God Will Preserve Us "That All May Know" | Dr Jill Ling

You're listening to a message to go from ex Church. We hope this message

will light up your day. For those of you are part of ex Church.

What is the theme that God has given us this year that all may

know? That's right? And so for this whole year, all our speakers

will be talking about how we can help you know all to know Jesus Christ.

And so today I'll be sharing one angle. And so I've been reading

the Book of X for my devotion for this season. And the last time

I spoke, a few weeks ago, I actually shared about how God empowers

us through the Holy Spirit to witness for Him based on X Chapter one,

verse eight. How many of you remember that, Yeah, a few weeks

ago. And so today I will be sharing from still the Book of X,

but I'll be talking about the life of Paul the Great Apostle, Paul

the Great missionary, Paul all right, And I will be sharing from his

life to just speak to us what God wants to speak to us. Now.

This message actually came to me earlier in the week as I was reading

through the Book of Acts, and God had already dropped this message in my

heart, and I was just waiting for when to share it. Yeah.

And so on Friday night, as I was sleeping, I was awakened by

my daughter Enna because she wanted to go to the toilet. Yeah, and

she still insists that I bring her to the toilet, turn on the light

for her, wait for her, turn off the light, yeah, and

bring her back to Bait. I mean, she's eight years old. I'm

like, man, you can alreally do it, you know, but this

is what moms do, Laha. No matter how ald our kids are,

we will be there for them, even if we have the secret you know,

our lives. And so I did it for her. So it was

like Friday late night or Saturday early morning. It was still dark. I

didn't look at the clock, and so as usual, I got up,

I walked to the toilet with her. I turned on the light, let

her finish her business, turn off the light, brought her back to Bait,

help her to sleep, and then I tried to fall back asleep.

Now normally, normally at that time of the day or night, my mind

is quite fuzzy, okay, because I'm like, you know, still sleepy.

So I really wouldn't have any conscious or logical or good thoughts. I

mean just just you know, just like blah blur like that. Lah.

But I remember that Friday night or Saturday early morning, as I was trying

to fall back asleep, suddenly God actually brought two of my homies to mind.

Yeah, and I wouldn't mention ho, but he brought two or my

homies to mine. Your names, your faces were in my mind, okay,

And I know that for these two homies, they shared with me with

us that they've been going through really challenging times at work recently. Yeah.

And so so God showed both of their faces and their names to me at

that hour, and he dropped one line in my spirit, and that line

was preserve, preserve, preserve, and and it was actually the word that

I caught from doing my devotion earlier in the week. The word was also

preserved. And so I knew without a share of a doubt that, Okay,

God, today you want me to actually speak this word, and so

it's going to come from a more prophetic angle. Yeah. And so those

of you who are my two homies, I think you know who you are,

and the Lord really has you in mind, especially with this word today

and for the rest of us as well. Okay. So let's learn,

let's be encouraged, let's be empowered. Okay. So I've got tree peace

today to share with us. And the title of God's message for us today

is God will preserve us that all may know a man. Okay, And

we'll be reading from different parts of the Book of X. Now, the

first p the first point that I have for us is purpose. Everyone say

purpose, purpose, Okay. Paul used to persecute the Early Church, the

Christians from the Early Church. Right. So, if you have read the

Book of X and you're familiar with the life story of Apostle Paul, before

he became Paul, he was known as Saul. He was known as Saul.

Basically, Saul is a very Jewish name, right, and Saul actually

means to be much desired. So if you think of King Saul in the

Old Testament, apparently he's very tall, he was a hit above everyone.

He was you know, very good looking, maybe charming as well, and

he was much to be desired by the commoner. Yeah, amen, rather

yes, And so that's the meaning of Saul, Okay. It's a very

Jewish name meaning much to be desired. Paul is actually the Romanized version of

Saul. So Paul is actually a Greek, a Greek name. So Saul

was known as Paul in Greek in the Roman Empire. And the interesting thing

is Paul in Greek actually means little, little, small, humble. Wow.

Very interesting from someone who is like wow, to be desired, right,

and then it becomes someone who is little, small, humble. So

even the meaning of the name, you know, tells us a lot about

his transformation. Yeah, okay, So Saul used to persecute the Christians,

the early Church, and he came down hard on them. You know,

his persecution wasn't just with words, but it ended up many times the Christians

being dragged out of their homes, being dragged out of their meeting places,

and being beaten and being put to death. In fact, Saul approved the

martyrdom of Stephen, one of the early Deacons, one of the seven Early

Deacons. Saul was the one who approved for Stephen to be stoned to death.

