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to read it. But the person that was eating clean,
Speaker 1: they didn't eat this. They didn't need that. We went
Speaker 1: to the thing they had bean sprouts and all that's
Speaker 1: that's that's that's what I remember. It is they were
Speaker 1: just eating. But what I remember is they were they
Speaker 1: were saying all this stuff. They were like, because if
Speaker 1: you eat this, you get killed with that, and then
Speaker 1: if you eat fish then you have mercury poisoning, and
Speaker 1: then if you don't eat fish. So I saw, I
Speaker 1: sat there and I thought, huh, this is funny because
Speaker 1: it was. It was. It was an example to me
Speaker 1: of you are so careful about what you will put
Speaker 1: in your body. And it's great, it's great study at all.
Speaker 1: I know, I know you you know science. That's great.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't coming from just a place of wisdom.
Speaker 1: It was all fear based, right, And I read this
Speaker 1: study and I saw this, and I googled this disease
Speaker 1: and I YouTube that disease and all this stuff. And
Speaker 1: I thought, it's funny because you eat clean, but you
Speaker 1: think crap. This is what I thought. I didn't say this.
Speaker 1: You eat clean, but you think crap. So you live long,
Speaker 1: but you hate life. You are protecting the shed, but
Speaker 1: you're not maintaining the equipment. You're managing your profile, your image,
Speaker 1: your appearance. This physical body, it's gonna pray, take care
Speaker 1: of it, but the real vessel has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with anything that can be counted in calories or carbohydrates.
Speaker 1: That's why Paul says, let go of the boat and
Speaker 1: keep up your courage. It's okay, I got a case.
Speaker 1: It's all right, It's all right. And then they get
Speaker 1: to the island and Paul's like, I told you, I
Speaker 1: told you God was good. This is my besting money,
Speaker 1: singing worship songs and stuff. Roh. He had the pirate,
Speaker 1: the bootleg YouTube version. He had learned it a long
Speaker 1: time ago. But he said, uh, he said, here, let
Speaker 1: me help, because these these islanders are being are being nice.
Speaker 1: So he's like, I don't want to just sit over
Speaker 1: here and not help. If you're nice enough to build
Speaker 1: a fire, I'm nice enough to help, and just to
Speaker 1: read the scripture again. You remember this, Mike, when I
Speaker 1: preached at twenty seventeen, because this is so good, but
Speaker 1: you remember it. But he said, uh, he said here,
Speaker 1: let me help. And when he was put in the fire,
Speaker 1: the wood on the fire verse threet a viper driven
Speaker 1: out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. Everybody say,
Speaker 1: on his hand, I vi professing stuff on his hand.
Speaker 1: So Hey, you ever been trying to help somebody and
Speaker 1: in the process of helping you got hurt. This is
Speaker 1: one of the main things you've got to look out for,
Speaker 1: because I've been in the process before where I thought
Speaker 1: I was doing something good. I don't even see you there.
Speaker 1: It's good to see you. It's awesome because he's like,
Speaker 1: only trying to be useful, right, and he gets a
Speaker 1: bit by snake. So at this point, when I was
Speaker 1: reading the scripture, I had to stop and ask the question,
Speaker 1: why did the snake bite Paul? I'm going to see
Speaker 1: what you think about it. You're not gonna just sit
Speaker 1: there and make me do all the work. Put it
Speaker 1: in the chat? Why did the snake bite Paul? On three? One,
Speaker 1: two three. I don't know what they're saying online, but
Speaker 1: are y'all speaking in tongues? Is this the Tower of babble?
Speaker 1: What happened in Elevation Church? It was the devil. That's
Speaker 1: how the devil is. It's always taking on pull in
Speaker 1: his weakest moment, wants to take him out so he
Speaker 1: can't preach this the devil, right, the devil is the snake.
