Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - In the Fire, Part 1: I Was Born For This

Episode Date: May 24, 2014

In over your head and out on your own? Take heart. You were born to fight the very battles you face today. Let’s learn what can happen when we're In the Fire. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And welcome today to all of our life church locations, all of our partnering network churches. We love you all so much. And those of you all over the world at church online, thank you so much for worshiping with us today. Let me tell you, two weeks from now, we're starting a brand new message series called Puzzled. What do you do when you don't have all the pieces and you don't understand what God is doing and what's going on in your life? That series starts in two weeks. I also want to remind you on July 5th and 6th, you guessed it, at the movies is back. We have what I believe is the best lineup of movies.

If you're new with us, we look at movies, we pull spiritual truths, our campuses go crazy, and we bring all sorts of people who normally wouldn't come to church, and we watch God do amazing things. That's July 5th and 6th. We're starting the next at the movies. Today, I want to introduce to you a very good friend of mine, who's going to preach an amazing message. Pastor Carl Lentz is the pastor of Hillsong, New York,

an amazing church that's grown to about 6,000 people in just three years. This guy is a true evangelist. He reaches people that no one else could ever reach. He's a pretty cool dresser and his amazing man of God. Would you please welcome my good friend, Pastor Carl Lentz? So good to be here. How's everybody doing? Quickly, look at the person next to you and say, I prayed all week.

I'd sit right next to you. An absolute honor to be here and a big hello to Life Church in general and all the network churches. And if you're watching online, we love you. We need you to shout us down. Even though you're not here, we know you're here in spirit. So go ahead and scare your neighbor. If you're watching at home, just shout down a computer screen, be involved. But it is such an absolute blessing to be here.

And on behalf of a lot of churches like mine, just want to thank Life Church. for your amazing generosity in general. If you don't know what it's like to plan of church, it's very scary. And because of men like your pastor who gives so much, churches like mine are allowed to thrive. And I happen to get to know your pastor personally. A lot of other pastors would get online and take your resources, but I get to call him in panic, not just get online. And he has always been generous to love, you know, guys like me. So on behalf of Hillsong, New York City, thank you for your love, Life Church. You are amazing. You're giving weekend and week out what you do. know you might not know anybody in New York right now, you have a hand and a lot of people

getting saved. We've seen almost 50,000 people meet Jesus in a couple years' time. It wouldn't be possible without you. Such a blessing. If you have a Bible, I want you to grab it right now. If you're here with us, just let me see who is spiritual. Hold up a Bible. Okay, look at the person next to say, my Bible's better than yours. And I want you to turn with me quickly to James, Chapter 1. You glad you're here? Isn't it good to be in church? Who's glad you go to a great church? I talked to a guy recently who said, he's like, I don't go to church.

There's too many hypocrites. I said, we got room for one more. We can fit you right in. Churches are not supposed to be perfect. They're supposed to be home. So make sure you find your place. And the Book of James is pretty powerful. And it's important, you know, a little bit of context.

And it's always a challenge to preach at life church because you have to find a message that you didn't just completely rip off from Pastor Craig. And this book of James. This book of James, if you've never read the Bible, maybe you're visiting Life Church today or at a different campus or watching online. And we actually believe the Bible is the living word of God. We don't believe that it's a book of maybes. We actually believe this whole thing can change your life from Genesis to Revelation.

It is a love letter from heaven to us. Even the maps will change your life. And the book of James was written by the brother of Jesus. And this is pretty cool because when you know who wrote something, even the tone of the way he wrote it was interesting. So being the brother of Jesus would have been interesting. If you have a sibling, you ever heard of the thing, sibling rivalry? There would have been none of that with James and Jesus.

No matter what James did, he would have came home and been like, hey, Mom, had a good day, got an A. And Jesus would have been like, hey, Jesus, how is your day? Mom, it was good. I saved everybody. Tough to be James. And he writes a letter to a bunch of people who were going through it. Not, you know, everything going perfect, not I'm following Jesus. Everything's great now. These are people who are being chased out of their homes. In this day and age,

people were being burnt alive. They were being thrown into the lions den. They were going through it. And James wrote them this letter. I'm going to pick it up. Chapter one, verse two, it says, consider it a sheer gift, my friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. Have you ever had a season of life like that where it's not just raining down, but you're getting hit from all angles? Who loves those seasons? Me neither. But right off the bat, we're challenged to consider. are those seasons joy. He said, you know that under pressure your faith life is forced into the open, and it shows it's true color. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work in you so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. If you don't know what