Yeah. So that was the Saul in his early days, right,

and all because he thought that he was doing the right thing. He thought

very highly of himself much to be desired, you know, he said,

I, you know, am born a Jew of the Jews. I was

circumstansed on the eighth day. You know, I was born from the tribe

of Benjamin. Saul was also from the tribe of Benjamina. Interesting in the

Old Testament, Saul, Yeah, and you know, I was trained under

the feet of Gamelion. Well, so Gamilele is actually a top Pharisee,

a top religious leader in those days, a top Bible teacher in those days.

So he said, I was trained under the top, you know.

Yeah, and then he's also a Roman citizen, so he he he thought

that he was doing the right thing by actually coming down on the Early Church

because they their ways seemed very different from what people who believe or practice in

Judaism did. Yes, because for the for the those people who practice Judaism,

they were still waiting for the Messiah to come, and they didn't believe

Jesus was the Messia. But Paul and the early Christians, the Early Church,

they had encountered Jesus themselves, the person and the power of Jesus,

and they couldn't help but the witness to tell people, hey, I met

the Messiah. He's he has come, you know, and he has ascended

to heaven. And so this was the great uproar or discourse that was caused

by the early Christians. And so Saul, yeah, he thought they were

just some you know, cult, new cult that has come up, and

that's why he came out really hard on them, to the point that you

know, he took their lives even. Okay, Now let's read X chapter

twenty six, verse twelve to eighteen. So if you can look at your

bibles. If you don't have a Bible, then you can look at the

screen X chapter twenty six, verse twelve to eighteen. So this was Paul's

account. This is him sharing retrospectively. He's sharing his testimony. He's sharing

his account before King Agrippa. Right, So he says, okay, we

start in verse twelve. In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the

authority and commission of the chief priests verse thirteen. At midday, O King,

I saw on the way alight from heaven brighter than the sun that shone

around me and those who journeyed with me verse fourteen. And when we had

all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the

Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is

hard for you to kick against the goads verse fifteen. And I said,

who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,

whom you are persecuting verse sixteen. But rise and stand upon your feet,

for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a

server and witness to the things in which you have seen me, and to

those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and

from the gentles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so

that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan

to God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins and a place among

those who are sanctified by faith in Me. So this few verses in a

nutshell, Wow, I think really is like such a powerful evangelistic message.

And this was what Apostle Paul shed with King Agrippa when he was before him.

And this few verses started off with Paul's personal testimony how he encountered Jesus

personally, and then later on he sheard about the purpose of the gospel,

that the gospel is to actually turn people from darkness to light, from the

power of Satan to the power of God, from being condemned in sin to

be forgiven right, to having no place in God, to having a place

in God. This really sums up what the gospel is all about. The

gospel I was preaching in As, Singapore two sundays ago, and I told

them, you know, the gospel is not a gospel of just if I

am saved, God will bless me. If I am saved, God will

will help me. If I am saved, God will give me my break

truth. Yes, when we are saved, when we follow Jesus, all

these will follow us. The blessings will follow us, the help will follow

us, the break truth will follow us. But we don't just get saved

just because we won all these presents from God. That should not be our

motivation, because if it is, we will not have a true and lasting

faith. Because when times get tough, when the presents are all used up

and there's no new presence under the tree, are we still going to follow

Jesus? And so we need to know that the gospel is really about being

forgiven of our sins. The gospel is really turning from darkness to light.

The gospel is about being rescued from the hands of the enemy and being placed

in God's hands. That is what the gospel is really about. That all

of us are sinners and we all need forgiveness. If not, there is

no hope. All of us are in darkness. We need to be brought

into light. If not, there's no hope all of us. If we

are in somebody's hands, it's either we are in the enemy's hands or we

are in God's hands. And if we're in the enemy's hands, there's no

hope. Right, And so yeah, so each of us, I believe

we've all had our soul past lives where we thought we were doing right in

our lives. We thought we were doing okay, we're doing good in our

lives, but actually we are opposing God. Think about it. I'm sure

all of us we've had our sol past lives. We thought, wow,

really, men, I'm living right, I'm doing good, only to find

out later when we got saved, they actually men, we were so far

from God and we were so against him. All right, let's show the

next line. So we've all had our sol past lives. Some of us

we encountered Jesus in a big way, a dramatic way, but some of

us. We encountered Jesus in a gradual way. But no matter how your

encounter has been with Jesus, it still matters. It still matters. So

never ever despise your personal encounter with Jesus. Don't just look for the big

stories. Even if your story was a gradual story, it counts as well,

all right. I know the world always liked to celebrate dramas. The

drama the better, but not with Jesus. Okay, as long as you

have a personal encounter with Jesus, that is all that matters, all right.

