August 23, 2024 • 45 mins
When a crisis occurs, often our first reaction is to question God and ask why it had to happen. But what if there’s a better way to respond? Discover how learning the right response to a situation is often more important than learning the reasons behind it.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message, all right, look at this from Acts
chapter twenty seven. I pretyius message back in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And this is the sequel. Back then, I did a message.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Called it will happen. Touch somebody say it happens. However
you want to take that. It's a message about faith
and fear, and I want to get back into it
today and share with you another level of it. And
let me read Acts chapter twenty seven to twenty. Paul
is in the middle of a miracle, but he's also
(00:50):
in the middle of a mistake. And sometimes the two
are the same thing.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
That's about perspective. Sometimes the two are the same thing.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, the Bible says in verse twenty Acts chapter twenty seven,
when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and
the storm continued raging because it was one of those
things that wouldn't let up. It was not the kind
of trial that you go through and just.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Get through it.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's like when you don't see any end in sight.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
It was that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So what happened was they lost all their hope and
they quit believing that they could be saved, that it
could be different, that they could be delivered. And right
at the time that they started to let go of
their hope, God spoke to Paul in a powerful way.
And of course Paul was that great missionary who took
the Gospel to the Gentiles, and so it was a
(01:47):
good thing for them that he was on board. Touch
somebody said, you gotta be glad you're sitting next to me,
because any boat that I'm on is better because I'm
on it.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Come on, Come on.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So the Bible says, after they had gone a long
time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, men,
you should have taken my advice not to sail from crete,
and then you would have spared yourselves this damage and lost.
But now I urge you to keep up your courage,
because not one of you will be lost, only the
ship will be destroyed.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Here's how I know.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Last night an angel of the God to whom I
belong and whom I serf, stood beside me and said,
do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
In other words, you can't.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Go down in this battle because I got a bigger
one ahead of you. And God has graciously given you
the lives of all who sail with you. So keep
up your courage, men, for I have faith that it
will happen, just as He told me.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So three and a half years ago I preached a
message called it will happen, And today I want you
to announce my sermon title. Look at your neighbor and
tell him, neighbor, tell him, neighbor, it had to happen.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Father, I thank you for your word.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I pray that it would go forth in clarity now
to bless the people that you've brought here to hear it.
Not only would they hear it God, but I prayed
that they might apply it so that it can strengthen
their lives.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
In Jesus' name.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Amen, on your way to your seat, touch your other
neighbor that you hadn't talked to yet, and tell him
it had to happen. Because Paul as spiritual as he
is is apparently not above telling someone I told you so,
(03:51):
because he had warned the sailors who were on this
ship that was headed to Rome. They were trying to
get to Italy, and Paul was on there for preaching
the gospel.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
He didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
But sometimes the reason that you go through things isn't
because of something wrong that you did. You know that right,
even as a Christian, and sometimes the things you go
through are directly connected to something you did right, and
you can't always know the reason, and that's difficult for me.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I always want to know.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
The reason, and I feel like I'm really good at
dealing with resistance if I know the reason for it.
And even with people, I'm kind of skeptical. I don't
always take people at face value for what they say
they want in a relationship, and I probably shouldn't be
so paranoid. Holly tells me I should trust people more,
(04:43):
but I think she should trust people less, so we
just balance each other out.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I really do.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I think you should trust people less because people will
say that they want to be your friend for this reason,
and sometimes there's.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
A deeper reason.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I know he can't go through life living like that
you should assume the best about people and all.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
But I know sometimes sometimes I.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Get in situations where I'm like, hmm, I wonder what
the real reason. Even with my kids, you know, if
they're too nice to me, you know, if they hugged
me a little too tight and they come running a
little too fast, Hey, daddy, I know that behind the
affection is an ask.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
It happened today. I was coming out to preach.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I heard a noise in the bathroom back in my
green room, and I was in another room, and I
knew it was Elijah, and because I heard the pop
of the the product, my hair product, And I said,
who's in here? And I knew it was him. I
was messing with him, and he said, uh, is me, Daddy.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I just came to say I love.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You, and I said, and to use my hair product.
I know why you're really in here. You want my product?
And he said and because I love you? And I said, well,
mostly because you want my product. And he said, why
can't it be both?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Pretty good? Why can't it be both? And for me?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I hear, Paul, Okay, he's on a ship that he
doesn't believe he rightfully belongs on, taking this prisoner for
a crime that he didn't commit, being accused of things
that he didn't do. And I hear when he's talking,
I kind of hear two things. I hear faith it
will happen, and I hear frustration this didn't have to happen.
And I hear both because watch she says, if you
(06:28):
would have taken my advice, you would have spared yourself
this damage and loss. In other words, the reason we're
about to wreck is because of a decision that you made.
But if we stay too long in the reason, we're
gonna drown. Because what matters at some point you have
(06:50):
to get past at some point trying to figure out
why it happened. And this is difficult. This is difficult
for those of us who want to know a reason.
Even storly, when I call someone and and maybe they've
gone through a loss of tragedy, and I say, I'm
just calling to pray with you, there's a temptation for
me to try to give them a reason for why
(07:11):
it happened. And when I was, when I was a
rookie pastor before I became the sage of wisdom that
I am before you today, can you feel me rolling
my eyes and myself in sarcassm I would always feel
compelled to give them a reason. You know, but God
is going to use this for good, you know. Romans
eight twenty eight, eight twenty eight, Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,
every little coffee cup verse. I could spit out at
(07:32):
them just as fast as I could.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
You know, there's a reason from that.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And I realized at some point during giving people reasons,
sometimes people don't need a reason when they're in the
middle of a storm. They just need to reassure it, say,
God will not leave you alone in it. So please,
when someone that you love is suffering, don't be so
quick to give them a reason. Don't be so quick
to point your finger. Well, the reason your kids are
(07:55):
rebelling is because no, no.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Now's not the time for that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
People don't need a reason, And when they're going through
a great time, great trial, what they need is someone
to reassure them that God is with you, and so
am I. And here's Paul standing in the middle of
a storm, and the reason it's happening is because of
their dumb decision. Have you ever had to go through
(08:24):
a storm because of somebody else's.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Dumb decision. This is an.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Awkward moment in my sermon because if you agree too much,
the person.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Next to you is going to know.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Paul says, if we would have done it this way,
Oh yeah, because not everything that happens to you happened
because God wanted it to happen to you, And certainly
not everything that happens to you happens because the devil
did it. Because if the devil did it, then God
had to allow it. Sometimes I think we got the
wrong words sometimes because I think they both start with
the letter D and we get confused. Sometimes it's not
(09:04):
the devil, it's a decision. It's just too crowded in
church today. I need to free up some seats for
the next week, so I don't want you to have
to sit in parking or anything like that. It is
sometimes it's and so pol says, this didn't have to
(09:25):
happen like this, And those are the hardest for me, really, really,
the hardest for me is when I feel like this
was avoidable, you know, and when I feel like I
could have avoided it, but yet it's inevitable.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And that's attention, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I was talking to one of my best friends the
other day and I said, a year from now, we
were going through something and we were talking through it
and something that we couldn't understand, and I said, a
year from now, we will understand why this had to happen.
And he said, do you really believe that? I said, yeah,
I believe that in time God will show us. He said, no, no,
(10:08):
not that part. Do you really believe it had to happen?
