The Word Made Plain

Announcer: Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 28, verses 1 through 6.

Tony Clark: I feel sorry for our kids. They are going to be so behind. They are going to be just behind. So give them some joy. You better, you better teach them how to work. This school thing, I do not, I do not even know what in the world is happening with that.

And then those of you who are working from home, I was just telling Auntie I said, I do not know how they are going to get you all back to the building.

Okay, time for you all to come, come on back to the building now. You are going to be like, well, you know, this has been working at home. We are getting the job done at home, so why we need to come back. I do not know. I do not know. I do not know what in the world is going on. I am telling you, I am just lost.

I do not know how they are going to get you all back into a building to work. You are going to first, the first couple of days, you are going to be coming in pajamas. They are going to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you are not home. Oh, oh, oh, I will be back. I am telling you.

Hey, Paul humbly started gathering sticks to put on the fire to keep it going. So while gathering sticks, it is obvious that one of those sticks was a snake. It was a viper. And because of the heat, it came out and bit Paul on the hand, according to verse 3.

Now, please understand, precious people, this is how Satan works. There are times that he will come at us with huge storms to try to wipe us out. And other times he will come like a slithering, hissing snake.

I want you to notice the time that it was given. Notice when he struck Paul. It was when he was gathering sticks and helping others. And this is always when Satan will strike us when we are helping others, serving others, and loving on people.

So from out of the heat, when you are on fire for God, Satan strikes. Notice the location of the attack was the hand, the hand. Satan will always strike us on the hand to keep us from serving other people. Strike you and try to poison you with gossip about the church you are serving in, about others serving in ministry, or strike you with the poison about those not serving in ministry.

Poisoning you to the point where it kills your joy for serving like venom, and you stop. Many of you, listen to me, online as well, many of you are on the sidelines who once served because Satan bit you on your hand. And now you are on the sidelines, no longer serving, because you allowed the venom to course through and it killed your joy for serving.

And then when he gets you on the sideline, Satan will give you every excuse not to get back in the game. Every last one. And guess what? They will be legitimate excuses. Satan is not going to come and give you some lame excuse, because you know, we are going to see through that lameness.

But he is going to give you something legitimate. And you find yourself on the sideline. Here is the question, how did Paul handle this situation? This is so important for us to see, because the Maltese people have seen plenty of their relatives and loved ones go through the pain of seeing what happens when these vipers bite someone.

See, God allows for us to go through poisonous things and be bit by slithering serpents. Why? So the Maltese people around us will see how we deal with the poison and change their minds and end up believing in our God. Like the Maltese people did in verse 6.

Do you remember what Jesus said to Thomas in John 20 and verse 27? He told him, come, touch, touch my wound in my side. Touch my hands and and see the nail prints in my hands. See, the world around us are rarely impressed with our prosperity. But they are impressed with how we navigate through suffering, poisonous hard times, and hardships.

It is times like this that the Maltese people around us change their minds about Christianity. Oh, not while you are praising God for your new house or new car. No, but by seeing how you handle, watch this, how you handle the snakes in life. That is when they are going to be impressed with your God. Not when you are praising the Lord and putting on social media about your new this and new that.

They can care less about your prosperity with your God. They want to know how you handle by being bit by a serpent. How do you handle the snakes that slither into your life? Then when they see you handle it like Jesus, it is when they are going to now begin to be open to your Christianity.

See, many people think, I am going to, oh, look, I am boasting in the Lord. Look what the Lord. They can care less about your boasting, about what your God has done for you. Ah, but how do you handle the snakes? Because snakes come in everybody's lives, slithering.

But what separates us from the world is we will handle it in a biblical way. We will handle it the way that Paul is doing here. See, I want to draw your attention to what the Maltese people thought in verse 4. I want you to notice something. As soon as they saw the viper hanging from Paul's hand, they thought that, they thought the worst. They really did.