I mean for me personally, I did not have a big dramatic encounter

with Jesus. Mine was a gradual encounter. My mom brought me to church

as a young kid, and she started bringing me maybe in Standard one,

and I attended Sunday School ex kids for many years. But I still didn't

accept Jesus into my heart. Only when I was around for one and then

I had the maturity, and I think it was a God moment and timing

that I finally opened my heart to him and invited Jesus into my heart.

But there were no big fireworks, There was no bright light like what Paul

experience there was no rumbling, and you know earthquake. Life continued on and

I I grew with Jesus day by day. But as I journey on in

my life, yes, then he did, you know, appear to me

as well. But I want to tell you that you know, what matters

is not how dramatic your personal encounter with Jesus is. But what matters is

that you have a personal encounter with Jesus and that's why you are saved today.

So never ever belittle or despise your personal encounter with Jesus. Share it,

Share it because it's your personal encounter. Okay, I just want to

encourage you on that next. Yeah, so all of us would have our

past, all lives where we were we think we're doing good, but we're

actually against God, and that all of us, if we are Christians here

we would have had a personal encounter with God. Doesn't matter big, small,

fast, slow, jiung ji. As long as it's an encounter,

it counts. It matters, right. But you know the reason why Jesus

allowed us to encounter him is not just for ourselves to get saved, to

be brought from darkness into light, to be forgiven from our sins to be

transferred from the enemy's hands to God's hands. But God has a purpose for

our salvation in him, our encounter with him, and that purpose is very

well clearly spelled in this scripture. In verse sixteen X, Chapter twenty six,

Verse sixteen, right, Jesus told Saul. And this is what Jesus

is telling all of us today. You know, he's saying Jennifer, right,

he's saying Nikki, he's saying ligit. He's saying, Joshua, and

all of us here, rise and stand upon your feet, for I have

appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness

to the things in which you have seen me, and to those in which

I will appear to you. All of us have encountered Jesus, and all

of us have been saved, to be his witness to those who do not

know him. Yet it is our children, it is okay, praise the

Lord. They are alive. We know that they're alive. So that's good.

Okay, go to hear something from them. Sometimes the kids are I

tell you, men, when it's too quiet around the house, that's dangerous.

Okay, join our parents. When your kids are when they're noisy,

we just go the way. Stop making so much noise, lad, But

when they're quiet, we also don't like you go hunting for them, and

they finally discover men this don't know what they're up to in the secret corner,

in the quiet, in the darkness. Yeah, okay, so good

to hear some noise from our kids. At least we know they are doing

good. Okay, they're alive, all right. Okay, So friends,

I want to encourage you that really our purpose in living is to be God's

witness, all of us, all of us. Let's look at X chapter

twenty twenty, verse twenty four, and I pray that Paul's words will become

our own words as well. Let's read this together as a church. And

as we read this together, let's internalize this as our personal calling as well.

Okay, because this is not just for Paul, It's for all of

us who are saved, who are followers of Jesus, who are sons and

daughters of God. This is our calling, all right? Okay, here

we go three two one. But I do not account my life of any

value, not as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course

and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel

of the grace of God. So all of us we have something to do

here on earth besides living, breathing, taking up oxygen and space and you

know, natural resources. Besides growing through the seasons of life, working,

starting a family, enjoying life, all of us have a bigger purpose in

life. That is to witness for Jesus to testify his gospel, all of

us. It's not just the leaders, not just the pastors, but all

of us. Amen. Amen. Now, next, let's go to the

second p the second point, it's promise, say promise, promise. Now,

God knows that if we desire to be His witnesses, the journey ahead

will confirm guarantee. Be challenging. Why because we live in a world that

there are many forces at play. Our spirit is constantly being challenged by our

flesh. Our spirit is constantly being challenged by the world out there. Our

spirit is constantly being challenged by the enemy. So there's always going to be

opposing forces to our spirit to do what is right according to God's spirit.