you're doing, pray to the Father, and he loves to help you, and you're going to get his help when you ask for it. It goes down in this amazing scripture in verse 12, is my favorite part. He says, anybody who meets a testing challenge head on and manages to Stick it out is mighty fortunate for such people loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life. Come on, somebody. Give me a Pentecostal shout right there. This, let me get a drink real quick. Anybody need one? Cheers. Hopefully it's just water. Apparently, James is encouraging regular believers to know that if you're going through some drama and some challenge in your life, number one, you are not alone. And number two, the best reward in life is not

having a life free of controversy or problems, but actually getting through it. Jesus goes on later to tell his disciples, take heart because I have overcome the world, which leads me to call this little message, I was born for this. I'm saying it again, you can pretend that it matters and you love it. I was born for this. Look at somebody quickly and say, I was born for this. And then look back at them and say, quit talking to me. It's getting awkward. I was born for this. When you read this, here, you start finding out that maybe I was born for this life. Not all the stuff that goes in it, but because I have Jesus, I can make it through anything. And I think there has to come a day as a Christian where you stop asking God to deliver you from some things, and you start looking

at that same situation or that same trial and start saying, no, I was actually born for this. Christians are notorious for asking to be delivered from their own prayer request. We have a rule in Hillsong, New York City. You are not allowed to ask Jesus. to deliver you from that which you prayed for the week before because you can have an altar call. Who wants to be used by God? And everybody comes up. The next week they're emailing them. I'm leaving church because I feel used.

There has to come a day as a Christian where you start looking at some storms and some challenges. Maybe your marriage is difficult today where we have people not running from their marriage but saying, you know what? I was born to fight for what's right. Or maybe you got a bad doctor's report. Rather than go panic and try to find somebody to cry with, you start saying, you know what, I'm not happy about the trial. I didn't ask to be in this,

but I'm going to believe that I was born for this. And sometimes you even have to, sometimes you even have to talk yourself into doing stuff you would never do on your own. It's called hanging out with Australians. My wife is Australian. I got some Australian friends, and they can pump you to do anything.

Some stuff you would never do on your own. Go ahead, mate. It's going to be great, mates. Swim with the shaki. Go ahead, mate. And they will pump you to do some things you would never do on your own. As a Christian, you're going to have to talk yourself into doing some things that without Jesus, you could never do.

I was born for this. You might not believe it, but you've got to talk yourself into it. You know, I am not the biggest outdoorsy guy in the world. I always feel less manly, you know, when I'm in any part of Oklahoma or maybe Texas where men have hats and boots, and I come in just looking like I'm from New York. And, you know, I'm not comfortable doing outdoorsy things. Like, I'm okay with that. Like, you know, I don't want to go on a hike at all. If I'm going to be on a hike, I'm going to hike my way to a spa.

I'm secure. I'm okay with that. There's some things I'm just not born to do. And recently, we went skiing with our family. And I'm not a big skier. And so we went, just took a couple days in upstate New York. And I remember walking up as we looked at these giant slopes. And there was a day in my life where I might have had to prove that I was a skier. But I'm 35.

I'm just as happy now to sit in my log cabin with satellite TV. And look at everybody else skiing. I don't need to prove anything. So I sat on my couch for three straight. days while my wife and my children went skiing the last day my wife's like honey are you gonna go skiing I'm like no babe I'm good right here 35 year old man playing call of duty don't judge me I'm fine and she's like it's fine she's like your kids are gonna judge you the rest of your life but it's fine so I'm like fine you know I'm gonna go I'll ski one day and I remember going out to the slope

and I'm like I'll just go on a bunny slope it's not going to be the biggest deal you know I did the classic dude who can't ski thing with my son you know we're skiing I was that wasn't so bad you know I wasn't born to ski but I'll give it another shirt So I went back up and I went down this one slope and I had started with a group of people But as I went down the slope apparently there was a fork in the road that I didn't see because I ended up by myself And I landed at the bottom of the slope and I'm like well that's kind of weird I'm by myself But I'll just get on the little ski chair and go back up and as the ski chair hit me at about 50 miles per hour I look over my shoulder. I'm like what does that say triple black diamond?

