Speaker 1: Just pray.
Speaker 1: Over this broadcast.
Speaker 1: I was gonna hold up our Bible, make a confession, but we'll just pray instead.
Speaker 1: Father, we just thank you for tonight.
Speaker 1: Lord, we just believe in the supernatural and we lean our whole entire human personality back into you, knowing that it's your words tonight that are spoken through me.
Speaker 1: Lord, I yield myself as a vessel of honor to you for you to use me and, lord, with all humility and Lord, with all honor and respect towards you and Lord, we just thank you that You'll give me the utterance that I Need for you to reach people right where they're at tonight.
Speaker 1: Thank you, lord, for all those that have joined us.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're driving down the road, maybe they're sitting down at home, maybe they've they're casting to their TV on YouTube, but, lord, we just thank you for gathering them together tonight and we're all in one accord in Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 1: I Just wanted to preach a message entitled leaning on the supernatural.
Speaker 1: You know, last week I was receiving the offering here for my dad and and on this very broadcast seven days ago, and I Told a story and in that story I just began to talk about.
Speaker 1: You know, via the Holy Spirit kind of hit me just how easy it is to leave the supernatural behind and forget the supernatural.
Speaker 1: And you know, we get going in our daily lives and it's just all of us, no matter.
Speaker 1: You know how, how many years you've been saved.
Speaker 1: You can, you know, slip and get into flesh and and do something wrong, say something wrong.
Speaker 1: None of us are perfect, but the blood of Jesus makes us perfect and we've been redeemed, amen.
Speaker 1: And so I just thought we could talk about that tonight, leaning on the supernatural, and I thought I'd start by, you know, telling a story on myself.
Speaker 1: This past Monday night, we went out as a family and we went to the movies and we happen to see Super Spreader.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a movie by Sean Foyte and it talks about his ministry during COVID and just what an amazing he's just a worship leader that he would put on these spontaneous events and all these cities During during COVID, starting back in 2020, and just an amazing man of God.
Speaker 1: And it was such a powerful movie.
Speaker 1: But I Just you know here I'm just telling a story on myself.
Speaker 1: So we we very rarely do this we had to pick.
Speaker 1: That movie was only playing in a handful of Theaters in town, and so I think Ethan picked this one that was in town I just I won't say exactly where it is and so, but parking garages were involved and I've got a big truck that doesn't fit in parking garages.
Speaker 1: And so I was worried and stressful and fearful about it.
Speaker 1: And I'm studying on my phone and reading you know all about parking and and I was just genuinely concerned about it.
Speaker 1: And Selena interrupted me.
Speaker 1: She's like are you still what?
Speaker 1: Are you still researching that?
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, like 15 minutes had gone by, wasted my time.
Speaker 1: Bottom line is, we get to the restaurant where we want to eat and we parked in the parking garage and everything was great.
Speaker 1: I found the perfect spot for my truck to fit, both height wise and width wise, and and we go to the restaurant and we eat, we have a great time.
Speaker 1: And then I asked our waiter hey, is it okay for me to leave my truck here in this parking garage and walk across the street to the movies and see a movie?
Speaker 1: He's like 99% sure you can do that.
Speaker 1: Let me check with the manager.
Speaker 1: Boom, manager comes back all as well.
Speaker 1: And we go outside and and there was a security guard there.
Speaker 1: We greeted her and I just I grabbed something out of my truck and we walk out of the parking garage and we're walking down the street to the theater and she chases after us, yelling at us I'm gonna get you toad, you're not supposed to do that.
Speaker 1: You can't park here and then go to the theater.
Speaker 1: And she starts treating me like I'm an eight-year-old, and, instead of being the mature person that I am, I responded back to her as an eight-year-old.
Speaker 1: And so we, we yelled back and forth and no, I never cuss, but I'm I don't know exactly what I said, but I probably, you know out immatured her two to one, let's say, anyways.
Speaker 1: But but really I embarrassed myself, I embarrassed my family, and it just wasn't worth it.