Speaker 1: Genesis three, the serpent, the symbolism revelations with us. That's all. Like,
Speaker 1: maybe it was the devil snake bite I guess that's
Speaker 1: the devil is No, it was God. It was God
Speaker 1: that let the snake bite Paul. Because everything happens for
Speaker 1: a reason. That's why you're you know, people will say it,
Speaker 1: that's why you went through this. You're single because the
Speaker 1: Lord is preparing your ship in the harbor, right, like,
Speaker 1: shut off if I want somebody to watch Netflix with,
Speaker 1: shut up. It was God. God. It was God that
Speaker 1: let that snake bite Paul, because well then Paul got
Speaker 1: to show that that snake can't hurt me. God is
Speaker 1: greater than the snake. You know, graves into gardens, you know, right,
Speaker 1: And so it was God. But it's not that deep, y'all.
Speaker 1: It says it in the text. It's crazy how many
Speaker 1: somersaults we will do just to get around what the
Speaker 1: text actually said. It says the viper was driven out
Speaker 1: by the heat. It was nothing but a natural consequence
Speaker 1: of the fire. But watch what everybody was so quick
Speaker 1: to do. What is all that? I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on up there? WA's what God wanted me to
Speaker 1: show you. While Paul has got a snake hanging from
Speaker 1: his hand. This is unbelievable. I can't believe this. This
Speaker 1: reminds me of church people. Everybody's standing around talking about
Speaker 1: why he's got a snake on his hand? Did you
Speaker 1: see it in the text? I hate I don't hate
Speaker 1: these kind of people. These kind of people get on
Speaker 1: my nerves. Well, that's why you're going through that, because
Speaker 1: you know, if you would have raised your kids on
Speaker 1: the books that I read, then your kids wouldn't be
Speaker 1: struggling with this. Well, when I raised my kids, we
Speaker 1: had prayer times at eight thirty for Matthew eight thirty.
Speaker 1: I don't know what Matthew eight thirty says, and we
Speaker 1: would sit around and if you would train them up,
Speaker 1: that would have been. Now, it says that the islanders
Speaker 1: were kind, they build a fire. These were not evil people,
Speaker 1: even though they were strange people. But something in even
Speaker 1: the nicest human heart has a tendency to want to
Speaker 1: do this. In the scripture, it says that while a
Speaker 1: snake was hanging from Paul's hand, while a snake was
Speaker 1: hanging from the Man of God's hand while he was
Speaker 1: this could have killed him Verse five. Now verse four,
Speaker 1: because we will never get the verse five. If Paul
Speaker 1: would have listened to what they said in verse four,
Speaker 1: this could have killed Paul. This this, this, When the
Speaker 1: Islanders saw the snake, they said, this man, yeah, must
Speaker 1: be a murder. Now they are interpreting his identity through
Speaker 1: the lens of an event. If this is happening, then
Speaker 1: you must be this man. The pointer finger, the pointer finger.
Speaker 1: It's like the logo for a lot of Christianity, those
Speaker 1: people that lifestyle. This man, if he was a good man,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be going through this. If you had not
Speaker 1: wasted that season of your life, then God could have
Speaker 1: blessed you like that, if you would have listened, if
Speaker 1: you would have been in church, if you would have
Speaker 1: da da da da. I never saw any power released
Speaker 1: through a pointing finger, personally, I never saw it. When
Speaker 1: you read in the Bible, you read a lot about
Speaker 1: the hand of God much more than the finger of God.
Speaker 1: This kills, this kills, this heals. So while we're talking
Speaker 1: about the devil, let me tell you what Satan means. Accuser.
Speaker 1: That's Satan's logan, not God's. So if it's like this,
Speaker 1: that's probably not God. Don't get me wrong. There comes
Speaker 1: a time for strong teaching. I had somebody tell me
Speaker 1: the other day, I love you because you scream at me,
Speaker 1: said you're welcome. I think are doing that, they said
Speaker 1: when I was preaching. It wasn't like a personal thing
Speaker 1: they were saying, they preaching. I just want to clarify
Speaker 1: that it could be taken the wrong way. But but
Speaker 1: but God, God isn't really He certainly could have done
Speaker 1: that to Peter when he does this stupid get out
Speaker 1: of the boat trick. Right, Oh, coman Lord, not very far,
Speaker 1: you're not. But I didn't see Jesus do that to Peter.