Because what he was doing, he was reverse engineering all
the decisions that led to it.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
And what I kind of wanted to say to him
that I wasn't smart enough to.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Say in the moment.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
But I've thought about it for a few weeks now,
and I want to tell you is that I've come
to the place in my belief system where I no
longer try to figure out whether God did it or
the devil did it, because it has to.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Pass through the same hands before it gets to me.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And I've read enough of the Bible to know that
God will use other people's bad decisions to get me
to my destiny. And I've seen enough play out to
know that Joseph, at the end of his life was
only able to look at his brothers and say don't
even worry about it because you meant it for eve,
(11:00):
but God meant it for good. Which one was it
evil or good? It was both? Why can't it be both?
Why can't it be an attack from the devil that
God used and put to good usage and repurpose in
order to accomplish That's what Paul is saying.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
He's saying it.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Didn't have to happen. I don't want you to blame
this on God. We could have avoided this. You didn't
have to date him.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Your mom told you he was.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Crazy, and you wouldn't listen to anybody. But if we
stay stuck in the reason, we'll miss the revelation. Because
Paul says, you know, there's a reason this happened, and
it could have been avoided. But last night, while the
storm was raging, last night, I was all alone, and
(11:48):
God showed up and reminded me that his purpose is
still intact even.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
If the ship goes down. It had to happen. It
had to happen.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Then God doesn't tell Paul a whole series of explanations.
He doesn't give him a reason. He gives him a revelation.
Revelation is more powerful than reason. So you can't fight
the devil with the reason because sometimes you don't know
(12:23):
the reason. Sometimes you have.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
To go back to who God showed you that he was.
And God is very tactical in this. So he will
create a situation for revelation.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Can I preach about this for a minute. So he
will let Lazarus die, and he loves Lazarus, and when
they tell him that Lazarus died, he'll say, I'm glad
it happened. Jesus actually said I'm glad he died. Why
because now we've got a situation. And the situation is
(12:59):
what enables the revelation. It's not just true because it rhymes.
It's true because it's true. Up until this point, they
knew him as healer. Now they needed to know him
as resurrection. And so he said, I'm glad it went wrong.
I'm glad it. When poorly Paul said we must run
aground on some island, somebody say.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
It had to happen. It had to happen.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
And sometimes when you ask God for a reason, he
will bypass the reason and give you a revelation. You
still belong to me, You're still my child. See, I
don't operate by reason. If I operate by reason, sometimes
I'll be up, sometimes i'll be down. I operate by revelation.
I know he is good and he does good. I
(13:43):
know he's with me. I know he's for me. I
know he'll never leave me nor forsake me. That's my
revelation to somebody say I got a revelation. And so
when you get in trouble, you don't need a reason,
you need a revelation. Elijah looked at me the other
day and I was telling him to do something. And
he's eleven years old, and so he is being visited
by demons of eleven year oldness and he's coming up
(14:04):
to me talking about Dad. I'll do it if you
tell me the reason, he said. I'm not the kind
of person who can just do something without knowing the reason.
Did you ever see The Simpsons? I know you don't
watch TV. You read the Bible all the time. When
(14:25):
Homer grabs Bart around the neck, and I know I
probably couldn't do that. When he said, he said, I
need a reason, and I look back at him.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And the only thing that came to me was I
looked at him. The spirit of Star Wars came on me,
and I said, I got to be your father.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
You don't need a reason to do it, boy, you
need a revelation of who I am.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
How big say say.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Sometimes sometimes in your life you won't know why.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
But I know who. Paul said last night an angel?
What the god who's eying on who I said?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So look high five, somebody say, I got a revelation.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Work.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And Paul says, we're gonna make it. But the boat isn't.
The boat has to break, but we're gonna make it.
We will suffer loss, but we will not lose what's
most important. That's the promise, all right. So you know
(15:35):
what's amazing about this story. It happened just like Paul
said it would. And they all got to the shore,
and they got to that island, that island. Look at
this in X twenty eight verse one. Somebody say it
had to happen. That's the word for you today. It
had to happen. And when they got there, the Bible
says X twenty eight, verse one. Once safely on shore,
(16:00):
we found out that the island was called Malta. Malta
means refuge. So the grace of God does not always
prevent the consequence, but it gives you a place to land.
And so we must run aground on some island. And
(16:22):
when we got there, we found out the island was
called Malta. And it must be a relief now that
we're no longer on these open seas, because they spent
weeks thrashing around, wondering if they'd ever see dry land again.
And then they get to the place, and the Bible
says in verse two that the islanders showed us unusual kindness.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Now islanders is a kind term.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
The actual word that is used here from Luke who
wrote the Book of Acts, is barbarians, and he called
them that because they didn't speak his language. Malta is
an unfamiliar place, and it's an unfamiliar place. Not only that,
but they built a fire and welcomed.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Us all because it was raining and cold. Now imagine this.
Can we empathize with Paul.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
For a minute, because he survived a.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Shipwreck only to shiver in the cold of an unfamiliar
island and an unfamiliar language. And he survived, but now
the place where he is is unfamiliar to him. I
mentioned that because many times in my life I have
found myself on Malta. Have you ever been to Malta?
(17:32):
Oh sure you have, Sure you have? Is that place
I'm gonna show it to you.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Let me show you in the map here in my Bible. Look,
that's where Paul started.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
That's where the wind blew him around for like several weeks.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
And that's Malta where they landed. Look usual that a
tiny island called Malta.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
A little.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
See how small Malta is. See how tiny it is,
how small it is, how strength. That's where Paul was going,
and that's where the wind blew it. That's where Paul
had always wanted to visit Rome, where he would stand
in tribal for Caesar and be used as God's great spokesman,
(18:32):
the most powerful place in the world in his day.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
And that's Have you ever ended up somewhere you never
planned on being? That's what I'm trying to say. Have
you ever been to Malta?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I need somebody over here in this section has been
to Malta. Now, Malta is the place you didn't plan
on staying. Malta is the season you didn't plan on experiencing.
Malta is the layoff you didn't see coming. Malta is
the relationship you didn't see ending. Malta is the emotional
place you never thought you'd experience. You saw other people depressed,
(19:01):
you never thought you'd be depressed.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
You saw other people's.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Kids act crazy, you thought yours would act right. Malta
is that place where you're twenty eight in single. Malta
is that place where someone who was there for you
is no longer there for you.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Have you ever been to Malta?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Okay, what is somebody as important as Paul doing somewhere
as small as Malta.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Let's find out. Let's find out. I love the Bible. Man.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Bible says that Paul got to Malta, survived the shipwreck.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Have you ever survived anything? Have you ever survived anything?
Have you ever gave up hope?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
And just when you gave up hope, hope didn't give
up on you and grabbed hold.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Of you in the depths.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I've been preaching this all weekend, but I feel something
special happening right now.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
For somebody who is in it.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Unexpected place, a strange place, a small place, a stock place.
And the Bible says that those islanders were so kind
to the prisoners two hundred and seventy six of them
in all that they built them fire, and Paul was
such a good dude that he decided to help.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
So they're building a fire, and Paul didn't want to stand.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Over there like me at a love Week event, looking
like some lazy preacher who doesn't know how to do anything.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Paul grabs a pie said wood, look, it's right there.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
In verse three, he gathered a pile of brushwood, and
as he put it on the fire trying to help,
a snake came out. So let's let's go back to
everything that's happened to Paul. He's imprisoned for preaching the gospel.
