Replay | There's Favor In The Fire with Rhet Troxell

He is glorious.

Behold the one who has come for us.

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

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you feel called to make a change in your life,

text changeme to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

Hub City Vineyard, how are you guys feeling today?

What's that?

Oh, I love it.

Well, apparently you guys are ready to go and on fire

because no less than three or four people

from the worship team told me to prepare myself

because they said you guys are ready to receive

the word of the Lord in the house today.

I'm ready.

I can't wait.

So if this is your first time here this morning,

I want to say God bless you and welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

I am not Chris Schlatterbeck, our senior lead pastor.

My name is Rhett Trox.

I'm actually the worship pastor here at Hub City Vineyard.

But Chris has given me the incredible opportunity

and privilege to come and deliver a word to you.

So if you've been in the church for any decent amount of time,

you know that Chris does not take Sundays off.

So I consider this a very high blessing

that he has entrusted me with his platform.

And so I hope that I'm able to deliver on all

that God has for you today.

So I want to tell you a little bit about my preaching style.

And I want to ask a favor, see if you guys will help me out.

So as I preach, as I teach, as I talk, I love participation.

So this is the house of the Lord.

And I believe that our God was a radical God.

He was full of energy.

He was full of excitement.

So if I say something this morning

that resonates in your heart or in your soul,

I'm here to tell you it's OK if you want to clap.

All right?

It's OK if you want to give me an amen and a hallelujah,

because I like to feed off of the energy in the room.

And I hope that I say a few things throughout this Sunday,

this morning, that will just stir something up in you

and allow you to just grasp on to all

that God has for you in this moment.

So once again, thank you to Chris for allowing me

to have this incredible opportunity.

You see, no matter where we are in our current walk of life,

some of us go through things differently.

Some of us experience things differently than others,

obviously.

But I believe that we all share one commonality.

We all share something in our lives.

And that, and maybe we're going through it

right now this morning, but it's that we all

share periods of being in what I call the fire, right?

Being in periods, going through seasons of doubt,

of anxiety, of frustration, of uncertainty, right?

We all go through those seasons.

Some of us process it the same.

Some of us process it differently.

But the one thing that we all share

is that we all go through those seasons of life.

Perhaps you're in a place this morning

where you're going through one of those times, one

of those seasons right now.

Or maybe you've just come out of one of those seasons.

Or maybe you're someone, unbeknownst to you,

are getting ready to enter a season of uncertainty

or a season of what I call being in the fire.

So as you know, we started off a brand new series last week

called The Real F-Words.

And when Chris and Rudy and Carl came to me

and we decided that we were going to preach a series called

The Real F-Words, I thought, oh my gosh,

I don't get to preach very often.

And when I do, you're making me deliver a message on something

called The Real F-Words.

But I was immediately convicted that how many

times you guys believe that the enemy can plant seeds

of doubt in our mind and what God means for our good,

the enemy can try to make us think

that it's for his good, right?

So I believe this morning that we

need to shrug off the thought of the F-word, right?

So clearly we know what that can mean in our society today.

But we're going to be looking at four different words that

begin with the letter F throughout this series in which

we are calling The Real F-Words, right?

So last week was forgiveness.

I get the privilege and the honor

of bringing you the word favor, favor.

A term synonymous with favor can also be blessing, right?

So if God has planted favor in your life,

it could also mean that he's delivering a blessing

or he's giving you a blessing in life.

You see, so many times I believe that we

correlate the presence of trouble in our life

with the absence of God.

We correlate the presence of trouble

with the absence of God.

If I'm going through a season of doubt,

if I'm going through a difficult time,

if I'm going through something I don't understand,

if it's painful, right?

A lot of times in those situations,

we allow our minds to believe that God must

be absent in that situation.

But the presence of trouble does not mean the absence of God.

And conversely, the presence of God

doesn't mean the absence of trouble.

We know that God is with us.

We know that God is for us.

We know that he's with us every step of the way.

But what that doesn't mean, that even

though he's present in our life, it doesn't mean that we will

never encounter trouble, right?

Amen.

In fact, I believe, and this may seem backwards

and may seem counterintuitive to you,

but this is the standpoint of my whole message today.

I believe that God's favor resides more

during the seasons of doubt and the seasons of trouble,

the seasons of being in the fire.

I believe that God hides his Easter eggs of favor

within those seasons of our life.

And that's the title of my message today.

There's favor in the fire.

Come on, say it with me.

There's favor in the fire.

So Justin, if you want to throw up that slide,

the title of my message today, there's favor in the fire.

And my goal, my job, when I'm considering my task

today is to deliver tools into your hands

that you can use to unlock and realize

that God hides incredible amounts of favor

within your life.

And the way that we are going to do that today,

it might be a little unconventional

as compared to traditional messages here

at Hubstead E. Vineyard.

We're going to look at four simple stories in the Bible.

Some of them you may have heard, some of them

you may not have heard.

But we're going to look at four different stories

in the Bible in which characters in the Bible encountered

hardship or struggle or pain.

But I want to show you the favor that God had waiting for them

in that season in hopes to give you the tools to shift

our mindset, to shift our thinking,

and to being able to unlock all that God

has for you in your life.

