0:07 I was encouraged as we were singing the songs. No guilt in life, no fear in death. It says that what a wonderful day, the day that heaven came down and glory filled my 0:26 soul. And for each one of us as we It's good to think about those words as we think about what God has done for us. I was thinking of that line in in the song which said 0:44 while in heaven he stands no one can tell me to leave. No one can tell me to depart while he in heaven he stands. And my Lord is going to be there in heaven forever. So because he's always going to be there no one can tell me to depart. He's 1:01 forgiven my sins, he's cleansed me, he's justified me. And because of that I can stand. And for each one of us that should be our foundation. God paid a price for each one of us so that we may be able to stand in his presence 1:18 completely forgiven of all our sins, no guilt in life clothed with his righteousness, justified. Standing there, nobody can come and put a point of finger at us with accusation. While in heaven he stands no one can ask me to depart. 1:38 Now as we think about those things, I want to think about this this verse here. It says God to whom I belong. It says that we were purchased by the blood of Christ. We were purchased with a a precious with his precious blood. We 1:55 were purchased in. Now we will belong to him. Do you know who says that? It's found in Acts 27. It's Paul. Paul said that You can turn with me to Acts 27. 2:13 Verse 23. Acts 27:23. For this very night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me. The God to whom I belong and whom I serve. 2:33 We have to each one of us come to that place where we know that we belong to God. That he owns us. That everything in my life he's in control over. There's a verse in Romans 3:17. You can turn with me there. 3 3:17. Romans 3:17. It says 2:57 the path of peace they have not known. The path of peace they have not known. In the Living Bible it it's it says it this way. It says that they have never known what it means to be secure. 3:16 They have never known what it is to be secure. And I believe that many of us could be struggling with this. With insecurity. Does God care for me? Does he love me? Insecure. And this verse it says that. It says the path of peace they don't 3:34 know. Or they've never known what it means to be secure. And what does it mean to feel secure in God's arms? I think of it just like when a small child is in the mother's arms. It's completely secure. It has no cares, no worries. 3:53 Completely secure. Turn with me to Psalm 131. And this is the picture that I I think of when I think of security in God's arms. Verse two. Psalm 139 verse two. Surely I've composed and quieted my soul like a 4:12 weaned child rest against his mother. My soul is weaned a weaned child within me. Like that little child sitting there lying down in the mother's arms without a care in the world. That's how God is to me. And that's how God should be for each 4:33 one of us that he he's the one who takes care of everything that concerns us. Believing in the goodness of God. There's a day There's a a few days ago there was a situation that happened. And I was 4:54 anxious and thinking about it and I was thinking, "Okay, what if this happens then this will happen?" And you know, most likely most situations where I've seen this happen in the past, this is what usually it ends up as. 5:08 And so all of these things I was wrestling with. And as I was wrestling with this, I was reminded of the Israelites. I said, "Lord, I'm I'm just like the Israelites are are acting right now." The Israelites were complaining that God 5:25 wasn't going to help them get into the land. They were all discouraged. Lord, I'm like that. I'm so insecure right now, Lord. I don't know what's going to happen. Those two men saw Joshua and Caleb saw what was there and they believed God was 5:44 going to do it. God was not going to take them into the land and let the giants overtake them. They had faith that God cared for them. Moses had that faith as well. But the rest of the 600,000, they said, "You know what? God's going to throw us there 5:59 and the giants are going to overtake us." Some sort of evil is going to befall us. Disaster is going to befall us. There's a promise in the scripture. It says in Psalm 91, turn with me to Psalm 91 verse 10. Psalm 91 verse 10, it says, "No evil 6:25 will befall you. No evil will befall you." When I think about my children, I never plan evil for my children. I've never once planned evil for my any of my children. 6:44 Yes, I I teach my children. I correct my children. I do all of those things. I plan in love for them. But I've never once planned evil for them. And God's here is saying, "No evil will befall you." That doesn't mean we won't go through times of 7:01 suffering and challenges. No, but God's never going to plan something evil for us in our life. We That's a guarantee. Even if something goes and we go through a difficult time in our life, it will be with some good intent. 