He's shipwrecked because the sailors are too stupid to follow
(20:56):
his advice. Now he's cold on Malta, you're talking about Malta.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Stuck in strander, shivering and cold, uncertain.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
In an unfamiliar place, and just as he thinks he's
made it to safety, he gets struck by a snake.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
This is almost comical unless you've been there, when just
when you thought the fight was.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Going to be over, here comes something else.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Have you ever.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
And this snake pops up out of the fire that
Paul was simply trying to help them build on an
island called Malta, where he never even planned to go.
And the Bible says it fastened itself to his hand.
So this is not some quick little this is snake
bit down on Paul. And what's what the people did?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Because you gotta be careful about people.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Let me tell you got to be careful about people,
because when that happened, people will always assign a reason
to why you're going through what you're going through. Well,
if I were her husband, I would have left to
People will say stuff like that not to you. They
never say it to you. They just think it about you.
They think that the reason bad things happened to you
is because of something that you did. Well, the islanders
(22:26):
are watching this guy who's got a snake on his hand,
who just came crawling out of the sea with some
seaweed around his ears, and he claims to be a preacher,
and he claims to.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Be a servant of God.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
And so if you're a servant of God, why isn't
God protecting you? Has the devil tried to convince you
lately that if you really had a God, you wouldn't
be going through what you're going through. And so they
stood back. They stood back and said this, dude. When
(22:59):
they say, well, the snake hanging from his hand, which
means it was there for a minute. When they saw
the snake hanging from his hand, they drew their own conclusions.
He must have done something wrong. He must be a murderer.
He must be out of the will of God. For
(23:21):
though he escaped the sea, the goddess Justice.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Has not allowed him to live.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I love the next verse because Paul preaches one of
the most powerful sermons in the New Testament.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Watch this. When Paul saw them all looking, he knew
he had a captive audience.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And verse five says that when Paul saw him looking,
he said, and this may not be in your Bible,
I'm reading from the TSV, the Taylor Swift version.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
He said, he said, players.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Gonna play, play, play, play play.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Come on, y'all, go back to twenty fourteen with me
for a minute. And haters.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Gonna hate hate, hey, hey, hey five times. That's a
quintuplet in the New Testament Heartbreaker's Gonna break break. We
get the point, pastor you don't have to quote the
whole chorus and the verse Paul's response, that's the word response.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Watch this. He didn't say a word.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
He didn't try to convince them that God was with him.
He didn't feel sorry for himself. He didn't go on
Facebook and write a response post. What's what he did.
He did what you've got to learn how to do
when you make it through the storm and all hell
breaks loose on the shore. Come on when they talk about.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You, when it looks like this is the end, when
you've been through it and it keeps coming.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
The Bible said Paul, took it off to what'severn People say,
shake it off, Shake it off, Shake it off right
now before it gets in your system. Shake it off
right now before it kills you. Shake it off right
now while they're standing around watching you.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You gotta do it right now, right now. You gotta
shake it off.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
You don't take a vote from the Island committee to
see whether or not they think.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
God is with you. No, Paul said, I got a revelation.
God already told me I'm going to Rome, so I
can't die on de sign.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I already know he'll never leave me or forsake me.
I already know I'm more than a conqueror. I already know,
so if I'm going to Rome, I can't die on Malta.
(26:08):
And when the shap fell off of Paul's hand and
died in the fire, it wasn't a surprise to him.
He knew it had to happen. It had to happen.
Somebody said it had to happen. I had to survive.
I had to make it. I had to get through it.
God had to prove his power. I'll fill your presence, Lord,
(26:32):
for everybody who's been wondering why you've been stuck on
the why land.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
You've been so busy trying to figure out a reason,
and God is trying to give you a revelation, not
just you, but everybody watching you. God wants everybody to
see you shake it off. God wants everybody around you
to see you trust him though he slay you. And
(27:05):
that's why the snake had to bite him. Because faith
doesn't prevent me from getting bid. Faith doesn't prevent me
from washing.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Up on the shore.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
What I love about it is that after Paul shook
the snake off, the people stood back and watched to
see what was gonna happen next, because that's what they do.
They don't bring you an ice pack or an ass
for him talk to me. They will stand there and
watch you. And the Bible says that they were shocked
because they expected him to swell up. You know, you
(27:38):
got some people that are surprised that you made it
and surprised you're still happy. You know, they thought when
they broke your heart, you were gonna quit. But look
at you in church, worshiping God, serving God, believing God.
Look at you, look at you. So they're like, they're like, oh,
(28:07):
let's see what happens next. That's somebody said, let's see
what happens next. So they waited a long time, and
then when they saw that he didn't swell up or
turn into a walker, they changed their minds. This is
why you cannot put your confidence in people. They changed
(28:30):
their minds and said, he's a god. One minute, he's
a murderer. Now he's a god one minute, Hosanna. The
next minute, crucify him. That's why your response cannot be
to people.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Even when I preach, I love you, but I can't
preach for you.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I can preach to you, but I can't preach for you,
because the thing that I say that you need to
hear might make you cry us their arms and get
an attitude. Well, sit back and take it, honey, because
if God sent it, I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
It all right. Now watch this.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Let's show one more thing so he shakes up the
snake they think he's gonna die, doesn't die. And cool
place to end dis sermon, I think, but I want
to give you something that will maybe help you. Let
me just see from a show of hands, is there
anybody in here who has found yourself in Malta recently?
(29:37):
It could be a season, it could be Malta represents, yeah,
that stuck place. I think these are the kinds of questions,
generic questions that people ask because we know that it's
guaranteed to get one hundred percent participation. I mean, who
doesn't feel stuck from time to time? And that's kind
of the point, isn't it is that we all must
go through Malta. Wow and Paul at this point, and
(30:00):
the story has a decision to make misery or mission.
Misery or mission because we already read that it was
rainy and cold, we already read that it was unfamiliar.
We already read that the man almost died, and now
he has a decision to make, and so do you
about this season of your life. Paul didn't decide to
(30:23):
go to Malta. Now he has to decide what to
do while he's there. And he can sit and wait
to get off this stupid island, or he can.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
He can do on Malta what he did in Jerusalem,
all right, So so Paul, they think he's a god.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Now, right, So they're like, they're like, hey, this guy's important,
and apparently the chief of the island hears about.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
It, and he wants to have dinner with this guy
who can survive a snake bite.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
So your opportunities in life will be the byproduct of adversity.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
That you go through. And he gets invited to the
home of.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
The official on the island because he was able to
stand up under the trial. You keep praying for the opportunity,
but you don't want to stand up under the adversity.
So somebody say it had to happen. I had to
go through something. I had to prove perseverance. That's the
only way my faith could grow to enable the opportunity.