So if I could tell you that God undoubtedly

had favor for you no matter what walk of life

you're going through right now.

And if I could teach you how to find it,

how many would want to unlock that ability this morning?

You see, those are the types of questions

that us pastors like to ask because it's basically

guaranteed to get 100% participation.

So Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning.

God, I'm so grateful that you have entrusted me

with this amazing opportunity.

God, and that's what this is this morning.

This is an opportunity, not an obligation.

I don't have to be here.

I get to be here.

And Lord, I just pray that you would just

use me as a conduit of your knowledge, of your wisdom,

of all that you have for every person in this room

and watching online.

I pray that you would just allow me to be a vessel of hope,

of wisdom, of guidance coming directly from you.

God, that the words that I speak today would not be all me,

but God, they would be all you.

And Lord, as we walk and we talk through these different stories

in the Bible, Lord, I pray that you would allow us to see how

they correspond, to see how they correlate,

to see how they relate to the seasons of life

that we go through in hopes that we can unlock the favor

and the blessing that you have for us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Everybody say point one.

Point one.

All right, you guys are responsive.

This is going in the right direction.

Our first thought today is that there is favor in your purpose.

There is favor in your purpose.

Now, when I say purpose, we all have lofty goals in life.

We all have a purpose that we are striving to get to.

We all have a purpose that we want to see deployed

or developed in our life.

So if your purpose in here today is to become the CEO

of a multinational banking corporation

and be sitting on billions of dollars, that's great.

That's awesome.

But I'm not really talking about finding favor

in that type of purpose today.

The purpose that I want to highlight

is the purpose that we are living in right here,

right now, in the moment.

Because as my good friend Jack Reacher from Amazon Prime

says, details matter.

I believe that God lives within the details of our lives.

And we all are walking in a specific way.

We're all walking in a specific purpose here this morning.

And I want to show you that there

is favor in your purpose.

The character that I'm going to use to articulate this

is quite arguably my favorite character in the entire Bible.

He's just an incredible man of God.

I actually model the leadership that I

give our worship team after this man.

And he is none other than David.

So undoubtedly, when you hear of David,

you instantly think of the story of him doing what?

Killing Goliath, right?

He's the giant slaying warrior.

But let's take a minute to study David

and obtain some facts on who he was prior to being

the giant slaying warrior.

David was from the tribe of Judah

and was the youngest of seven sons.

And most commonly, David was known as a shepherd boy, right?

We all know David as the shepherd.

David served under the powerful ruler named Saul.

In 1 Samuel, the Bible tells us that when the Israelites

wanted a human king, I say human king,

because did you know that the Israelites were never

supposed to have a human king?

But they wanted to be like everybody else.

They looked around and they saw human kings shepherding

and lording all over the other territories around the world.

And they said, well, we want one of those.

We need to have a physical king here

so that we look the part of everybody else.

But when the people wanted a king,

Saul was chosen because of his masculinity,

because of his stature.

The Bible says that he was chosen because he was a head

taller than everybody else.

Basically, the people wanted somebody that looked tough,

right?

They wanted a Chris Schlatterbeck type of leader, right?

So they anointed Saul to show others

that God had actually anointed him to be their king.

But while David was serving as a shepherd,

another one of my favorite fun facts about David

is that he was a musician as well.

Maybe that's why I like him so much.

He was a musician.

But you see, the position of a shepherd

and a harp-slaying musician was not

something that acclaimed great fame, great power back

in the day.

You see, I just said that Saul was chosen

because of his masculinity, because of his structure,

because of his physicality.

But when Saul disobeyed God and fell out of favor,

it was time for Samuel to anoint a new king.

And here's what the Bible tells us.

1 Samuel 16 through 16, verse 7.

But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance

or at the height of his stature.

For God sees not as man sees.

For man looks at outward appearance,

but the Lord looks at the heart.

So basically, God says, you took it upon yourself

to try to go off on your own and pick

a king that you thought would be valuable to your kingdom.

But take the back seat for a minute,

and let me show you how it's done.

And here's what I love.

Check this out.

We learn that after Samuel learns

that it's none of his top six candidates or qualifiers

of Jesse's sons to be anointed as king, he finds David.

And he realizes that David is the one to be anointed.

And in the quiet and privacy of the living room in their house,

David is appointed as the real king of Israel.

And no one even knows it.

No one even knows it.

So I want to stop right here and expand on this for a second.

I want to encourage someone in this place this morning.

I don't know who has told you that you

don't have what it takes because of the way that you look.

But the next time that you come across somebody who tells you

that you don't have what it takes because

of your physical stature, you remind them

that God chooses based on the heart,

based on the posture of your heart,

and based on who you have been called to be,

not the way that you look.

It's not the things that people can

see that matter in this life.

It's the things that you hide in your heart

and hide in your mind that confirm

who you are to be in this life that really matter.

You see, they thought they had the right king in Saul

because he looked the part.

But in fact, the real courageous king of Israel

was a small shepherd boy.

Come on, touch your neighbor and say, I might be small,

but I can pack a punch.

And sometimes the favor of the Lord

will be found in the quiet living room of your house

where there's no fanfare, there's no grand celebration,

but it comes from you just walking

in the purpose that God has for you.