7:17 It's never with the intent of evil. And we need to be grounded in that. We need to be grounded in that because often you see this with the children of Israel. What was their God's intent towards me is evil. That was what they were saying in their 7:34 heart. But it wasn't only the children of Israel, but uh turn with me to Genesis 19. When God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, 7:53 he told Why Why did he want to get uh Lot and his family out of there? Because he wanted He cared for them. He loved them. He wanted to protect them. He wanted to save them. And so, he sent the angels, "Okay, take Take Lot and his family out." 8:11 But, listen to this, verse 18, Genesis 19, verse 18. "But, Lot said to them, 'Oh, no, my lords.'" Verse 19, "Now, behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your life loving kindness, which you have shown to me by saving my 8:27 life." Listen to these words. "But, I cannot escape to the mountains, for disaster will overtake me, and I will die." "I cannot escape to the mountains, for the for disaster will overtake me, or 8:44 evil will overtake me, and I will die." Who was the person who wanted to save his life? It was God. God was the one who wanted to save his life. But, he's telling telling the angels, "No, disaster is going to evil is going to befall me, and 9:00 I'm going to die." What a wrong perception he had. The one who was trying to save him, he was saying is going to do evil for me. Again, turn with me to 2 Kings, chapter 7. We see the the intentions of the hearts, 9:20 the what what people think about God. So, 2 Kings, chapter 7. At this time, the entire Samaria surrounded by the Assyrians or Assyrians, the Armenians, they're all surrounding them. And And there's a siege. And when there's a siege, all the 9:38 the price of food, everything goes up. And all the people are they're starving inside. And they're doing what they can to get some food. And they go to Elisha, and they ask Elisha, "See what we're suffering, and all this 9:54 is happening to us." And this is the problem promise that Elisha gives them. Second Kings chapter 7. Elisha says, "Listen to the word of the Lord. Tomorrow about this time, the measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, two measures of barley a 10:09 shekel at the gate of Samaria. Tomorrow, everything is going to be back to normal. Everything's going to be fine." Verse two. The royal of officer on whose hand the king was leaning answered, the man of God said, "Behold, if the 10:28 Lord should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" Even if God were to put windows in the heavens, this can never happen. God, even if you have promised us to enter into the land of Canaan, it's 10:46 impossible. Even if you've promised that if I climb up to that mountains, and I'll be safe, disaster will befall me. And for those who have that faith, this is the promise they get. What's the promise? 11:05 Then he said, "Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it. You're not going to taste of it. You're going to see the promised land, but you're not going to taste of it. You're going to see the salvation of the 11:21 Lord, but your family is all going to be not going to your wife is going to turn into a pillar of salt. Your children are going to go wayward. Why? Because you did not believe what I've told you. I'm telling you things for good, but you 11:42 put evil intent in my heart towards you. You say that I'm doing evil towards you. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 1. Deuteronomy chapter 1. This is what the children of Israel were saying when they said, "God, you're 11:59 planning evil for me. This is not going to work out for my good. Some disaster is going to befall me." This is what they were saying in their tents. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 26. "Yet you were not willing to go up, but 12:14 rebelled against the command of the Lord your God." Verse 27. "You grumbled in your tents and said, 'Because because the Lord hates us. Because the Lord hates us, he has brought us out of the land of 12:32 Egypt Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to what? To destroy us.' Was that God's intent? God intended to hate them, 12:50 to destroy them. But that's what 600,000 people believed. 600,000 people and the 10 spies who had brought the evil report believed that God was going to take them, God hated them and he was going to destroy them. In the midst of all of that, 13:08 there was two people saying, "I know that we're not any stronger than you are, but I believe that God loves us. What he's promised that he's got I don't know how he's going to do it, but he's if he said he's going to take 13:21 us there, I believe in the goodness of God. I believe in his good intent. He will not if evil fathers plan I mean evil fathers plan good for their children. I being evil plan good for my children. How much more God 13:38 will plan good for his children. There's a beautiful verse and and and so you see this this this two types of people one who believe in the evil intent of God and the other believe in the goodness of God. Joshua and Caleb 13:54 were like that they believed in the goodness of God. And if you turn with me to Psalm 27 Psalm 27 says in in verse 13 Psalm 27 I would have despaired. I would have been discouraged unless I had believed 14:13 What did they believe? that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I'll see the goodness of God in the land of the living. I will go into Canaan and I'll see God's goodness there. While the 600,000 the 14:29 majority all said we're not going to see the goodness of God and they didn't see the goodness of God in the land of the living. But the two men the minority who had dared to believe God they saw it and even today that morning when I woke up and I