At any one time, there are already three forces against us, our own

flesh will the enemy. And it might seem like our spirit is one against

tree, but not true, because we've got God of heaven and Earth with

us, so he is in finite. So it's in finite against tree.

We're on the winning side. Amen, Can I hear? Amen? Amen?

Amen? God is in finite. For those of you meds people,

God is in finite and us. So one times infinite is exactly, and

infinite is more or less than tree, way more. That's right. So

God in us, the infinite force is greater than the tree forces that are

always against us, our own flesh, the world, and the enemy.

Okay, Now, so God knows that because of these forces that are always

coming against us, you know, like for example, today you can come

to church and you can really get spiritually high and be so you know,

like, oh so so powered up. Say God, Tomorrow Monday, I'm

going to go into my campus. I'm going to go into my company,

I'm going to go into my family, my community and witness for you.

I'm so charged up today. In next type of Jaya, twenty four hours

later, when you wake up tomorrow morning, why do I feel so low?

Sometimes in your body you feel low? Ready Sometimes in your soul or

your spirit. You feel so low like. But yesterday I was all charged

up for you God. But when Monday comes you may not feel the same.

Why does that happen. It's because we are being faced with this few

opposing forces that I talked about, our flesh, the world, and the

enemy that always seeks to pull us down each time we rise up for God.

And so that's why we've got to constantly spend time with God and wait

upon him. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They

shall rise up on wings like an eagle. They will walk and not grow

weary. They shall run and not grow faint. And so every day these

forces that are against us are always trying to pull us down. And that's

why we need to keep connected to God so that he can lift us up,

Lift us up, lift us up. Okay, all right, So

he knows that it's not easy to witness for him. We may feel great

on one day, but the next day we the flesh doesn't feel so great,

right, So we cannot just depend on the flesh. We need God

to power us up constantly. Now, Oh, God knows that as we

are called to His purpose to witness for him. He cannot just issue that

call and leave it to us to finish that call on ourselves. He's got

to accompany that call, that purpose with his promise. It's like parents,

lah, you know, if we were to call our children to do something

for us, to run an errand we've got to give them the resources to

run that errand we've got to tell them where to go, how to get

there, give them some money you know, or some you know ee payments.

We've got to give them a list then they can carry out that task.

So same our heavenly father. He knows it's not easy to just live

out our purpose to witness for him, so he gives us his promise,

he's assured, rends his guidance to accompany us to finish that task, just

like any earthly parent would do. Now, how many of you you've heard,

you've known, you've read about the apostle Paul in the Bible. Raise

your hands, Okay, okay, don't worry. I'm not going to ask

your Bible trivia on him. Yeah. Now, how many of you know

that even the great Apostle Paul, who many people say that after Jesus,

he's like the next greatest person, because he really advanced the Gospel the Kingdom

of God so widely in the early days. How many of you know that

even the Apostle Paul was afraid raise your hands, okay, lesser hands,

thank you for that. So today I'm going to show you three instances where

Apostle Paul also felt afraid in living out God's purpose for him, even though

God had called him so clearly from the moment Jesus encounted him, he said,

Paul, I've called you to be my witness, so clear the purpose.

But after that, along the way, he too felt scared and afraid,

and God had to personally encourage him time after time after time. And

so I wanted us to draw encouragement from the life of Paul that although he

was a great servant of God, he too felt challenged by his flesh.

He too needed constant encouragement from the Lord to power him up over and over

again to keep going and finish the race. Okay, so let's look at

X Chapter eighteen. Now I'm just gonna summarize X Chapter eighteen for us because

it's too long to read. But basically, Paul was actually witnessing to the

Jews in the City of Corinth in X chapter eighteen. And the Jews in

the city of Corinth did not want to listen to Paul. They did not

want to accept him. In fact, they wanted to come against him,

and they wanted to hurt him because they did not believe Paul and what he

preached. Instead, they wanted to oppose him, and so Paul's life was

endangered in the City of Corinth X Chapter eighteen. But in verse nine eighteen

X Chapter eighteen, Verse nine, this is what happened, And the Lord

said to Paul one in a vision, Wow, God appeared no apostle Paul

personally in a vision. Wow. God said, do not be afraid,

but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with

you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have

many in this city who are my people. Wow. I was so encouraged

when I read this during my devotion that even the great Apostle Paul felt afraid.

