Protect The Vessel

end of the sermon today. So if you have some anxiety medication in your purse for your disorder that you need to access at this point, that's just fine. But go ahead and be seated. Thank you, team. I love worshiping God with you. I love being the pastor of Elevation Church. Is that bad? I wouldn't pastor another church if I was going to say, if God told me to, But I guess I would if he told me to, but I'd argue with him. I would argue a lot. Such a great joy to be with you. You You know

the world needs these messages right now. We see mass shootings and terror on every side that we turn, and the world needs Jesus. As simple as that sounds, I just want to remind you that everything we're doing here

as a church matters. People tell me about things that were averted in their life because of this church and this ministry, And to be honest with you, that's what keeps me going, pushing through all the self doubt that I experience, or even just the grind of like it's my sixteenth year being a pastor, But as long as God is changing lives, I think it's worth it. I think it's worth it. Today I'd like to give you something from the scriptures that I think could come as

a real preventive measure for somebody. Go to Acts chapter twenty eight right now. No time to waste Acts chapter twenty eight. For the sake of context. Let me actually get verse forty two through forty four in X twenty seven. And the reason I wanted to have you be seated is because this is a little lengthier scripture. But I want to share everything that God gave me with you. We have so much to talk about. The soldiers plan to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from

swimming away. And escaping, but the centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan. That's really cool because they say that it's like cancel culture these days, and you hear a lot about canceling, But the only one who can really cancel something when you want to get down to it, is the one who created it. Therefore, Paul got to live, no matter what the captain of the ship did, or no matter

what the prison guards decided. And it says in verse forty four the rest of the prisoners were to get there on planks or other pieces of the ship. In this way, everyone reached land safely. Now let's go verse one twenty eight. Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta, which means honey. Putting that in there, that's what it means literally or refuge, but literal meaning is honey. Cool. The islanders showed us

unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold, And Paul gathered a pile of brushwood, and as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. And when the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand. They said to each other, this man must be a murderer, for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live. But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered

no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happened to him, they changed their mind and said he was a god. That's how quick people can flip. By the way, there's no better time for me to say this than Palm Sunday. Remember what they were saying on Palm Sunday, Hoseena hosein. But they put the palm branches down Friday, didn't they? When he went to the cross crucified. That's how quick people can change.

The people on Malta did what people do. They changed their mind because they're fickle, because they're finite. Didn't really matter what they thought of Paul, though, because what's what happens next in the story. There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius almost named you that Elijah, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days in this cool How God is taking care of Paul through strangers. Amazing.

How God has favor for you everywhere that he takes you. What's really crazy about the passage, and what I want us to talk about a little bit today, is that God's favor on that island was not disqualified by the mistake that the sailors made in the sea. And so it's one thing to realize that God puts this favor on you when you make good decisions and you're wives, and you quote scriptures, and you had your time with God Jesus in coffee this morning, and you were nice

to everybody. But this is a little different because God's favor was waiting for them in a place where their mistake landed them. And so Paul now gets invited to this dinner with this important guy on the island that they didn't even know the name of a couple days ago, and then an opportunity comes up. Now I want to try to convince you today to become a Christian opportunist, a Christian opportunist, because it says that while Paul was at this dinner, he discovered verse e that Publis's father

was se in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. God was punishing this man for naming his son Publius. Is what I think. Come on, laugh with me the joy of the Lord. Okay, all right? And so Paul went in to see him, and after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. And when this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. They honored us in many ways, and when we were ready to sail, when we were ready to sail, when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with

the supplies we needed. And after three months in a place where we didn't plan to be, we put out the sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollocks. I want to encourage you today to protect the vessel. That's not my sermon title. That's just something I want to say to you from my heart to yours as a pastor. And I know

that seems like a strange thing to say. After reading a Bible passage about a ship that fell to pieces and landed on an island, because, as you saw in the text, like the vessel, as we use that term the ship, the vessel completely lost its former structure. However, that's not really the vessel that God is most concerned about. I think a lot of my problems in my own psychology come from protecting the wrong thing too much, protecting the right thing not enough. I don't mind admitting that