They thought that Paul must have been a murderer. Though he had escaped the Greek goddess Nemesis, which was the Greek goddess of retribution. She must have orchestrated this viper as a means of punishing Paul. Or they could have been referring to the Greek goddess Decae, which was the Greek goddess of justice.

Seeing that the last part of verse 4 said, yet justice does not allow for him to live, referring to justice as a person, and it could be a reference to the Greek goddess Decae. Let us not be like the Maltese people thinking the worst about people. It reminds me of the disciples in John chapter 9 and verse 2, when they asked Jesus, notice, I want you to notice what they asked Jesus.

They said, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was, watch this, born blind. You have to understand the Jewish mentality is they believe that you can sin in your mother's womb. You remember, you know, when Jacob and Esau was, you know, their mom was was struggling. They were like, you know, she prayed, Lord, what is going on?

I am pregnant, and I am struggling. And the Lord spoke and said, oh, you got two nations in you fighting. So they believe, the Jewish people believe that you can actually sin in the womb. So that is why they asked, who sinned? This man in the womb. Notice, because he was born blind. Did he sin in the womb or did his parents sin? Always thinking the worst.

But here is the thing, I love what Jesus said. He said, neither one of them. I love that. We so often are ready to jump to conclusions when we hear of some tragedy people go through. What did they do wrong? What happened to them? I know what it was. See, their kid was bad and now they are getting it back.

See, we always doing that. This is the Maltese mentality. And let us not fall into this trap. Now, although Paul was a murderer before he came to Christ, you remember he consented to the the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 and verses 58 and 59. He was not one now. And according to verse 5, he calmly shook off the creature in the fire and suffered no harm.

This is how we are called to deal with satanic bites. We shake it off. We shake it off before the poison goes through our bodies and kills us spiritually. Remember how I said Satan bites us on the hand to try to kill our service to God and to his people?

I believe that there are many people who did not shake it off and did not shake off Satan's bite, and the poison has made its way through you and killed your service to God and to his people. Now, you are on the sidelines, doing nothing for the Kingdom of God.

And you know who you are. You have allowed that. Instead of shaking it off, you allow the venom to course its way to your heart and killed your joy and killed your service to God. As soon as Satan bites, you need to shake it off.

Shake off the poison of gossip. Shake off the poison of slander. Shake off all of this. Shake it off before the poison makes its way through you and kills your marriage, kills your friendships, kills your desire to serve God and his people.

I, I, you know, there are several times, but two in particular that two satanic bites that hit me and bit me that almost made its way to my heart. Where I said, you know what, and you, you always hear me say, you know, the Marine, the Marine Corps just trained me, there is no such thing as quit.

But there are two satanic bites, ten years between the two, that I almost said, you know what, deuces, I am out of here. I am going to get my little baby wife, and we are out of here. You all can have this thing. God, get your folks. You can have them. They are not mine anyway. You can have them. I am out of here.

I am not going to take this. I am not going to take this mess. I am out of here. Peace. And the second time was just a couple of months ago. Oh yeah. You know, it is one of those things where you, you know, the old saying, you know, bite the hand that feeds you.

You, you, you, you pray for people, you love on people, you feed them the word of God, you pour over their lives, you marry, you bury folks in their lives and you just, you, you walk with them through the storms of life and through the valley of the shadow of death, and to have them turn on you. I am telling you, there is nothing, there is nothing like the betrayal of people that you have been loving on, feeding, tending to, there is watching out for their souls, and all this that have them. It is just, it is just nothing, there is nothing like it.

So, I am thankful that I shook it off before, I mean, oh, oh, both times they both got maybe about an inch below my heart, before it, it got to the heart and just took me out. I am telling you, hey, there is nothing like it.

So, as the natives were watching Paul closely, let me just before I even get to that. Let me just, I forgot to say this. The way we shake it off, we shake it off through prayer. First Peter 5:7 is not on the screen for you note takers. First Peter 5:7 says, casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.