But God came personally to encourage Paul and says, do not be afraid.

Think about it. Why would God say do not be afraid. God

won't simply waste time saying things he must have knew that Paul was afraid,

just like when you know, God told Joshua, do not be afraid or

dismayed before Joshua is going to lead the children of Israel to the Promised Land.

Why because he knew that Joshua was afraid. God knows us, And

the fact that God straight away start do not be afraid, means he knew

that power was afraid, and he said, do not be afraid, but

go on speaking and do not be silent. You know, friends, when

we are afraid, we become quiet. When we're afraid, we stop moving.

And mental health professionals will tell you this. If you are afraid,

you're breathing also becomes lesser. Your breathing becomes fast and shallow, or some

people hold their breast without realizing it when they're afraid. Suddenly you kind of

stop breathing for a while. You know, when we're afraid, we diminish

in every area, in our speech, in our movement, in our breathing,

in our courage. Right, but God says, don't be afraid,

go on speaking, and do not be silent. So I don't know how

many of you friends, Maybe you are feeling afraid right now, and people

around you. The enemy, even your own flesh, is telling you be

quiet. Stop speaking so much for God. I'm here to say, keep

on speaking for the Lord. Do not be silent, friends, don't fall

prey to fear and the schemes of the enemy. But keep on speaking what

the Lord has put in you. God is a god sound, He's a

god of life. Heaven will be a very loud place. Extra, she's

just training you. Okay. Yeah, God is a god of sound.

When he made the earth, he didn't do it silently like a rega me.

He spoke into being. Let that be light, and there was light.

He made the heavens and the earth by sound. God is the God

of sound, and if we are made in his image, we are to

be people of sound. Amen, people of sound. So do not be

silent, keep speaking. Do not be afraid. Okay. And why can

we have the confidence of not being afraid. It's because God says in verse

ten, for I am with you. That is the basis and foundation of

our confidence. God didn't just tell Paul, do not be afraid, keep

speaking full stop. But what could Paul rest his confidence on That God is

with him and he will make sure no one will attack him. You know,

you ask my kids to go to a new place forgetting, they won't

go. No matter how you leaure them with a lot of things to eat,

a lot of things to play, a lot of money, they won't

go. True. Not jud okay, no putting on the spot, okay.

But my kids will go to a new place if pass Jack and I

go with them. This is human nature. We will not go somewhere new,

somewhere daunting on our own. We're too afraid. But if we know

that our father, our mother, a greater power, goes with us,

then we were dare to go. And so this is what God is telling

Paul. I am with you as your heavenly father. You're good shepherd,

so you don't have to be afraid. Just keep doing what you need to

do. I am with you, and I will protect you, says the

Lord. Amen. So the greatest, the greatest for me, the greatest,

I guess, the greatest confidence that I have in life is that God

is with me. When I remember over and over again that God is with

me no matter what I've done, what I've not done, what people do

to me or not. When I remember that God is with me, it

really boosts my confidence and I feel super charged to go forth and do what

I need to do. You know. Just a quick side track. Two

weeks ago, I was in ex Singapore preaching after we conducted a mental health

workshop there, and by that Sunday morning, because I was ready in Singapore

for forty eight hours and it was non stop for me from the time that

we flew into Singapore. We set up for the training. The next day,

we did the training. The next day I preached. I was actually

feeling quite low in my energy already by Sunday morning because I was like ministring

almost for the eight hours, and I felt like, God, I don't

know how I'm going to preach to X Singapore. I want to end this

race well. And I was in the toilet, yeah, doing my business,

and after that I flushed and I washed my hands. And as I

was washing my hands, so this is the sink, right, the toilet

bowl is here. This is a wall, and this is a wall,

This is the door. This is the window. So X Singapore is on

the eighth floor and so their toilet has windows that look out and the toilet

windows the bottom half is sheer. That means you cannot see outside. It's

opaque, but the top half is clear and open, so you can look

outside. And so as I was washing my hands at the sink, suddenly

I felt I needed to turn my head and look outside. And I saw

a bird flying in the sky. And the bird had very long wings,

and it was circling from a distance. And I paid so I took minutes

to actually look at the bird more and more. And as I looked at

it, I was wondering, God, is this an eagle, because not

many birds have such a long and broad wingspan, and not many birds circle

in the air. And so God heard my question, and you know what,

he brought the bird closer and closer to me. So at first the

bird was circling like one maybe about you know, about maybe five hundred meters

away from where our building was. And it started circling closer and closer and

closer until it flew over our building and I didn't see anymore, but it

came so close that I could look at the feathers even on his belly.