I'm defensive. I was telling a story the other day. Somebody asked me, are you confrontational? I was like, let me tell you. We were going to this one guy who one time was telling me pastors ought to do this, and pastors ought to You were there, but I'm not going to say his name. Obviously on camera, you co can probably figure it out if you thought about it. He goes pastors out of this, and pastors out of that,

and pastors out of that. And the thing is he wasn't doing anything that he said pastors ought to do. So I said, hey, real quick, show me the scripture. This is my Bible. Maybe you got a different one where it says that there's a different standard for a pastor than a regular person. Now, don't cheer for that. That's the stuff that God needs to get out of my heart. What's wrong with y'all? This is a confession, not a testimony. But I'm defensive, right, I'm defensive. I

sometimes protect my opinion, my preference. Let me give you a scripture that Paul said, and I just had this one right before I got up on the stage. He says. And remember Paul is writing this scripture in two Timothy too, at pretty much the time where his ministry is about to close. It's quite possibly right at the same time after this shipwreck. But he's writing this letter to Timothy. This is why I told you to protect the vessel, Paul says in two Timothy two twenty. Do you have

it in the King James? Yeah? Cool. I wanted to use the King James because of one specific word, he says. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, some to honor and some to dishonor listen to this, If a man therefore purge himself from these these things, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, prepared for every good word. If he purges himself from these, he shall be a

vessel that God can use. And I was excited. Now don't worry about it, because, uh, I got a case from my phone. So it's fine. It's fine, you got a case for your phone. I think the cockiest people in the world don't put a case on their phone. You mean you are that together, and that's sure of yourself. And did you hear how they gasped when my phone flew out of my hand. I practiced that fifteen times to try to make it believable because I wanted to show you that we have cases to protect our phones.

How much was your phone? Five hundred dollars, seven hundred dollars, three hundred dollars. We have a case for our phone, which you can get another one off. But but, but, but they don't make a case for your soul, for your heart, for your faith, for your expectation. And you can still use a phone with a cracked screen. It'll still work. But when the lawyer started speaking to me about this message, he said, tell them that they are

spending more time protecting things that can be replaced. I want to use an example because Paul says, to Timothy, these things. Protect yourself from these things. You know what the things he mentions are, you can look it up. He's talking about false teaching. He said, it spreads like gang green. That's disgusting. He said, you got to really protect yourself from those things. You got to protect yourself. One thing he calls it is godless chatter. And see

this is the thing about it. I didn't know Paul had Twitter, so I read him say protect yourself from godless chatter man, he said in one thing he said, avoid. This is the same passage two, Timothy, to look it up later and check check me out. See if I'm telling you the truth. It says, avoid stupid arguments. Avoid

stupid arguments. And the reason that I chose to go off of Acts twenty eight today talking about protect the vessel is because even though the boat that was carrying Paul broke into pieces, it really wasn't as important what was carrying Paul as it was what Paul was carrying. There's a couple ships in the passage. One of them

is nautical, one of them does what boats do. But the other vessel in the passage, of course, is the apostle Paul, who was going to Rome because he had a case double meaning right to stand before Caesar for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so as he's on his way to Rome, of course there's a shipwreck. I've

preached about this before us an amazing story. You don't have time for it today, but there's something in this passage for us to realize that there's something that happens after Paul survives the crash that is even more important than what caused the crash to begin with. I spend a lot of my mental energy trying to figure out why things are the way they are, and a lot of times I can come to conclusions that aren't necessarily accurate.

I've noticed this about myself that a lot of times I connect things, and I think that the reason this happened is because that happened. Right now, I wouldn't consider myself prone to self pity necessarily, but I do have my moments, and even Paul did as a matter of fact, when he was in the storm. Let me just bring this up to refresh your memory. And it became apparent that there was going to be a crash. He tells all the people that are in charge of the ship

the other prisoners. In verse twenty one, Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from crete. Then you would have spared yourself this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost, only the ship will be destroyed. Right which vessel is God interested in protecting?