So back to David, he was a simple shepherd boy,

and the Israelites and Philistine armies were lining up

getting ready for battle, right?

This is where the traditional story of David comes in.

Let me take a minute real quick.

Man, I love the Bible.

I love the Bible and here's why.

I have read this story 10, 15, probably 20 times in my life,

but every time I read the Bible,

you can extract something out of it, right?

I see Ronnie shaking his head, right?

Every time you read a passage of scripture,

God highlighted four words in this next passage

that we're gonna read, four words,

and it completely changed my thinking.

It really made the basis and the foundation of this point

of finding favor in your purpose.

So here we go.

First Samuel 17, 17 through 24.

Now Jesse said to his son David,

take this food of roasted grain

and these 10 loaves of bread for your brother

and hurry to their camp.

Take along these 10 cheeses to the commander of their unit.

See how your brothers are

and bring back some assurance from them.

They are with Saul and all the men of Israel

in the valley of Elah fighting against the Philistines.

So early in the morning,

David left the flock in the care of a shepherd,

loaded up and set out as Jesse had directed.

He reached the camp as the army was going out

to its battle position, shouting the war cry.

Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines,

facing each other.

David left his things with the keeper of supplies,

ran to the battle lines

and asked his brothers how they were.

As he was talking with them, Goliath,

the Philistine champion from Gath,

stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance

and David heard it.

And David heard it.

Those were the four words that God made

just jump off the page when I was reading this.

So we know that David was there living out his purpose.

He was asked to do something and he went to do it.

And then we learn that Goliath steps out

and he begins shouting.

So I think this passage of scripture would have been fine

if that would have been omitted

because by all intents and purposes,

we can infer that David was there.

He was in the moment and he heard it.

But I believe that God specifically put that in the Bible

because he wants to make us aware that David was there

because he was supposed to be there.

And if he wouldn't have been there serving his purpose,

he might not have been able to hear it.

Goliath stepped out from his lines

and shouted his usual defiance and David heard it.

Isn't it interesting that the gateway that led David

to his greatest claim to fame came from him

walking in his humble purpose?

You see, you have to remember

that he had already been anointed as king,

but he's asked to deliver food to his brothers.

Here he is working for Uber Eats or Door Dash

or whatever you wanna call it back in the day.

And God says, you think you're just delivering food,

but watch this, I have a greater calling for your life.

David stepped out in obedience,

carrying the weight of being just living in his purpose

and it led to the gateway of him

accomplishing his greatest claim to fame.

What if David would not have been faithful

in that moment on that day?

What if he would have thought that he was too powerful

or he was too important to be a food delivery boy?

In my office at work, I have a quote

that hangs at the top of my whiteboard.

It says, never think of yourself as too big

to do the little things.

What if David would have thought that he was too important

or too big to deliver lunch

and he would have never heard Goliath shout?

You see, he was obedient, he was faithful in his purpose

and God had an Easter egg of favor lying for him

by simply carrying out the purpose

that he had in delivering lunch.

And the thing that could lead you

to defeating the Goliath in your life

might come during a time

when you're just simply carrying out your purpose.

It might not be pretty, but it's a purpose.

It might not be popular, but it's a purpose.

And it might not seem powerful, but it's a purpose.

You see, delivering lunch to his brothers was not pretty,

was not popular, was not powerful,

but it was the gateway that led David

into defeating his Goliath.

And within your purpose is where God's favor can be found.

David was highly successful and chosen by God

because of two things.

So you can throw up the action step, Justin.

Execute your purpose with skill and heart.

I almost texted Matt Pointer last night

and said I need to change, I need to revise my first point,

but then I realized that that meant Tracy

was gonna have to reprint all the bullets

and so I said, okay, I won't do it.

But I should have made my action step here,

deliver the lunch.

So I want you to write that in your bulletin.

Deliver the lunch, right?

Deliver the lunch.

It might not be pretty, but it's your purpose.

Psalm 78, 70 through 72 said he chose David his servant

and took him from the sheep pens.

From tending the sheep, he brought him

to be the shepherd of his people, Jacob,

of Israel, his inheritance.

And David, here we go, David shepherded them

with integrity of heart and with skillful hands.

He led them, skill and heart.

And then as I mentioned about five minutes ago,

I modeled the leadership of our worship team after David

because of those two things.

The first thing I tell people,

if you would ever wanna audition for our team,

the first thing I say is that you have to have two things

to be on this team.

Number one, you have to be skilled

because I believe that it takes a level of skill

to be able to exhibit the quality of worship

that we have here.

But number two, and number two is drastically

the most important thing,

so you have to have the heart to match.

And if you can adopt those two principles

and extrapolate them into other areas of your life,

if you can operate your purpose here with a skillful hand

and with the right heart posture that God has given you,

I promise you will find favor after favor after favor.

And David shepherded them with integrity of heart

and with skillful hands, he led them.

So our action step today, execute your purpose

with skill and heart.

You see, David was simply walking in his purpose

when God delivered an Easter egg of favor

that became his greatest claim to fame.

Our second point today, there's favor in,

say it with me, perspective.