As I'm ascending into heights unreachable as the air gets gets thinner. I start realizing I'm in trouble. I'm like, I'm on a wrong lift. And I'm looking at my clock. I'm like, I've been on this thing for 10 minutes. If you've ever seen the movie Grinch when you're looking down on the city, that was me. And I finally get to the top of this ski slope. And as I hit the ground, I'm looking around, there's like whistling wind. There's no help. I'm looking for a red emergency phone. There's like professional skiers like spraying me because they could just tell that I didn't belong there. And I remember walking around going, this is bad. I don't even want to be here. I'm not a skier. I think. I think

ended up on a triple black diamond slope. This is a horrible day. And I walked up to the edge of the slope. And I looked down and it's like sheer ice. And I'm like, I'm not going to do this. Lord, I'm humble. I see what you're doing here. You know, pastor's on camera. Ha, ha, ha. I got it. I'm not doing it. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take myself from Virginia and I'm going to pick up my skis. I'm going to walk myself down this slope and I'm going to live to see another day. As I look over one more time. I don't know how I slipped, but I did. And I slipped and went head over heels down this entire slope. It looked like a yard sale. Every goggle, every ski thing, every piece of equipment. And as I picked the rubble up of my life and look up, I got saved 19 times

on that slope, by the way. As I picked up the rubble and my nose is bleeding. I've got like my goggles, I looked up at the slope, and I'm like, yeah, but you know what slope? I did it. I'm a skier. He's born for this. Yeah, I get it. I remember seeing my kids later as we're eating lunch, and my kids are like, Daddy, you okay? I'm like, I'm fine. There's no problem. I just dominated a slope. You might find yourself this year on a ski slope you did not want to be on, a situation you did not plan on being in. And when everything in you wants to back away and say, I can't do this, I can't go on any further. Maybe you feel lonely. You were born to fight through it. Do not give up hope. Maybe you're going through a health challenge right now, and everybody else wants you to run away.

I pray that the Holy Spirit somehow, some way, remind some of you, Jesus Christ is with you. The Holy Spirit is empowering you. You were born for this. You were born for it. So with my time that I have remaining, Pastor Craig said, we know you're from Virginia, so we're going to give you Southern Baptist time, three and a half hour. I'm going to show you how to handle the heat of this life a little bit better. Just three simple ways. Is that okay? They actually got 37.

Who wants all 37? People at home just went to ESPN.com. Come on back. I'm going to read you something out of the book of Acts. You can go there with me real quick. If you're single watching this message, make sure you hold your Bible out in front of you. Make sure it's all kinds of highlighted in there. Okay.

Axe. Chapter 27. Our church is filled with single people. That's why our worship is so good in Hillsong, New York City. Not because we love Jesus, because people are desperate. They're crying out to God. How to handle the heat better in this life, because I do think, you know, some Christians really feel like, hey, I got saved, I'm following Jesus.

Why is all this bad stuff happening to me? And I think there comes a moment where you realize, wait a second, if there's an absence of adversity in my life, there might be an absence of progress as well. We cannot run from the challenges of this life. Jesus didn't promise that everything was going to be better. He just promised that he would be with you. So we've got to figure out how to handle the heat better. And this story is a chunk of what is a fantastic passage by a guy named Paul.

And I will recap as fast as I can. Paul is a prisoner on a ship. Modern day things are called cruises, but to me it just sounds like being a prisoner on a ship. And he is facing imminent death. And we're going to pick up the story when he's in the middle of the heat. The middle of the fight. Keep in mind, I already would have been done. But somehow, Paul has the wherewithal to take part in what is one of the most powerful accounts in this Bible. It says this, with our appetite, this is Acts 27, if you're following along, from the message translation.

I don't know if you think that's a spiritual translation. We happen to say the most spiritual translation of the Bible is the one you actually read. Having said that, I invented a thing called U-version and gave the idea away because we're a giving church and a young struggling pastor named Craig Rochelle was like, thanks, and he did well with it. With our appetite for both food and life long gone, Paul took his place in our midst and he said, friends, you really should have listened to me back in Crete. Don't you love Christians like that? They're happy to tell you how wrong you were after you already did the thing. You really should have listened to me. We were back in Crete. We could have avoided all this trouble and all this trial, but there's no need to dwell on

that now. From now on, things are looking up. I can assure you that there will not be a single drowning among us, although I can't say as much for the ship, this thing is doomed. Gotta love Christians and keep it real. Oh, man, I really messed up. It's not that bad. Nah, it's that bad. You're tripping. You're in trouble.