It flew over me, and it was an eagle, And that was an

assurance to me that God was with me even that morning, even when I

felt like physically weak and id you not just knowing that? Okay, God,

You've shown me that you are with me through the eagle. Because for

me personally, whenever I see an eagle, I take it as God reminding

me that he is with me. His strength is with me, and I

can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. And when I took

the stage that morning and ask singa Paul, God's power just came into me

and I could deliver what he wanted me to deliver and finish it. And

after that I didn't feel tired. I felt really energized. And that's when

God strengthens us in a supernatural way. But he knew I needed the encouragement.

All of us will have our weak moments, and made the Lord encourage

you in his own way to not be afraid. My strength is with you.

I am with you. Amen. Amen. Now okay, So that's

one example. Now, second time that Paul felt afraid, okay, was

when he was in Jerusalem and he kind of underwent the same fate as Jesus.

Jesus was finally persecuted badly in Jerusalem and that was where he was delivered

up to be crucified. Right, Paul was also badly persecuted in Jerusalem.

If you read the story of how the Jews in Jerusalem persecuted Paul, you

will feel like the story of Jesus being re enacted because they were like away

with him, away with him, away with him. And wasn't that a

scene from Jesus's life? So that really amazed me, Like, Wow,

Paul, you actually went through what Jesus also when. Okay, now let's

look at X chapter twenty three, verse eleven. So the following night,

the Lord stood by him and said, take courage, for as you have

testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in

Rome. So Paul felt afraid a second time, and God appeared to him

again. Wow, stood by him. You all, It wasn't a voice

from heaven. It wasn't God sending his angel. The Lord came and stood

by him. So made the Lord stand by you closely, all of you

who need a word of encouragement from the Lord. Amen. Amen. The

Lord stood by him and said, take courage. Just as you have testified

about me in Jerusalem, I want you to testify in Rome as well.

So Wow, because of that prophetic word from God, Paul knew that his

life will be preserved all the way from Jerusalem to Rome. When God says,

you are men to do this for me, you know you may take

it as you God. Why must I do this for you? Let's take

it as God. Thank you that you are going to preserve me long enough,

so I will do this for you. Amen. Amen. And then

later in X chapter twenty seven, as Paul was traveling from Jerusalem to Rome,

his ship actually met with a very violent storm. And that storm was

deadly. It was life threatening and the people on board were going to die

already. But what happened. An angel of God appeared to Paul in X

chapter twenty seven, verse twenty four to twenty five, and said, and

he said, do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar

and behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you, verse

twenty five. So take hard, men, for I have faith in God

that it will be exactly as I have been told. So for the third

time Paul felt afraid. So now you know the great apostle, Paul,

one that we think is like fearless, while like a spiritual wolverine like that

also felt afraid. So you and I can also feel afraid. Lah.

Okay, but we don't stop at being afraid. We know that God will

come and stand by us. Either he will come and stand personally, or

He will send his angels to stand by us. And God will speak his

word in season to us. That tells us, do not be afraid,

my child, but take courage, for I am with you. You will

be at the place you're meant to be. Go on speaking what I've called

you to speak. That is our assurance in God. Amen. So I

was very encouraged. You know, in my Bible, I really highlighted all

the verses. These verses I'm showing y'all. It all came off my personal

devotion. Wow, Paul was afraid first time. Second time, Wow,

Paul was afraid. Third time. Wow, Paul was afraid. Wow,

Paul was actually afraid three times. Wow. The great apostle Paul. Okay,

he's human too, but God is real in him. Now. The

final point, the third p is the word preserve. Everyone say preserve preserve.

Now I'm just gonna show us a map the end. I will summarize

the story of Paul because it's just too much to read. But if you're

taking notes and you want to go back and read later, you can actually

read X chapter twenty two, these all the way to X chapter twenty eight,

six seven chapters. There. I've summarized it for you in one map.

Okay, X chapter twenty two to verse twenty to chapter twenty eight.

Okay, the map. Now, sorry, I'm gonna use this map.

