DEC 11 2016

Sea Change Church · Adam Stadtmiller · December 11, 2016
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Hey, good morning church. Good to see you. And whatever you did was gone. Keep doing it. It's going to solve it. So good. Well, yeah, you have your Bibles there. We are in Acts. We're coming to the end of the book of Acts. We've been in Acts since January. We're going to have a couple departures from that along the way. We have watched the beginning of a group of people starting to form a church.

At the beginning of Acts, Jesus said, go to Jerusalem and basically pray and see what happens. And what has happened now is many years later, we have gone through much joy, much tumult, much persecution, and many victories. To see this church rise out of the ashes of the cross. Let's just think about that. It's pretty radical that when Jesus dies, that you would believe that a church, that what would happen this year's believer, or the fact that we're here today, or the fact that Christianity and the Christ following has gone through about 2,000 years, that that would happen from the ashes of the cross.

The cross was made, you can see, as a shipwreck in Jesus' life. It was a time where it looked like all was lost. It was a time where it looked like the mission of Jesus was dead. But from the midst of that, God came in and rescued the story. God came in and rescued his son. In the midst of that, he rescued all the man running from sin. We're going to be looking at, as Paul comes in, just this week in Exodus, we're finishing Acts next week.

And we've got to skip ahead a few chapters. Paul has gone to Jerusalem. He's been a tribe, and he has appealed to seek the season. Now, this is really important. And the reason being is because Paul's a Roman citizen, knows how to leverage who God has made him to be. Whether that is his own personal gifts, or whether it is the position that God has put him in.

We call his inheritance. Part of that was being a Roman citizen. As a Roman citizen, if you were under trial, in certain instances, you would have the opportunity to apply, or to ask to come before Caesar. Now, this was phenomenal, because one of the things Paul's mission was, was to see the entire Roman Empire, the entire world, come to acknowledge who Jesus was.

So, not only did Paul get out of a bind and a fix, where he was in Jerusalem, and then being sent to Caesarea, but what he was able to do, was to get an audience with the most important figure in the world at that time. Paul was getting an audience by doing this, to stand before Caesar. As we look later in Scripture, we see that he did actually have a chance to go before Caesar before he died.

We're going to talk about how he's journeying and being sent. God has a purpose for him. God has his own purpose to make sure that Paul completes his purpose. One thing we've talked about in the lab here is this. It's never been about your purpose. The church is intoxicated. Christian Publishing, which I'm a part of, is intoxicated with giving you the jewel of your purpose.

Making it all about what God has called you to do. What does he have thought about that? It's never about you. It's never about me. It's always about Christ in us, and Christ's purpose for us. Let me say that nothing can stop the purposes of God. So Paul has been called to make it to Rome. In the midst of that, he knows that he's been called to this.

The enemy, or just my circumstances, are doing everything in his power to stop Paul from accomplishing his purpose. And we see here that he comes upon a shipwreck. He's bitten by a viper. All these things are happening, but nothing can deter him. Let's say, what would it look like if you just quit worrying about your purpose and just realized that God had a purpose for you?

A God, it says, that he isn't one that figures out your steps. And you don't have to worry so much about your purpose. Your purpose is to know Christ. Because anything that we are called to do is for one reason. That we might come to know Jesus more. Your entire life is a story that you might come to know God in a deeper way. This is what Paul is about.

Paul, through every incident in his life, is asking, how can I know you more, Jesus? That is the purpose of this life, to know Jesus. Now, as you know, I just got back from three weeks away, which is awesome. And I don't know about you, whenever I'm on vacation, God tends to speak to me through some, I mean, the way he speaks to me is different.

He speaks to me more through movies. Like, you're going to a cabin, and they have all these movies, like, at a cabin. And you think about, all of a sudden, there's these really profound things that happen. Well, we were ten and a half hours on a plane, and I watched a bunch of movies. And God just began to weave the story of what he's doing in my life, what he's doing in the world, as I watched it.

And I tend to cry. I'm a crier. I'm a crier. I'm a huge crier. And your daughter's looking out, right, in movies. My daughter's looking over, and I'm watching The Last Sandball. That's a phenomenal movie. Well, I want to talk about, like, let's back, Tom Cruise, you know, train. And I can't, because I look back, there's so many of his movies, and I really, really like it.