Read the passage again. He says, you have got to keep your courage even in the midst of really horrible conditions, because the important vessel isn't the one that carried you. The most important vessel or the most important container isn't something that carries you. It is the heart that God has given you, the calling, the assignment, the gift, the ability, the imagination that God has given you to carry something to the world. Now we're not all Paul, so we're

not all carrying what he's carrying. But the significance of this story would apply to anybody in the room. I promise you there is something that you are carrying that only you can carry. I don't know if you see yourself this way or not, but it's like Paul knew that whatever happens to the boat that I'm in, there is something in me. That is more significant to God. So whatever is breaking apart in your life at any given point in time is not as important as what

God has put on the inside of you. So protect the vessel. Protect the vessel. Don't put a case on your phone, but then use the same phone to expose your heart. Do you want me to preach. I'm going to read a poem and go home. I already got the revelation. As a matter of fact, please do not email me about this. I barely even open emails, so it would be pointless. I heard one person one time who talked about how they eat clean, eat clean, eat clean,

eat clean, and all of that. And granted, I have my own certain way that I eat, and I am very very picky, and I am very very I guess disciplined in my own way. But the only thing is I get to eat unlimited bacon on the eating lifestyle that I have chosen that God has given me any forward day through doctor Atkamps, don't email me. I'm not going to read it. But the person that was eating clean, they didn't eat this. They didn't need that. We went to the thing they had bean sprouts and all that's

that's that's that's what I remember. It is they were just eating. But what I remember is they were they were saying all this stuff. They were like, because if you eat this, you get killed with that, and then if you eat fish then you have mercury poisoning, and then if you don't eat fish. So I saw, I sat there and I thought, huh, this is funny because it was. It was. It was an example to me of you are so careful about what you will put in your body. And it's great, it's great study at all.

I know, I know you you know science. That's great. But it wasn't coming from just a place of wisdom. It was all fear based, right, And I read this study and I saw this, and I googled this disease and I YouTube that disease and all this stuff. And I thought, it's funny because you eat clean, but you think crap. This is what I thought. I didn't say this. You eat clean, but you think crap. So you live long, but you hate life. You are protecting the shed, but

you're not maintaining the equipment. You're managing your profile, your image, your appearance. This physical body, it's gonna pray, take care of it, but the real vessel has nothing to do with anything that can be counted in calories or carbohydrates. That's why Paul says, let go of the boat and keep up your courage. It's okay, I got a case. It's all right, It's all right. And then they get to the island and Paul's like, I told you, I told you God was good. This is my besting money,

singing worship songs and stuff. Roh. He had the pirate, the bootleg YouTube version. He had learned it a long time ago. But he said, uh, he said, here, let me help, because these these islanders are being are being nice. So he's like, I don't want to just sit over here and not help. If you're nice enough to build a fire, I'm nice enough to help, and just to read the scripture again. You remember this, Mike, when I preached at twenty seventeen, because this is so good, but

you remember it. But he said, uh, he said here, let me help. And when he was put in the fire, the wood on the fire verse threet a viper driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. Everybody say, on his hand, I vi professing stuff on his hand. So Hey, you ever been trying to help somebody and in the process of helping you got hurt. This is one of the main things you've got to look out for, because I've been in the process before where I thought

I was doing something good. I don't even see you there. It's good to see you. It's awesome because he's like, only trying to be useful, right, and he gets a bit by snake. So at this point, when I was reading the scripture, I had to stop and ask the question, why did the snake bite Paul? I'm going to see what you think about it. You're not gonna just sit there and make me do all the work. Put it in the chat? Why did the snake bite Paul? On three? One,

two three. I don't know what they're saying online, but are y'all speaking in tongues? Is this the Tower of babble? What happened in Elevation Church? It was the devil. That's how the devil is. It's always taking on pull in his weakest moment, wants to take him out so he can't preach this the devil, right, the devil is the snake. Genesis three, the serpent, the symbolism revelations with us. That's all. Like, maybe it was the devil snake bite I guess that's

the devil is No, it was God. It was God that let the snake bite Paul. Because everything happens for a reason. That's why you're you know, people will say it, that's why you went through this. You're single because the Lord is preparing your ship in the harbor, right, like, shut off if I want somebody to watch Netflix with, shut up. It was God. God. It was God that let that snake bite Paul, because well then Paul got to show that that snake can't hurt me. God is