So Paul had basically a few key stops. Okay, Jerusalem is somewhere here

below Caesaria. Jerusalem is somewhere below Caesaria. Okay. Now that was the

first place that he was persecuted by the Jews, and they say, you

know, away with his life because we don't believe in him and all that

he's saying about Christ. Okay. So that was the first part. And

he was brought before the Roman Tribune. The Roman Tribune. So maybe that's

where the tribunal court and judge came from a valerie maybe, Yeah. So

it was the first level of the judiciary system in the Roman Empire, the

Roman Tribune, right the starting level, the entry. And at that point

Paul was actually whatever accusations that were brought to him by the Jews because he

was a learned man, remember, and he was also a Roman citizen,

so he knew that he had to also be as wise as a serpent.

So he actually said, you know what, I'm not gonna let your judge

me. Take me to Caesar, the top authority in the Roman Empire.

Let him be the judge and have the final say over my case. So,

at that point, the lowest court level, he already said, I

appealed to Caesar. And you know, as a Roman citizen, they have

a right that if they are accused, their case can be brought all the

way to Caesar to actually pass the final judgment. And you know, at

that time, guess who was the Caesar that was in charge of the Roman

Empire. Try. Caesar is basically the emperor, the top leader of the

Roman Empire at any one time. Do you know which Caesar was ruling at

that time? You want to take a guess, Julius Caesar, good,

try, but not. I want to try one more time. Augustus Caesar,

good, try as well, but not. Let me tell you the

answer. It was Nero Caesar, Nero Caesar, Nero Caesar. You hear

the wu in the crowd, right For those of you who are younger and

may not be aware. Nero Caesar was the cruelest emperor that not just the

Roman Empire had, but the world ever had to power at the age of

fifteen years old, and how he rose to power was through a series of

murders. He reigned until he was thirty years old. Throughout his reign,

he actually murdered his own wife, he murdered his mom, he murdered his

brother, and he murdered many other people. Okay, but these are people

close to him. Like that will tell you a lot about his character.

Not only that, he actually was believed to have instigated the Great Fire of

Rome that burned down seventy percent of its city, all because he wanted to

rebuild Rome in a better way, and he actually attributed the fire to Christians.

So after the fire, he actually persecuted the Christians saying that they were

the ones who started the fire in Rome, and that was his excuse and

chance to actually matter a lot of Christians, and Paul and Peter were among

the great leaders who were martyred at that time after the Great Fire in Rome.

So Nero Caesar, the cruelest leader that the world has ever seen,

was the ruling Caesar at that time. But yet Paul in the wisdom that

God has given him and the courage, I tell you, it can only

be God. It can only be God that will give Paul such a courage

to say, you know what, let Caesar hear my case and decide.

And I'm sure he knew the kind of Caesar that neuro Caesar was. But

yet we've got Infinity is greater than even neuro Caesar. All right, So

what happened? So at Jerusalem, the tribunal level, Paul, also at

Jerusalem itself, there were at least forty Jewish people who wanted to ambush Paul

and kill him. But by God's grace, Paul's I think your niece heard

about the news the plan, and she told Paul, and Paul actually told

the Roman Tribune, and the Roman Tribune was on his side. Guess what

the Roman Tribune did. In the middle of the night. He actually sent

Paul away to the city of Caesaria, quietly before the forty Jews knew about

it. And you know, he sent Paul away not just alone, but

he sent Paul away with two hundred soldiers, two hundred spearmen, and seventy

horses. It was a big troop. You know that he sent Paul away

to protect him. That's not God, who is it? Friends? Right?

Okay? Then after that from Jerusalem to so Paul arrived safely in Caesarea.

You can read the Bible and he will tell you Paul arrived safely in

Caesarea, so you will arrive safely at your next destination. Amen, Amen,

trust the Lord. So at Caesyria he appeared before the governor. First

it was Governor Felix, and then later it was Governor Festus, and finally

it was King Agrippa. So he appeared to all three high level authorities in

Caesarea, and he continued to witness to them. And then at Caesarea,

actually they wanted to let him go, but because he already said that I

want to see Caesar, they couldn't let him go. Could not find anything

wrong with him. And finally from Caesarea it was a long ship journey okay

to Rome. Rome is here, Rome is up here. Can you see

from one end Caesyria, he has to go all the way to Rome,

very far away in those day and age. Okay, Now, as they

as he went on this ship voyage, he was met with violent storms and

the ship was actually shipwrecked and an island called Malta, Malta, And on

this island, Paul was actually bitten by a viper. Tell me it's a

viper, a poisonous thing or not it is. So the locals were looking

at Paul and expecting him to drop date after being bitten by the viper.