I'm talking about it a lot. He just started talking about it. It was a worthy career. Okay? I'm watching The Last Sandball. Awesome movie. I won't ruin it for you. But at the end, when the guys die, I'm not saying it. I'm just weeping. I'm like, stop those. You know what I mean? And I'm holding on to the freaking CK, and she's coming by here and getting food in my body.

So looking at me, like, what's the only one? And I got far from the maddened crowd. Have you seen that? Oh, what a great love story. Love that. Yeah, I didn't watch that. Right through that. God didn't see if you do that. As I did watch that Sandball, I did think about courage and honor. It was funny because every day on my computer, I have a scripture that comes up.

And with that week's scripture that I had there was Be Strong and Courageous out of the book of Joshua. It's a scripture that's really important to me. And I thought about, what does it look like to bring honor back into Christianity? I mean, you know, this is not a value we speak about that often anymore. Back, you know, in the Knights of the Templar days and all these things, as I looked around, virtue and honor were such a huge value.

We don't see spoken about that. I see this in all these different churches. So God began to speak to me, and that came across the life of Pi. I don't know if you've seen the life of Pi. But a boy ends up shipwrecked on a boat of life raft with a tiger, a hyena, an orangutan, or tan, if you're going to, you know, my wife would direct me, or an orangutan and a zebra.

I don't know if you've seen that movie. In this whole movie, he ends up and he splosses at sea. And at the end of it, he, you know, I won't ruin the whole thing, but the question is, is he going to survive? Let's say that as I watched that movie, I began to think about shipwrecks. As I was looking for what I was going to preach about when I got back, I became enthralled with the idea and the metaphor of a shipwreck.

Maybe you have experienced a shipwreck in your life at some time. You're currently going through one now. And I began to think about how do we maintain ballast? How do we maintain anchor when the seas begin to get rough on our lungs? You know, I think about what we are doing here as a church in La Hoya and how, you know, we are definitely trying to reach the physically impoverished as we go with Joe Brandy and others to missions work, workers' orphanages.

But if there was a need in La Hoya, I mean, San Diego is the most part, although we have a huge homeless issue, part of the largest homeless population in the United States. One of the things I see is that we really didn't have an ability to make a difference as a church. We're really emotionally involved. I believe that things like anxiety, things like depression, anti-bipolar, suicide, these are some areas where the church can begin to help people find anchor.

I'm going to say nothing is as good as an anchor is facing Jesus. That Jesus, if you have found, is the anchor to our lives. So I want you to think about the shipwrecks you've gone through and how you've gotten through those times in your life. Maybe you didn't weather through them very well. Maybe you're in a shipwreck now or you're riding something coming down the pike.

But what I want to focus on today is this, is how to find anchor in the midst of the storms and what to do when there's a shipwreck. Now here you can find Paul again, once again, getting into trouble. He has had a shipwreck. He's been on the ship, I think it was two weeks. He had a storm last, I believe, for two weeks. He had missions in the midst of it.

An angel came to him in chapter 27 earlier and spoke to him and said, this is your purpose, do not fear in the midst of a storm. I have a purpose for you. Paul understood this, but it didn't mean that Paul wasn't discouraged. And we know that he said many times, he said, I was greatly encouraged by the angel coming, or someone, a friend of his having gone along, or scripture who's encouraged, which means at one point, he was discouraged.

I want to say discouragement is one of the keys of storms. It's not a key, but it's one of the trade parts of storm. That when you were in the storms of your life, when I had a storm in my life, the enemy wants to batter you with discouragement. And through discouragement, he wants you to make your decisions based on discouragement. Let me say that again.

The enemy wants you to make, when you were discouraged, your decisions based on discouragement rather than hope. You say, you know, one of the things that I was talking about on my benches is, when you're tired, when you're angry, when you're discouraged, don't make decisions. I say that is a great lesson. To make sure that you can find anchor, and make sure you get, you know, you can get anchor, tender to something, where you feel the stability, or begin to feel the waves of hope, or the breath of God in your life, and in your sails again, or the calming of the storm.