was I 14:44 was thinking about all these things I said Lord I don't want to be like the 600,000. I want to be like those two who against all the you know probabilities of what could happen and what happened in this person's life and that person's life 15:00 it's going to be different for me Lord. I'm not I don't know how it's going to work out and I don't know all the details but I know one thing Lord you who planned my life in Psalm 139 you wrote everything with precious thoughts 15:13 you've not put any evil in there. Every single thing in my life will work out for my good. And as I was thinking about how God writes in our life in our in our in our diary. Actually, look turn with me to Psalm 139. I want us to get familiar 15:30 with these verses so that as times of testing come we'll go back to this scripture and says, "Lord, I'm going to get encouragement from this scripture." Verse 16, Psalm 139 verse 16, "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in 15:45 your book, the book that was written for me, all the days were ordained for me that were ordained for me when they were not yet written not when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are your thoughts towards me, oh God. How vast the sum of 16:05 them." And when I think of God writing down all these precious thoughts and putting it down, you might remember that verse and it's we were singing about it, too. Can anyone pluck anything out of God's hand? No, he can't. 16:20 Nobody. When I think about the plans that he wrote on this day, this is going to happen, this day and all beautiful precious thoughts he's wrote written. Can someone can the devil or anybody takes that take that pen from God's 16:37 hands and pull it out? Do you think anybody is strong enough to pull out the pen from God's hands and then go into my diary which God wrote down me and then scratch it out and write some evil in there? Do you think that's possible? 16:53 It's not. It's not. Nobody can go into God's diary that he wrote for me and for every child of God and then go and pluck the pluck the pen out of his hand and then scratch it out and write something evil there. It's not possible. 17:10 And that's why I believe that I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. And that's why I don't have to despair when circumstances and situations I don't believe that Joshua and Caleb lived perfect lives. I'm pretty sure if 17:27 they lived perfect lives, then they wouldn't have had to come and sacrifice yearly the bulls and goats and everything for their sins. They had their own sins that they would have had that they went and sacrificed for. And each one of us, 17:40 if we look, we know the areas we failed in the past. But that did not stop Joshua and Caleb in confessing their hope. They believed that God had forgiven and blotted out their sins. And with that confession, they didn't 17:55 say, "Oh, you know what? Maybe God's going to look at some past failure of mine and that's why the giants are not going to come down." No, the giants are going to come down. God has forgiven my past. There's no guilt. If God has promised that I will be there 18:09 in that land. Until today, we know that God kept his word. The smoke Those 600,000 20 and above did not see it. But we know that God kept his promise to Joshua and Caleb. God kept his promise to the 18:29 the Samaritans the Israel. And he did take set them free from that siege. God's word will always come true. And I told the Lord, "Lord, in the midst of all of these things, I could be like those 600,000 who complain 18:48 or I could be one who like Joshua and Caleb confess my hope saying, 'Lord, you're going to do you're going to do it. I don't know how you're going to work it out, but you are, Lord.'" And I said, "Lord, I know that this is 19:01 going to thrill your heart. My confession of faith is going to thrill your heart. Because in the mix of 600,000, you're looking for somebody who will say, 'I'm going to be different. I'm going to say yes, I believe in the goodness of God in the land of 19:17 the living." And so, that's what I want for each one of us. Each one of us, when we're going through these circumstances, if we're a child of God, everything must work together for good for us. And I wanted to talk about a little bit 19:36 about Paul. You see Paul and and you know, the first 30 years or so of his life, he was persecuting the church and did many mistakes in those first 30 years. But when Jesus met with him on that road 19:56 to Damascus, everything changed for him. And for each one of us, that day can be a today. We don't have to wait for something spectacular, but it can change for us. He met with Jesus that day and his life changed forever. 