Last night, God's angel stood at my side. An angel of this God that I serve saying to me, don't give up, Paul. Just freeze with me for a moment. Some of y'all need to hear that. God could have sent this angel to say anything. Tithe more, do more, learn more Bible, be a better Christian, do more religious things with this angel whispered to a beleaguered Paul. Don't give up. Somebody needs to hear this today. Do not give up. It's the word of God for you today. Don't give up. You're going to stand before

Caesar yet, and everybody sailing with you is also going to make it. So dear friends, take heart. I believe God will do exactly what he told me, but we're going to shipwreck on some other island. Love how it keeps bringing that up. On the 14th night, adrift somewhere in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors sensed that we were approaching land. Sounding, they measured a depth of a hundred 20 feet. Shortly after that, 90 feet. Afraid that we were about to run aground, they threw out the anchors and they prayed for daylight. Some of the sailors tried to jump ship. Frees with me for a moment. Might want to take inventory of your friendships here and now. Because when you're in the heat, you want to pay attention to who's trying to get out of your ship and who's staying in. In New York,

we say, don't pay attention to the friends that want to ride with you in the limo. Pay attention to the friends that want to walk with you to the bus stop when the limo breaks down. They let down the lifeboat, pretending they were going to set out more anchors from the bow. Paul saw through their guys, and he told the Centurion and his soldiers, if these sailors don't stay with the ship, we're all going down. So the soldiers cut the lines to the lifeboat, and they let it drift off. With dawn about to break, Paul called everybody together, and I love this, he proposed breakfast. It is spiritual. If you're having a bad day, get yourself some food. If you are in the middle of a trial, you get yourself some crispy cream donuts. You have biblical precedent that is God,

God's blessing on your life. He proposed breakfast. This is the 14th day we've gone without food. Can you imagine how mad these people would have been? If I don't eat for three hours, I lose my salvation. 14 days without food. None of us feel like eating, but I urge you to eat something now. You're going to need your strength for the rescue ahead.

You're going to come out of this without even a scratch. Isn't it amazing that Paul is in the middle of the worst season ever, the worst trial ever, but he still has the wherewithal to speak vision in life into those around him? you are in a hostile work environment, maybe don't ask God to deliver you from the work environment, maybe ask the Holy Spirit to open up your eyes to how much vision in life you can breathe to those that might die without you in that office. He broke the bread. He gave thanks to God, and he passed it all around, and they all ate heartily. Two hundred and seventy-six of us all told. With the meal finished and everybody full, the ship was lightened even more. It goes on to say,

after all this, the ship broke up and the last part says, as the soldiers crashed and decided to kill the prisoners so nobody could escape by swimming. The centurion determined to save Paul. Keep in mind that makes no sense. But when you're in the middle of a trial or a test, it's amazing how God will send even those who used to be your enemies to breathe a little bit of life into you. His grace is that good.

The centurion determined to save Paul, stop them. And he gave orders for anybody who could swim to dive in and go for it. And the rest of them grab planks. First biblical time we see surfing. Everybody made it to shore. safely. Now, for anybody who's ADD, it might have checked out right there. Let me just recap what happened. You have one guy on an absolutely doomed ship. Horrible trial, horrible test, but he had the wherewithal to call on Jesus, to keep his vision, to keep his faith, to keep his strength,

and a whole lot of other people that probably would have went down without him had new life because of him and his faith. You were born for this. From this, you know, a little story, I'm going to give you three ways to handle the heat, and then we're done. Ready? Write this down. Some of you aren't taking notes, and that's okay, but I'm judging you on the inside. Number one, you want to handle the heat better? Anybody in here want to handle the heat better?

Number one, see it coming, so you never end up running. Really simple. I actually don't have any complicated messages. See it coming, so you never end up running. When I love about reading what Paul did, it feels like he was two steps ahead of the game, like he had been with God so he knew what this world was going to bring. So he didn't end up running in the middle of the fight. I don't know if you guys know this or not.

It might be different where you're from. But in New York, Christians aren't typically known for their poise under pressure. We're not like the people in society typically that, you know, the world runs to when things go bad. And you know CNN during a world crisis is going to find that one weird right-wing Christian crazy dude who's just like, this is bad. This is the Lord coming back. The clouds will part and Jesus on a white horse is coming back. we're going to be at the rapture bus stop up here just hanging out with some Campbell's suit because this is the end times.