Speaker 1: I saw him do that. What you have to decide
Speaker 1: in this moment of your life is between the pointing
Speaker 1: finger and the healing hand. That's my title, the pointing
Speaker 1: finger and the healing hand. If Paul believes what the
Speaker 1: people say about him in this moment, he dies, that's
Speaker 1: true of some of you. In fact, the problem with
Speaker 1: a ship comes not when it gets in the water,
Speaker 1: but when the water gets in it. So I had
Speaker 1: to realize that protecting the vessel in my life means
Speaker 1: not believing everything that everybody thinks about me, including me,
Speaker 1: including me. The most dangerous and sabotaging form of this
Speaker 1: does not come from other people's finger in your face.
Speaker 1: If the enemy has his way with you, he will
Speaker 1: have you in the mirror saying this is the problem.
Speaker 1: It's me now. The next thing, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: even see a way forward anymore. And what got me
Speaker 1: about the passage is it is not guaranteed that Paul
Speaker 1: is going to survive if he holds on to what
Speaker 1: is hurting him. Now, I want you to imagine this
Speaker 1: against the context of Exodus four. Exodus four is God
Speaker 1: calling Moses another great man of God, another man of God,
Speaker 1: even in spite of his own proclimities, like he was
Speaker 1: a murderer. They're pointing their finger at Paul. This man's
Speaker 1: a murderer. He's not, He's a messenger. Moses was a murderer,
Speaker 1: he killed an Egyptian trying to do God's will his way.
Speaker 1: But God didn't come to Moses' pointing. He asked him
Speaker 1: a question in Exodus, for what is that in your hand?
Speaker 1: And Moses said, what I have in my hand is
Speaker 1: a staff, and it's a very common object. Now here's
Speaker 1: the contrast. For Moses to see God's power, he had
Speaker 1: to throw down the stick and it became a snake,
Speaker 1: got it, got the picture. For Paul to see God's power,
Speaker 1: he had to throw down the snake. What I have
Speaker 1: done to myself in some seasons of my life is
Speaker 1: I have held on to what was hurting me. How
Speaker 1: long are you gonna let a snake have free rent
Speaker 1: on your hand? It's just a question. Because I get
Speaker 1: disappointed too, I get offended too. I get bitter too.
Speaker 1: One of my titles that I thought I shouldn't call
Speaker 1: this sermon was bit, not bitter, because here's the way
Speaker 1: I was thinking about it. It can't kill you if
Speaker 1: it only penetrates the skin. It can't kill you. If
Speaker 1: all it does is break the skin, it only kills you.
Speaker 1: The snake only kills Paul if he allows the venom
Speaker 1: to get in the vessel. That's the only way it
Speaker 1: stops you. That's the only way. It's a surface wound
Speaker 1: if you do this. No no, but but we make
Speaker 1: trophies out of our trials, and we hold on to
Speaker 1: them so tightly, and we overidentify with the events ourselves
Speaker 1: so that we become identified by our experiences. When we
Speaker 1: start saying to ourselves what the islanders were saying about Paul,
Speaker 1: you must be a bad woman, You must be a
Speaker 1: screw up, You must be trash, you must be worthless,
Speaker 1: you must be slow. What's wrong with me? You have
Speaker 1: you said that a lot lately? What's wrong with me
Speaker 1: that nobody wants to be with me? Why doesn't anybody
Speaker 1: stay in my life? Why doesn't anybody want to be
Speaker 1: around me? Why don't the things that happen for other
Speaker 1: people so easily happen to me? Why can't I be
Speaker 1: happy like they're just over there so happy? That's not God,
Speaker 1: that's not God, that's not God. This is why is
Speaker 1: the enemy's primary strategy, accusation, because if he can keep
Speaker 1: you doing this, you never do this. So here's how
Speaker 1: resentment works. Paul, in this moment, this is so stupid
Speaker 1: that I'm on this island. This is so stupid that
Speaker 1: you know the fire. Nobody else got bit by a snake.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about what Paul could have said in
Speaker 1: his heart, all these other prisoners. I must God must
Speaker 1: be punishing me. And that's what everybody else is saying.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're right. I went through a season in ministry
Speaker 1: where so many people were saying a certain thing about me.
Speaker 1: I started to act like I had to prove them wrong.
