In this message, the message centers on faith, mission, and following god. Hear a message from guest speaker Eran Holt on faith, mission, and what God can do through believers who are willing to follow His leading. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The message presses toward an active response to the gospel. Faith is presented as something that reshapes priorities, decisions, character, and obedience, not simply something we affirm intellectually. Listeners are challenged to examine whether their lives are increasingly aligned with what they say they believe and to respond to God's grace with courage, humility, and faithful action.
Along the way, the message engages themes including faith, mission, and following god, following god. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does the Bible teach about faith, mission, and following god? It also considers how does faith, mission, and following god affect everyday discipleship?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does the Bible teach about faith, mission, and following god? | How does faith, mission, and following god affect everyday discipleship?
faith, mission, and following god, following God
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[Applause] Good morning, Full Life. How are you? >> Let's try that again. Good morning. >> Good morning. It is good to be with you. It's good to be back. It's been a little bit since I've been here, but it's always good to be with family and uh my my young twin nephew, Nicholas. You see the matching haircut there? He's the only person I've ever known that has wanted to be like me so much that he shaved his head in order. It's so uh but um excited to be here with you and of course if you haven't put the connection together uh Kim is my much much much older sister and uh so which that I just that means she's not going to make dinner for us this afternoon. That's that's I'm so I'm so sorry. I'll I'll pay this time. I'll Yeah, it'll it'll be good. So hey, do me a favor and look at your neighbor and just talk to him and say neighbor. Okay, that was terrible. That was terrible. I got Listen, let me coach you real quick. You got to act like you like this person just for just for a moment because you did choose to sit next to them whether Okay, so let's try it again. Look at your neighbor. Say, "Neighbor, >> it's an honor to sit next to you." >> See, that felt pretty good. Okay, now now you got to look at your other neighbor, the one that you just ignored a moment ago, who maybe is slightly offended with you. Look at your other neighbor. Say, "Other neighbor, >> it's an honor for you to sit next to me. Yes, it is. You You got a neighbor upgrade today. You must be living a blessed and favored life, right? So, hey, I I do want to introduce some of my family that is with me. My wife Julie is here uh with me this weekend. We've been married now for coming up on 29 years in just a couple months. And then you may or may not have put this connection together. Um but our daughter Ellie, who was a part of the worship team here, um Ellie is our youngest of three. Um, and so she's the baby of our family. I'm the baby of my family. How many of you are the babies of your family? Come on. Did you know the Bible says the babies of the family are the best members of the family? The most blessed members of the family, the best looking members of the family. I only say that because my older sister Kim is in the audience, you know. So, I just want to remind her what the word of God says. Um, I I don't know where that verse is at. If you find it, let me know. I've been looking for it my whole life. Really, I've been looking for it. So, um, but, uh, it it's an honor to be here. And uh our daughter Ellie is a student at the Belonging Co. and a part of this church as her home church while she's living in Nashville. So, thank you for loving on her and letting her be a part of your uh faith community and family here. And uh so she's just coming back from a mission trip to Kenya. She'll tell you some amazing stories, I'm sure, if you talk to her. And uh so we had the privilege of kind of bringing her back and then we were doing some ministry over the weekend. And so uh it's good to be here. It's good to be here. Grab your Bible with me. You got your Bible? How many of you got your Bibles? You got your real Bible like your your good oldfashioned leatherbound Bible? Hold it up. Hold it up. All right. Cool. We're going to be in Acts 27 to start. We'll we'll get into 28 as well. And if you don't have the good oldfashioned leather Bible with your initials, you know, embroidered on the front of it or or inscribed on the front of it. You got your phone, you're super cool. That's awesome. You can grab your iPhone and you can be there with us as well. And if you got your Android, um you just put that away. That's embarrassing. You don't you just you don't want anyone to see that. And uh so uh we're just trying to help you out. We'll have the verse on the screen as We'll read it in just a second. Um, so I I want to take a moment though and I wanted to say thank you to Full Life. So my wife and I direct a ministry called Lead the Generation. Um, and we travel full-time uh challenging, encouraging, training, and inspiring youth pastors across the country and even globally through our ministry, through our travel, through our our resourcing that we have available for free on our website. And the only way that we can do what we do and make all of our resourcing free is because there are many churches like Full Life that have been supporting us uh out of your missions budget. And