Perspective, what a powerful word, right?

Perspective is such a powerful word,

it can be a challenging word,

because the last thing you wanna hear

when you're going through a tough time

is for someone to say,

you just need to change your perspective, right?

Nobody wants to hear that in the moment

because it's frustrating, but it is so true.

And it's something that has been just an ongoing struggle,

ongoing battle in my life,

because things aren't always perfect, right?

Things go astray, the train comes off the tracks,

but if you have a perspective on where things are going

and where you are and knowing that God is for you

and with you, our perspective can unlock

a lot of favor in our life.

The story that we're gonna look at within the Bible

is none other than my good buddies, Paul and Silas, right?

So you probably already know the story that I'm going to.

But you see, Paul and Silas had a simple mission

when they were here,

and that was to expand the kingdom of heaven.

They wanted to preach, they wanted to teach,

they were sold out to God.

They wanted to tell anybody and everybody about God

that would listen.

Now at one point in their journey,

they come across a roadblock or an issue,

a hardship, if you will.

So let's go to Acts 16.

Once when we were going to the place of prayer,

we were met by a female slave who had a spirit

by which she predicted the future.

She earned a great deal of money for her owners

by fortune telling.

She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting,

these men are servants of the most high God

who are telling you the way to be saved.

She kept us up for many days.

Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around

and said to the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ,

I command you to come out of her.

At that moment, the spirit left her.

When her owners realized that their hope

of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas

and dragged them into the marketplace

to face the authorities.

They brought them before the magistrates and said,

these men are Jews and are throwing our city

into an uproar.

By advocating on customs unlawful for us Romans

to accept or practice.

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas

and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped

and beaten with rods.

After they had been severely flogged,

they were thrown into prison and the jailer was commanded

to guard them carefully.

When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell

and fastened their feet in the stocks.

You see, this is where the trouble starts

for Paul and Silas.

They're out doing the Lord's work.

They're just doing what they're supposed to do

and they encounter a detour.

You ever been on a road trip and you encounter a detour?

It's annoying, right?

It's frustrating.

Typically it means you're gonna get

to wherever you're going later,

which if you're my wife, you're already late anyway,

so it doesn't matter.

No, but in all seriousness,

the detours of our life are frustrating, right?

It represents some type of trouble, right?

We're human creatures who likes to plan our next step

and we like to have everything set in order

and when we're driving our vehicle

and we come up upon a sign that says detour,

it usually corresponds to a feeling of frustration or anger.

And while detours are inconvenient

and annoying and disrupting,

doesn't always mean that they're bad.

So let's keep reading.

About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying

and singing hymns to God

and the other prisoners were listening.

I love to like envision things

because I'm reading stories in the Bible

how they're really playing out.

So in verse 17, you heard me say

that the jailer put them in the inner cell, right?

That details matter, as I just said.

So they're not like over on the West Wing

where like they're singing

and everyone on the East Wing can't hear them, right?

They're in the inner cell

and I think that was on purpose and here's why, right?

What do you think the culture or the mood

is like in a prison?

Probably not very good, right?

Probably not one that makes you feel bubbly

and happy inside.

So here it is, midnight,

which tells me that people are probably tired.

They're probably trying to get some sleep

and these two knuckleheads, Paul and Silas,

in the middle of the prison start singing.

Wonder what song they sang.

Probably something by Hub City Worship

because they have good taste, I believe.

Maybe Hallelujah for the Cross runs wild, I don't know.

But anyway, here they are

and they start singing praises and hymns to God

at midnight while in the middle of their jail cell.

Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake

that the foundation of the prison were shaking.

All at once, the prison doors flew open

and everyone's chains came loose.

The jailer woke up and when he saw the prison doors open,

he took out his sword and was about to kill himself

because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul shouted, don't harm yourself.

We are all here.

Now let's stop for a second.

As I just mentioned, here Paul and Silas,

bounded, fastened, their feet are cut up

from being fastened in the stocks.

They got stripes on their back from being flogged

and beaten in the middle of a jail cell,

yet singing to God in the midst of their trouble.

You know, wanna know what a lot of us get wrong

in our lives from time to time and I do it too?

You wanna know?

We allow or we wait for the fire to subside

before we allow our faith to get stronger.

I hear an uh-oh.

Right, we do that, do we not?

We wait for the fire to subside

before we allow our faith to get stronger.

God, if you can just give me a glimpse

that I'm going on the right direction,

I'll let my faith get a little stronger.

God, if you can just let me know

that things are gonna be okay,

I'll let my faith get a little bit stronger.

God, if you can just fix this one little issue,

if you could just help my kids listen to me

a little bit more, I'll let my faith

get a little bit stronger.

If you just give me a glimmer of hope on the job,

I'll let my faith get a little bit stronger.

If you will let me see victory in this situation,

I'll let my praises get a little bit louder.

But you know why Paul and Silas were successful

in their prisons though?

They had perspective.

They allowed their perspective

and they found favor was waiting on them

within their praise.

They knew God was good already,

they knew he was for them,

they knew he was with them,

so they didn't say, God, allow these prison doors

to be flung wide open and then I'll shout my praises

to you, they said, God, I know you're good

and I'm gonna praise you in the middle of my jail cell

because I have a perspective that cannot be shaken.