It is in those places that you make our decisions. And so all this year, we're finding shipwrecks again. This is one thing that's not in your notes that I want to say, about shipwrecks as we go on. Shipwrecks happen for many reasons. We say that. There are a lot of reasons shipwrecks happen. You can cause your own ship to sink. Some people are really good at self-sabotage.

And I was a person that was really good at self-sabotage for so many years, because I didn't know how to live in success. I did not, I was terrified of living in success. And so the first 10 years from my marriage, we're married 20 years this year, the first 10 years from our marriage, I think you feel really good, I had to go screw it up. And I didn't even realize I was doing that.

I mean, I never had that. Things are going well, and you just go and mess it up, just for no reason. I found subconsciously, and a few of words, they kind of prayed for me, and God would get a word, and I was at this conference of God. I can't get it, and show me, why do you do that? Why are you afraid of living for everything that I called you to be?

You know, one of the things I mentioned, as I went to Joshua the first year that I was here at the church, is it's much harder to live in the promised land than it is to live in the wilderness. We can complain of the wilderness, but the wilderness lacks giants, and as you look back at those things, it's oftentimes easier to live in the wilderness than to live in your full potential.

And I've been terrified my entire life, or I've been terrified to live in my full potential. It's so much easier just to be C+. No one in the body's age just kind of cruising on through the wall was not that kind of person. And oftentimes, these shipwrecks will happen because we cause them. Other times, storms, if you have nothing to do, just show up.

There's a health issue. There's a health scare. Or sometimes you've been attacked. You're going to fire to the Caribbean, or firing a missile at you. Someone has attacked you. There are so many reasons for storms to come and bring shipwrecks in our lives. And so, this is funny. Like I said, shipwrecks happen in life for many reasons. And every shipwreck, if you are with God, has an intended reason.

Can you say that? Shipwrecks, if you are in this room, or if you have been in a shipwreck before, happen for many reasons. But with God, every shipwreck has an intended reason. It means he has a purpose for that suffering that you are going through. He has a purpose, and he's there alongside you. So the question you ask, in the shipwreck of life, or in the tumble, or in, as they call it, the cropping bubble.

I was in Australia. They say the cropping bubble, the cropping foam of the experience of your life that you're going through. In the midst of that, what is the purpose? And what does God do? Here's the main portion of the day in your notes. Where it'll be called the incredible ability, incredible, incredible ability, to stay anchored during the storms and shipwrecks he encountered in his life.

Why don't we do that again? Because he had an incredible ability. Because he was, I mean, the enemy was after this guy. And God allowed these things to happen. He even said to Paul, I will show you how much you must suffer for my name. And that's not something I want to hear at the beginning of my Christian German, right? But Paul hears this. And he is an archetype of, like many biblical figures, going through the same things Jesus went through.

Being beat, being lashed, being killed for his faith. He was not crucified. And he was not, you know, Peter was. As you look back, whether it be Moses, Elijah, the characters of the Bible, oftentimes, even Ruth, you look back and you will see elements of the life of Christ in their lives. They're going through the same thing. And Jesus intended to do that so that there would be a thread of continuity through the scriptures to show that we've attached the sufferings and the challenges and the joys of our life to him.

And so Paul here is in a shipwreck. He has this incredible ability to stay either anchored or to find rescue. We sang that song together where Chris is. But when we come and sing again, I want to sing that song about being rescued again at the end of the service. Because Paul found his rescue in Jesus. Look at Hebrews 16, if you would. It's in your notes.

And I want you actually to go to the part at the end that says, We have strong encouragement. It says, We have strong encouragement to hold fast to what? The hope set before us. And this is something that Paul, I'm not sure that Paul wrote in the book of Hebrews, but this is one thing that Paul always had before him. Paul had hope set before him. What is the hope?

That one day I will reign with Christ forever. He said, We have five of the writers who have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. For we have this assurance that that's what? What's the word there? Anger. For what? Our soul. Not just a good thought, or not just an encouragement because a check came in the middle you didn't expect, where all of a sudden your emotion, your mind, and your spiritual life is bullied because of some good little thing that happened or something you're looking forward to.

The hope in Christ. Believe that no matter what, the final answer is this is your trunk car. I think my daughters would go for multiple hours in the car. And, you know, they would argue back and forth. They would play this game where, you know, you try to challenge each other to come up with an answer that's better. And then at the end, a mother would say, Well, I'm a nice little girl now.