Speaker 1: And, and so I've had to ask for forgiveness from the Lord and ask for forgiveness, like I said to my family.
Speaker 1: But we make, you know, my flesh stinks just as bad as your flesh.
Speaker 1: When you get into the flesh, it stinks.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: We're supposed to be Christians, we're supposed to be led by the spirit in every single area, and so I'll tell you what in that one story, what, where I slipped up is I always confess that I have favor.
Speaker 1: See, I don't care what the rules were for that parking garage.
Speaker 1: There were only eight cars or so in that parking garage.
Speaker 1: It was almost empty.
Speaker 1: It made no difference at all in the natural if I would have left my truck in that parking garage it With a security guard watching it, even even better.
Speaker 1: And so the problem that I had is I was fearful about it and and I didn't approach the situation in faith, confessing that we have favor with everyone we meet, with everyone we come in contact with, again, I just got in the flesh, I got into fear and set a faith and I left the supernatural behind, and so I guarantee you you can have I don't care how you know little of a situation.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you there are areas in your life as well as my life.
Speaker 1: So I'm preaching this message to myself as much as I am to you.
Speaker 1: Let's allow the Holy Spirit to identify every area in our lives where we're, we're leaving Benefits on the table, and let's be serious about including the supernatural in every single Decision that we make.
Speaker 1: Everywhere we go right, and so there's there's no excuse to walking in the flesh, and so my first point is to lean on the supernatural During emotional times, and I would ask for you to turn with me to the book of John, chapter 11, and we, where we read the story that we know very, we're pretty familiar with this story.
Speaker 1: It's the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and so I'm just gonna kind of paraphrase and go down here.
Speaker 1: Lee, if you want to put the verses up, you can, but just it lays out in the first few verses who Lazarus was.
Speaker 1: He's Mary and Martha's brother, and Jesus is already really close to both Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
Speaker 1: They're very close, and Mary is the same Mary who later on breaks the alabaster Baster box and anoints Jesus's feet With her hair.
Speaker 1: It says in verse 2 and so, when he found out, though, that Lazarus was sick, so, so the sisters came to the to Jesus and and and said behold, behold, in verse 3, he whom you love is sick.
Speaker 1: And verse 4, jesus, when he heard that, said this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
Speaker 1: So right away, he heard some bad news, right?
Speaker 1: He heard that his friend was sick.
Speaker 1: Did he weep?
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 1: Did he cry?
Speaker 1: Did he?
Speaker 1: Was he even concerned?
Speaker 1: No, his first reaction was faith.
Speaker 1: Do you see that?
Speaker 1: So you say, well, well, that was Jesus.
Speaker 1: Well, we are Jesus' hands and his feet.
Speaker 1: We have the same authority, we walk in the same authority and we have the same spirit of faith that Jesus had.
Speaker 1: So if Jesus' first reaction is to speak faith, our first reaction in every situation is to speak faith.
Speaker 1: Right, and so a long story short.
Speaker 1: I won't read every.
Speaker 1: We've got about 45 verses or so that I wanted to talk about, and so we'll the reason, you know.
Speaker 1: So he waited two days before going back to Judea, and in those two days Lazarus has now died.
Speaker 1: And so we pick it up in verse 11, and the disciples are asking Jesus all about Lazarus, and he says our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up In verse 12,.
Speaker 1: Then his disciples said Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.
Speaker 1: In verse 13, however, jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking, you know, resting and sleep, and Jesus finally had to just lay it out very plainly.
Speaker 1: He says Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there.
Speaker 1: That you may believe.
Speaker 1: Nevertheless, let us go to him.
Speaker 1: So they begin their journey to Judea to go to Lazarus, and then he runs across Martha, one of the sisters who you know, basically says hey, if you were here he wouldn't have died.
Speaker 1: Hey, but now that you are here, now that you are coming, please come Like.
Speaker 1: In other words, it's not too late.
Speaker 1: And Jesus assures her I am the resurrection.
Speaker 1: In verse 25, I am the resurrection and the life.
Speaker 1: He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.
Speaker 1: And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
Speaker 1: Do you believe this?