greater than the snake. You know, graves into gardens, you know, right, And so it was God. But it's not that deep, y'all. It says it in the text. It's crazy how many somersaults we will do just to get around what the text actually said. It says the viper was driven out by the heat. It was nothing but a natural consequence of the fire. But watch what everybody was so quick to do. What is all that? I don't know what's going on up there? WA's what God wanted me to

show you. While Paul has got a snake hanging from his hand. This is unbelievable. I can't believe this. This reminds me of church people. Everybody's standing around talking about why he's got a snake on his hand? Did you see it in the text? I hate I don't hate these kind of people. These kind of people get on my nerves. Well, that's why you're going through that, because you know, if you would have raised your kids on the books that I read, then your kids wouldn't be

struggling with this. Well, when I raised my kids, we had prayer times at eight thirty for Matthew eight thirty. I don't know what Matthew eight thirty says, and we would sit around and if you would train them up, that would have been. Now, it says that the islanders were kind, they build a fire. These were not evil people, even though they were strange people. But something in even the nicest human heart has a tendency to want to

do this. In the scripture, it says that while a snake was hanging from Paul's hand, while a snake was hanging from the Man of God's hand while he was this could have killed him Verse five. Now verse four, because we will never get the verse five. If Paul would have listened to what they said in verse four, this could have killed Paul. This this, this, When the Islanders saw the snake, they said, this man, yeah, must be a murder. Now they are interpreting his identity through

the lens of an event. If this is happening, then you must be this man. The pointer finger, the pointer finger. It's like the logo for a lot of Christianity, those people that lifestyle. This man, if he was a good man, he wouldn't be going through this. If you had not wasted that season of your life, then God could have blessed you like that, if you would have listened, if you would have been in church, if you would have da da da da. I never saw any power released

through a pointing finger, personally, I never saw it. When you read in the Bible, you read a lot about the hand of God much more than the finger of God. This kills, this kills, this heals. So while we're talking about the devil, let me tell you what Satan means. Accuser. That's Satan's logan, not God's. So if it's like this, that's probably not God. Don't get me wrong. There comes a time for strong teaching. I had somebody tell me the other day, I love you because you scream at me,

said you're welcome. I think are doing that, they said when I was preaching. It wasn't like a personal thing they were saying, they preaching. I just want to clarify that it could be taken the wrong way. But but but God, God isn't really He certainly could have done that to Peter when he does this stupid get out of the boat trick. Right, Oh, coman Lord, not very far, you're not. But I didn't see Jesus do that to Peter.

I saw him do that. What you have to decide in this moment of your life is between the pointing finger and the healing hand. That's my title, the pointing finger and the healing hand. If Paul believes what the people say about him in this moment, he dies, that's true of some of you. In fact, the problem with a ship comes not when it gets in the water,

but when the water gets in it. So I had to realize that protecting the vessel in my life means not believing everything that everybody thinks about me, including me, including me. The most dangerous and sabotaging form of this does not come from other people's finger in your face. If the enemy has his way with you, he will have you in the mirror saying this is the problem. It's me now. The next thing, you know, you don't

even see a way forward anymore. And what got me about the passage is it is not guaranteed that Paul is going to survive if he holds on to what is hurting him. Now, I want you to imagine this against the context of Exodus four. Exodus four is God calling Moses another great man of God, another man of God, even in spite of his own proclimities, like he was a murderer. They're pointing their finger at Paul. This man's

a murderer. He's not, He's a messenger. Moses was a murderer, he killed an Egyptian trying to do God's will his way. But God didn't come to Moses' pointing. He asked him a question in Exodus, for what is that in your hand? And Moses said, what I have in my hand is a staff, and it's a very common object. Now here's the contrast. For Moses to see God's power, he had to throw down the stick and it became a snake, got it, got the picture. For Paul to see God's power,

he had to throw down the snake. What I have done to myself in some seasons of my life is I have held on to what was hurting me. How long are you gonna let a snake have free rent on your hand? It's just a question. Because I get disappointed too, I get offended too. I get bitter too. One of my titles that I thought I shouldn't call this sermon was bit, not bitter, because here's the way I was thinking about it. It can't kill you if

it only penetrates the skin. It can't kill you. If all it does is break the skin, it only kills you. The snake only kills Paul if he allows the venom to get in the vessel. That's the only way it stops you. That's the only way. It's a surface wound if you do this. No no, but but we make trophies out of our trials, and we hold on to them so tightly, and we overidentify with the events ourselves