It's your trunk car. You know what I mean? I don't know if you're my little sister. And so on. So you just put the trunk car down. You know, a little bit of a loose ever. A regular basis. I want to say in the situations that in our life, one of the important components is that when you get done running after all the possible fixes, I don't know if you're a fixer.

You know what a fixer is? You live in another country and a person you hire, you're called a fixer. We often touch upon you the fixer of our life. But when all of those come to the end, which God often does, I don't know if he's really good at that. It's like I go to one issue, I'll fix it, it doesn't work. Keep doing it, keep doing it, I'll figure this out, whatever it is.

And then all of a sudden you just stand, there's nothing else. And then I come down to one thing, and this is the moment, that in the end, I'm going to end up with Jesus in heaven forever. That he is coming, I am his beloved son. And he wants to stand, and turn to you. I think there's a song there earlier as we were singing, that says that they might be dark, something said earlier in the service, he wasn't willing to have heaven without us.

Something close to that is there. That's the trunk car. And speaking that out in faith develops maturity in faith, and develops perseverance, and develops hope. So let me just give you the first little tool of Paul's life before we get to the four quick points. It is when push comes to shove, and when all the fixing that you have tried to do no longer works, and you come to the end, if you stand on the assurance and say, even if I can't feel it, because faith is not an emotion.

Faith brings emotion. Faith is beyond emotion. Okay? So feeling faith is great if you feel it, but faith doesn't need to be felt to be had. Faith, it says, in the Hebrews, is a substance that is unseen, and it can mold you being harvested from heaven. And where are you sourcing? One of the things that I, I'm very sourcing faith, because one of the things that happen when we're in England is they have phenomenal farm-to-table food, and that really farm-to-table food, like, like, I was going to say, I had an egg today, it was not yellow, you know, it wasn't yellow anywhere, I had real eggs over there, I can't tell you, the color of the egg, and I ate it, I was like, boy, my mom's egg today.

They source their ingredients, and it makes it better. Let me ask you, where are you sourcing your home from? Where are you sourcing your peace from? Where are you sourcing faith from? These are supernatural components, and through scripture, through prayer, through relationship, these things are sourced from heaven. These are the things that we find anchoring, and so faith brings an anchor, and I hope you look at the big question today, and on your notes, you'll see it.

Where have you placed or set your anchor? Right now, where is your anchor set? Where is your peace coming from? Is it because your marriage is good right now? Family's good? Got a great job? Money's coming in? Your health is good? Are these the things? Those are great. Those are great blessings. They're amazing. God, have kids as those things, and they should, as Proverbs knows, allow us to feel some margin of peace and security.

Those things are meant to be a security, a strong family. But is that for your anchor? Well, I would say those things should be, perhaps, the chain that goes to the anchor. But where are you finding your anchor? When push comes to shove, and I find so often about that, I'm sending my anchor in how well I'm still. Does that make sense? I look around, I take my daily survey, why happy, happy, happy life, good, we're good there, kids, how's homework, I'm great, is that number in the bank account the number I need to be, because we all have this number, right?

And when it goes below that number, some people's numbers are higher, we all have a number, I just believe this. We all have a number, and it is below you, and you go over that number, it's like, oh, but if it's 10 bucks above that, I don't know how to talk it. I don't know if you have it, but I have it. just as number, I need to be with that number, and I have vacation oftentimes, it's not like that number.

It's really good, it's good to be with that number. I got, I talked to my first like steak with lobster and scallops, and I'm like, you have to eat so it's a rump steak, and I'm like, oh, just eat a piece of chips. But I wouldn't be in the meat steak, I didn't like steak, I had to start anything to eat, you're right, it was my fault, so I'm like, so I'm like, so I'm like, so I'm like, so I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, Relationships.

Love. That's a key point for today. He found it in doing the stuff. I'll explain that in a moment as a John Miller quote. And it quickly found it in prayer. Finding the anger in faith. Number one. Verses chapter 27 at the beginning of the text on the page. Verses 39 through 44. And it's soon the text. We see the fall once again is in a life and death experience.