The word casting, the Greek word there for casting is ripto. It is where we get our English word riptide. It is when the water comes out, it comes back in, it goes out, and it comes back in. And this is what we have to do. We have to shake it off and cast it upon the Lord. It may roll back. We cast it upon the Lord. It may roll back. You cast it upon the Lord again.

You keep shaking it off, because it is going to want to make its way, finish, finish the course, and get to your heart. That is what it wants to do. You got to keep casting it upon, keep shaking it off before the Lord. That is how we shake it off. I had to say that because I already mentioned first service.

I know some folks are going to be going out, going to their car in the parking lot doing like this. You cannot shake Satan off by shaking your natural hand. You shake it off by by casting it upon the Lord. That is how you do it. That is how you do it. So, you, you have got to keep shaking it off. And it may come back, you have got to shake it off. You have got to keep, keep casting it upon the Lord.

So, as the natives were watching Paul closely, because verse 6 said that they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after watching him for a long time, they changed their minds and said that he was a God. Now, Paul experienced this in the city of Lystra in Acts chapter 14 and verses 1 through 20.

One minute they said that he was a God. Then in Acts 14 and verse 19, they stoned him and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. You know why? Because the poison of gossip that came from some unbelieving Jews from another city came and, and the Bible says, and poisoned the minds of the people. And so they threw stones at him.

And many scholars believe that they killed him and dragged him out of the city, and God brought him back. Now, I bring that up because here in verse 4, they called Paul a murderer. Now, here in verse 6, they are calling him a God. Oh, my point is, allow the words and compliments of people to go in one ear and immediately out the other.

Because the same people praising you one minute, will be calling you a murderer or some other horrible name the next minute. You know, I, I cannot tell you the names that I have been called over the years, and just recently. I, I told you, I, I would not even call my worst enemy these things.

I would never do that. And, and I bring that up because, oh, Pastor Tony, oh, I just never heard the word of God like this. I learned so much over your over your over the time I have been here. Oh, you are just so wonderful all the word of God. And then the next minute, saying some of the worst things. I, I am just like, how do you, how do you form, how do you form that in your mind and then let it come out your mouth to say?

I, I, I do not, I do not get that. It is just like with Jesus. Blessed is you who comes in the name of the Lord. The very next week, crucify him, crucify him. This is why I said, let the nice thing someone may say. Let it go in one ear and let it have jets to come out of the other ear.

Because the very people that praise you, will be cursing you the next minute. Do not believe that mess on social media that they are saying about you, because they will blast you. Cowards, they will blast you because they are behind their little phones. Nobody can get to them. And they are behind their, their mother's basement at 55 years old and they are blast, they are blasting you and just blasting you behind a a computer or behind a phone.

Do not take, take with a grain of salt what everyone, anyone says to you, good or bad. The bad bothers me. It, it really does, because I care for people. So it, it cuts deep. And, and you have heard me say many times before, I can have a hundred people say, oh, today was so great. It is so awesome. And then one person say, well, I did not like when you said so and so. And I will be driving home and all Sunday afternoon thinking about that one person.

I wish I was not like that. I, I wish that I can just just easy just shake it off. But it, it, it, because I care for people. And so I care what people say. But I am telling you, people will say some nice things about you. Take it with a grant, let it jet through your ears.

Because that very person, I used to call, we used to call this the death sentence. Oh, Pastor Tony, all the teaching here is just so wonderful. Oh, we never heard anything like this. You just go line by line, verse by verse. Oh, I never had it like that. We will never leave this church. And we say death sentence. There it is.

Because let me say one thing they do not like. Deuces, they are gone. But I thought, I just thought you said last week that, I did not like him. And you this, and you that. And I am just like, when, just last week. So do not take what people say to heart. Try not to. Try not to. I, I know some of you care for people like I do. Some of you can care less about people, but we are not where you are yet, you know.

We, we still got a heartbeat in here, you know. So, but let it go in one ear and out the next. Do not allow the good or bad things to be like poison coursing through your body, because it will kill your service to God and your ministry for the Lord. It almost did me, two different times.