Speaker 1: And so a lot of my ministry, if I look
Speaker 1: back through a certain season, was me here being like
Speaker 1: I do study my Bible in the Greek, in the Hebrew,
Speaker 1: in the big Latin. I'm busting out every language I
Speaker 1: ever learned, hieroglyphics, just to get you to see I'm
Speaker 1: not what you think I am. Because I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's an entertainer, he's a thing. But when I look deeper,
Speaker 1: it wasn't what they were saying that had the power
Speaker 1: to contain me, control me, or limit me in my ministry,
Speaker 1: effectiveness or humanity. It wasn't. It was will you do well, Paul?
Speaker 1: Did we do this? Because when you do this, now
Speaker 1: you can do this? Yeah, pointing fingers or healing hands.
Speaker 1: They're watching him so close. They're going, let's see if
Speaker 1: he gets better. Let's see if they and I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think Paul really cared much about the audience
Speaker 1: at this point because he knew he had an appointment
Speaker 1: in Rome. So his security and his purpose made him
Speaker 1: impervious to the opinions of others. Did you catch what
Speaker 1: God just said to you? There is a sense in
Speaker 1: which when you know God's hand is on you. When
Speaker 1: you know that it's God's hand even in the mistakes,
Speaker 1: even in the decisions of others. This is what takes
Speaker 1: us some time to believe that God is sovereign, even
Speaker 1: over the screw ups of others. All right, let me
Speaker 1: get to the good part. I appreciate about that a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, So let me get to the good part.
Speaker 1: So the people thought he was gonna die. He didn't.
Speaker 1: Nothing unusual happened to him. They changed their minds and
Speaker 1: said he was a god. Now Paul knew he was neither.
Speaker 1: I'm not a murderer, I'm not a god. I wrote
Speaker 1: a song lyric the other day. I'm no beggar, I'm
Speaker 1: no king. Guess I'm something in between. I want to
Speaker 1: put that in a song one day, and maybe I will.
Speaker 1: But I was reading how they're like, he's a god,
Speaker 1: he's a murderer. He's like, I'm neither. I know who
Speaker 1: I am. I know I am. Look, God told me
Speaker 1: who I was. God told me who I was Act
Speaker 1: twenty seven, before I even went through the storm. God
Speaker 1: told me who I was. So I'm not looking to
Speaker 1: you to define me. Now that I'm on this shore
Speaker 1: called Malta. I don't even know you'd like that. Watch
Speaker 1: this in verse twenty three x twenty seven, this is
Speaker 1: annointed last night, an angel of the God to whom
Speaker 1: I belong. There it is and whom I serf stood
Speaker 1: beside me and said, don't be afraid, Paul, you must
Speaker 1: stand trial before Caesar. You've got a case in Wrome.
Speaker 1: So God has graciously given you the lives of all
Speaker 1: who sail with you. But Paul wasn't busy doing this
Speaker 1: because if he blamed those who were responsible for shipwrecking
Speaker 1: him on this island, he would never see what God
Speaker 1: wanted to do on the island while he was there. Nah,
Speaker 1: it's set me free. There's no power in this. When
Speaker 1: you place blame, you give power. If they put you
Speaker 1: in the situation, have to get you out. So when
Speaker 1: Paul does this, it's his way of saying, it's not
Speaker 1: whose fault it was. That that matters. Some of you
Speaker 1: think about me. That matters. The only thing that matters
Speaker 1: in this moment, in this season of my life is this.
Speaker 1: Get that fellow over here, man, the one that the
Speaker 1: snake bit and he didn't die. I want to meet him.
Speaker 1: Publius didn't ask for any other prisoners, just the one
Speaker 1: who got bit and didn't get bitter. I'm not just
Speaker 1: being cute. I would have been bitter. I would have
Speaker 1: been like this. You told me to preach, you told
Speaker 1: me to share the gospel, you said you would protect me,
Speaker 1: and I'm the only one who got bid. But this
Speaker 1: won't get you healed either. You can do it. God's
Speaker 1: not scared of it. You can do it. It's fine.
Speaker 1: But when you get done with that, are you ever
Speaker 1: going to get to this? Yeh? In a marriage? Come here, Hall,
Speaker 1: in a marriage. I promise you one thing I know well,
Speaker 1: I'll come to you because I'm just faster. This heels.