This was part of Paul's life. Paul's life was constant. Constant difficulty. Paul. Constantly being battered by the sea. As you see in your scripture there. You think that you have it hard. Let it fall. Paul even sometimes would speak about this. In the 2nd Corinthians number 25. He says three times I was beaten with rods. Wow. Once he came up for me.

Three times. Once I was called to the stone. We read about that. Remember? We believe that he actually possibly died and came back to life. He spoke about that in the scripture. But he was left for dead peace. Three times I was shipwrecked. Three shipwrecks? Really? He wasn't even a sailor. He was in all short. I don't know how he got shipwrecked. Three times.

Three shipwrecks. Imagine that. It says, this is the love that freaked me out. I spend the night and day in the book of the sea. I mean, yeah. I don't want to spend the day in the sea. I don't know how I'm going past the break. I'm just like Jaws is going to be in me. My friend asked me to see Jaws. I was like, nine years old? 20 to 70? He was 76. I was seven.

That was a bird in your head. That's the wrong way. Paul found a relationship. He was going to become angry in his faith. In the midst of all that, Paul had a strong conviction that he was loved by God. I think he was going to spend eternity in heaven with him. He had a strong conviction. Like I said, he doesn't need to have a feeling. He had a strong conviction.

And a strong conviction leads to supernatural faith. I want to say when we take the risk to give God 100% more faith. Just 1%. 1% more faith than we're used to. Whether it be in our benevolence to give to somebody. Whether it be in our time. Whatever that faith step may be. God will need us. We always want to live with at least 1% more than we live.

Because if you live 100% of your ability. Then why do you go? We always want to give God a margin to do the unexpected. The supernatural. So pray 1 minute more than you would have prayed. Read 1 more chapter than you would have read. Give 1 more dollars of the ordinance than you would have given. Just something where you just cause yourself to go a little bit underneath that comfortability line I have spoken about.

I've given a little bit too much here. I've given a little bit too much forgiveness. God, you're going to have to show up. Why? I believe in faith that you are God. And that's it. It comes down to when you are at the wits end. In the shipwreck or the storm of your life. That you have the ability to stand and say, I believe. And I confess. I believe in my heart.

And I confess in my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. I want to say guys and gals. That is a spiritual discipline. That will grow your faith with you. That you learn. The first thing that you do where it becomes your first key reaction. Let me say, what's your first key reaction when something goes bad? When I was in high school, it was going to a light cocaine.

It was going to the ball. It was going to marijuana. It was going to a relationship. Whenever things went bad, I had to find some escape in my life. What is your go-to? What's your go-to when you hit a shipwreck in your life? For Paul, it was to stand on faith. The quicker you can get to the spot. When you have a storm in your life. You get a full pump and you're going to launch.

You're going through anxiety. You get those feelings of depression that come on you. Or whatever those things are. But you immediately, before you go to any of your other backup plans. You're backed up. So, have you ever backed up back in the day? Bruce Wayne. And he always got a little something for everything. Why? I got a lot on my back. I got a lot of stuff in my back.

But I find at the end of the day, the thing that I wish I would have gone to you first. The key thing I get on my back is to stand before Jesus and say, God, I believe you. You are in sickness. I can't feel it. I don't see it. I don't know what it is. But faith. And I claim faith. And I ask for faith. And when we don't have faith, the scripture says that asks for faith.

And where do we get it from? We source it from heaven. Just like that guy was sourcing all this stuff from the farm, the local farm. We are to source our faith. And faith is not in motion. Just because you don't feel it, doesn't mean you don't have it. Just speaking faith out is a huge, huge win in your spiritual life. And heaven applauds when you face the storms and giants in your life.

And you stand up. And God sees you feeling alone. He sees you feeling naked and afraid. And all by yourself. And you say, God, I believe if you enable us. And at that point, faith comes. Oftentimes, you will do a promotion. But sometimes you won't. But that is true. Believing in what cannot be seen. Number one, how's your faith? Where are you sourcing it from?

It is in your go-chu. How quickly do you go-chu? Make it your first go-chu. Get rid of that stuff. Number two, relationships. One of the things that Paul oftentimes is not being made credit for is the amount of love. How much love people? Paul absolutely loves people. You know, he said, I've never seen anybody, I've never seen, I've never seen anybody write a book or do a study.