so that we become identified by our experiences. When we start saying to ourselves what the islanders were saying about Paul, you must be a bad woman, You must be a screw up, You must be trash, you must be worthless, you must be slow. What's wrong with me? You have you said that a lot lately? What's wrong with me that nobody wants to be with me? Why doesn't anybody stay in my life? Why doesn't anybody want to be around me? Why don't the things that happen for other

people so easily happen to me? Why can't I be happy like they're just over there so happy? That's not God, that's not God, that's not God. This is why is the enemy's primary strategy, accusation, because if he can keep you doing this, you never do this. So here's how resentment works. Paul, in this moment, this is so stupid that I'm on this island. This is so stupid that you know the fire. Nobody else got bit by a snake. I mean, think about what Paul could have said in

his heart, all these other prisoners. I must God must be punishing me. And that's what everybody else is saying. Maybe they're right. I went through a season in ministry where so many people were saying a certain thing about me. I started to act like I had to prove them wrong. And so a lot of my ministry, if I look back through a certain season, was me here being like I do study my Bible in the Greek, in the Hebrew,

in the big Latin. I'm busting out every language I ever learned, hieroglyphics, just to get you to see I'm not what you think I am. Because I said, yeah, he's an entertainer, he's a thing. But when I look deeper, it wasn't what they were saying that had the power to contain me, control me, or limit me in my ministry, effectiveness or humanity. It wasn't. It was will you do well, Paul? Did we do this? Because when you do this, now you can do this? Yeah, pointing fingers or healing hands.

They're watching him so close. They're going, let's see if he gets better. Let's see if they and I don't. I don't think Paul really cared much about the audience at this point because he knew he had an appointment in Rome. So his security and his purpose made him impervious to the opinions of others. Did you catch what God just said to you? There is a sense in which when you know God's hand is on you. When you know that it's God's hand even in the mistakes,

even in the decisions of others. This is what takes us some time to believe that God is sovereign, even over the screw ups of others. All right, let me get to the good part. I appreciate about that a few weeks ago, So let me get to the good part. So the people thought he was gonna die. He didn't. Nothing unusual happened to him. They changed their minds and said he was a god. Now Paul knew he was neither. I'm not a murderer, I'm not a god. I wrote a song lyric the other day. I'm no beggar, I'm

no king. Guess I'm something in between. I want to put that in a song one day, and maybe I will. But I was reading how they're like, he's a god, he's a murderer. He's like, I'm neither. I know who I am. I know I am. Look, God told me who I was. God told me who I was Act twenty seven, before I even went through the storm. God told me who I was. So I'm not looking to you to define me. Now that I'm on this shore

called Malta. I don't even know you'd like that. Watch this in verse twenty three x twenty seven, this is annointed last night, an angel of the God to whom I belong. There it is and whom I serf stood beside me and said, don't be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar. You've got a case in Wrome. So God has graciously given you the lives of all

who sail with you. But Paul wasn't busy doing this because if he blamed those who were responsible for shipwrecking him on this island, he would never see what God wanted to do on the island while he was there. Nah, it's set me free. There's no power in this. When you place blame, you give power. If they put you in the situation, have to get you out. So when Paul does this, it's his way of saying, it's not whose fault it was. That that matters. Some of you

think about me. That matters. The only thing that matters in this moment, in this season of my life is this. Get that fellow over here, man, the one that the snake bit and he didn't die. I want to meet him. Publius didn't ask for any other prisoners, just the one who got bit and didn't get bitter. I'm not just being cute. I would have been bitter. I would have been like this. You told me to preach, you told me to share the gospel, you said you would protect me,

and I'm the only one who got bid. But this won't get you healed either. You can do it. God's not scared of it. You can do it. It's fine. But when you get done with that, are you ever going to get to this? Yeh? In a marriage? Come here, Hall, in a marriage. I promise you one thing I know well, I'll come to you because I'm just faster. This heels. This kills I'm just trying to help you see something. This kills. It kills communication, it kills empathy. This heels,

I just saw it like a picture. That that's all I need you for me for now. That this is only going to get you to a certain place. And it's important, like all of us can point to something in our life right now that is making us weak. And that's fine. That's totally fine for the snake to fasten itself to your hand. It's not okay for you to hold on to it longer than you're supposed to. We can all point to something in our past that caused the way that we're struggling with a character defect today.