20:15 And you see in this man, even though he had failed many times in the past, from that day onwards, God used him despite his failings and all of that to fulfill his purposes through Paul. Now, I wanted to take some time just to 20:31 look at few of those things with with Turn with me to Acts 23. Acts 23. So, 20:54 Paul goes to Jerusalem and in Jerusalem, the Jews get upset that he's in the temple. He thinks that they brought someone else into the temple who is not a Jew. They got upset. They took him. They There's going to a riot, the 21:08 Centurions and the uh Romans come and take him and they put him in jail. They they capture him, put him in jail. And then on in chapter 23, he's standing before them to share testimony. So, that's where we're going to start here. So, Acts 21:24 23:1, "Paul looking intently at the council said, 'Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.'" Verse two, "The high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth." 21:43 Slap him. Then, verse three, "Paul said to him, 'God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. Do you sit to try me according to the law in violation of the law, order me to be struck?'" Verse four, "But the bystanders said, 21:59 'Do you revile God's high priest?' And Paul said, 'I was not aware, brethren, that he was the high priest. For it is written, you shall not speak evil of your ruler of your people.'" So, this is his first time sharing testimony. 22:16 And it starts off with him speaking disrespectfully to the high priest. Already things are not going well. This is the first time God has put him to share testimony and he's failed. But he sets the matter right. He says, "I'm sorry. I don't I 22:36 didn't realize." Verse six, "But perceiving that the group one group of Sadducees and one was Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the council, 'Brethren, I am a Pharisee and a son of Pharisees. I'm on trial for the hope and 22:50 resurrection of the dead.'" That was not a true statement. He was not on trial for that. But he saw that there was the Sadducees and Pharisees and he wanted them to get into an argument. And so, he threw that out there so that they would fight among 23:04 themselves. And just like he thought, verse seven, as he said this, there occurred a dissension between the two and they were divided. And then it says in verse nine, we find nothing wrong with this man, suppose a suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken. 23:22 Verse 10, as the great dissension was developing, the commander was afraid that Paul would be torn into pieces and ordered the troops to go down and take him away from the from them by force and bring him into the barracks. 23:36 And so Paul had made two mistakes. What was the first mistake? To speak against the high priest. The second mistake he made was that instead of testifying of what why he was truly there, he says, I'm here for the because I believe in the 23:51 resurrection of the dead. And so these two things happened. One matter he set right, the other matter he didn't have an opportunity to set right. And I believe that on that day he probably is thinking, Lord, you called me 24:07 to testify to the Jews and everyone and I feel like a failure. The two things I said was not about you. I set one matter right, the other matter I And as he was discouraged there in that 24:25 barrack, it says verse 11, and this is one of my most one of the favorite verses that that encourages me. But on that night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side. It wasn't a vision. It says the Lord stood at his 24:43 side. Take courage or don't worry. For as you have solemnly witnessed to my cause at Jerusalem, Paul is probably thinking to himself, this is what I I didn't even testify properly, but Lord, you're encouraging me. 25:00 Thank you, Lord. Take courage, for as you have solemnly wit- solemnly witnessed to my cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also. So, Paul, don't be discouraged. I know you feel like you messed up. 25:19 But, you know what? I'm going to use all these mess-ups and use you despite all of your failings. Don't worry. I know you you you said that you were there on trial because you were there for the belief on the resurrection of the dead. Don't 25:34 worry about that. I believe Paul was thinking in his heart, "Lord, one matter I set right, the other matter I couldn't set right, Lord. It's still bothering me. And I know for each one of us, there's some things we set right. We say something mean to 25:49 somebody, or we do something wrong, we set that matter right. But, there is times where we do something and Lord, I I don't know how to set right this matter, Lord. Give me an opportunity, perhaps in the future, so that I can set this matter 26:01 right. But, I don't want to feel guilty. I've set it right with you, Lord, but in my earliest opportunity, make an opportunity so that I can set it right. But, listen to this. So must you witness at Rome also. What was God's promise to 26:20 Paul? He must witness in Rome. He has to witness in Rome. Could anything happen to Paul before he reached Rome? What do you think? Could anything happen to him? Could somebody go and write into his 26:40 diary some evil? No. Read with me. Acts 23:12. When it was day, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under oath. That means they put a 26:56 They made a promise. They said, "Under an oath saying we would neither eat or drink until they had killed Paul." So, these people are saying, "I'm going to We're going to 40 or more people have come together with one intent." They 27:13 said, "We're We're not going to eat or drink until we have killed Paul." They were dedicated. They were serious, and they wanted to kill Paul. And you could think from an earthly standpoint, "You know what? These guys are very 27:30 close to pulling that that that pin and saying, 'Paul was killed in Jerusalem by 40 people who made an oath.'" But do you think that can happen? No, it cannot happen. And so, who heard this? Do you know who 27:48 heard this? Verse 16, "But Saul, the son of Paul's sister, or his nephew, heard of