so I just want to take this moment to say thank you. Uh you are helping us make an incredible difference. Earlier this year again because of churches like yours and and and gener generous giving uh we were able to make available close to $50,000 worth of resources that we've developed absolutely free on our website. And uh so that is going around the world to youth pastors and churches of all sizes. And again, you're a part of that. You're helping make that happen. So uh thank you. Yeah, applaud applaud yourself really because you guys are the ones that are helping us do it and we're so grateful for it. So thank you for your giving. Thank you for your generosity. If you want to know a little bit more about what you're supporting, you can jump on our website. It's leadthegeneration.com and you can kind of see everything that we're doing there and all that we're involved in. And so, uh, that was a big part of the reason we were here in in town over the weekend. We were a part of a youth ministry conference yesterday where we were, uh, training some youth pastors. And, uh, it's a good thing to raise up the next generation, right? We believe in the next generation. We want to see faith pass from one generation to the next. And, uh, so we're on the front line of that. And, uh, we're excited to be able to give you that report and also say thank you to you as well. Um, and of course, that does mean a bit of traveling for me. How many of you travel? You travel quite often. And I don't know, some of you do. I I I end up being in this season of my life someone who travels quite a bit. And if you've ever traveled, I don't know, it it's it's it's exciting and it's exhausting all at the same time. Anybody know what I'm talking about? And uh so I had this moment a couple years ago. It was it was really kind of uh I think it was in 2021. It was right after COVID was kind of like all the restrictions were finally starting to lift, right? Um and and I I don't know what it was like down here in Tennessee for you, but in Pennsylvania, it got pretty tough for a while, you know, and um so I I'm traveling. And I forget exactly what state I'm in. And I got three bookings in a row. Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night. And that meant three different towns. And that meant three different hotels. And I am pulling into the hotel of the third booking on Friday afternoon. And I am tired. And I don't know if you're like me, maybe it's just me, but when I get really tired, all of the Jesus in me tends to just kind of drain out of me. Anybody know what I'm talking about? It's it's like I'm trying to be a good person right now, but I am tired. And the spirit of grouchy just comes all over me, right? And so I'm feeling it in this moment and I just I want to quickly check into the hotel and I need to take a nap before I go to to preach that night. And so I I go into the hotel. I'm I put my mask on cuz those were the rules. And I walk in and I I meet the clerk there at the desk and he's got his mask on. And then we also have the added protection of like that bulletproof glass thing in front of. How many of you remember this? Did you guys do this down here in Tennessee? I don't I don't know why we needed that, but apparently it was important cuz everyone was doing that. And so so you know, you're trying to have a conversation. I'm trying to check in, you know, the normal, right? My name is Aaron. I got a reservation here. Um but I'm also explaining to this this this young man that um the room is is uh booked by someone else under a different name, but he booked it for me because he's hosting me. His name is Ryan. I'm kind of going through all this stuff. And so he's typing along trying to figure all this out. And he finally says, "I got it. everything's good. Everything's right. I got your reservation. It's all good. And um he says to me, I just need you to swipe your credit card and pay for the room and then I can give you your key card. And I And so I paused and I I thought I had already explained it to him and he said, but but obviously he didn't get it. And so I said to him, "Hey man, I'm sorry. Um I'm not actually paying for the room. Ryan paid for the room already. It's already prepaid, right?" And and so you know, he just you can look that up. It's probably there. And and I mean it was almost as if I said a trigger word, you know, because it just like the whole conversation just turned and he got very agitated with me. And uh and so he looks at me and he's like, "Well, you didn't tell me that." And I'm like, "I'm sorry." He's like, "You didn't tell me that. You didn't you didn't tell me that. You should have told me that sooner." And I'm like, "Oh, my bad. I'm trying to be nice, but I'm really irritated already. I'm tired. I'm grouchy." And and I'm like, "I'm sorry, man. I Yeah, okay. Yeah, Ryan's paying for the room. It's all good." And he was like He's like, "No, you don't understand." He's like, "It's too late now because you didn't tell me soon enough. Now you're going to have to pay for the room." I'm like, "What you talking about, Willis? That's a good old show, right?" You know, and and and he's like he's like, "Yeah, man." He's like He's like, "It's it's it's on you now." He's like, "I already I've already like went too far on the computer and I've gone past that screen already and I can't make any changes at this point. If I try to go back, it erases the whole reservation and then we have to start all over again. So, bro, this is on you. You're gonna have to pay for the room right now. Okay. I'm usually a very nice person. I promise. I really am. I'm not very