27Jun16

Acts 28:3, 5
3 When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

This week I got a chance to preach again at the Stanley chapel. It's good to be back there and we have a new worship leader there that does a great job! I wanted to share something from that sermon with you all this morning. Sometimes we get bit by the snake. Sometimes it would just be so easy, after a shipwreck, on your way to a Roman trial, wanting to be murdered by your guards, judged by the natives, and then bit by a freaking snake, to just give up. To sit down and let the snake do its thing to you. But, Paul knew that he still had work to do. Still had an impact to make. So, even with so much going on in his life, he shook it off (Insert Taylor Swift song here). God cured the poison inside his body but, he still had to shake off the snake from his hand.

Paul spent only a few days in Malta and today it is the most Christian nation in Europe. It was the earliest Christian Roman colony. Because he was able to shake it off and not give up there are people thousands of years later that are still impacted by his life and work in that place! Today you may have a snake that has latched on to you and are thinking that life is too hard. You may have given up on dreams because it is all just too much. But, God wants you to know that He is healing the inside. It's time for you to shake that thing into the fire and then go change the world!