their ambush and came and entered the barracks and told Paul." Do you think that was an accident? Or do you think that God planned that that his nephew would hear this this 28:05 conspiracy? Yes, God would hear it. That the God would allow his nephew to hear it. And then said the centurion, He Paul tells, "Go tell the centurion, nephew." And then the centurion says, 28:23 Listen, read with me. Verse 23. Acts 23:23. "And he called to him two of the centurions." So, a centurion has how many soldiers under them? A hundred. And then if you have two centurions, how many soldiers do you have? 200 searches 200 soldiers 28:42 ready by 9:00 p.m. to proceed from Jerusalem to Caesarea. So, Caesarea was about 60 mi away, which is from here to Denver, an hour drive to Denver. Uh so, that's how far they had to go. 29:00 Paul was about 50 years now. He's no longer a 30-year-old converted Christian. He's a 50-year-old man now. He would have to as a prisoner, they're not going to They're They're going to make him walk 60 mi. But, because of this ambush and this 29:16 conspiracy, guess what happens? He has There's 70 horsemen, 200 soldiers all around him, and 200 spearmen. And verse 24, they provided a horse for Paul. So, Paul didn't have to walk as a 29:36 50-year-old man 60 mi to go to Caesarea. Usually, prisoners would have had to walk that 60 mi. They're not going to give him a horse for a prisoner. But, he's traveling in there like a governor. He's traveling there with 200 soldiers 29:52 all around him, 70 uh horses going there. Who arranged all of these circumstances for Paul? God did. God arranged all of this. He knew that Paul's going to have This is his servant, the apple of his eye. 30:12 One who had made blunders and all of that despite that, in the midst of that, he's like, "Paul, I know that you don't realize this, but that walk is going to be hard for you. I've taken care of that for you. Don't worry, you're going to ride in a horse." 30:27 And then chapter 24, he goes and he's It says there, verse chapter 24, verse 1, "After 5 days, the high priest Ananias came down with some of the elders, and they got this lawyer uh, called Tertullius, and they're trying to get Paul again. 30:47 And Paul gets a second opportunity. The first opportunity, he was discouraged. I I believe he was very discouraged after the first opportunity. And God's giving him a second opportunity is 5 days later. And you can see that he you can read 31:03 with me um, verse 14 or 13. Acts 24:13, "Nor they can prove these people can't prove any of the charges which they have now accused me. Verse 14, but this I admit to you, that according to the way 31:21 they call a sect or a cult, I do serve the God of our fathers believing everything that's in accordance to the law and that's written in the prophets, having this hope that which these men also cherish, that there sure certainly shall be 31:37 a resurrection both of the righteous and the wicked. There is going to be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. In view of this, verse 16, "I do all I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience before God 31:54 and before men." And for each one of us, that should be our if we believe I believe each one of you believe that there will be certainly a resurrection of both the righteous and wicked, and if you each one of us believe that, 32:11 today we must also seek to have a blameless conscious conscience before God and man. It says here, verse 20, Acts 24:20, "Or else let these men themselves tell what they found misdeed 32:31 they found in me when I stood before the council. Verse 21, listen to this. Other than this one statement which I shouted while I was standing among them, for the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today. 32:46 You remember he said that, but he said I made a misdeed over there. This one thing I did wrong when the last time, 5 days ago. And God made an opportunity for him to set that matter right as well. 5 days later when he was there, he said, 33:01 "You know what? I made him another mistake which I couldn't correct last time." And I believe that's what the Lord wants to do for each one of us for the matters that are complicated that we didn't have an opportunity to set right. 33:13 If we ask the Lord, "Lord, this matter that's I don't know what to do in the situation, but I do want to set it right. I want to do it better next time. I didn't testify to you like I should have last time, but I want to testify 33:28 truly, Lord." And God gave Paul an opportunity. So, it goes on. He's put in trial again in front of others. But I wanted you to see this. 33:44 Turn with me to Acts 27. So, Acts 27 they're now going and they're traveling to Rome. You remember he has to go and testify in Rome, right? And so they're putting him on the ship along with the centurion. And so they he's gone the ship. 34:04 And uh we'll start with verse 9. Acts 27:9. When considerable time had passed and the voyage was was now dangerous since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them and said to them, "Men, I perceive that this voyage 34:24 will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only for of the cargo of the ship, but also of our lives. And so Paul is being He knows that something is going to happen here, and he's telling them, "I think we shouldn't proceed. 