aggressive. I I tend to I like good customer service. I like being a good customer, you know. But I was not having it on this day. And And I just I like like it was and I looked at him and I said something. I I I probably have never been this aggressive with somebody, but I looked at him and I said, "Hey, man. It sounds to me like you're saying it's my fault that you pressed the wrong button on your computer." How many like That's pretty good. Actually, that was sometimes some of you are like, "That's a little aggressive for me. I don't know, you know." And and he was like, "Yeah, man. It is your fault." And furthermore, I don't even believe your story about some dude named Ryan paying your room. He's like, "For all I know, you just made up an imaginary friend and you're trying. I mean, he's just coming at me." And we're going back and forth. And I felt the spirit of the karate kid coming over me. My legs started to lift up. I'm just like, "You you better be glad there's bulletproof glass right here." I'm just saying, you know, and we go back and forth. I get Ryan on the phone. We finally, you know, deescalate. We resolve the whole deal. It's all good. And and he's he is he's getting ready to slide the key card of for the room across the desk at me. And I just just quick question. How many of you are wired like me? In moments like this, you always feel the need to have the very last word. Okay. Wives are elbowing husbands right now. This is what I'm seeing from the stage, right? You know, right? And so, I don't know. I'm not usually like that. How how many of you are like like you're you are the person who ends every text message conversation like it does even if it's just a thumbs up it's like you will be the last one you are like the human version of read receipt like that's that's like your thing right okay so I became that person in this moment and I and I look at the dude all I have to do is keep my mouth shut take the key card go take my nap I couldn't do it and I looked at the dude and I'm like hey bro so like just just to confirm all of this like drama. Just to confirm like this is all my fault, right? Dude looks at me and he's just like confirmed. And I am I am so mad at this point. And I'm not I'm I'm not actually mad at what he said. I'm actually mad at the fact that he won the argument. That's really it's just my pride is wounded at this point. and I grab the card and I just go like off to my room and you know and finally after I like you know kind of settle down I'm I'm I'm like I'm in my hotel room and I'm like I am so embarrassed like what is wrong with me like I'm getting ready to go preach about Jesus tonight and this is what's happening you know and so I'm so embarrassed that when I leave the hotel a couple minutes later or an hour later I I go out the back door of the hotel cuz I don't ever want to see Mr. Confirmed again for the rest of my life. Right? This is what I'm thinking. So, I go do the service and and then I'm come back to the hotel late at night now, pulling into the parking lot and I am so tired at this point and and and all of a sudden it hits me that I have been in three different hotels in three different nights with three different hotel room numbers and I cannot remember my room number anymore. And all I had was the card, not the sleeve with the number on it. And then I'm thinking, "Oh my goodness, if Mr. confirmed is still on his shift right now. I'm going to have to go talk to this dude again. And I'm so annoyed by this whole situation because it's like like I tried to explain it to him. I tried to be nice. And so I and and and then I'm thinking to this is what I'm thinking actually as I'm walking into the hotel. I'm thinking I'm not talking to this dude. I'm not I will take this key card and I will try it in every single I mean I'm like I don't care. You know, I walk in. Wouldn't you know it, he's right there. He's He's just right there and he's like, "Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. Hey, could you pop over to the desk real quick? I just need to have a conversation with you, sir." And I'm like, "Round two. Here we go." And I I I walk over and I'm, you know, and and he looks at me and he was like, "I just wanted to take a moment. I wanted to talk about what happened early this afternoon." And I'm thinking, I cannot believe this is happening right now. And he looks at me and he says, "I just wanted to apologize." He's like, 'You know, I just really feel when I was reflecting back that I really didn't handle that situation with you very well. And to be honest with you, I think I was kind of a jerk to you. And it took every bit of Jesus in me to just simply not respond by saying confirmed. How many of you would have done it? I just want to know like how many Yeah. He's like He's like I'd have dropped that. So that is so But it's like annoying. you you you know and and if you travel a lot, you run into annoying situations where you're like, I'm trying to help you. I know this is your industry, but like I got some experience, too, and I'm just trying to help make sense of this. Okay, this is the exact moment that we find the Apostle Paul in in Acts 27, right? Let me set the context real quick and then we'll read together because we're going to pick up kind of in the middle of this story and and so I got to kind of set it up so you understand the whole context. Okay, so we're talking about the Apostle Paul here. We're talking about the man who has written uh 13 books in the New Testament, right? Almost half of the New Testament, maybe 14 if you include Hebrews, right? We're talking about a man in Acts 27 