I may be bounded, I may be chained,

I may be hurting, I may be bleeding,

I may be broken, but I know that you are good,

you are for good and you are with me here,

so I'm gonna praise you in the middle of this storm.

And that's the favor that they found

and why the prison doors were flung wide open.

You see guys, you have to remember,

I'm the worship leader here, I'm the worship pastor.

I get to see, get to see you guys week in and week out.

There are so many Sundays where Stacey Shifflett's

up here singing It Is Well.

And here we are.

It is well, I can't believe the Steelers lost last night.

With my soul.

With my soul, it is well, it'd be well if they'd get back

to the chorus, because I'm hungry and I wanna go to lunch.

With my soul, I'm being funny, but I'm being serious, right?

Let me get real serious for a minute.

So many times we allow our circumstances

to predicate the way we worship.

And if a mother can worship in the back left of this room,

knowing that her son has only hours before he's gonna pass

away from a terminal illness and she can still show up

on a Sunday morning, raise her hands with tears streaming

down her face and sing worship, then so can you.

So can you.

So can you.

You see so many times we come in here

and we carry the baggage, we carry the weight

of the work week or maybe we get in a fight

with our spouse on the way to church.

And we come in here and we allow that

to dictate the way that we worship.

But Paul and Silas, while being bounded,

while being shackled, while being in chains,

chose to praise.

So let me ask you this question this morning.

Do your chains break your praise

or will your praise break your chains?

Do your chains break your praise

or will your praise break your chains?

Are you a circumstantial worshiper?

Do you allow your worship to be dictated

by your circumstances or do you worship

through your circumstances?

Because you see Paul and Silas had every reason

to sit in that jail cell and be quiet.

They had every right to sit there dismayed,

hurt, bleeding, bruised, upset, frustrated

because of the detour and because of the pain

that they were in, but yet they didn't.

They chose to praise.

They chose to praise in the middle of the storm.

If we choose to praise, when we choose to praise

in the middle of our problems,

a beautiful thing can happen.

Let's keep going in the story.

The jailer called for lights, rushed in

and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

He then brought them out and asked,

sirs, what must I do to be saved?

They replied, believe in the Lord Jesus

and you will be saved, you and your whole household.

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him

and to all the others in his house.

At that hour of the night, the jailer took them

and washed their wounds.

Then immediately he and his whole household were baptized.

First service, remember when I said about how

every time I read something, God highlights something

new to me, this happened first service.

I love the part in that verse where it just said

and this was revealed to me, at that hour of the night,

the jailer took them and washed their wounds.

The jailer took them and washed their wounds.

The same person who just beat them,

the same person who just fastened their feet

in the stocks and threw them in a jail cell

was the one to come back and wash their wounds.

Don't tell me that God can't take something

that the enemy means for your defeat

and make it for your good.

The jailer washed their wounds.

The jailer brought them into his house

and set a meal before him.

He was filled with joy because he had come

to believe in God, he and his whole household.

You see, Paul and Silas found God's Easter egg of favor

within their jail cell that day.

And it's because they chose to look at the scenario

that they were in, in a different way,

in a different light.

They chose to change their perspective on the prison.

Instead of it being an obligation to be in prison,

they looked at it as an opportunity to experience freedom.

And when they became free, what did they do?

They healed an entire household of the jailer

who was the one who imprisoned them.

You see, friends, perspective can be everything.

Perspective can be the difference

of you throwing in the towel

or you getting up tomorrow morning

and going back to the job.

That's being frustrating.

Perspective can be the key to unlock your chains.

So our action step today, let your praise

let your praise break your chains.

I'll ask the question one more time.

Do your chains break your praise

or will your praise break your chains?

The choice is yours.

The third area, is this good?

You guys liking this so far?

All right.

If you said no, I was gonna keep going.

Doesn't matter.

The third story we're gonna look at,

we're gonna stay with my man Paul,

but the third point today is there's favor in,

say it together, perseverance.

There's favor in perseverance.

When I think of the word perseverance,

I think of not quitting, not giving up,

pursuing even when things are difficult.

Paul was formerly named Saul.

He was not a Christian, in fact.

He persecuted Christians.

He was the opposite of a Christian

for many years of his life.

But God came to him in a dream and changed him.

Once called by the Lord, he was sold out for God

and did nothing but try to expand the kingdom of heaven

as we just learned.

However, with this mission brought great struggle.

See, he experienced severe, severe persecution.

Paul did not have an easy go of things.

He was chased, he was caught, he was flogged,

he was beaten, he was imprisoned, he was plotted against.

He basically went through so much stuff

that if he decided to throw in the towel,

we probably would have looked at him and said,

yep, I can understand why you did that.

I don't fault you for doing that.

He had a rough go of things early on

when he was trying to pursue the kingdom of heaven.

And he had every right to walk away, but he didn't.

You see, God eventually calls Paul to preach in Rome

and to set the standard for you.

This is like getting called to the big leagues, right?

This is like playing at Hagerstown Sun Stadium

and then getting the call that you're gonna pitch

at Fenway Park.