Speaker 1: This kills I'm just trying to help you see something.
Speaker 1: This kills. It kills communication, it kills empathy. This heels,
Speaker 1: I just saw it like a picture. That that's all
Speaker 1: I need you for me for now. That this is
Speaker 1: only going to get you to a certain place. And
Speaker 1: it's important, like all of us can point to something
Speaker 1: in our life right now that is making us weak.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. That's totally fine for the snake to
Speaker 1: fasten itself to your hand. It's not okay for you
Speaker 1: to hold on to it longer than you're supposed to.
Speaker 1: We can all point to something in our past that
Speaker 1: caused the way that we're struggling with a character defect today.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. Only guess you so far. The real
Speaker 1: question when Paul showed up and he got in pup
Speaker 1: what's his name, Publius? When he gets in his house
Speaker 1: and discovers that there's an opportunity, Remember, I said, a
Speaker 1: Christian opportunist, a worldly opportunist is when I see something
Speaker 1: that looks like a good opportunity, I give my all
Speaker 1: to it. When I see somebody that I think can
Speaker 1: give me an advantage, I'm nice to them. That's a
Speaker 1: worldly opportunist. A Christian opportunist realizes that the great strengths
Speaker 1: hide in weakness. So a whole island gets healed because
Speaker 1: of a sick man. The sick man only encountered the
Speaker 1: Great Apostle because of a snake bit hand. Let make
Speaker 1: sure you see the connection. Why did the snake bite
Speaker 1: Paul on the fire? It doesn't say God made the
Speaker 1: snake bite Paul. Paul determined after the fact that he
Speaker 1: would use this too. I want to say to somebody
Speaker 1: and I feel like it's not somebody who's in the room.
Speaker 1: God's going to use this too. We all know about
Speaker 1: the ship that carries us to God's purpose, the ship
Speaker 1: that gets us some places. But the snake took Paul
Speaker 1: to Pooblice's house. God's going to use this too. I
Speaker 1: say he cost it. Don't put the words in my mouth.
Speaker 1: I didn't say he cost it. God is going to
Speaker 1: use this too, And I want you to make the
Speaker 1: confession out of your mouth by faith. God is going
Speaker 1: to use this too. So Paul goes this cool boom,
Speaker 1: this cool poop. Not this, it was your fault. I'm
Speaker 1: on this island, you stupid. Would have you ever hit
Speaker 1: a wall. I've heard my knuckles hitting inanimate objects. Paul
Speaker 1: didn't punched the wood. A lot of us go around physically,
Speaker 1: speak of swinging and stuff that can't swing back. Oh
Speaker 1: it's the government. Oh it's this, it's that. This is
Speaker 1: only going to get me so far. I gotta do this.
Speaker 1: I gotta do this. I gotta go have dinner with
Speaker 1: Philblius and see why God put me on this island
Speaker 1: that wasn't on my itinerary. Now, I'm just telling you
Speaker 1: God said that some of you are going today from
Speaker 1: a posture of pain to a posture of power. But
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a different kind of power. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a Second Corinthians four kind of power. In Second
Speaker 1: Corinthians four, the great apostle Paul says, but we have
Speaker 1: this treasure in earthen vessels. We have this treasure in
Speaker 1: earthen vessels. We have this glory in messy situations. We
Speaker 1: have this hope in chopping waters. We have this certainty
Speaker 1: in a crazy, chaotic world. We have this treasure in
Speaker 1: human weakness. We have this confidence in great chaos. We
Speaker 1: have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have this healing
Speaker 1: in snake bitten hands. Yeah. Yeah. He went in to Publius,
Speaker 1: his father's bedroom, and in Acts twenty eight, he did
Speaker 1: something really important that I want you to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you'll have the scripture? I got it. It's good.
Speaker 1: It's good. It's good, it's good. This is real good.
Speaker 1: This is how you protect the vessel. You're ready. He
Speaker 1: went in to see him verse eight, and after prayer,
Speaker 1: I want you to pray about it. I am praying
Speaker 1: about No, you're not you're ruminating. You're worrying about it.