I mean, came real close, about an inch before my heart. I was about to say, let me tell you this, I am going to get my little wife, we are out of here. Try to go, I am going to go off the grid somewhere. I cannot even go off the grid anywhere, because COVID. I want to go to Hawaii and go off the grid somewhere. No, you cannot go there. You got to take COVID test, you got to be quarantine for 14 days, and you got to be, I am just like, what? I just want to get off the grid, get away from people. And you I, no. It is just weird.

We just live in a weird time, a weird time. And so, do not let it. Do not let it course through your veins. And we will see what happens, God's will next week when we pick it up in verse 7. Let me conclude with this. We talked about shake it off. This is something we must all learn, because if we do not, we will end up poisoned by what people say and do to us.

We also talked about how Satan will always seek to bite us on the hand and stop us from serving God and his people. Shake it off by taking it to God in prayer and allow him to deal with people. Finally, we must first learn how to serve at home before we serve at church. You have to find the balance of doing the task at home yourself and allowing your children to do their chores, which teaches them responsibility.

Parents, teach them responsibility. So pray that God will give you the wisdom in this area, the balance. Moms, you, you guys are doers. That is just who you all are. You are just doers, and you just want to get it done and just, you are just doers. But you have got to find the balance, because you have got to teach your kids some responsibility. You have got to teach them that if they want something, they have got to work in life.

I remember, especially my youngest, my youngest son, Eric, we, we, we, you know, we, we kind of, we did the others similar, but we really, really taught it to him, the youngest. You know, he would want something, something like all teenagers or kids who want, I want this, I, you know, I want that. And we said, well, okay, what are you going to do to earn that?

Okay, you have got to go trim some leaves and trim some branches in the back or something, you know, clean out that shed or something. You, you just, we are not just going to give you money. You, and so and what we were instilling in him, if he wants something, he has to work for it. And that got ingrained in him.

So now he knows when he wants something, he has to work for it. What a great, what a great thing we did for him. And, and what we need to teach our kids, you want something, you have got to work for it. And it starts with chores at home. That is what it starts with.

Take out the garbage, load or unload the the dishwasher or something. You have got to do something, vacuum, sweep. You have got some hardwood, you sweep or something. You have got to teach them that they, you have got to do some chores. Make up your bed. Why your room look like this? You have got to teach them. Children are to be taught.

You have got to teach them these things, and then you have got to balance of whether, you know, I already know they are going to jack it up if they do it, so I better just do it because it will be done right like I want it done. See, you have got you have got to pray for wisdom. You have got to pray for wisdom, because you have got to learn to be okay that it is they did not do it perfectly like you would.

And you, you, you are in your feelings because it is half jacked, and I have got to go back and fix it. Pray for wisdom in this particular area. Now, as we close in prayer, as we close in prayer, do not forget that Jesus came to die for sins. He came to die for the sins of the world.

And the sins that he is going to judge us by, whether you lied, whether you stole something, whether you looked with lust, disobeyed your parents, these are these are the things he is going to judge us about. And, and this is why we must confess, if you have never prayed and to ask the Lord to forgive you of your sin, then this is an opportunity for you to pray and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Or maybe you are hearing, maybe you have you have drifted. You have drifted from God and you need to come back to him. We are going to give you opportunity to do this as well. So, let us pray. Father, thank you so much for this time you have given us. Thank you for your word. Lord, help us to shake it off.

Help us to cast our cares upon you for you care for us. Thank you, Lord, that you care. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Thank you for your wonderful works to the children of men. And dear God, I just pray, if there is any here or even online, Lord, that have not confessed that they have sinned against a holy God.

I just pray, if you are here today or even online, just pray this simple prayer after me. Just say, Lord Jesus, forgive me of all of my sin. I believe you died on the cross and was buried and rose again just for me. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. Help me to live for you by the power of your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen.

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