Back in the day, if you will,

this was like the greatest ask, the greatest blessing,

the greatest call that you could have

that God wanted you to preach in Rome.

So Paul gets himself ready to go.

He hears the command from God,

and he says, yes, Lord, I'll go.

He seizes the opportunity.

He readies himself for the trip.

And as he is sailing off to Rome,

I have to think that in that moment,

he probably took a deep breath and he probably said,

I finally made it.

I finally made it.

My life has been a living hell.

I've been chased.

I've been thrown in jail cell after jail cell.

I got scars on my back from where they whipped me

and beat me countless times.

But God, you finally called me to Rome, and I'm going.

But, there's always a but.

They encounter a storm.

Acts 27 says this, much time had been lost

and sailing had already become dangerous

because by now it was after the day of atonement.

So Paul warned them, men, I can see that our voyage

is going to be disastrous and bring great loss

to ship and cargo and to our own lives also.

But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said,

followed the advice of the pilot and the owner of the ship.

So see, basically Paul can see what's about to happen.

He can see what's about to unfold.

You ever been in a situation where you know somebody's

about to act a fool or make a poor decision?

You can see the writing on the wall,

but there's nothing you can do to stop it.

I'm probably talking to all the guys in here, right?

Husbands, you know what I mean?

Like when your wife is about to go to Target, right?

And you know, that's probably not the Lord's best

for you right now.

Or when you ask, where do you want to go to lunch?

They say Panera Bread.

And I can hear the spirit of my wallet saying

it's not a good decision, but what do we do?

We let them go anyway.

No, I'm being funny.

I mean, but in all seriousness, here's a personal example.

In my house, I'm the saver, my wife is the spender.

I don't spend money.

But when I do spend money, I spend money, right?

I buy a very few amount of things,

but they're usually large things.

I like my toys, dirt bikes, four-wheelers, golf carts.

My wife, on the other hand, is the opposite.

She buys stuff all the time, every day.

I'm not saying that she buys a lot from Amazon,

but we got a wedding invitation from our delivery driver.

So I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

That's a meme on Facebook.

I can't take credit for that.

No, but it's true.

But in my house, my wife buys a lot of stuff,

little things all the time,

and I usually spend big purchases.

And the moments in my life where I have wanted a dirt bike

or a four-wheeler or a golf cart,

right before I'm getting ready to go meet the person

or go buy the thing, she'll come and she'll say,

do you think we really need that?

And of course I say, well, yeah, absolutely we do, honey.

And I can give her the reason.

What she's doing, she can see the writing on the wall, right?

And I'll probably regret this later,

but I have to admit that she's right,

because standing here today, guess what I don't have?

A dirt bike, a four-wheeler, no golf cart,

because I realized that I probably didn't need those things

and I have since sold them.

So Katie, my lovely wife, she can see the writing on the wall

in this scenario, but she lets it play out

because she's my wife and she loves me

and she's fantastic and she's awesome, right?

But she's just like Paul in this scenario.

Paul can see what is about to happen.

He tells these knuckleheads, he says,

we should not be making this trip.

I'm trying to get to Rome.

I have a message to preach.

God has called me and you are making a terrible decision,

but he's not in a position of authority

where he can tell them what to do.

So he has to watch the story play out.

In Acts 27, the story goes on,

before very long, a wind of hurricane force

called a nor'easter swept down from the island.

The ship was caught by the storm

and could not head into the wind,

so we gave way to it and were driven along.

On the 14th night, we were still being driven

across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight,

the sailors sensed they were approaching land,

they took soundings and found that the water

was 120 feet deep.

A short time later, they took sounding aids

again, found that it was 90 feet deep.

Fearing that they would be dashed against the rocks,

they dropped four anchors from the stern

and prayed for daylight.

We then learned the next morning that they finally see land

and they decide to run the ship aground

to keep from dying.

Once safely on shore, we found out

that the island was called Malta.

Everybody say Malta.

Malta.

The islanders showed us unusual kindness.

They built a fire and welcomed us

because it was raining and cold.

This point in my message, this story,

the third point here about Malta

is the one that I learned the most

and it's probably my most favorite knowledge

that I gained after reading all of these stories

because it was the one that was maybe

the most unfamiliar with me.

But you see, Paul finds himself on Malta.

You see, Malta to me represents so much more

than just a physical landmark or the name of an island

where Paul finds himself.

You see, Malta to me represents a place of uncertainty.

An unfamiliar territory.

A place of not knowing what to expect.

You see, Paul, you have to remember,

his life had been hard and he was finally gaining

some traction on where he wanted to go.

But he finds himself in an unfamiliar land called Malta.

It's a place where you have to rely on your faith

because you're not sure if your knowledge

or education of what you're going through

is gonna be enough to see you through.

A place like being a mom and a dad

wondering if you have what it takes to be good parents.

A place like not being sure if you're gonna make it

until your next paycheck comes in to pay the bills.

A place like not being sure what your most recent diagnosis

is gonna mean for you and I wonder how many of us

in here today have found ourself on a place called Malta.

Maybe finding ourself today in a place called Malta,

an unfamiliar place.

A place where you're not sure of what to expect.

The Bible tells us that they built a fire

and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.