And that's fine. Only guess you so far. The real question when Paul showed up and he got in pup what's his name, Publius? When he gets in his house and discovers that there's an opportunity, Remember, I said, a Christian opportunist, a worldly opportunist is when I see something that looks like a good opportunity, I give my all to it. When I see somebody that I think can give me an advantage, I'm nice to them. That's a

worldly opportunist. A Christian opportunist realizes that the great strengths hide in weakness. So a whole island gets healed because of a sick man. The sick man only encountered the Great Apostle because of a snake bit hand. Let make sure you see the connection. Why did the snake bite Paul on the fire? It doesn't say God made the snake bite Paul. Paul determined after the fact that he would use this too. I want to say to somebody and I feel like it's not somebody who's in the room.

God's going to use this too. We all know about the ship that carries us to God's purpose, the ship that gets us some places. But the snake took Paul to Pooblice's house. God's going to use this too. I say he cost it. Don't put the words in my mouth. I didn't say he cost it. God is going to use this too, And I want you to make the confession out of your mouth by faith. God is going to use this too. So Paul goes this cool boom, this cool poop. Not this, it was your fault. I'm

on this island, you stupid. Would have you ever hit a wall. I've heard my knuckles hitting inanimate objects. Paul didn't punched the wood. A lot of us go around physically, speak of swinging and stuff that can't swing back. Oh it's the government. Oh it's this, it's that. This is only going to get me so far. I gotta do this. I gotta do this. I gotta go have dinner with Philblius and see why God put me on this island

that wasn't on my itinerary. Now, I'm just telling you God said that some of you are going today from a posture of pain to a posture of power. But it's gonna be a different kind of power. It's gonna be a Second Corinthians four kind of power. In Second Corinthians four, the great apostle Paul says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have this glory in messy situations. We have this hope in chopping waters. We have this certainty

in a crazy, chaotic world. We have this treasure in human weakness. We have this confidence in great chaos. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have this healing in snake bitten hands. Yeah. Yeah. He went in to Publius, his father's bedroom, and in Acts twenty eight, he did something really important that I want you to do. Yeah, do you'll have the scripture? I got it. It's good. It's good. It's good, it's good. This is real good.

This is how you protect the vessel. You're ready. He went in to see him verse eight, and after prayer, I want you to pray about it. I am praying about No, you're not you're ruminating. You're worrying about it. You're freaking out. I'm gonna do a sermon maybe after Easter call. You're underthinking it, says, I overthink things. No, you underthink things. You only process stuff at the level of your thought, never at the level of your spirit.

He did something so simple. He prayed because he knew he couldn't give any healing to Publius if he had venom in his own vessel. So as we pictured this, I want you to picture yourself in this season of your life. Here you are, I should be here, I should be there. Pointing at where you should be will not result in progress or peace. We could all do that. I thought i'd be should have been. If they wouldn't have,

then I would have point with both hands. But watch this, after he prayed, I want you to see yourself doing this. When I say it, Paul went in and placed his not just the good hand, the hurd hand too. Does this give you a picture of what God wants to do through what you've been through? Because if it said Paul put his hand on him, I think, well, that's nice.

But when I realized that a snake had been on that hand just a few days ago, I think to myself, God, what do you want to do through the places where I've been hurt? Do you want this? Are you ready for this? Now? I see a hand opening up, But it's not God's hand. His hand has always been on you in every value you've walked in, and every dumb decision you've made, and every bad thing that you've ever believed about yourself, and every bad thing that anybody's ever

done to his hand's always been there. It's never been the question about his hand, how about yours. You're going to walk around with that snake for another year, another five, another decade, You're going to be an old man running around to home snake stories. And with the same hand, the same hand that could have killed him, he became an instrument of revival. The reason that I didn't name my sermon when I started is because you don't always