Speaker 1: You're freaking out. I'm gonna do a sermon maybe after
Speaker 1: Easter call. You're underthinking it, says, I overthink things. No,
Speaker 1: you underthink things. You only process stuff at the level
Speaker 1: of your thought, never at the level of your spirit.
Speaker 1: He did something so simple. He prayed because he knew
Speaker 1: he couldn't give any healing to Publius if he had
Speaker 1: venom in his own vessel. So as we pictured this,
Speaker 1: I want you to picture yourself in this season of
Speaker 1: your life. Here you are, I should be here, I
Speaker 1: should be there. Pointing at where you should be will
Speaker 1: not result in progress or peace. We could all do that.
Speaker 1: I thought i'd be should have been. If they wouldn't have,
Speaker 1: then I would have point with both hands. But watch this,
Speaker 1: after he prayed, I want you to see yourself doing this.
Speaker 1: When I say it, Paul went in and placed his
Speaker 1: not just the good hand, the hurd hand too. Does
Speaker 1: this give you a picture of what God wants to
Speaker 1: do through what you've been through? Because if it said
Speaker 1: Paul put his hand on him, I think, well, that's nice.
Speaker 1: But when I realized that a snake had been on
Speaker 1: that hand just a few days ago, I think to myself, God,
Speaker 1: what do you want to do through the places where
Speaker 1: I've been hurt? Do you want this? Are you ready
Speaker 1: for this? Now? I see a hand opening up, But
Speaker 1: it's not God's hand. His hand has always been on
Speaker 1: you in every value you've walked in, and every dumb
Speaker 1: decision you've made, and every bad thing that you've ever
Speaker 1: believed about yourself, and every bad thing that anybody's ever
Speaker 1: done to his hand's always been there. It's never been
Speaker 1: the question about his hand, how about yours. You're going
Speaker 1: to walk around with that snake for another year, another five,
Speaker 1: another decade, You're going to be an old man running
Speaker 1: around to home snake stories. And with the same hand,
Speaker 1: the same hand that could have killed him, he became
Speaker 1: an instrument of revival. The reason that I didn't name
Speaker 1: my sermon when I started is because you don't always
Speaker 1: know what to call it until after it's over. Malta
Speaker 1: was called honey, but God brought Paul there for healing.
Speaker 1: Malta means refuge, but God brought Paul there for revival.
Speaker 1: And I want us to spend some time believing today
Speaker 1: that when we do this, see you can't do this
Speaker 1: and this so which one is it going to be.
Speaker 1: And until you do this, you do this somebody that
Speaker 1: I'm preaching to. If you can't do this for yourself,
Speaker 1: do it for your kids. If you can't do the
Speaker 1: whole island got healed because Paul didn't do this. When
Speaker 1: you do this to yourself, when you do it to
Speaker 1: an event, when you allow your identity to be consumed
Speaker 1: by an experience, it will always limit the flow of
Speaker 1: God's power in your situation. So today God sent me
Speaker 1: with a word for somebody to just know that life
Speaker 1: begins when you do this, just this, just this. I
Speaker 1: want you to use botans. Stand to your feet in
Speaker 1: your living room, stand to your feet in the auditorium,
Speaker 1: and just do this. Now, look at me. This kills
Speaker 1: this heels. This is accusation, This is acceptance. Okay, I'm here,
Speaker 1: Paul said, I might as well go over to Publius's house.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they're serving for dinner. But maybe
Speaker 1: God wants to do something through me. You know how
Speaker 1: many times God wanted to give me something, but I
Speaker 1: was doing this. He wanted to give me a solution,
Speaker 1: but I was doing this. Then if you do this
Speaker 1: long enough, you start doing this but God said, just
Speaker 1: do this, just this, Father, I thank you for your
Speaker 1: spirit in moments like these. I know they're tender some people,
Speaker 1: even as they try to push you away in this moment,
Speaker 1: because it would frankly be easier to keep others at
Speaker 1: a distance. I thank you Lord that you know all
Speaker 1: things about me and everybody who's here, and if there
Speaker 1: has to be a translation. You're telling them what Malta is.
