We're coming to Bible on the Beach.
Now today will be in Acts chapter 28.
Finally, we're at the end of Paul's missionary journey.
Stoked you could be with us today.
Now I do this so that disciples can make disciples and churches can plant churches.
This is the 164th episode, I believe, of Bible on the Beach.
God's been awesome.
In the last couple of years, we've seen God start a church with a couple of knuckleheads
and a jujitsu studio.
Now we've helped plant 24 churches now, helping disciple about 800 people.
Just basic, simple Jesus stuff.
Just Jesus, a Bible, some food and some friends.
We've seen God do amazing things literally all over the world.
Pakistan, Indonesia, El Salvador.
Very exciting time to be alive.
We've also helped produce over 6,600 liters of water for people.
So thanks for listening to Bible on the Beach at Ocean Water today.
Let's get into it.
Every time I open the Bible, I always love to say, God, give me the eyes to see.
Give me the ears to hear.
Give me the heart to feel what you're speaking to me today.
I teach this is God's mouth.
We open it up.
He wants to talk if we're listening, if we're feeling what it is that he's saying.
So Acts chapter 28, verse one today, this is after we had safely reached land.
We discovered that the island we were on was Malta.
Now this is a sea island in the Mediterranean seas.
Paul's on a missionary journey.
Remember Jesus said, you're going to be my witnesses.
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the outer ends of the earth.
So heads up.
When God calls you, he calls you locally and globally.
We know this because Jesus says you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem.
That's where you grew up.
Those are the places that you like.
Those are the people you get along with.
Then Judea, maybe people that live in the same town but aren't like you.
And Samaria, different culture, other ends of the earth, different culture, different
language, different people.
That's God's purpose and his plan for all of our lives.
So you have to understand that and lean into it because that's the tension you'll feel
in your time on earth is that God is constantly pushing us and calling us out of ourselves
to love others sacrificially.
So Paul's wrapping up his journey.
He's had a lot of success.
He's able to defend himself against all these legal accusations, against persecution, against
false imprisonment.
All of these things he navigated.
That's like all the stuff that we navigate in our life.
A lot of times we think that the people in the Bible are the heroes and the people reading
the Bible are the zeros.
That's not true.
The Bible is just a compilation of a bunch of people that felt like zeros but trusted
God and trusted them so much that God made sure there was a book put together about those
people to tell their story of incredible faith and incredible trust in God through difficulty.
So when you read the Bible, the heroes aren't in the Bible.
We're all zeros.
But when we trust God, that is what's heroic about our life.
We put our faith and when we put our trust in him.
So this is what Paul did a really good job of.
He says, Paul gathered an armful of brushwood and was setting it on fire.
A venomous snake was driven out by the heat and latched onto Paul's hand with its fangs.
When the islanders saw the snake dangling from Paul's hand, they said to one another,
no doubt about it, this guy is a murderer.
Well they were right.
They did have discernment.
He was a murderer.
But they were about ready to see God's grace in Paul's life in real time.
Did Paul deserve to live as long as he did?
Of course not.
Do we deserve to live as long as we live?
Of course not.
Do we deserve the lives that we've been given from God?
Of course not.
So they're about to see God's grace in action.
He says although he escaped death at sea, justice is now caught up with him.
So they thought that they were the judge and jury for Paul and who he was based on this
circumstance of the snake biting him.
You'll have people in your life judge you think they know everything.
The reason why we're not supposed to judge others is because we're not God and we don't
have all the information and we don't have all the facts.
This is why trials take so long because they're trying to gather information and trying to
gather facts and then they make a judgment based on the facts and the information.
We don't have all the facts and we don't have all the information and that is why we don't
judge others.
And in fact, Jesus said with the measure that you measure it, it will be measured back to
you.
So be very careful my friend with that judgy attitude when you think you know people but
you don't.
You don't know them.
Only God knows everything that's going on in someone's life and knows why they do what
they do.
The Bible says the hardest is the see-fool and wicked above all things and who could
know it?
We don't even know why we do what we do a lot of the time.
So Paul shook off the snake, flung it into the fire and suffered no harm at all.
Everyone watched him expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead after observing what
had happened.
They changed their minds and said he must be a god.
The Roman governor of the island named Publius had his estate nearby.
So it's interesting how people's perception of you will change based on circumstances.
This is why you shouldn't care what people think because they don't have all the information.
They don't have all the facts.
They don't know your intentions.
They don't know your motives.
We don't even know them and we're the ones making the decisions.
So they said Paul one minute he was a murderer the next minute he's a god.
That's the crowd in life.
One minute they're ready to hang you the next minute they're ready to make you a hero.
With the crowd you can never win.
It's just a fickle situation.
That's why we live for an audience of one.
That's why we focus on God.
Now the Roman governor of the island lived nearby.
He graciously welcomed us as his house guest showed us hospitality for three days.
We say with him his father lay sick in bed suffering from a high fever.
Paul went into his room and prayed for him, placed his hands on him.
He was healed.
People of the island heard about this miracle.
They brought all the sick to Paul.
They were also healed.
The islanders honored us greatly and they were preparing to set sail again.
They gave us all the supplies we needed for our journey.
So you can see that Paul actually was directed by God, directed by the Holy Spirit to this
island because there were islanders that needed to see Paul get bit by a snake and not die.
And there were people that needed to be prayed for to get healing.
So remember that when you find yourself in a circumstance, find yourself in a situation
that you didn't expect, God my friend is up to something bigger than you can comprehend
or imagine according to Ephesians 3.20.
Thanks so much for joining me in Bible on the Beach.
If you're going through something and you need prayer, please message me, send me an
email.
I'd love to pray for you, help you any way that I can.
Until next time, have an awesome day.