And you're like, it was just a traffic jam. No, it's more. It's signs. End times, right? Why do we always act like we don't know that Jesus said in this life, you will have problems, you will have trouble? Why do we always act like we're the ones who are shocked? What if our world saw a Christian generation of people rise up that when the worst of the worst happens,

the best of the best comes out of us? We saw this coming. I'm not shocked that I'm going through something. I'm not freaking out the moment something happens. I mean, people will live in the world for 16 years, you know, give God six months. And if it all doesn't work out, they're like, I'm leaving. I always say give Jesus at least as much time as you gave the club.

But sometimes you've got to see this stuff coming so you never end up running. How do you do it? Here's what we do at our church. Maybe this will work for you. We say, try giving Jesus the first 15. Just a simple phrase. There are some people who can do hours and hours in the morning. That's great.

New York, we're simple people. And we say, what if you gave Jesus the first 15 minutes of your day where you met with the Son of God? You had the Holy Spirit lift your head before the day met with you. So we say take five minutes. Spend five minutes just waking up in the morning and playing some worship music, preferably Hillsong United. And then you spend five minutes reading your Bible, whatever that is.

And you can just start anywhere. You can get on our U-V-V-U version app that we made. You can find an easy, quick thing to do. And you just read the Bible, start to get to know it, start to get to understand the language, just read it, meditate on it, and spend five minutes thanking God for who he is. Those 15 minutes of your first part of that day can change the rest of your day. That way, you walk into your day with something in you, so when something comes your way, you're not scrambling for something, you're shouting something.

There's so many Christians who don't spend enough time with Jesus on their own, because they expect to get it from a podcast, or they want to come to church and get spoon-fed, rather than go back to the essence of our faith, which is you on your knees, seeking heaven for yourself. And so we call it the blue-light prayer. There are some Christians. The only time they pray, it's when they see the blue lights

in the rear-view mirror, and they start amalgamating every prayer they've ever heard. The Lord is my shepherd. Jesus, hallelujah, I will not lie down. If you get me out of this, God, oh, that's their prayer. Emergency Crisis Prayer. But what if you walked in somewhere and heard bad news and you had a word from heaven?

There's a lot of Christians who don't know this Bible, so they'll search for something in a bad day and they'll be like, oh, Jesus, where are you? And they'll be like, oh, it's Leviticus. Oh, God doesn't care about me. But if you know you're born for this and you know God's going to use you to lift somebody's head to lead your marriage, to work in your office and not just survive but thrive in it, you're going to realize I got to see it coming. I'm going to face some opposition. But when I do, I will not run because I know that God is with me.

Number two, what was number one? Anybody remember? See it coming. Number two, you got to see it through. Because you have no idea what God is going to do. Unintentional rhyme. You got to see it through, y'all, because you have no idea what God's going to do. Can you imagine if Paul would have been me or you, kind of some of us who I admittedly can give up too quickly?

Imagine if he would have given up at any part of this story, but he kept on seeing it through. when he was a prisoner. I would have given up right then, but he saw it through. When they didn't have any food, he saw it through. Right when the ship broke up on the beach, he saw it through. Came to tell a couple people today, you need to see it through. If you are in the middle of a hot season where you're in the middle of a test or a trial that you did not plan for, and you are tempted to give up, maybe you have a son or daughter that's walking away from Jesus, maybe your marriage isn't what you wanted to be. Maybe you have had a failure recently. See it through because you have no idea what God is going to do. I recently prayed with the guy who, you know, called me up and he said,

my baby's mom has gone into labor, basically. I'm trying to use political terms here. They're not married, but they had a baby on the way. It's called Real Church. Everybody okay with that? And he said, here's the bad news call. She's going into labor today. Normally we'd be rejoicing, but this was three months early. And I remember going to pray with this guy. He's about six foot 10. It's a big dude. And we prayed. And I said, look, bro, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what the future holds, but we do who holds it. So as Christians, we have the right to understand God we're going to see this through. We're going to pray that God's going to do what he can do. We can heal, but we can pray that God can heal. We can't predict the future, but we know what his word says, which is no weapon formed against us. We'll prosper, and we're going to pray. So we prayed, and I changed. I told Laura what was going on. I called my mom, who's my intercessary prayer team. I don't even need a team with my mom because she can pray better than everybody I know. I said, Mom, I got to go to the hospital. I think most likely I'm going to have to comfort a grieving dad who's really going through it.