So there was an estate nearby look at this. In
(31:39):
verse seven, there was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius,
which is incidentally a baby name that is available to
any of you who are looking for something to name
your child that will get them beat up. And this
guy's important, and he wants to see the guy who
was able to stand up after the snake and survived
(32:01):
the shipwreck, and he welcomed all of them into the
home and showed generous hospitality for three days. And I'm
imagining Paul's thinking this is nice. But at some point
during Paul's stay he learns that Publius.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Has a problem.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Touch somebody say, Publius has a problem, And Publius's problem
is about to become Paul's opportunity because Publius's father was
sick in bed with the Malta fever.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
And it's bad.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
He's got temperatures in dysentery, and Paul, when he heard
about it, went in to see him. Now the way
I picture it, and maybe I'm using too much imagination,
but I imagine that they're sitting down to a meal
and Paul sees somebody wheeled into the room and says,
who's that, and Publius says, it's my dad, and Paul says,
(32:58):
what's wrong with him?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
And Publicia says he's sick and there's nothing we can
do about it.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Imagine about right here is where Paul started smiling, which
seems kind of weird, but maybe this is the moment
that Paul realizes there was a reason I went through
the storm. There was a reason the hurricane hit. There
was a reason the ship had to break apart. There's
a reason we had to run aground on Malta.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Paul said, can I see you? Can we have a moment?
And the Bible says that when Paul went in to
see him, he prayed for him. Wow, and watched the
next part. You can love this. You look kind of military.
Can I use you for an example? Sit down, everybody,
(33:48):
sit down. Paul went in.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
And prayed for him, and after prayer, somebody say, it
had to happen. Come on, Missouri, it had to happen.
You had to be here at this sermon today. There's
something God wanted.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
To speak to you.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
You had to be here with the zz top beard
go to You had to be right.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
There in that section. And Paul put his hand on Publius'.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Dad's head, and when he put his hand on his head,
the Bible says he was healed, which is a miracle
all in its own. But what made it even more
amazing to me was to realize that the same hand
that the healing came through was the same hand that
(34:48):
had a snake hanging from it just three days ago.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Oh, come on, you all start praising God right now.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
What you went through? That didn't tell you that? So
let me have your check station. Paul says, I can't
keep the snake from biting me. Touch somebody say it
had to happen. The other day, Abby came up to
(35:19):
me and she said, Elijah.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Just bit me. I said, did you bite him back?
She said no, sir.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I said, go upstairs and tell your brother. You can
bite me again if you want to. But Daddy said
to tell you, if you bite me, I bite back.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Now that might not be good parenting, but this is
good preaching. Somebody tell the devil I'm bite that, I'm
bite back. Same hand that the snake bit became the
(36:02):
hand that the healing came from.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
What did you go through that you wish you wouldn't
have gone through? That you never should have gone through
I came to declare over your life. It does not
matter the reason. What matters is your response. You're on Malta. Now,
Malta is what you make of it. The Bible says,
after he laid his hands on that man's head, word
(36:25):
got around.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
The whole island.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
This guy's got something, This guy's got something.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
This guy knows somebody.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
When he put his hand on the father's head, the
Bible said, the whole island came and all of a sudden,
now Publius had to turn his house into a certain building, and.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
The whole island got healed. It had to happen. It
had to happen. It had to happen. Island got you.
I'm sorry I messed up your hair, but it had
(37:04):
to happen.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
I feel like I got something on me right now
to tell somebody the release. It's about the release.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
When Paul was going through the storm, he said, we
must run aground on some island. Somebody say it had
to happen, and Paul thought he needed Malta. But it
turns out Malta needed Paul.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
There's a purpose for it. I don't need a reason.
I got a revelation. God is with me. He is good,
he does good. It had to happen. It had to happen.
I'm not saying God did it. I'm saying he'll use it. Now.
(38:09):
What are you gonna do on Malta? That small place.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
You've been changing diaper still and like nobody appreciates you.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
That's your Malta. You've been praying for a ring and
you can't even get a text back. That's your Malta.
I never wanted to be on Malta, but Paul said,
now that I'm here, who can I heal?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
A matter of fact, y'all got any more snakes? I
wish another snake would bite me because if that much
power could come from the pain, who.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Else can I heal? Who else can I heal? God? Won?
Did you bring me desmoss me Malta?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
And while they were getting ready for a wreck, God
was positioning them for a revival.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
This is the mistake that turned into a miracle, that
turned into a mission.
Speaker 6 (39:29):
And I want you to know today, whoever is for
the forty eight percent of you that God sent me
to preach to, who are spending three months on Malta
right now?
Speaker 2 (39:41):
I want you to know that your supply is in
your assignment. Did you get it over here? Your supply
is in your assignment. He could have sat there on
Malta moping about what he went through on the age
at sea, but he turned it into a mission and
(40:04):
the whole island got healed. Maybe what you went through
wasn't even about you. Maybe it's generational. And that's what
I told my dad before he died. I said, I
know your life was hard. I know it was a
living hell. I know your father abused you.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I know you had to suffer through many things, but
you broke it. You broke it.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
It had to You had to go through it so
I wouldn't have to, so I could preach, so I
could stand Sometimes it's not about us. And Bull decided
to bite back, with his hand still swollen from the
(40:54):
snake bite, sucked that.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Poison out and turn it into power.
Speaker 7 (41:07):
I thought, am I calling the sermon? I'm bitter, but
I'm not bitter. I'm a pretreci that in three years.
I'm appreciate that in bars, in battles in two weeks.
But for now, God wanted you to know that it
had to happen.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
It had to happen, even the rejection. My friend said,
do you really believe that it had to happen?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
And I said, well, I don't know, but you know
what I choose to It made me who I am.
What I went through, it made me who I am.
I want to look in the.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Camera because we have fourteen locations right now, and I
want you to stand on your feet at every location
and realize that healing is in your hands. That God
brought you to Malta, and when you're in the middle
of a storm, it seems like there's often no sense
(42:20):
of guidance, and when your boat is being blown around
and you have no control over it, it's a scary
thing to be out on the Mediterranean Sea with nothing
to look at for light, and to arrive at a
cold place only to be met by the sting of
a viper.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
I've been there before in my own life, but God
sent me with a message for you today. It had
to happen because while the wind was controlling the boat,
God was controlling the wind. I'm not saying he did it,
(43:07):
but if God allowed.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
It, you can accept it. And if you can accept it,
the very place where you were injured will be the
very place that your purpose comes forth.
Speaker 8 (43:20):
From It had to happen. It had to happen, even
the mistakes. It had to happen because God needed me
here in Malta.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Right now, Father, I have declared your word to your people,
and you have promised your blessing upon it. Father, I
pray that today would represent a shift in the perspective
of everyone who has seen themselves as stuck on Malta. Church,
(44:06):
I want you to repeat this out loud after me.
It's a paradigm. Chief say, I'm not stuck. I'm stationed. Now,
clap your hands and give God praise that He's got
you right where. Come on, He's got you right where
he wants you. There is an assignment on Malta with
your name on it. Even if they did it, God's
(44:28):
gonna use.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
This is my Malta.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
And the Bible says in verse ten that when they
were ready, when the assignment was completed, they honored us
in many.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Ways, and when we were ready to sail, they furnished
us with the supplies we needed. God said, if.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
You'll do what I put you there to do, I
will give you what you need for where I'm taking you.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Who is this message for this is my mam, This
is my mall.