Paul gathered a pile of brushwood

and as he put it on the fire, a viper driven out by the heat

fastened itself to his hand.

I have to believe that this was probably the moment

where Paul said, are you kidding me?

I've been beaten, I've been thrown in jail,

I've been shipwrecked against my own good

because I knew it was gonna happen.

Now I am here in a place called Malta where I've never been.

It's unfamiliar, I'm uncertain of what to expect.

The islanders are actually showing me kindness

which was non-customary back in the day.

The Bible actually calls them barbarians

because people were very territorial

of their land back then.

So he makes it to shore and he thinks,

I'll be a good guy, I'll help,

let me help gather some firewood.

Notice the Bible doesn't say a snake,

it says a viper, right?

We need to know that this was a serious, serious occurrence.

Wasn't your typical garden snake or a black snake,

was a viper.

And notice that it doesn't say it bit his hand,

what does it say?

Fastened, fastened.

So this was not like a quick bite and a release.

This thing was stuck on Paul.

And I can imagine the pain,

can imagine the suffering

that Paul was going through.

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 had not allowed him to live.

But Paul channeling his inner Taylor Swift,

what does he do?

Shake it off.

Everybody say shake it off.

Shake it off.

Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.

But Paul shook the snake off into the fire

and suffered no ill effects.

The people expecting him to swell up

and suddenly fall dead,

but after waiting a long time

and seeing nothing unusual happen to him,

they changed their minds and said he was a God.

This is why you can't put your faith in people.

One minute a murderer, the next minute he's a God.

One minute a murderer because he's been cursed

and he's got a viper hanging off of his hand,

the next minute they treated him as a God.

Isn't it funny how when the favor of the Lord

changes your circumstance,

the story of who you are can radically change with it.

There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius,

the chief official of the islands.

This is like the governor, the mayor,

the one in charge of Malta.

He welcomed us to his home

and showed us generous hospitality for three days.

You see what happened was the people of the island

saw that there was something special about Paul.

He survived a viper snake bite.

Snake bite.

So they ran and they told the leader,

they say there's something about this guy

that we need to tap into,

there's something that we need to learn.

So Publius invites him to his house.

His father was sick in bed,

suffering from fever and dysentery.

Paul went in to see him and after prayer,

placed his hands on him and healed him.

Picture this.

So Paul with his viper bite,

I have to believe, I have to imagine

that the hand that he used to heal that man

was the same hand that the devil tried to take away from him

with that viper bite.

His hand still bloody, still swollen,

was the hand that healed Publius' father.

And I believe in that moment,

Paul said go ahead and bite me devil,

because I bite back.

Come on, say that, say I bite back.

Tell the devil now I bite back.

I bite back.

And with his hand that was swollen,

healed the man.

When this had happened,

the rest of the sickle in the island came and were cured.

They honored us in many ways

and when we were ready to sail,

they furnished us with the supplies we need,

which brings us to our action step today.

Friend, we have to persevere through the process.

The next chapter in the Bible is Paul arriving in Rome.

So he finally makes it.

He finally makes it.

But you see, God wanted Paul to experience Malta.

Before Paul could arrive to Rome,

he had to experience Malta.

And I believe that God wanted Paul to experience

the process before he could experience the promise.

God wanted Paul to experience the process

before he experienced the promise.

You see, Paul being a God-fearing man,

at this junction of his life, he knew that God was good.

He knew that whatever it is that he endured,

he had to go through.

He knew that the snake bite wasn't gonna kill him.

If God called him to preach in Rome,

he couldn't die on Malta.

So I believe that as he took his steps

on the shore of Malta,

being frustrated, being bummed out,

I believe in that moment that he probably thought

that he needed Malta.

But friends, how cool is it that Paul didn't need Malta.

Malta needed Paul.

Paul didn't need Malta.

Malta needed Paul.

Sometimes the real destination that God wants us

to understand lies within the detour of our life.

So that unfamiliar place that you're in this morning,

your own Malta, that place of being maybe

a little bit scared, that place of not being sure

what comes next, maybe you don't need it,

maybe it needs you.

Maybe you don't need it, but maybe God has an Easter egg

of favor lying within the island of your own Malta.

So for anyone finding themselves walking

on the shore of their own Malta,

persevere through the process

because there's favor to be found.

You can't die on Malta if you're called to preach in Rome.

You can't die in your current situation today

because God has called you for so much more.

I'm gonna ask the worship team to come back up.

Our fourth and final point today

is there's favor in persistence.

Everybody say persistence.

Persistence.

See, I believe that perseverance and persistence

are all but synonymous, right?

There's a lot of commonality that we can extract

from perseverance and persistence.

And the story I'm gonna use to exemplify persistence

is from our friend Joshua.

So I gotta be honest, I'm gonna channel

my inner 2016 version of Retroxel

when I preached a message on Joshua

and the walls of Jericho

to bring home this final point to us today.

You see, Joshua was a man of God

who found himself embarking on a very difficult task.

He found himself right outside of Jericho,

a city well known for its incredibly thick and tall walls.

The Bible tells us that there's a lot of people

who are not ready to go to the city.

The Bible tells us no one went out and no one came in.