Speaker 1: You're telling them what the snake is, You're telling them
Speaker 1: what Publius's house. You do those things. I can't do
Speaker 1: them because you know them and love them. But we
Speaker 1: just wanted to take a moment, before we leave the building,
Speaker 1: or before we log off and go on to something else,
Speaker 1: to just do this. Because this heels. We release those
Speaker 1: who hurt us, not even because they deserve it, but
Speaker 1: because we don't want to spend the rest of our
Speaker 1: life attached to something that almost killed us but didn't.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be defined by that. So Lord,
Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus, right now we shake all
Speaker 1: shame off into the fire, all accusation and all condemnation.
Speaker 1: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are
Speaker 1: in Christ. Jesus us through Christ, Jesus law, spirit of life.
Speaker 1: I said you free from the law of sin and death.
Speaker 1: And we shake that right now like the dirt off
Speaker 1: of our feet, like the snake off of our hand.
Speaker 1: It couldn't kill us, It couldn't kill you. That's why
Speaker 1: you're still here. Now, you take that same hand that
Speaker 1: was hurt, that same place in you that was hurt,
Speaker 1: and you lay it on the next thing that God
Speaker 1: puts in your life. Because all of the whiz them
Speaker 1: that God gave you, and all the compassion that he
Speaker 1: gave you, and all of the healing that he gave you,
Speaker 1: just like the nail prints in his hand, this will
Speaker 1: be the place of the greatest relief, release of power
Speaker 1: in the history of your life. I declare it. I
Speaker 1: stand in agreement with you for it. I testify other
Speaker 1: We have this treasure in earth and vessels. Look at me,
Speaker 1: Look at me. Protect your vessel, Protect your heart. Don't
Speaker 1: let it just run around anytime it wants. Don't keep
Speaker 1: your car cleaner than you keep your heart. Protect your vessel.
Speaker 1: Because you've got to get there. You must stand trial
Speaker 1: before Caesar, must do it. Nobody's going to do this
Speaker 1: for you. What you're carrying is more important than what's carrying.
Speaker 1: So let the things fall away that have to fall away.
Speaker 1: That's all right. Now. What you need for where you're
Speaker 1: headed is in your hand. What's that in your hand?
Speaker 1: Should you be holding that? Or is it time for
Speaker 1: you to receive what God has next for you? I
Speaker 1: want to hear from you this week. I want to
Speaker 1: hear it in the comments. I want to hear it
Speaker 1: on social media. I want to hear what God is
Speaker 1: releasing in your life and what you are releasing to
Speaker 1: receive what God has next. I really do. There are
Speaker 1: teams that go through these comments just to pray for you,
Speaker 1: and we want to hear about it. We want to
Speaker 1: stand in agreement. We don't want to stand there and
Speaker 1: do this. Get your life together out of pen No, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're saying this. We're saying this. We're saying this. If
Speaker 1: we could hold hands, we would. It's controversial to hold hands.
Speaker 1: But right now I connect with you by faith, and
Speaker 1: the scripture says if any two of you would touch
Speaker 1: and agreed, if any two of you would touch and agreed,
Speaker 1: that's not a physical requirement. That is a spiritual position.
Speaker 1: So I come into agreement with you in your life,
Speaker 1: that you will have the power to shake into the
Speaker 1: passion of the fire of the spirit of God, whatever
Speaker 1: has attached itself to your life. Right now, Lord, I
Speaker 1: lift my hands to bless your people all over the
Speaker 1: world who will hear this message at different times. This
Speaker 1: will be a turning point, This will be a moment
Speaker 1: of revelation. We stand with open hands under an open heaven.
Speaker 1: We give you thanks for your purpose in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Put those hands in together. Thank you both. I hope
Speaker 1: you heard that. I hope you heard it with your heart,
Speaker 1: not just with your ears. I hope you receive it.
Speaker 1: Look this all you got to do. Receive this, Receive this,
Speaker 1: Receive God's grace, his mercy, his wisdom. He has so
Speaker 1: much for you. Hey, you hear how I preach myself
Speaker 1: no voice left. I'm sweating through this heavy sweater and
Speaker 1: I have not much voice left. But I just wanted
Speaker 1: to thank you. Thank you for giving, supporting, praying. We
Speaker 1: love you. It's amazing to be connected with you in ministry. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm out of being to say subscribe blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. I see you next time. I love you
Speaker 1: mm hm