who has already traveled extensively through that region of the world. He's been on three missionary journeys. He's already planted no fewer than a dozen churches at least at this point. And Paul finds himself on a boat on the way to Rome. Rome, the most influential city in this moment in antiquity, Rome, where everything imported and exported from Rome. Paul wanted to go to Rome. Paul wanted to preach the gospel to Rome. If you read through the book of Acts and you get into the light the the latter third of the book of Acts, you discover very clearly Paul wants to be in Rome. Albeit, Paul probably didn't think he was going to find himself going to Rome in the way in which he was going to Rome in Acts chapter 27 because in Acts 27 he's not on a cruise ship to Rome. He's on a prisoner boat to Rome. He has found himself as a prisoner of the nation or the city of Rome. He is traveling with other prisoners. He is traveling with the centurion or the Roman guards. He is also traveling with many sailors and he finds himself on a boat on the way to Rome and it's the wrong time of the year for them to be traveling to Rome. What do I mean by that? I mean that the text tells us the weather had turned against them and that a wiser course of action would have been them to winter somewhere in a safe port and wait until the weather had passed and then resume their journey. Paul tried to tell them this. He tried to plead with the captain of the boat. tried to explain to them, I got some experience being on the water. I've I've logged all of my frequent flyer miles on all the different cruise ships throughout all of the region, and I'm telling you, this is not a good idea. Apparently, they ignored Paul. They basically said, "Paul, you're a preacher. I'm the sailor. We're going to do what I want to do." And off to Rome they go. They find themselves in the middle of such a fierce storm. And this all happens before we're going to start reading. That's why I'm giving you setting this all up. They find themselves in the middle of such a fierce storm that they've had to start throwing over the tackle over the sides of the boat. They've actually had to run ropes under the boat and try to pull it together. I mean, they are in a desperate state. And you'll find in the text here that they've even gone for days without eating because they've thrown all of their supplies and all of the food over the edge in order to lighten the load to try to make it through the storm. That's the context for this text that we're going to read. Okay. So, we're going to pick up in Acts 27. We're going to pick up in verse number 21. We're going to read a couple verses together. It'll be on the screen as well. Everybody ready? Say, "I'm ready." >> Okay, here we go. After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, "Men, you should have taken my advice to not sail from Creed and then you would have spared yourself this damage and loss." Pause for a second. I love the Apostle Paul. He's a very spiritual man, but apparently he's not so spiritual that he's unwilling to say, "I told you so." That's a word for a parent of a teenager right now in the room. Right. Right. Right. That's like I I told you. I tried to warn you. Right. That's a word for like a young adult who who who said to their friend recently, "Don't date that guy. I'm telling you." Like don't don't date that boy. This is Paul. I told you so. Verse 22. But now keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost. Okay, this is getting encouraging. Only the ship will be destroyed. Okay, that's kind of funny. Not one of you will be lost, but the ship is going to go down. This is what he's saying here in this moment. Last night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, "Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar, and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you." Okay, pause again. This is this again, this is kind of funny, right? So God speaks to Paul and says, "Paul, you got to make it to Rome. And because you need to make it to Rome, then everybody on the boat is actually going to be okay as well." This is actually Paul communicating to all of his new prisoner friends and sailor friends and soldier friends. He's basically paraphrasing. He's saying this. Y'all should be glad I'm on this boat, right? Like like you should be you should be you should be look at your neighbor and you should just tell them you should be glad you're sitting next to me today, right? Like like like okay. Well, I was traveling uh earlier this year. I was traveling. It was um I don't know if you if you saw the news, but did you did you see the news of like the we had like a couple weeks where like airplanes were doing crazy things, you know, like like the one airplane in Canada landed upside down. I mean, just this wild stuff and I was traveling like a week after this and I'm thinking like and so I have for years always paused before I get onto any plane and I just kind of lay hands on the side of the plane. But like after the news broke of all this, I just got I stayed there and I'm standing there and I'm holding up the whole line and I just got my hand and I'm praying over this plane. The guy behind me is like, "Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir." And I wanted to say to him, "Listen, bro. Just you you want me to do this right now." Just like you you should be glad that I'm actually going to be like on this plane. I'm just telling you, right? That's you know, this is what Paul is doing here in this moment. Okay, last verse here and then we're going to jump into into chapter 28 in a moment. Verse 