Speaker 8 (45:02):
Tom.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I'm done crying, I'm done regretting, I'm done wishing.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
God here, I am lit your asks. God, you brought me.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
Here to this season, to this comment dot doll therecle,
this is me.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
This is my thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message, all right, look at this from Acts
chapter twenty seven. I pretyius message back in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And this is the sequel. Back then, I did a message.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Called it will happen. Touch somebody say it happens. However
you want to take that. It's a message about faith
and fear, and I want to get back into it
today and share with you another level of it. And
let me read Acts chapter twenty seven to twenty. Paul
is in the middle of a miracle, but he's also
(00:50):
in the middle of a mistake. And sometimes the two
are the same thing.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
That's about perspective. Sometimes the two are the same thing.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, the Bible says in verse twenty Acts chapter twenty seven,
when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and
the storm continued raging because it was one of those
things that wouldn't let up. It was not the kind
of trial that you go through and just.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Get through it.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's like when you don't see any end in sight.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
It was that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So what happened was they lost all their hope and
they quit believing that they could be saved, that it
could be different, that they could be delivered. And right
at the time that they started to let go of
their hope, God spoke to Paul in a powerful way.
And of course Paul was that great missionary who took
the Gospel to the Gentiles, and so it was a
(01:47):
good thing for them that he was on board. Touch
somebody said, you gotta be glad you're sitting next to me,
because any boat that I'm on is better because I'm
on it.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Come on, Come on.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So the Bible says, after they had gone a long
time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, men,
you should have taken my advice not to sail from crete,
and then you would have spared yourselves this damage and lost.
But now I urge you to keep up your courage,
because not one of you will be lost, only the
ship will be destroyed.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Here's how I know.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Last night an angel of the God to whom I
belong and whom I serf, stood beside me and said,
do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
In other words, you can't.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Go down in this battle because I got a bigger
one ahead of you. And God has graciously given you
the lives of all who sail with you. So keep
up your courage, men, for I have faith that it
will happen, just as He told me.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So three and a half years ago I preached a
message called it will happen, And today I want you
to announce my sermon title. Look at your neighbor and
tell him, neighbor, tell him, neighbor, it had to happen.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Father, I thank you for your word.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I pray that it would go forth in clarity now
to bless the people that you've brought here to hear it.
Not only would they hear it God, but I prayed
that they might apply it so that it can strengthen
their lives.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
In Jesus' name.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Amen, on your way to your seat, touch your other
neighbor that you hadn't talked to yet, and tell him
it had to happen. Because Paul as spiritual as he
is is apparently not above telling someone I told you so,
(03:51):
because he had warned the sailors who were on this
ship that was headed to Rome. They were trying to
get to Italy, and Paul was on there for preaching
the gospel.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
He didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
But sometimes the reason that you go through things isn't
because of something wrong that you did. You know that right,
even as a Christian, and sometimes the things you go
through are directly connected to something you did right, and
you can't always know the reason, and that's difficult for me.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I always want to know.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
The reason, and I feel like I'm really good at
dealing with resistance if I know the reason for it.
And even with people, I'm kind of skeptical. I don't
always take people at face value for what they say
they want in a relationship, and I probably shouldn't be
so paranoid. Holly tells me I should trust people more,
(04:43):
but I think she should trust people less, so we
just balance each other out.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I really do.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
I think you should trust people less because people will
say that they want to be your friend for this reason,
and sometimes there's.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
A deeper reason.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I know he can't go through life living like that
you should assume the best about people and all.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
But I know sometimes sometimes I.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Get in situations where I'm like, hmm, I wonder what
the real reason. Even with my kids, you know, if
they're too nice to me, you know, if they hugged
me a little too tight and they come running a
little too fast, Hey, daddy, I know that behind the
affection is an ask.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
It happened today. I was coming out to preach.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I heard a noise in the bathroom back in my
green room, and I was in another room, and I
knew it was Elijah, and because I heard the pop
of the the product, my hair product, And I said,
who's in here? And I knew it was him. I
was messing with him, and he said, uh, is me, Daddy.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I just came to say I love.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You, and I said, and to use my hair product.
I know why you're really in here. You want my product?
And he said and because I love you? And I said, well,
mostly because you want my product. And he said, why
can't it be both?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Pretty good? Why can't it be both? And for me?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I hear, Paul, Okay, he's on a ship that he
doesn't believe he rightfully belongs on, taking this prisoner for
a crime that he didn't commit, being accused of things
that he didn't do. And I hear when he's talking,
I kind of hear two things. I hear faith it
will happen, and I hear frustration this didn't have to happen.
And I hear both because watch she says, if you
(06:28):
would have taken my advice, you would have spared yourself
this damage and loss. In other words, the reason we're
about to wreck is because of a decision that you made.
But if we stay too long in the reason, we're
gonna drown. Because what matters at some point you have
(06:50):
to get past at some point trying to figure out
why it happened. And this is difficult. This is difficult
for those of us who want to know a reason.
Even storly, when I call someone and and maybe they've
gone through a loss of tragedy, and I say, I'm
just calling to pray with you, there's a temptation for
me to try to give them a reason for why
(07:11):
it happened. And when I was, when I was a
rookie pastor before I became the sage of wisdom that
I am before you today, can you feel me rolling
my eyes and myself in sarcassm I would always feel
compelled to give them a reason. You know, but God
is going to use this for good, you know. Romans
eight twenty eight, eight twenty eight, Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven,
every little coffee cup verse. I could spit out at
(07:32):
them just as fast as I could.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
You know, there's a reason from that.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And I realized at some point during giving people reasons,
sometimes people don't need a reason when they're in the
middle of a storm. They just need to reassure it, say,
God will not leave you alone in it. So please,
when someone that you love is suffering, don't be so
quick to give them a reason. Don't be so quick
to point your finger. Well, the reason your kids are
(07:55):
rebelling is because no, no.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Now's not the time for that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
People don't need a reason, And when they're going through
a great time, great trial, what they need is someone
to reassure them that God is with you, and so
am I. And here's Paul standing in the middle of
a storm, and the reason it's happening is because of
their dumb decision. Have you ever had to go through
(08:24):
a storm because of somebody else's.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Dumb decision. This is an.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Awkward moment in my sermon because if you agree too much,
the person.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Next to you is going to know.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Paul says, if we would have done it this way,
Oh yeah, because not everything that happens to you happened
because God wanted it to happen to you, And certainly
not everything that happens to you happens because the devil
did it. Because if the devil did it, then God
had to allow it. Sometimes I think we got the
wrong words sometimes because I think they both start with
the letter D and we get confused. Sometimes it's not
(09:04):
the devil, it's a decision. It's just too crowded in
church today. I need to free up some seats for
the next week, so I don't want you to have
to sit in parking or anything like that. It is
sometimes it's and so pol says, this didn't have to
(09:25):
happen like this, And those are the hardest for me, really, really,
the hardest for me is when I feel like this
was avoidable, you know, and when I feel like I
could have avoided it, but yet it's inevitable.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And that's attention, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I was talking to one of my best friends the
other day and I said, a year from now, we
were going through something and we were talking through it
and something that we couldn't understand, and I said, a
year from now, we will understand why this had to happen.
And he said, do you really believe that? I said, yeah,
I believe that in time God will show us. He said, no, no,
(10:08):
not that part. Do you really believe it had to happen?