know what to call it until after it's over. Malta was called honey, but God brought Paul there for healing. Malta means refuge, but God brought Paul there for revival. And I want us to spend some time believing today that when we do this, see you can't do this and this so which one is it going to be. And until you do this, you do this somebody that I'm preaching to. If you can't do this for yourself, do it for your kids. If you can't do the

whole island got healed because Paul didn't do this. When you do this to yourself, when you do it to an event, when you allow your identity to be consumed by an experience, it will always limit the flow of God's power in your situation. So today God sent me with a word for somebody to just know that life begins when you do this, just this, just this. I want you to use botans. Stand to your feet in your living room, stand to your feet in the auditorium,

and just do this. Now, look at me. This kills this heels. This is accusation, This is acceptance. Okay, I'm here, Paul said, I might as well go over to Publius's house. I don't know what they're serving for dinner. But maybe God wants to do something through me. You know how many times God wanted to give me something, but I was doing this. He wanted to give me a solution,

but I was doing this. Then if you do this long enough, you start doing this but God said, just do this, just this, Father, I thank you for your spirit in moments like these. I know they're tender some people, even as they try to push you away in this moment, because it would frankly be easier to keep others at a distance. I thank you Lord that you know all things about me and everybody who's here, and if there has to be a translation. You're telling them what Malta is.

You're telling them what the snake is, You're telling them what Publius's house. You do those things. I can't do them because you know them and love them. But we just wanted to take a moment, before we leave the building, or before we log off and go on to something else, to just do this. Because this heels. We release those who hurt us, not even because they deserve it, but because we don't want to spend the rest of our life attached to something that almost killed us but didn't.

We don't want to be defined by that. So Lord, in the name of Jesus, right now we shake all shame off into the fire, all accusation and all condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus us through Christ, Jesus law, spirit of life. I said you free from the law of sin and death. And we shake that right now like the dirt off of our feet, like the snake off of our hand. It couldn't kill us, It couldn't kill you. That's why

you're still here. Now, you take that same hand that was hurt, that same place in you that was hurt, and you lay it on the next thing that God puts in your life. Because all of the whiz them that God gave you, and all the compassion that he gave you, and all of the healing that he gave you, just like the nail prints in his hand, this will be the place of the greatest relief, release of power in the history of your life. I declare it. I stand in agreement with you for it. I testify other

We have this treasure in earth and vessels. Look at me, Look at me. Protect your vessel, Protect your heart. Don't let it just run around anytime it wants. Don't keep your car cleaner than you keep your heart. Protect your vessel. Because you've got to get there. You must stand trial before Caesar, must do it. Nobody's going to do this for you. What you're carrying is more important than what's carrying. So let the things fall away that have to fall away.

That's all right. Now. What you need for where you're headed is in your hand. What's that in your hand? Should you be holding that? Or is it time for you to receive what God has next for you? I want to hear from you this week. I want to hear it in the comments. I want to hear it on social media. I want to hear what God is releasing in your life and what you are releasing to receive what God has next. I really do. There are teams that go through these comments just to pray for you,

and we want to hear about it. We want to stand in agreement. We don't want to stand there and do this. Get your life together out of pen No, no, no, we're saying this. We're saying this. We're saying this. If we could hold hands, we would. It's controversial to hold hands. But right now I connect with you by faith, and the scripture says if any two of you would touch and agreed, if any two of you would touch and agreed, that's not a physical requirement. That is a spiritual position.

So I come into agreement with you in your life, that you will have the power to shake into the passion of the fire of the spirit of God, whatever has attached itself to your life. Right now, Lord, I lift my hands to bless your people all over the world who will hear this message at different times. This will be a turning point, This will be a moment of revelation. We stand with open hands under an open heaven. We give you thanks for your purpose in Jesus' name.

Put those hands in together. Thank you both. I hope you heard that. I hope you heard it with your heart, not just with your ears. I hope you receive it. Look this all you got to do. Receive this, Receive this, Receive God's grace, his mercy, his wisdom. He has so much for you. Hey, you hear how I preach myself no voice left. I'm sweating through this heavy sweater and I have not much voice left. But I just wanted to thank you. Thank you for giving, supporting, praying. We

love you. It's amazing to be connected with you in ministry. Okay, I'm out of being to say subscribe blah blah blah blah blah. I see you next time. I love you mm hm