I think we might not lose a baby, not just lose the baby, but even the mom giving birth right now. So my mom started praying. As I pull up to the hospital, I am met by this 6'10 dad in a gown running out going, Carl, it's a miracle. My baby boy is here. He made it. You could fit this little boy in the palm of his hand. And he's been in the hospital ever since doing some machine work, getting his lifting in.

But as I preach this message today, that boy is healthy and he is whole. And I don't know. There are other stories where maybe you're like, I don't know if that's always going to happen. Neither do I. But I do know that when you are faced with a heat season where you're like, man, I don't know if I can handle this. Just see it through because you have no idea what our God is going to do. And here's the other thing. This is a little bonus point.

You can write it down. The trial you're going through, it's not even about you. It's about the people that need to walk through you. to get through their next part of this journey. So if you stop, not only do you miss out, but somebody who you're called to lead and encourage someday with what the victory you did find in your season of trial misses out on all that God has.

Not just about you, it's about somebody else. So if you're in here today, see it through, you have no idea what God is going to do. Number three is we close. If you're in a Pentecostal church, this is the part you call up the keyboards. We're not all as gifted as your pastor, thanks, who can just get up

and just say four things, and it's amazing, and then just go home. We need theatrics. We need lights. We need smoke. Number one, you got to, what? See it coming. Number two, you got to see it through. And number three, you got to shake it off.

So you can keep on yelling and bring it on. Story does not end there. I'm going to go back to Acts 28, and we're almost done. Stay with me. Is this helping anybody in here? Keep in mind, we've got Paul now. This would have been a good enough story. story as it is. I mean, he saved the whole boat, gave everybody donuts, speaking life, teaching

people how to surf. I mean, he's awesome, right? Gets even better or worse, depending on how you look at it. So now they're on the beach and everything should be getting better. It says once everybody was accounted for and we realized we'd all made it, we learned that we were on the island of Malta. The natives went out of their way to be friendly to us. The day was rainy and cold, but we were already soaked to the bone, but they built a huge bonfire and they gathered us around it. Paul pitched in and he helped. Of course he did. Paul was super Christian.

He gathered up a bundle of sticks, but when he put it on the fire, a venomous snake, roused from the heat, struck his hand and held on. It had to be a snake, didn't it? It couldn't have been like a spider or like a falcon. It had to be a snake. You know, only worse would have been if it was a cat.

Seeing the snake hanging from Paul's hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer getting his just, desserts. You know what? Just a quick reminder. Be careful when you judge somebody on their journey. You have no idea what they're going through. It's like, man, that seems a bit harsh. He's going through something. He's a murderer. Imagine walking into a church in America right now with a different color hair or maybe a lifestyle that you haven't figured out yet in the judgmental eyes and the judgmental. Let's just give people grace and believe God's best no matter what. It's a good little tidbit

as you do. No matter what you read on TMZ. Paul, ready for this? Shook the snake off into the fire, no worse for the where. They kept expecting him to drop dead, but when it was obvious he wasn't going to, they jumped to the conclusion that he was a God. What is wrong with these people? Two paragraphs ago, he was a murderer, and now he's a God. It shows us again, that's why you cannot live off the praises of people or die from their criticism as well. We live for an audience of one. God is our source. God directs us. Some people are going to love you, some people are going to hate you, but only Jesus died for you. So they jumped to the conclusion. He was like, God,

the head man in that part of the town ends up saying had a sick father, and Paul ended up healing him. In the last part of this scripture, it says, word of the healing got around fast, and soon everybody on the island who was sick came and got healed. This is incredible. Imagine if you're Paul, you're already on the cruise ship from hell. Things are going bad. You think you're going to get a breath of fresh air. Have you ever gone through a season as a Christian where you're like, God, if I could get a breather, it would be nice. Ever been there? Paul definitely could have been there, but he's finally there.

He's warming himself out of the fire, and a snake jumps out at him. Right here, Paul is faced with a decision. Christians are faced with all the time. If you're doing what you're called to do on this planet, you should be starting fires because the lighter the glow, the more Jesus gets reflected. So you shouldn't have a life where you're not building fires and seeing them get bigger.