Because what he was doing, he was reverse engineering all
the decisions that led to it.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
And what I kind of wanted to say to him
that I wasn't smart enough to.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Say in the moment.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
But I've thought about it for a few weeks now,
and I want to tell you is that I've come
to the place in my belief system where I no
longer try to figure out whether God did it or
the devil did it, because it has to.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Pass through the same hands before it gets to me.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And I've read enough of the Bible to know that
God will use other people's bad decisions to get me
to my destiny. And I've seen enough play out to
know that Joseph, at the end of his life was
only able to look at his brothers and say don't
even worry about it because you meant it for eve,
(11:00):
but God meant it for good. Which one was it
evil or good? It was both? Why can't it be both?
Why can't it be an attack from the devil that
God used and put to good usage and repurpose in
order to accomplish That's what Paul is saying.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
He's saying it.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Didn't have to happen. I don't want you to blame
this on God. We could have avoided this. You didn't
have to date him.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Your mom told you he was.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Crazy, and you wouldn't listen to anybody. But if we
stay stuck in the reason, we'll miss the revelation. Because
Paul says, you know, there's a reason this happened, and
it could have been avoided. But last night, while the
storm was raging, last night, I was all alone, and
(11:48):
God showed up and reminded me that his purpose is
still intact even.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
If the ship goes down. It had to happen. It
had to happen.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Then God doesn't tell Paul a whole series of explanations.
He doesn't give him a reason. He gives him a revelation.
Revelation is more powerful than reason. So you can't fight
the devil with the reason because sometimes you don't know
(12:23):
the reason. Sometimes you have.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
To go back to who God showed you that he was.
And God is very tactical in this. So he will
create a situation for revelation.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Can I preach about this for a minute. So he
will let Lazarus die, and he loves Lazarus, and when
they tell him that Lazarus died, he'll say, I'm glad
it happened. Jesus actually said I'm glad he died. Why
because now we've got a situation. And the situation is
(12:59):
what enables the revelation. It's not just true because it rhymes.
It's true because it's true. Up until this point, they
knew him as healer. Now they needed to know him
as resurrection. And so he said, I'm glad it went wrong.
I'm glad it. When poorly Paul said we must run
aground on some island, somebody say.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
It had to happen. It had to happen.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
And sometimes when you ask God for a reason, he
will bypass the reason and give you a revelation. You
still belong to me, You're still my child. See, I
don't operate by reason. If I operate by reason, sometimes
I'll be up, sometimes i'll be down. I operate by revelation.
I know he is good and he does good. I
(13:43):
know he's with me. I know he's for me. I
know he'll never leave me nor forsake me. That's my
revelation to somebody say I got a revelation. And so
when you get in trouble, you don't need a reason,
you need a revelation. Elijah looked at me the other
day and I was telling him to do something. And
he's eleven years old, and so he is being visited
by demons of eleven year oldness and he's coming up
(14:04):
to me talking about Dad. I'll do it if you
tell me the reason, he said. I'm not the kind
of person who can just do something without knowing the reason.
Did you ever see The Simpsons? I know you don't
watch TV. You read the Bible all the time. When
(14:25):
Homer grabs Bart around the neck, and I know I
probably couldn't do that. When he said, he said, I
need a reason, and I look back at him.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And the only thing that came to me was I
looked at him. The spirit of Star Wars came on me,
and I said, I got to be your father.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
You don't need a reason to do it, boy, you
need a revelation of who I am.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
How big say say.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Sometimes sometimes in your life you won't know why.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
But I know who. Paul said last night an angel?
What the god who's eying on who I said?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
So look high five, somebody say, I got a revelation.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Work.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And Paul says, we're gonna make it. But the boat isn't.
The boat has to break, but we're gonna make it.
We will suffer loss, but we will not lose what's
most important. That's the promise, all right. So you know
(15:35):
what's amazing about this story. It happened just like Paul
said it would. And they all got to the shore,
and they got to that island, that island. Look at
this in X twenty eight verse one. Somebody say it
had to happen. That's the word for you today. It
had to happen. And when they got there, the Bible
says X twenty eight, verse one. Once safely on shore,
(16:00):
we found out that the island was called Malta. Malta
means refuge. So the grace of God does not always
prevent the consequence, but it gives you a place to land.
And so we must run aground on some island. And
(16:22):
when we got there, we found out the island was
called Malta. And it must be a relief now that
we're no longer on these open seas, because they spent
weeks thrashing around, wondering if they'd ever see dry land again.
And then they get to the place, and the Bible
says in verse two that the islanders showed us unusual kindness.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Now islanders is a kind term.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
The actual word that is used here from Luke who
wrote the Book of Acts, is barbarians, and he called
them that because they didn't speak his language. Malta is
an unfamiliar place, and it's an unfamiliar place. Not only that,
but they built a fire and welcomed.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Us all because it was raining and cold. Now imagine this.
Can we empathize with Paul.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
For a minute, because he survived a.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Shipwreck only to shiver in the cold of an unfamiliar
island and an unfamiliar language. And he survived, but now
the place where he is is unfamiliar to him. I
mentioned that because many times in my life I have
found myself on Malta. Have you ever been to Malta?
(17:32):
Oh sure you have, Sure you have? Is that place
I'm gonna show it to you.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Let me show you in the map here in my Bible. Look,
that's where Paul started.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
That's where the wind blew him around for like several weeks.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
And that's Malta where they landed. Look usual that a
tiny island called Malta.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
A little.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
See how small Malta is. See how tiny it is,
how small it is, how strength. That's where Paul was going,
and that's where the wind blew it. That's where Paul
had always wanted to visit Rome, where he would stand
in tribal for Caesar and be used as God's great spokesman,
(18:32):
the most powerful place in the world in his day.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
And that's Have you ever ended up somewhere you never
planned on being? That's what I'm trying to say. Have
you ever been to Malta?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I need somebody over here in this section has been
to Malta. Now, Malta is the place you didn't plan
on staying. Malta is the season you didn't plan on experiencing.
Malta is the layoff you didn't see coming. Malta is
the relationship you didn't see ending. Malta is the emotional
place you never thought you'd experience. You saw other people depressed,
(19:01):
you never thought you'd be depressed.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
You saw other people's.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Kids act crazy, you thought yours would act right. Malta
is that place where you're twenty eight in single. Malta
is that place where someone who was there for you
is no longer there for you.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Have you ever been to Malta?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Okay, what is somebody as important as Paul doing somewhere
as small as Malta.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Let's find out. Let's find out. I love the Bible. Man.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Bible says that Paul got to Malta, survived the shipwreck.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Have you ever survived anything? Have you ever survived anything?
Have you ever gave up hope?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
And just when you gave up hope, hope didn't give
up on you and grabbed hold.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Of you in the depths.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I've been preaching this all weekend, but I feel something
special happening right now.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
For somebody who is in it.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Unexpected place, a strange place, a small place, a stock place.
And the Bible says that those islanders were so kind
to the prisoners two hundred and seventy six of them
in all that they built them fire, and Paul was
such a good dude that he decided to help.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
So they're building a fire, and Paul didn't want to stand.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Over there like me at a love Week event, looking
like some lazy preacher who doesn't know how to do anything.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Paul grabs a pie said wood, look, it's right there.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
In verse three, he gathered a pile of brushwood, and
as he put it on the fire trying to help,
a snake came out. So let's let's go back to
everything that's happened to Paul. He's imprisoned for preaching the gospel.