34:41 There's going to be damage to cargo and lives. So, let's stop here." Verse 11, "But the centurion was more persuaded by who? The pilot and the captain of the ship than what was being said by Paul." 34:59 And so Paul is struggling here. Paul needs to be If it was somebody else's ship, that would be a different thing. But they're putting him in the ship, too, and he's saying, "I don't want to go on this ship, because I'm also going 35:08 to get Whatever's happening to you is going to happen to me. So, I say, don't let's not go." But these two men, the pilot and the and the captain, persuaded persuaded the centurion. I mean, persuaded the centurion that we should 35:25 proceed. And this is a very dangerous thing. We need to be careful when when God is speaking to us. It could be through his word, through a message, or You know he's speaking to you. Let us not persuade 35:46 ourselves out of it. Turn with me to Second Samuel. Second Samuel 24. Second Samuel 24. David was trying to 36:04 count the people, and God had told the people of Israel, "Don't count the people. Don't worry about how many people you have in your army. I will take care of the battles for you. No matter how many people are there." But David really wanted to count the 36:20 people. He wanted to find out how many was there in his army. And it says here verse two, second Samuel 24:2, "The king said to Joab, the commander of the army with him, 'Go now throughout the tribes 36:39 of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and register the people that I may know the number of people.'" Verse three, listen to this. But Joab said to the king, "Now, may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as my many as they are while the 36:53 eyes of my Lord king still see, but why does my Lord the king delight in this thing?" Verse four, listen to this. So, the king So, Joab was the king's nephew. His sister's son. And he probably thought, "Nephew, what do you think What do you know about 37:12 this? You listen to me." And it says here, verse four, "Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army." So, so he went with it. And if you see what you know the 37:30 implications of that is, verse 15, "So, the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time." And how many people? "And 70,000 men died." 70,000 men died because 37:47 of his disobedience. And what would he have needed to do in order to have prevented that? When Joab told him, "What you're doing is not right." He should have said, "You know what, Joab, let me think about that. You know what, what you're saying is 38:04 true. God will add to us. We don't need to count the people." But because he prevailed, it resulted in so many people uh the consequences of 70,000 people dying. And like that, if we go back to Acts 27, 38:23 Acts 27, they were persuaded, but verse 13, when a moderate south wind came, supposing they have attained their purpose, they weighed their anchor and set began sailing to Crete. And so, you see this. Paul said, "Hey, there's going to be bad 38:41 weather." And uh And what happens? There's actually good weather. And what are the people thinking now? Paul, you have no idea what you were talking about. See what's what's happening? Everything's going fine. That's the danger. 38:57 That's the danger. Everything wasn't fine. They didn't realize what was going to happen. But verse Verse 20, let's go to verse 20. Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, no small storm was assailing us, from all the From then on, all hope of 39:14 our being saved was gradually abandoned. You remember that expression, "I told you so"? So, here verse 21, Acts 27:21, "When they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, 'Men, you have 39:33 ought to have followed my advice and not have set sail to Crete and incurred all this damage and loss.'" But guess what? Even there there was a loss to cargo and everything. Guess what? There would never be a loss to who? 39:50 There was never a loss to Paul. He said, "You know what? If you listened to me, you would have not suffered loss of cargo and all of that." But for a child of God, even if the captain and the pilot disagree with you 40:07 and go against what you said, and you are part of the receive the part of the consequences, the cargo will not fail for you. There won't be any loss to you spiritually. And listen to this, verse 23. For this very night an angel of God to whom I 40:27 belong, who wraps his arms around me, and whom I serve stood before me saying, "Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. You must go to Rome. And behold, the God has granted you all those who are sailing with you. 40:45 Therefore, keep up your courage, for I believe God. I believe God that I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. And it'll turn out exactly as I've been told." And so you see that even though this happened, you see how he's 41:04 All of those people in that ship, whether they agreed with Paul, disagreed with Paul, it didn't matter. All of their lives were going to be saved because of one godly man on that boat. One man who whom God who belonged to 41:20 God. And for each one of us, for me I often I think about that in the church. For me, there's a safety inside this church. God has protected us from so many evils and so many things. And I need to be grateful for that. I 41:38 need to be grateful for all of that. There's so many things we'll see in eternity how God protected us from so many things because we were in this ship. The people in in in in Paul's boat would be tremendously grateful in 41:55 eternity. There was no guarantee for the ship on the right and the left and the north and the south, but there was a guarantee for the one that Paul was on. So they they they you know that they they they get into the shipwreck. 