25. So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God. Okay, that's our central phrase from the text today. I have faith in God. So everyone repeat after me. I have faith in God. >> I have faith in God. >> Say it like you have it. Say, I have faith in God. >> I have faith in God. >> Look at your neighbor and say, you have faith in God. >> Okay? For I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run around on some island. This is amazing. He's like, I I have faith in God. It's gonna happen. We're going to be okay. But the ship's going to go down. So, just take a moment and pick which life preserver or what piece of wood you want to hold on to in a couple moments because this thing is it's coming apart. Okay. So, Paul actually teaches us three valuable lessons about faith here in this text. One of them is here in this moment right here. And then the other two we'll find when we get into chapter 28. Everyone say faith. >> Everyone say, "I have faith in God." >> Okay, here here's the first thing that Paul teaches us about how faith moves in our life. If you're looking for a sermon title, there's your sermon title. If you're taking notes, there's your there's your there's there it is for you. Faith moves. Here's the first thing that does that faith does for us. Faith moves us from reason to revelation. Faith moves us from reason to revelation. Say that with me. From reason to revelation. Good solid logic and reasoning in this situation that Paul finds himself in would say, "We're going down. We're in trouble." Right? I told you we shouldn't be here, but we're here nonetheless. The weather is relentless. The storm is growing in and and it is growing in strength and we we're in a bad spot and we're stuck here and we're out of food and we throw the tackle over and we're we're in trouble, guys. And this ship is going down and and so here's what happens. Paul is trying to help his sailor friends, his soldier friends in this moment understand that if you have faith in God, then the strength of your faith is not found in your logic or your reasoning or or in the current circumstances in which you find yourself. The strength of your faith is found in the one in whom you have placed your faith. And so Paul's saying, I have faith in God. And and when this happens, your faith moves from a place of reasoning, human logic, intellect, your way of seeing things, my way of seeing things or hearing things to a place of revelation, a revelation of who my faith is placed in in the first place. Does everyone are you with me? >> Okay. So, so Paul's trying to help them understand. He said, "I have faith in God because God spoke to me." He said, "The God whom I serve." And I think he phrases it that way because Paul realizes that he's on a ship with a bunch of Roman soldiers and he's on a ship with a bunch of sailors and all of the sailors had a bunch of different false gods that they would pray to before they would actually go out and out of pour into sea. And so Paul's saying, "My God spoke to me. My God came to me. And if you'll put your trust and your faith in the God whom I have put my trust in my faith, then your faith will move you from a place of reason to revelation." Let's talk about faith for a minute. Everybody say faith. >> Okay. What is it? What is faith? Let me tell you what it's not. It's not good feelings. It's not good vibes. It's not positive thinking. It can produce that for you, but in and of itself, that's not what it is. The Bible says in the book of James that faith without works is so faith must involve some kind of action on my part. Right? Faith must involve some kind of behavior on my part. I I love the way uh Dr. Tony Evans defines faith. Write this down if you're taking notes. He says it like this. He says, "Faith is when you and I act like," everyone say, "Act like." Faith is when you and I act like everything God said in his word is true. >> So I I act like it's true. Even if I don't understand it, even if I'm not feeling it, even if it doesn't quite make sense to me yet. Right? You you you might be sitting here today and you might be saying, "I'm I I kind of I feel like in this season of my life, I'm in a bit of a storm. I'm kind of in a bit of a situation like Paul himself was in." Here's what Paul would say to you. He would say, "Allow your faith in God." Everyone say, "In God." >> Allow your faith in God to move you from reasoning, human reasoning to a revelation of who God is, to a revelation of who you've placed your faith in. I I remember uh we grew up in in Pittsburgh and I I think I think my sister Kim and my my other sister Joy, we were all still there at the house at this point. I was a junior higher and I don't know Kim if you remember this story or not, but I was uh I I love to play basketball when I was a kid. I was a middle schooler at this point and um so our youth pastor, his name was Pastor Rick, he would take me out to play basketball all the time. We'd just go play different parks around the city and stuff like that. And so I think on a Sunday he had said to me, "Hey Aaron, tomorrow after school, um, do you want to go play ball?" I'm like, "Yeah." He's like, "I'll pick you up at school and then, uh, we'll just go out and we'll go play somewhere." I'm like, "This is great." I completely forgot to tell my parents what the plan was. So, they had no idea that I had made arrangements to not go home on the school bus, but to go out and play ball with Pastor Rick. And so, I go out and I'm out having fun. I'm playing ball. Okay. Now, I I don't want to date myself here, but I will. There's no cell phones at this point. There's no like text