But guess what, Paul went on with life as normal. So the locals

thought at first Paul was a murderer. That's why the snake beat him,

because snakes will bite bad people. That's why they believed. But then God

preserved him, and then they looked to him like a god in state.

But Paul, of course, did not take the credit. He pointed the

people to the real God. Amen. And God is able to preserve us,

okay, So he preserved Paul through the snake bite. Personally, I've

told you my story before. I also almost got bitten by a snake in

the middle of the jungle, but God also preserved me. Amen. May

he preserve us from spiritual snakes that try to attack us. They shall not

be able to poison us or harm us. Amen. Amen, what else

at Malta. One more thing happened, let me see, Okay, yeah,

yeah, so I think that that's the one. But earlier on in

this whole journey, like I said, there were a lot of storms,

and I told you earlier on that they were supposed to die on the ship.

But the Angel of the Lord appeared and say, no, you're not

going to die in the middle of sea, because you have an unfulfilled mission.

You have to be at Rome, so you will be alive. And

by God's grace, everyone else on the ship was also kept alive. You

know, friends, there is the blessing of the people in your sphere of

influence. God is so good he extends his preservation on earth and through us,

he extends it further to the people around us. So blessed are they

who are in your community. For day two shall also receive the blessings and

the preservation of the Lord upon you. Amen. Amen. And finally Paul

went to Rome. Right on top there. Finally he reached Rome, and

you know X Chapter twenty eight just ends telling us that Paul was in Rome

for two years. He was under house arrest. So while in Rome he

could stay in his own house, people could come and visit him, but

he cannot go out. It's a little bit like Mcola, a little bit

like mco. There were guards that were stationed outside his house to prevent Paul

from running away, but people could come in and visit him, and he

kept preaching the gospel even in his own house. So Paul did that for

two years and then X chapter twenty eight ends. We don't know what happened

after that. It's like a cliffhanger, but you know what. So that's

actually this guy called Eusebius. Eusebius, he apparently is a fourth century bishop

and also a historian. He wrote a history book called Ecclestestical History too.

Wow, it's like an ancient history textbook of the early Church. And Eusebius

stated that actually Paul was released from his first trial before Neuro Caesar, so

that was when he appeared in Rome. Actually, it's recorded in historical documents

evidence that Paul actually met with Nero Caesar and he was dismissed from his trial.

He was set free, he was let go, and Paul went on

to preach the gospel some more after that. So God preserved Paul from Jerusalem

to Caesarea, to the oceans, to Malta, all the way to Rome.

And I believe Paul's stood before Nero Caesar and witness to him with the

same faith and the same courage, the same wisdom. And Nero did not

kill him, but Nero let him go. Wow, don't you think that

itself is a miracle, only a miracle of God. I tell you,

a man, evil, ruthless man like Nero could even release Paul. Man,

that is nothing short of a miracle of the God of Heaven. And

in Second Timothy, chapter four seventeen, Paul said, so what I said.

The Bible doesn't write the rest of Paul's story very clearly, but you

can catch hints and glimpse from the different letters that he wrote to different churches

about what happened. So in Second Timothy, verse four to seventeen, Paul

said, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that true

me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it.

So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. In those days, Nero Caesar

was seen as a lion which will devour anyone that comes in its way,

And so Paul gave us a hint that God stood by him and God rescued

him from the lion's mouth. I don't know how many of you friends,

you feel like you're at the lion's mouth today or this season, but I

want to prophesy over you that the Lord stands by you. Friends, He

gives you his word in season, and he delivers you from the lion's mouth.

Amen. Take hard, friends, take courage. The Lord knows what

you are going through, and the Lord stands by you personally. Personally.

He is with you, my brother, my sister, He is with you.

And not only is he with you, he will deliver you from the

lion's mouth. Take heart, my friends, you will see your situation being

delivered from the lion's mouth, and we will all give glory to the God

of Heaven. For only in Him, true Him, and by Him can

such a great wonder be done. Amen. We hope you've been blessed by

this message. For more information on our church, please visit as Church o

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week is going to be a good week ahead for you. God bless