Speaker 1: Jesus asked Martha do you believe this?
Speaker 1: And she said she does.
Speaker 1: And so then, later, in verse 32, mary basically almost has the same conversation, but Jesus' reaction to Mary is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: Ready, let's read it, verse 32.
Speaker 1: Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, well, maybe another significant part of the story is that you have a lot of Jews that are filled, have filled Mary and Martha's home, that are comforting them in their grief of their brother passing away, and so that's part of the story as well.
Speaker 1: So, in 32, then, when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying to him Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Speaker 1: Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping.
Speaker 1: He groaned in his spirit and was troubled, and then he said where have they laid him?
Speaker 1: And they said to him Lord, come and see, and Jesus wept.
Speaker 1: That's the shortest verse in the Bible, right there, jesus wept.
Speaker 1: And so what do we see?
Speaker 1: We see Jesus.
Speaker 1: Number one, he has emotions.
Speaker 1: And number two, he wasn't afraid to show those emotions.
Speaker 1: Right, and we're just like Jesus.
Speaker 1: We have emotions.
Speaker 1: And Jesus was just like us when he walked this earth.
Speaker 1: He didn't walk this earth as the Son of God, he walked as the Son of man, right, and so he had emotions like we have.
Speaker 1: He had thoughts like we have, yet without sin, right, he did it in a perfect way, and so the fact that he showed emotions lets us know that, hey, it's okay for us to have emotions, it's okay for us to show those emotions, but what if the story had ended right here?
Speaker 1: It would be a whole different outcome.
Speaker 1: You see, I believe that the ministry of Jesus had progressive miracles along the way, progressive in power and in manifestation, right, and so this miracle was getting Jesus ready to go to the cross and give up his life for us, and we haven't got to that part of the story yet, but we know that Lazarus was already in the tomb four days, and so Jesus was thinking how you know, I only have to be in the grave three days and if God can do this, then for sure God can raise me up.
Speaker 1: It was a statement of faith and it was a miracle of faith.
Speaker 1: And it was a miracle.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a, yeah, it was a miracle of faith, but it took faith for Jesus to walk in the supernatural.
Speaker 1: So again, he has emotions, he showed emotions, but he didn't allow those emotions to stop him, to constrain him, to put him in a box and stop the supernatural power of God, as well as the plan of God.
Speaker 1: And so I think a lot of times I'm guilty and you're guilty, we're all guilty of stopping short, of allowing the supernatural power of God to flow through us in a way that is a great witness to those around us.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you, let's use that story tonight to change that, that we can lean on the supernatural.
Speaker 1: During emotional times, you know, we all face things from time to time tragedies, tragic situations, things that get us down, get us, you know, questioning too many questions, our brain, we get brain-y and our brain kind of goes off and tries to start engineering solutions and when we should not rely on our own understanding but we should lean our whole entire human personality.
Speaker 1: I stole that from the Amplified Bible and I pray that a lot and Selina likes to point that out, that I use that almost every time.
Speaker 1: I just used it in the baptism service this past Sunday night, but it's just something that stuck with me, the way the Amplified Bible talks about leaning our whole, entire human personality back into him.
Speaker 1: Because where would we be?
Speaker 1: You know, you could have the highest IQ and the highest EQ on the planet and you're still gonna fail if you don't rely on the Spirit and tap into what God's thoughts are and God's ways, because God's ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and we can think his thoughts.
Speaker 1: We can know what God is thinking by spending time with him and leaning our whole, entire human personality back into the supernatural.
Speaker 1: So what happens in verse 38?
Speaker 1: Then Jesus again groaning in himself.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Verse 37, I forgot one other aspect and that is the Jews themselves.
Speaker 1: So you have Mary questioning, you have Martha questioning and the Jews that were with them.
Speaker 1: Hey, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying.
Speaker 1: And so, jesus, that made him groan, but he didn't groan in the natural, he didn't groan in his emotions, he groaned in his spirit, the Bible says.
Speaker 1: And so he came to the tomb.