He's shipwrecked because the sailors are too stupid to follow
(20:56):
his advice. Now he's cold on Malta, you're talking about Malta.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Stuck in strander, shivering and cold, uncertain.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
In an unfamiliar place, and just as he thinks he's
made it to safety, he gets struck by a snake.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
This is almost comical unless you've been there, when just
when you thought the fight was.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Going to be over, here comes something else.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Have you ever.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
And this snake pops up out of the fire that
Paul was simply trying to help them build on an
island called Malta, where he never even planned to go.
And the Bible says it fastened itself to his hand.
So this is not some quick little this is snake
bit down on Paul. And what's what the people did?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Because you gotta be careful about people.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Let me tell you got to be careful about people,
because when that happened, people will always assign a reason
to why you're going through what you're going through. Well,
if I were her husband, I would have left to
People will say stuff like that not to you. They
never say it to you. They just think it about you.
They think that the reason bad things happened to you
is because of something that you did. Well, the islanders
(22:26):
are watching this guy who's got a snake on his hand,
who just came crawling out of the sea with some
seaweed around his ears, and he claims to be a preacher,
and he claims to.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Be a servant of God.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
And so if you're a servant of God, why isn't
God protecting you? Has the devil tried to convince you
lately that if you really had a God, you wouldn't
be going through what you're going through. And so they
stood back. They stood back and said this, dude. When
(22:59):
they say, well, the snake hanging from his hand, which
means it was there for a minute. When they saw
the snake hanging from his hand, they drew their own conclusions.
He must have done something wrong. He must be a murderer.
He must be out of the will of God. For
(23:21):
though he escaped the sea, the goddess Justice.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Has not allowed him to live.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I love the next verse because Paul preaches one of
the most powerful sermons in the New Testament.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Watch this. When Paul saw them all looking, he knew
he had a captive audience.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And verse five says that when Paul saw him looking,
he said, and this may not be in your Bible,
I'm reading from the TSV, the Taylor Swift version.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
He said, he said, players.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Gonna play, play, play, play play.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Come on, y'all, go back to twenty fourteen with me
for a minute. And haters.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Gonna hate hate, hey, hey, hey five times. That's a
quintuplet in the New Testament Heartbreaker's Gonna break break. We
get the point, pastor you don't have to quote the
whole chorus and the verse Paul's response, that's the word response.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Watch this. He didn't say a word.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
He didn't try to convince them that God was with him.
He didn't feel sorry for himself. He didn't go on
Facebook and write a response post. What's what he did.
He did what you've got to learn how to do
when you make it through the storm and all hell
breaks loose on the shore. Come on when they talk about.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You, when it looks like this is the end, when
you've been through it and it keeps coming.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
The Bible said Paul, took it off to what'severn People say,
shake it off, Shake it off, Shake it off right
now before it gets in your system. Shake it off
right now before it kills you. Shake it off right
now while they're standing around watching you.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You gotta do it right now, right now. You gotta
shake it off.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
You don't take a vote from the Island committee to
see whether or not they think.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
God is with you. No, Paul said, I got a revelation.
God already told me I'm going to Rome, so I
can't die on de sign.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
I already know he'll never leave me or forsake me.
I already know I'm more than a conqueror. I already know,
so if I'm going to Rome, I can't die on Malta.
(26:08):
And when the shap fell off of Paul's hand and
died in the fire, it wasn't a surprise to him.
He knew it had to happen. It had to happen.
Somebody said it had to happen. I had to survive.
I had to make it. I had to get through it.
God had to prove his power. I'll fill your presence, Lord,
(26:32):
for everybody who's been wondering why you've been stuck on
the why land.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
You've been so busy trying to figure out a reason,
and God is trying to give you a revelation, not
just you, but everybody watching you. God wants everybody to
see you shake it off. God wants everybody around you
to see you trust him though he slay you. And
(27:05):
that's why the snake had to bite him. Because faith
doesn't prevent me from getting bid. Faith doesn't prevent me
from washing.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Up on the shore.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
What I love about it is that after Paul shook
the snake off, the people stood back and watched to
see what was gonna happen next, because that's what they do.
They don't bring you an ice pack or an ass
for him talk to me. They will stand there and
watch you. And the Bible says that they were shocked
because they expected him to swell up. You know, you
(27:38):
got some people that are surprised that you made it
and surprised you're still happy. You know, they thought when
they broke your heart, you were gonna quit. But look
at you in church, worshiping God, serving God, believing God.
Look at you, look at you. So they're like, they're like, oh,
(28:07):
let's see what happens next. That's somebody said, let's see
what happens next. So they waited a long time, and
then when they saw that he didn't swell up or
turn into a walker, they changed their minds. This is
why you cannot put your confidence in people. They changed
(28:30):
their minds and said, he's a god. One minute, he's
a murderer. Now he's a god one minute, Hosanna. The
next minute, crucify him. That's why your response cannot be
to people.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Even when I preach, I love you, but I can't
preach for you.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I can preach to you, but I can't preach for you,
because the thing that I say that you need to
hear might make you cry us their arms and get
an attitude. Well, sit back and take it, honey, because
if God sent it, I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
It all right. Now watch this.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Let's show one more thing so he shakes up the
snake they think he's gonna die, doesn't die. And cool
place to end dis sermon, I think, but I want
to give you something that will maybe help you. Let
me just see from a show of hands, is there
anybody in here who has found yourself in Malta recently?
(29:37):
It could be a season, it could be Malta represents, yeah,
that stuck place. I think these are the kinds of questions,
generic questions that people ask because we know that it's
guaranteed to get one hundred percent participation. I mean, who
doesn't feel stuck from time to time? And that's kind
of the point, isn't it is that we all must
go through Malta. Wow and Paul at this point, and
(30:00):
the story has a decision to make misery or mission.
Misery or mission because we already read that it was
rainy and cold, we already read that it was unfamiliar.
We already read that the man almost died, and now
he has a decision to make, and so do you
about this season of your life. Paul didn't decide to
(30:23):
go to Malta. Now he has to decide what to
do while he's there. And he can sit and wait
to get off this stupid island, or he can.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
He can do on Malta what he did in Jerusalem,
all right, So so Paul, they think he's a god.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Now, right, So they're like, they're like, hey, this guy's important,
and apparently the chief of the island hears about.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
It, and he wants to have dinner with this guy
who can survive a snake bite.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
So your opportunities in life will be the byproduct of adversity.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
That you go through. And he gets invited to the
home of.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
The official on the island because he was able to
stand up under the trial. You keep praying for the opportunity,
but you don't want to stand up under the adversity.
So somebody say it had to happen. I had to
go through something. I had to prove perseverance. That's the
only way my faith could grow to enable the opportunity.