That's the point. But the bigger the fire, the more snakes are. jumping out at you, so Paul gets hit with this snake, and he's got one option. If he sits there and doesn't do anything, he dies. But he says, I got to keep moving. So he shakes it off. I came to tell a couple of you, you have every right under the cross of Jesus Christ to shake off that which has tried to cling to you for too long. Maybe something jumped out of a fire you didn't expect. You have every right to shake it off. I told my wife, the other day, we're in a car, and she looked at me, and she just goes, oh. So you're okay, baby? She's like, yeah, I got the shakes.

You might have to live for the next season of your life as a Christian that just has a constant state of the shakes. You might go into work and be like, and people would be like, what's wrong with it? It's okay. I'm just shaking some stuff off. Don't worry about me. Because the reality is the devil is going to throw some things at you, but you have every right, really, to this. Jesus, here's the deal. I don't like what happened to me, but I refuse to let the old failure cling to me.

I refuse to let the old pain cling to me. I refuse to let that old discouragement. Maybe you've been abused. somebody has forsaking you, the worst thing you can do is just sit there. What do Christians do in the fire? They sit there. Jesus is calling us and say, hey, take heart. I've overcome the world.

Make a decision this year when the heat hits you. Shake it off. See it coming, see it through, and shake it off. You were born for this. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Jesus, I pray that as we continue to take unprecedented ground, no matter where we are occupying our street God, I pray we would not run from the fight. I pray we would not give up when it gets hard.

I pray we would not start to cry out to heaven when we know Jesus. You poured out heaven so we could stand strong in the middle of any trial. And Lord, we speak strength, hope, and love into the lives of many today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. At all of our churches, as we continue in an attitude of prayer, let's seek God together. Father, thank you so much for this powerful message. God, I thank you that you're going to encourage us to see it coming and, God, to see it through and by the power of your spirit to shake it off. At all of our churches, as you take a moment and reflect,

I know that God is speaking to so many of you right now who are in the middle of the heat. There's something going on that you didn't expect. You never would have wanted. But right now you're in the middle of it, and you need God's power. You need his presence. You need his comfort. At all of our churches, those of you who would say, yes, Craig, Would you just pray for me right now? I'm in the middle of the storm. I'm in the middle of the heat. Lift up your hands right now.

Just all our different churches. Their hands going up all over the place. And I feel for you even more so. I know that God feels for you and knows the intimate details of what all of you are going through. So, Father, we come to you right now, thanking you for your encouragement

by your spirit through this message today. God, we pray that your presence would bring comfort to those who are hurting. that God, we truly could consider it pure joy when we face trials, because, God, you're doing something in us to develop us, to mature us, to help us be conform to the image of your son. So, God, we see it coming, knowing that in this world we will have trouble. And God, by your power, help us to see it through.

And, God, we recognize that no weapon formed against us would prosper. God, give us the ability to, with perspective, shake off. anything that you would not want to stick with us, that we could move on to do your will and bring glory to you, God, in every single way. God, we seek you believing that your presence will be exactly what we need. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, I want to just thank God for those of you that God brought here today because you specifically need his presence. In fact, many of you would recognize you are going through a difficult time or life may be smooth sailing right now, but you recognize and acknowledge honestly that you do not have the presence of God.

In fact, I believe with all my heart that there are times that God may let us get to a very low place, so all we can do is look up and call on him. The reality is, if we're honest, all of us are in a low place when we recognize our sinfulness. In fact, many of you right now, you may feel the weight of your sin, the things that we've done wrong. Sometimes the trouble we get in, it's our own fault. And we recognize that our sin has separated us from God. What do we do? Well, the bad news is we cannot work our way to him.

We can never be good enough. The good news is that God is so amazing that he sent his son, Jesus, who is perfect and without sin. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins so that any of us who call on his name will be forgiven, will be transformed, will be made new, and will be saved. In fact, at all of our churches right now, there may be those of you that God brought here for this specific moment. You recognize, I need him. I need his presence.

I'm calling on him. Jesus, would you save me? Would you forgive me? Would you make me new? That's your prayer today at all of our churches, would you lift your hands high right now and say, yes, I surrender to him. I trust him to save me. As there are hands going up at all of our churches, those of you at church online, you click

right below me, and we're going to take a minute. Would you all pray aloud with those around you? Pray Heavenly Father, forgive me for all my sins. Make me brand new. Jesus be the Lord of my life. first in every way. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you,

follow you, serve you, and live for you. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Would all of you celebrate, worship big,

thank God for new life in Christ.