Speaker 1: It was a cave with a stone lay against it and he said take away the stone.
Speaker 1: But, martha, notice who you can see, who has the most unbelief here.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm laughing, you know.
Speaker 1: And hey, maybe that's me sometimes, maybe that's you, maybe we've all been marthas.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of like the Karens of the world today.
Speaker 1: No offense to Miss Karen, if you're watching, miss Karen is not one of the Karens of the world, she's an amazing powerhouse for the gospel, amen.
Speaker 1: So Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him Lord, by this time there's a stench, for it's been four days.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said to her did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, it is all about God's glory, his manifested presence, his manifested goodness, amen.
Speaker 1: And then, in verse 41, they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father.
Speaker 1: So he prayed out loud so that the Jews and Mary and Martha could hear his faith.
Speaker 1: And he said, father, I thank you that you have heard me and I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this and they may believe that you sent me.
Speaker 1: And so he turns this all about believing in him right.
Speaker 1: So now, when he had said that these things, he cried with a loud voice Lazarus, come forth.
Speaker 1: And he who had died, came out, bound, hand and foot, with grave clothes.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine what that looked like?
Speaker 1: And his face was wrapped with cloth and Jesus said loose him and let him go, man.
Speaker 1: So not only was he alive, but he as well.
Speaker 1: He's able to leap and jump and he has his life back.
Speaker 1: He has everything back.
Speaker 1: He's instantly whole, he's instantly healed Verse andready 45,.
Speaker 1: Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did believed in him verse 46,.
Speaker 1: But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.
Speaker 1: So then Jesus' life is threatened, but you know, obviously it's not yet time for the cross, for him to go to the cross.
Speaker 1: And so we see out of this story again, jesus had emotions, jesus showed his emotion, but he didn't allow those emotions to hold him in place and stop him from doing the will of God.
Speaker 1: And so I just encourage you, out of this tonight, to make some adjustments so that the supernatural can come to pass into your natural amen, in your life, in our lives.
Speaker 1: And so, number two, I just want to go back to John, chapter four, and we're going to lean on the supernatural even when our flesh wants to rule.
Speaker 1: So your flesh wants to take over your flesh again.
Speaker 1: You know, when you walk in the flesh it stinks.
Speaker 1: This is a different kind of walking in the flesh that we're about to read about, and here we're talking about the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman.
Speaker 1: I've used this example time and time again, but the Holy Spirit had me use it here tonight.
Speaker 1: And so, who's all watching?
Speaker 1: Let's see, miss Teresa is watching.
Speaker 1: Miss Karen, yes, you are watching, and she is a powerhouse.
Speaker 1: Sylvia said and hey, we have Miss Michelle's watching and Miss Ivana is watching.
Speaker 1: Rocco and Paula, you're watching.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: So in John chapter four, we're talking about leaning on the supernatural, even as your flesh wants to rule.
Speaker 1: And so, chapter four, john.
Speaker 1: Chapter four, verse one.
Speaker 1: Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, he left Judea verse three and departed to Galilee.
Speaker 1: And so, basically, they have to go from Judea to Galilee, and that's through Samaria.
Speaker 1: And so they're on a journey, right, him and the disciples.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine this?
Speaker 1: They're walking, they're on their way to make this journey and Jesus is tired.
Speaker 1: So he's tired and he's thirsty and he's hungry.
Speaker 1: And so he comes to Jacob's well in Samaria and the rest of the disciples go on without them.
Speaker 1: They leave them there at the well and they go on to get him food and to get themselves food right.
Speaker 1: So you kind of see, I've kind of set up the story for you.
Speaker 1: And so in verse six, now, jacob's well was there and Jesus, being weird we read from his journey sat thus by the well and it was about the sixth hour.
Speaker 1: In verse seven, a woman of Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her Give me a drink, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Speaker 1: Then the woman of Samaria said to him how is it that you, being a Jew, ask me from a drink from a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Speaker 1: So right away, jesus is hungry and Jesus is thirsty.