And they never talk about it in my entire seminary. Or maybe you've done a Bible college as well. They always talk about his theology. But Paul's theology was rooted in the greatest commandment. To love God in life. To love people. Paul was a people person. And, you know, he had a lot of disagreement. The disagreement he had often came when he was having to speak to a church about sin.

But if you look through the life of Paul, the letters of Paul are just full of the people that he knew. In the book of Acts, which was, if you're not so wrong, it was written by Luke, not by Paul. But 70 different people, close to 70 people are written about that come in contact with Paul. As you read Paul's letter to the Philippians, what does he always start with?

He starts with reading. And then he also ends, how does he end with a salutation of, hey, tell this person I said hi, tell that person. When you see that he left, go to Jerusalem. He's on the beach of Agurus, our favorite prophet, comes up to him. But it puts the bell to grab. I just like the name Agurus. He doesn't do anything that special. He's going to be the light of the man who's on the hand.

It's a cool name. They come up to him, and it says that they're crying with tears. And they're saying, don't leave us. Why is that? Why did people come around and all of a sudden there was families that would come around and hug him and cry when he was leaving? Because he was an incredible friend. He was an incredible man of God. He would come before you.

He would stick with you. He had faithfulness. He had loyalty. That's another value that is, again, this is just on my top. I look so close right now. What happened to loyalty? What happened to loyalty to a congregation? I'm not just looking for the next job as a pastor. I'm just seeing. To stay in one place for a long time. I saw a lot of the thing.

You saw it on Facebook. This little tiny church, 700-year-old church, and it had a plaque to a guy that said he had been the pastor of that church in that parish. He was like, what, 200 people live there? For 43 years. And I thought, you know, for some guys, it's not about the next book of people. For some guys, it's not about the next book of people.

It's about faithfulness. It's about loyalty. Paul was this kind of person. Always been challenged by what kind of friend I want to be, who I surround myself with. You'll see some of the people that Paul mentions in your notes. I just want to review them yet. But it says we have Timothy, like a son of Paul. We have Priscilla and Aquila. We have the centurions.

There's multiple centurions that come to the faith. That all leads to the faith. There's Philip. There's Barnabas. There's the Bereans. There are the Bereans in that relationship. The Macedonians. Those entire churches. Apollos. John Mark. Our Sabbath. Silas. Irenaeus. Cornelius the centurion. Etc. Etc. Etc. Paul surrounded himself with people. He surrounded himself with people that were faithful.

That were loving. That were rooted. That were grounded. My question is, who are you locking shields with? This is something that Ben and Kai brought this idea of as they spoke. About two years ago. They said, how have you done it? They said, you know, we just locked our shields together. We use that. That's become part of the common language of this church.

I love words. It means so much. But the idea, who do you lock your shields with? Who are the people that you can call? I went through my list of really close friends. I'm like, I want to start calling these guys on a regular basis. Every week, just check in. You're four or five men in my life. I know. When push comes to shove, they'll be there. I have a friend.

I have a couple friends that would sell their house to help my family. I know. I know they do. I believe, am I that kind of friend? Who am I locking shields with? That's, I'm going to say, the shipwrecks of God and the storms of God in your travel and the dinners. Maybe it's time to reassess your friend list. Maybe it's time to reassess your manager list.

Maybe it's time to look and reassess the way that people are at. To think, how am I that anger for people in times of need? Can I be there for that? This is a really important point. And I would love to see some of your work on the friendships of Paul. This was a man who was not just rooted in theology. He was rooted in a relationship. This is the thing that we want to have at our church.

That's why we need to continue to do this. We want you to have you rooted. We want you to have a place where you can come and have rest and be like that's all untreated as part of the planet. Number three. Paul's life was rooted in doing the stuff. John Newberg said, one of the things you want to do is do the stuff. Doing the stuff and going out praying for the sick.

Pray for working with the poor. For doing just the stuff that Jesus did. For doing spiritual things. For giving. For caring. Just being a Christian. This is so interesting. If you look back in verse 28. Excuse me. In verses 7 through 9. We see that Paul has come this year. He's just been bitten by an ass or a viper or something. And it says in the midst of that.

Now in the neighborhood. In that place. In the first chapter. On your notes. Now in that neighborhood. Or that place. Where land is one. You're a chief man. On the island. Named. Who is. Who received us. And entertained us. Hospitably. For three days. And it happened to the father. Who is lay sick. Who was fever and dysentery. And Paul had visited him. And he prayed for him.