So there was an estate nearby look at this. In
(31:39):
verse seven, there was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius,
which is incidentally a baby name that is available to
any of you who are looking for something to name
your child that will get them beat up. And this
guy's important, and he wants to see the guy who
was able to stand up after the snake and survived
(32:01):
the shipwreck, and he welcomed all of them into the
home and showed generous hospitality for three days. And I'm
imagining Paul's thinking this is nice. But at some point
during Paul's stay he learns that Publius.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Has a problem.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Touch somebody say, Publius has a problem, And Publius's problem
is about to become Paul's opportunity because Publius's father was
sick in bed with the Malta fever.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
And it's bad.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
He's got temperatures in dysentery, and Paul, when he heard
about it, went in to see him. Now the way
I picture it, and maybe I'm using too much imagination,
but I imagine that they're sitting down to a meal
and Paul sees somebody wheeled into the room and says,
who's that, and Publius says, it's my dad, and Paul says,
(32:58):
what's wrong with him?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
And Publicia says he's sick and there's nothing we can
do about it.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Imagine about right here is where Paul started smiling, which
seems kind of weird, but maybe this is the moment
that Paul realizes there was a reason I went through
the storm. There was a reason the hurricane hit. There
was a reason the ship had to break apart. There's
a reason we had to run aground on Malta.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Paul said, can I see you? Can we have a moment?
And the Bible says that when Paul went in to
see him, he prayed for him. Wow, and watched the
next part. You can love this. You look kind of military.
Can I use you for an example? Sit down, everybody,
(33:48):
sit down. Paul went in.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
And prayed for him, and after prayer, somebody say, it
had to happen. Come on, Missouri, it had to happen.
You had to be here at this sermon today. There's
something God wanted.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
To speak to you.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
You had to be here with the zz top beard
go to You had to be right.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
There in that section. And Paul put his hand on Publius'.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Dad's head, and when he put his hand on his head,
the Bible says he was healed, which is a miracle
all in its own. But what made it even more
amazing to me was to realize that the same hand
that the healing came through was the same hand that
(34:48):
had a snake hanging from it just three days ago.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Oh, come on, you all start praising God right now.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
What you went through? That didn't tell you that? So
let me have your check station. Paul says, I can't
keep the snake from biting me. Touch somebody say it
had to happen. The other day, Abby came up to
(35:19):
me and she said, Elijah.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Just bit me. I said, did you bite him back?
She said no, sir.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I said, go upstairs and tell your brother. You can
bite me again if you want to. But Daddy said
to tell you, if you bite me, I bite back.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Now that might not be good parenting, but this is
good preaching. Somebody tell the devil I'm bite that, I'm
bite back. Same hand that the snake bit became the
(36:02):
hand that the healing came from.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
What did you go through that you wish you wouldn't
have gone through? That you never should have gone through
I came to declare over your life. It does not
matter the reason. What matters is your response. You're on Malta. Now,
Malta is what you make of it. The Bible says,
after he laid his hands on that man's head, word
(36:25):
got around.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
The whole island.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
This guy's got something, This guy's got something.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
This guy knows somebody.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
When he put his hand on the father's head, the
Bible said, the whole island came and all of a sudden,
now Publius had to turn his house into a certain building, and.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
The whole island got healed. It had to happen. It
had to happen. It had to happen. Island got you.
I'm sorry I messed up your hair, but it had
(37:04):
to happen.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
I feel like I got something on me right now
to tell somebody the release. It's about the release.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
When Paul was going through the storm, he said, we
must run aground on some island. Somebody say it had
to happen, and Paul thought he needed Malta. But it
turns out Malta needed Paul.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
There's a purpose for it. I don't need a reason.
I got a revelation. God is with me. He is good,
he does good. It had to happen. It had to happen.
I'm not saying God did it. I'm saying he'll use it. Now.
(38:09):
What are you gonna do on Malta? That small place.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
You've been changing diaper still and like nobody appreciates you.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
That's your Malta. You've been praying for a ring and
you can't even get a text back. That's your Malta.
I never wanted to be on Malta, but Paul said,
now that I'm here, who can I heal?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
A matter of fact, y'all got any more snakes? I
wish another snake would bite me because if that much
power could come from the pain, who.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Else can I heal? Who else can I heal? God? Won?
Did you bring me desmoss me Malta?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
And while they were getting ready for a wreck, God
was positioning them for a revival.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
This is the mistake that turned into a miracle, that
turned into a mission.
Speaker 6 (39:29):
And I want you to know today, whoever is for
the forty eight percent of you that God sent me
to preach to, who are spending three months on Malta
right now?
Speaker 2 (39:41):
I want you to know that your supply is in
your assignment. Did you get it over here? Your supply
is in your assignment. He could have sat there on
Malta moping about what he went through on the age
at sea, but he turned it into a mission and
(40:04):
the whole island got healed. Maybe what you went through
wasn't even about you. Maybe it's generational. And that's what
I told my dad before he died. I said, I
know your life was hard. I know it was a
living hell. I know your father abused you.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I know you had to suffer through many things, but
you broke it. You broke it.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
It had to You had to go through it so
I wouldn't have to, so I could preach, so I
could stand Sometimes it's not about us. And Bull decided
to bite back, with his hand still swollen from the
(40:54):
snake bite, sucked that.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Poison out and turn it into power.
Speaker 7 (41:07):
I thought, am I calling the sermon? I'm bitter, but
I'm not bitter. I'm a pretreci that in three years.
I'm appreciate that in bars, in battles in two weeks.
But for now, God wanted you to know that it
had to happen.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
It had to happen, even the rejection. My friend said,
do you really believe that it had to happen?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
And I said, well, I don't know, but you know
what I choose to It made me who I am.
What I went through, it made me who I am.
I want to look in the.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Camera because we have fourteen locations right now, and I
want you to stand on your feet at every location
and realize that healing is in your hands. That God
brought you to Malta, and when you're in the middle
of a storm, it seems like there's often no sense
(42:20):
of guidance, and when your boat is being blown around
and you have no control over it, it's a scary
thing to be out on the Mediterranean Sea with nothing
to look at for light, and to arrive at a
cold place only to be met by the sting of
a viper.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
I've been there before in my own life, but God
sent me with a message for you today. It had
to happen because while the wind was controlling the boat,
God was controlling the wind. I'm not saying he did it,
(43:07):
but if God allowed.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
It, you can accept it. And if you can accept it,
the very place where you were injured will be the
very place that your purpose comes forth.
Speaker 8 (43:20):
From It had to happen. It had to happen, even
the mistakes. It had to happen because God needed me
here in Malta.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Right now, Father, I have declared your word to your people,
and you have promised your blessing upon it. Father, I
pray that today would represent a shift in the perspective
of everyone who has seen themselves as stuck on Malta. Church,
(44:06):
I want you to repeat this out loud after me.
It's a paradigm. Chief say, I'm not stuck. I'm stationed. Now,
clap your hands and give God praise that He's got
you right where. Come on, He's got you right where
he wants you. There is an assignment on Malta with
your name on it. Even if they did it, God's
(44:28):
gonna use.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
This is my Malta.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
And the Bible says in verse ten that when they
were ready, when the assignment was completed, they honored us
in many.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Ways, and when we were ready to sail, they furnished
us with the supplies we needed. God said, if.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
You'll do what I put you there to do, I
will give you what you need for where I'm taking you.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Who is this message for this is my mam, This
is my mall.
Speaker 8 (45:02):
Tom.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
I'm done crying, I'm done regretting, I'm done wishing.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
God here, I am lit your asks. God, you brought me.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
Here to this season, to this comment dot doll therecle,
this is me.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
This is my thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
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