Speaker 1: And really my favorite part of this story is he breaks every rule, every cultural rule in the book.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we'll exactly read, but when you study this out, first of all, he's a man.
Speaker 1: He's not allowed to talk to a woman.
Speaker 1: He's a Jew.
Speaker 1: She's a Samaritan, not allowed to converse.
Speaker 1: Her face is not covered, her head is not covered.
Speaker 1: He should be nowhere around.
Speaker 1: He can't even be viewing her.
Speaker 1: So he breaks every rule in the book of society.
Speaker 1: Back then, to strike up a conversation with this woman and minister to her.
Speaker 1: And let's see where this goes.
Speaker 1: Obviously we know, but let's read it like it's our first time.
Speaker 1: In verse 10, if you knew the gift of God and who it was asking you to give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
Speaker 1: She says, sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.
Speaker 1: Are you greater than our Father Jacob?
Speaker 1: In verse 13, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.
Speaker 1: But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give them will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life.
Speaker 1: And the woman said to him sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.
Speaker 1: In other words, hey, this is a real big pain in the rear to grab this bucket every day and hike all the way out here.
Speaker 1: You know, give me some of this water.
Speaker 1: In other words, she's a little slow to get it.
Speaker 1: I want you to catch that.
Speaker 1: She's real slow to get it.
Speaker 1: Actually, and I'm not being critical of her, I think the Bible uses these examples on purpose.
Speaker 1: How many of you have been a little bit slow to respond Sometimes?
Speaker 1: I would have to say, that's me occasionally.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said to her go call your husband.
Speaker 1: And the woman answered I have no husband.
Speaker 1: And he said you're right, you have.
Speaker 1: You are well said.
Speaker 1: I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband.
Speaker 1: In that you spoke truly.
Speaker 1: In other words, so she's living with the sixth guy, right?
Speaker 1: She's shacked up with the sixth guy, gave up on even trying to get married.
Speaker 1: And so this nerve response, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet, and she begins to try to throw her what little she knows about religion.
Speaker 1: She tries to throw out to Jesus right, our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that this is that in Jerusalem is a place where one ought to worship.
Speaker 1: So she starts trying to talk about worship like she knows what she's talking about.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says in 21, women believe, women believe me that the hour is coming when you will, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the father.
Speaker 1: You worship what you do not know.
Speaker 1: We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews, but the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth, for the father is seeking such to worship him.
Speaker 1: God is a spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: So he's now teaching her, pouring into her hey, she knew just this much of religion and Jesus has given her everything that he has, everything that's on the inside of him.
Speaker 1: He's now pouring into her right Living water.
Speaker 1: Right In verse 25,.
Speaker 1: The woman said to him I know that the Messiah is coming and when he comes he will tell us all things.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus has to just come right out and I am who you speak of, I who you speak to.
Speaker 1: You am he.
Speaker 1: In other words, I am the Messiah that you speak of.
Speaker 1: And then she gets it right.
Speaker 1: So, hint after hint after hint, she doesn't get.
Speaker 1: Jesus just has to come right out and say, hey, I am he.
Speaker 1: And what does she do?
Speaker 1: She becomes the first woman evangelists and she's marveled and she goes yelling through the whole village and the town, et cetera.
Speaker 1: She leaves her water pot behind and she, in verse 29, come see a man who told me all things that I ever did.
Speaker 1: And then you know hey, come meet the Messiah.
Speaker 1: He has come, he is here and she's excited, right, and that leads to an entire.
Speaker 1: Well, let's read this first part, let's keep it in order.
Speaker 1: And so the disciples come back and they say I have food to eat which you know not of.
Speaker 1: In other words, they come oh, I'm sorry, it's down here.
Speaker 1: Then they went out verse 30, to the city and came to him.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, his disciples urged him, saying rabbi, eat.
Speaker 1: And he says I have food to eat of which you do not know.
Speaker 1: Therefore, the disciples said to one another.
Speaker 1: Has anyone brought them food, another food to eat, and he has to explain it now to them because they're slow to get it too right.
Speaker 1: My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Speaker 1: Do you not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest.