42:12 And listen to me this in verse 42. The soldiers plan were to kill the prisoners so that none would escape. Acts 27:42. Could the soldiers kill Paul? Could he could they kill Paul? No. And the way the Lord used that was the 42:32 Centurion who saw what Paul had said and knew that Paul was true. And the captain and the pilot weren't true. Listen to what it says. Verse 43, but the Centurion wanting to bring Paul safely through kept them from their intention. So now 42:48 God put the Centurion to protect Paul. So Paul had a bodyguard everywhere he went. The Centurion who did not agree to him. Now God was using that same man to protect him. And you see how God uses everything, the shipwreck and all of 43:03 that. He goes to Malta and chapter 28, Malta. Could Paul get killed in Malta? Or does he have to go to Rome? He has to go to Rome so he can't get killed in Malta. He goes there and he's helping them collect sticks and a viper 43:21 comes and bites him. Could Paul be killed by the viper? No. The Paul Paul couldn't be killed by the viper because he had to go to Rome. And it didn't give him any harm. But sometimes in our life too, God doesn't you know, there are things 43:38 that we suffer, we go through situations. It wasn't like Paul was looking for the viper to bite him or anything like that. He happened to be collecting sticks and it it bit him. And when things happen like that in our lives out of our control, we didn't plan 43:53 on going and getting bit by a serpent but it bit us. That's where I see that God even he'll use that serpent bite for a greater good for our life. And I believe one of the reasons is that one of the things the good that came out 44:08 of it is the people in that island now believe that he was a man of God because that that serpent didn't do anything to him. It didn't harm him. And so here they realized, "Hey, this is a man of God." And read with me here. 44:22 Verse 7, it says, "Now in the neighborhood of the place the lands belonging leading man of the land needing Publius who welcomed us, entertained us courteous for 3 days." And it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with 44:37 a recurrent fever and dysentery. And Paul prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him. Would this man have been healed if not Paul had that shipwreck? No. I believe those people in Malta were needy. They probably were crying out to 44:56 the Lord. Now as they were crying out to the Lord, God met with them and sent Paul there. Paul, you may not understand why the shipwreck is there, but the people in Malta need you. And he so he goes there and he he it says that he verse 9 45:15 people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured. Verse 10, they honored us with many marks of respect. And when they were say setting sail, they supplied us with all we needed. So Paul was a prisoner. 45:32 Prisoners don't get all that they need in prison. They don't give them all that they need. But God knowing that Paul's going to need some things, he says, "You know what? This shipwreck is going to work out for your good. You're going to go to 45:45 Malta. You're going to preach to them. Some people are going to be healed. Some people may have come to know the Lord through that. And you know what? Paul, I'm going to take care of all your needs. They're going to give you 45:57 everything you need for the rest of your journey to to to um Rome. And I'm going to close with this. It says here in It says in verse 15, "People from market of Appius and three inns came out to meet us." These were cities that were 30 or 40 miles away. 46:17 These people walked all the way 30, 40 miles to come and see Paul. And it says that he thanked God and took courage. And God needed no needed that he needed that encouragement. And so everything was planned out for his life. Everything from an earthly 46:36 point of view, it would have looked like everything was shipwrecks, serpents, 40 people trying to kill him. But nobody could take that pen from God's hands and change God's plans for him. That we will see the goodness of God in 46:52 the land of the living. And for each one of us, we might be going through different circumstances and situations like the people had those giants that were there in Canaan. And they said the giants are going to destroy us. 47:08 God is looking for each one of us to say, "You know what? Yes, there's the lusts in our flesh. There's discouragement. There's past failures." All of these giants are there. Anxiety, discouragement, depression, relationship issues. All of these giants 47:24 are there. But Lord, I'm going to believe. I'm going to see the goodness of God like K- Joshua and Caleb did in the land of the living. And that's the faith that I want to have for myself. Like they they dropped that anchor we read earlier. 47:42 Let us drop that anchor this morning and say, "Lord, doesn't matter what the 600,000 say. I want to be among those who say, Your good Your intentions are good. You've planned out everything well for me. And I am going to see the goodness of 47:58 God in the land of the living. May it be so.