message your kid. There's no Life 360. Where is my kid at? You know what I'm saying? Like, like we use Life 360. We track Ellie's locations all of the time. We're like, she just left her apartment in Nashville. Where's she going now? She arrived safely at full life on Sunday morning. Okay. I mean, like, okay, I'm sorry you didn't know that, but she's like, I am so turning off my phone now. You know? Uh, so, but there's none of that at this point. And so, I'm out having a good old time. I'm playing ball with Pastor Rick. Mom and dad, they're waiting for me to get home from school on the bus. The bus comes by. I don't get off. They're like, "Where's he at?" They call the bus company. They're like, "We don't he didn't get on the bus. We don't know where where he went." They call the school. They're like, "Did he go did he was he in school today?" "Yeah, he was on school today. We don't know where he's at." They drive to the school. They walk through the hallways and you know the school. They can't find me anywhere. They go back home. I think they probably started having a prayer meeting or like a prayer vigil or something like that. They're like, "Where's our son? Where's our son? We don't we don't know where he's at." Do you remember any of this, Kim? She she she didn't care about me anyway. She wouldn't have paid attention. And so so like like this is all like happen. Okay. So I come home a couple hours later. I'm I'm sweaty, smelly junior high boy at this point and I'm I have no idea what's going on. And I hear my father's deep voice and and and he's like, "Where were you?" And I look at my mother's face and it's just red. She had been crying. They were sitting there and I I'm I'm like, "I don't what are you talking? I was a playing ball with Pastor Rick that you didn't tell us where you were. We were worried about you. We called the school. We called the bus. On and on and on. And as a junior high boy, I did not have the emotional intelligence and awareness to realize how upset my parents were. And so I was like, "What does it even matter? Who cares? I was with Pastor Rick. I was with our youth pastor of all people." Okay. When I said that, let me The only way I could describe it is like this. My father was seated, you know, on on the couch at that point. I to this day I have never seen that man move as fast as he moved coming towards me. Okay. At which point I realized I I my life is going to be threatened in a moment. And I ran into our dining room where there was a large round uh table and I I'm running around the table, you know, like trying to stay away from my dad. And I my dad is saying to me, my dad is saying to me, I am your father. Do you know who I am? You do not speak to me this way. Listen, I I I came here today to tell you, you need to get a revelation of who your heavenly father is. In that moment, I think the spirit of Darth Vader hit my dad and he was like, I'm your father and you're going to know about it. Listen, I I want the spirit of the love and the care of your heavenly father to descend deeply into your heart in this moment on this day. Regardless of the storm you might currently find yourself in, you have a father in heaven. And if you place your faith in him, I have faith in God. Then the strength of my faith moves me from a place of reason to revelation. This is what Paul's modeling for the entire ship. Okay, that that that's number one. Let's move on. Let's get to Acts 28 now. Okay, we skipped another section of scripture. The boat has gone down and they floated their way into a random island. And here we are now in Acts chapter 28, verse number one and two. Once safely ashore, we found out that the island was called Malta. Everyone say Malta. And the islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and they welcomed all of us because it was raining and it was cold. Paul's not in Rome. Paul's in Malta. Paul wasn't planning on going to Malta. Paul was planning on going to Rome. Paul never potentially wanted to go to Malta. He probably could have gone to Malta on one of his earlier missionary journeys, but Paul wanted to be in Rome. Paul wanted to preach the gospel in Rome. Paul understood the significance of the gospel being preached in the most influential city in that moment in history. Paul knew if we can establish a church in Rome, right? From from Rome, the gospel will have the ability to spread through all of the earth. You know, before this crash happens, if just kind of put the timeline together for you, before Paul finds himself marooned on an island called Malta, a place that he did not want to be. Before any of this happened, Paul has already planted over a dozen churches. He's already done three missionary journeys. In fact, scholars would tell you that of the 13 letters that we know for sure that Paul actually wrote and are in the New Testament, Paul had already written half of them at this point. He's already written a letter to Rome. Romans, the book of Romans, his his magnumopus. I mean, the most theologically rich book that we have in the New Testament. Romans. Paul's already written at this point. This is the Apostle Paul we're talking about. I mean, if there was status and there was like preacher fame like in this moment in history, Paul's it, right? If I mean, I'm like, if you're following your favorite preacher in this moment, it's the Apostle Paul. And yet Paul finds himself marooned on an island called Malta. Everyone say Malta. Have you ever been to Malta? Oh, I bet you have. Malta. I'm not talking about the physical place Malta. You could go there as a tourist if you want to. I'm talking about Malta. T