Speaker 1: Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are now already white for harvest.
Speaker 1: Amen, man, you think you have time to walk in the flesh?
Speaker 1: You think you have time?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm too hungry, I'm too thirsty.
Speaker 1: Man, you're missing ministry opportunities.
Speaker 1: All around you there's a harvest to gain.
Speaker 1: Get with it.
Speaker 1: Stop walking by the flesh, stop giving in to sinful desires and follow after the plan of God that God has for your life.
Speaker 1: Live in the spirit, live in the moment of the spirit.
Speaker 1: That means there's moment after moment after moment where God's spirit is revealing to your spirit, spirit to spirit, ministry opportunities, things witnessing opportunities, ways that you can gain influence in your job or in your family or in the people that you meet day to day.
Speaker 1: But instead you're listening to your flesh.
Speaker 1: And, oh, man, if I could just make it to McDonald's and get that Big Mac, whatever.
Speaker 1: A little bit faster, a little bit quicker.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of making fun of myself now, but you know, it's not about your flesh, it's not about all of the ways that we can get distracted in life by listening to our carnal thoughts and desires, for we walk in the spirit, amen.
Speaker 1: And so he goes on and he begins to talk about the Samaritans and reaching those Samaritans, and then verse 39, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the words of the woman who testified.
Speaker 1: Again, this is early in Jesus' ministry and, to our knowledge, this is the first woman evangelist that there was.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you because she testified back in her village.
Speaker 1: Man, her village got saved.
Speaker 1: All of the Samaritans in that city believed and he told for he told me all that I had ever done Verse 40, so when the Samaritans had come to him, they urged him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and many more believed because of his own word.
Speaker 1: I want you to see something.
Speaker 1: I'm not receiving the offering, but verse 42,.
Speaker 1: He then said to the woman now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard him and we know that this indeed is the Christ, the Savior of the world.
Speaker 1: Now, after the two days verse 43, he departed from there and went to Galilee, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
Speaker 1: Wait, I missed the point where they sent him.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, that's the other story.
Speaker 1: Sorry, okay, sorry, that was another story that we're gonna get to next, but we're running out of time.
Speaker 1: So, but that's leaning on the supernatural.
Speaker 1: Even when our flesh wants to rule, we don't allow our flesh to rule.
Speaker 1: We walk in the spirit at all times.
Speaker 1: So I had two Jesus examples and I wanted to give you a Paul example out of Acts 28, but this one will be much quicker.
Speaker 1: And so, as we know, paul was on a ship and it was shipwrecked on the Isle of Malta, on an island basically, and he barely escapes with his life, and this is in Acts, chapter 28.
Speaker 1: And so I just wanna talk about leaning on the supernatural during emergencies.
Speaker 1: During emergencies, we've all faced emergencies.
Speaker 1: We've all faced situations, tests and trials.
Speaker 1: Maybe we've had to call 911.
Speaker 1: Maybe we've, literally and figuratively, maybe not literally your house is on fire, but situations in your house are dire with your family, and things happen, and during those moments we cannot, you cannot afford to slip and walk in the flesh.
Speaker 1: We must realize that God wants us to lean on the supernatural right.
Speaker 1: And so here in verse three, we see basically that the ship has wrecked on the island.
Speaker 1: They're all wet, they all survived because of the faith of Paul.
Speaker 1: And so now they're on the island and the natives build a fire because it's raining and it's cold.
Speaker 1: And they just got out of the water and they're wet, and Paul goes over to help them build the fire.
Speaker 1: He grabs a bunch of wood and as he's throwing that wood into the fire, a snake was in that pile of wood and fastens onto his hand.
Speaker 1: So he is snake, bitten by a venomous killer snake.
Speaker 1: And so verse four when the natives saw this creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another no doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though, he escaped the sea.
Speaker 1: Yet justice now, what won't allow him to live, you know?
Speaker 1: In other words, he's gonna die.
Speaker 1: And so what does Paul do?
Speaker 1: He shakes off the snake into the fire and suffers no harm.