The city was essentially on lockdown.

No one went out and no one came in.

It was so secured.

So you can imagine Joshua's position.

Not only are you facing an incredibly daunting

and large army on the inside of a city,

but you have to penetrate the industry standard

when it comes to wall defense.

The Lord said to Joshua, see I have delivered Jericho

into your hands along with its king and its fighting men.

March around the city once with all the armed men.

Do this for six days.

Have seven priests carry trumpets of ram's horns

in front of the ark.

On the seventh day, march around the city seven times

with the priests blowing the trumpets.

When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets,

have the whole army give a loud shout.

When the wall of the city will collapse,

the army will go up, everyone straight in.

When Joshua had spoken to the people,

the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets

before the Lord went forward,

blowing their trumpets in the ark of the Lord,

covenant followed them.

The armed guard marched ahead of the priests

who blew the trumpets and the rear guard followed the ark.

At this time, the trumpets were sounding,

but Joshua had commanded the army, do not give a war cry.

Do not raise your voices.

Do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout.

This is a very important detail that cannot be overlooked.

You see, God told Joshua how many days.

Everybody say seven.

God told Joshua that on the seventh day,

you walk around the city seven times before you shout.

But nowhere in this passage of scripture

can I find that Joshua told his men how many days to walk.

Yet they walked in obedience.

Joshua knew how many days it would take,

but his men did not.

They didn't know how many laps

it would take for the walls to fall.

You see, sometimes in life,

we don't know how long something is going to take

for us to see the victory,

but we gotta keep walking while he's working.

I told Carl first service, write that down,

walking while he's working as their next original song.

Keep walking while he's working.

Joshua got up early the next morning

and the priests took up the ark of the Lord.

The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets

went forward marching before the ark of the Lord

and blowing the trumpet.

The armed men went ahead of them

and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord

while the trumpets kept sounding.

So on the second day, they marched around the city once

and returned to the camp.

They did this for six days.

Now why would God make it hard on Joshua and his men?

Why not allow the walls to fall in a day?

Maybe two?

The victory was already theirs, right?

Why does God make them wait?

Why does God make us wait?

God, why won't you let the breakthrough

that I so desperately need happen right now?

God, how many more days until it's my turn

to be loved and wear a ring?

God, how many more weeks is it gonna take

before I see the change in my work that I'm in?

God, how many more tests until my blood work comes back

showing that I'm healthy again?

God, how much longer until I get to be a mom?

Why do you make me wait?

I used to run track back in high school

and I was known for having something

that was called a kick.

And what this means is you keep yourself positioned

close to the race but you hang back

and you save up just enough of your time

and you hang back and you save up just enough

of your strength to be able to outpace

those in front of you on the last home stretch.

That's what I did, that was my claim to fame.

I'd always sit back and I'd sprint at the very end to win.

But I learned a very, very valuable lesson

in those track races early on

and it's that I had to keep myself positioned

in the race to be able to stand a chance

to out kick those in front of me.

So why does God make us wait?

I believe it's because he wants to see our faithfulness

through the race and not just on the home stretch.

I believe that God wants to see your faithfulness

through the race of your life.

Whatever situation that you're in right now,

marching around your own walls of Jericho,

he wants to see that you're gonna get up on day one

and you're gonna get up on day two

and you're gonna get up on day three, four, five,

and six as well.

He wants to see your faithfulness through the race

and not just on the home stretch.

Can we stand up together as we close this thing out?

See, here's what God revealed to me about Joshua and his men.

They didn't know how many laps it was gonna take

for the walls of Jericho to fall,

but every lap that they walked in obedience,

they were one lap closer to their victory.

They were one lap closer to the sad amount of times

that God had prededicated of winning the race

of when the walls would fall.

Every day that they chose to get up again and again

and again and walk around the walls again and again,

they were one day closer to the victory.

They didn't know when the walls would fall,

but they walked in faith knowing that they will

and that's the battle.

We don't know when the walls will fall,

but we need to have the faith that they will.

And today I came to tell somebody in this place

that it may not feel like the walls of your battle

are ever gonna fall,

but you keep taking another lap because they will.

It might not feel like it's gonna happen today,

but you take another lap.

So it might feel like you're never gonna lose the weight,

but you take another lap!

It might feel like your boss is never gonna

get off your back, but you take another lap.

It may feel like your kids are never gonna listen

or otherwise your son or daughter

is never gonna come back home,

but you take another lap.

It might feel like your spouse is never gonna love you

for who you really are,

but you take another lap. It might feel like your financial state is never going to change,

but you take another lap because guess what? That lap that you're on, that might be the one when the

walls fall down. That lap that you're walking today, getting up in faith, might be the one when the

walls fall down. Why does God make us wait? Why did God make him walk around the city? It's because

even after the walls fell down, there was an army to fight on the inside. There was a battle to fight

on the inside, and every day that they got up and they walked around those laps, they walked those

walls, their legs were getting stronger, their faith was getting stronger. They needed that confidence,

they needed that to be able to fight the battle that was on the inside. So you get up every morning

and you keep walking because that lap that you're on, that might be the one when the walls fall down.

That might be the one when God makes the walls fall down. That might be the one.