And he put his hands on him. And he healed him. And when this had taken place. The rest of the people of the land. Who had diseases. Also came and were cured. They also harvest raven. And were about to sell it. Put it on board. And move that over to you. Paul was bringing up 10 hours away. Yeah. The heat of it. Paul had just been shit broke. Paul had just had to jump into the sea.

Paul had just been bitten by a snake. And in the midst. Of all the issues. That are going on in his life. What does Paul do? He does this stuff. He goes to praise people. When they're sick. He shows up and meets their need. He gives. He's just there. I want to say. One of the things that will keep you rooted. And anchored in your faith. And I know this from my own experience.

Being a pastor. Because I don't really know how my Christian life would be. If I wasn't a pastor. Because being a pastor helps me stay rooted. Doing the stuff. Showing up. Just being a believer. You know. Preaching every Sunday. It's helped my spiritual life so much. I don't know. I'm going to be excited. I don't know. But I know. That being rooted in the stuff.

Has been important to me. It might even be harder. I probably have an advantage. Over the rest of you. That are not doing past the world. Yeah. I have to show the parenting. Not doing things. Absolutely. You know. But when I do. What I've got now. Is it brings me back to center. I want to say. In the midst of your life. You just kind of give up. Until things are going.

Oh. Things are going up. I'm going to shipwreck again. I don't have the desire. Or do you just keep doing this stuff. I want to challenge you. Do the stuff. Get out. Visit somebody when you're sick. I find it. I stay at home often times. My thoughts start encroaching upon me. I get out. I get to church. I start hugging the people. I hear Carol laugh. Whatever it is.

I have some orphans. And by the way. Keep that start for me. I want that. That's where it's from. I'm going to take my table. I'm like. I think it's good. I don't know where I am. Are you doing the stuff? Do the stuff at work. Go to your local coffee house. Dang flowers today. Say hi. Smile. Love Jesus. Pray for somebody. You know. It's funny. We were in England.

And we had a big lunch with some people. We were outside. I didn't know if their friends weren't believers. I was in Sweden while we were over there. And this guy by George Warwick, right? I said. I just said. Hey. I heard you. I said. I didn't even think about it. And so we prayed on the street. Knoxville right there at work. And then I found my kid. A few of them later.

She said. Hey. I just remember my friends. They're not even Christian. I didn't know if I was going to pray for her. But they felt. She felt really blessed about the whole reason for her coming to the medical so you could pray for me. And I was like. Oh. Cool. But I just. I think I just want to do the stuff. Where you do the stuff so much. Where it just becomes second nature.

Yeah. Let's pray for you. You're sick. Let's just do the stuff. So I encourage you. If you're in shape or in your life. Go do the stuff. Get your eyes off yourself. Get another video. What I don't think Paul did. Was prayer. Andy right here. Is it Paul right? Paul is a man of prayer. And I want to say. If you can get in your notes. And we're done. Is this.

Paul's life. Prayer supercharges the results of your life. If you have a job interview. If you pray about it. You're going to get better results than you did. Prayer. Is a steroid for life. Prayer supercharges your life. If you don't pray about the situation. I'm going to read you that back next. Yes. I'm going to read you. Prayer. Every time you pray.

You'll get better results. Even if the result is known. You'll get the known. A better way. Than if you were to pray. Pray about everything. Pray. Pray. Pray. And when you're done praying. Pray again. And certainly better prayer. If you want a marriage. It would be better. Pray. It will supercharge. The results of your life. And finally. Prayer supercharges relationships.

Pray about your relationship. Paul is constantly praying. Pray everyone in the surrounding. You just sit. I know Dick Cotton and Eddie. They have a box of prayer. And he sits and he goes. I'm in the box. You want to get in the box. I'm in the box. And every day. Dick opens up that box. And he prays. He says. I pray for you. I'm not. You have a prayer box.

You know. Listen. Pray for relationships. If you want relationships. You be supercharged. The ones that are going to keep you. The times. The struggle. The times of shit. Right. Pray. Ray for you. You have a relationship. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. facts. rod. Amen. ement. Son. COW.