Speaker 1: But what are they?
Speaker 1: What are those natives?
Speaker 1: They don't know who Paul is yet and they are just waiting for him to swell up and die.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you, there are people all around you that doubts you, that doubt your ministry, that doubt who you are, that doubt the Jesus that's on the inside of you and they're waiting on you to fail.
Speaker 1: They're waiting on you to trip and they're waiting on you to die.
Speaker 1: They're waiting on you to swell up and keel up and keel up, but you're not going to because you're leaning on the supernatural.
Speaker 1: You know, the devil doesn't play fair.
Speaker 1: He really is here to try to kill, steal and destroy.
Speaker 1: He wants to take your life from you.
Speaker 1: You know, like dad says all the time, he's not just here to steal your parking place or give you a bad hair day, he wants to kill you.
Speaker 1: He wants to rip out the influence that you have.
Speaker 1: He wants to steal the influence that you have over your relatives and over your friends and over your coworkers.
Speaker 1: He wants to steal the influence that God's placed on your life, with those in your sphere, the people that you come in contact with on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: He doesn't play fair, but Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
Speaker 1: So we need to step in to the abundant life right and all that Paul has done in this situation.
Speaker 1: He stepped into abundant life and the bottom line is that he was able to minister salvation to the entire island and that, first of all, he got the prime minister saved, the basically the president of the island.
Speaker 1: He got him saved and that led into getting others saved, and then everyone on the island got healed, and and then, in verse 10, they also honored us in many ways, and when we departed, they provided such things as were necessary.
Speaker 1: In other words, they gave an offering, which is what I got mixed up in the other story, but they gave it, they, they gave an offering to Paul that sustained him, and so Paul was able to go on in his journey and fulfill the will of God for his life.
Speaker 1: And so what if that story, what if?
Speaker 1: What if Paul would have never made it to Rome, and the story ends by him getting snake bit and dies right there on the Isle of Malta.
Speaker 1: No, that wouldn't have.
Speaker 1: That wouldn't have brought glory to God.
Speaker 1: And so we have to press through emergencies, not in our flesh, not on our own accord, but remember that it's the, the power of God, the resurrection power of God on the inside of us that we walk in every day that we lean back into, knowing that we're not gonna swell up and die, that that there's no harm that can come near us, that we have pled the blood of Jesus, we have faith in that blood and it's the blood of Jesus that keeps us protected.
Speaker 1: And you know I'm running out of time here, but I have you know.
Speaker 1: You know, years ago I think, our son was a junior in high school and he was at baseball practice and I don't remember what happened, but he was distracted for a quick second and they threw the ball.
Speaker 1: They hit the ball to him, the coach hit the ball to him at a really fast pace, the third base, and it came up and it hit him in the head, right above the eye, and so it knocked him out.
Speaker 1: It knocked him unconscious and it looked way worse than it was, because blood, it was a gash, so blood had bled into his eye and so it looked all gory and I don't know why they didn't just call 911, they and get an ambulance over there.
Speaker 1: But they called us.
Speaker 1: We were like 30 minutes away and we got there in like 15 minutes.
Speaker 1: Man, I just zoomed over there and, and, but we stayed in faith, we stayed and and and again because we're short on time, you know got him to the hospital.
Speaker 1: It was just a few stitches, it was just a minor concussion.
Speaker 1: We followed some concussion protocols and he was fine.
Speaker 1: But we had to stay and remain in the supernatural.
Speaker 1: Obviously, selina and I both wanted to panic.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, he was knocked out.
Speaker 1: Is he okay?
Speaker 1: Is you know what is going on here?
Speaker 1: Is he gonna be okay with this?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 1: Is he gonna make it through this?
Speaker 1: But God had him in the palm of his hand and I'm telling you, we always have to lean back and remain in faith and speak faith and lead with faith and not with fear and not with doubt.
Speaker 1: Right, amen, in every single area of our lives.
Speaker 1: Jesus is Lord and we have faith to overcome.
Speaker 1: We have overcoming faith, amen.