God Has A Plan — Romans 1

Alright. we are going to eventually get to the the the passage that we're gonna look at in acts, but we're gonna... We'll get there in a minute, and I... And I'll tell you why. But for now, just trust me. Alright.

Alright. Let... Let's, let's pray. Dear god, we thank you for this morning. Thank you that you allow us to worship you and sing to you, sing all these truths about you, and we're so grateful for Jesus Christ, our blessed lord and savior.

Thank you that in him, there's forgiveness of sins, that there's hope, there's eternal life in him. Thank you, lord. we ask that the spirit of god would be with us today and speak to us in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

Well, I I don't know about you, but life has a way of beating us up. Right? As you go through life, we go through some pretty bad experiences at times, and some of them are really rough and really hard. And I don't know about you, but if you would ask me or twenty six years ago or told me that I was gonna be in... Living in Ohio, I would have told you you're crazy. Right?

Right? And yet here I am. Right? The Lord has me here, and god god has a way of getting us to where he wants us that in spite of our our thinking, our planning, he he has a plan for our lives. So, today, if you want, we're going to this is Paul's journey to Rome. That's

That's the overall thing and I'm going to break this up into two sections. Paul's desire to go to Rome and Spain and god's plan to get him to to Rome, to get him to Rome. Alright. So, there was a there was a man from Indonesia and a friend of his offered him a job and he lived in France. So he thought, wow. Finally,

Finally, I I get to get out of Indonesia because I... There's no hope here. It's futureless. I get to get out of here. So he gets on a plane. He's

He's all excited. His plan is to to get to France and and start his new his new career. He's 20 years old. He's on the plane, and the plane stops in Egypt before he gets to France. So when he gets there, they inspect all the luggage, and his friend who was gonna hire him told him to bring that luggage for him, and he didn't know that the luggage was full of drugs.

So he ends out getting put in jail for twenty years. All right? Because in Egypt, if you get caught with drugs, there's no there's no question about it. Twenty years and that's it. You can't appeal it. You

You can't do anything about it. And so at the age of 20, he ends out in jail, and his thought is, how in the world did I get here? I had these plans to go to France. I was going to start my new career. And a friend, well, a group of Christians went to visit jail, and they were talking to him, and he came to know Christ as his savior. He

He was a Muslim. And then he started to cry really loud. All of my plans, everything that I had, I'm now almost 40 years old. In the last twenty years of my life, I've been in jail. And then he says, but it was worth it because I found Jesus Christ as my savior in jail.

And he went on to be a missionary in Indonesia where he was going to leave. Isn't it interesting how God works? Yes, indeed. Alright. So, I'm going to start out in in in Romans chapter one and I'm going to show you Paul's desire and I'm sure a lot of everybody here, we have desire if we want. We

We have in our minds, our dreams. We planned out where we wanna be. You know, where am I gonna be in the next twenty years? Where am I gonna be in the next forty years? And I like... I

I said to you, when I had laid out my plan when I was 20, I had no clue I was gonna be here at this age, at this stage in my life but here I am. god knows where he wants us. So, Paul wanted to go to Rome. As you know, he was a missionary. He was on his third missionary journey and during that time, he writes the the book of Romans and in that book, he says, he expresses to some of his desires, his his plan, where he wanted to be.

So, I'm going to I'm going to just read one verse and then we're going to go to another chapter. So, Rome, Romans one and verse 13. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I plan to come to you and have been prevented thus far in order that I might obtain some fruit among you even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to foolish, thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are at Rome. And so he again was planning. I

I want to go to Rome. That that's my desire to go to Rome and then let's go to Romans 15. Now, the same book and he continues this thought of his desire to go to Rome. Alright, now look at chapter 15 and we're going to look at verse 22. And again, notice his his ambition, his planning.

I want to go to Rome and and to Spain. Look what it says. For this reason, I have often been hindered from coming to you. So, you can see then even as he's writing this letter that he wants to go to Rome but he keeps getting hindered. There's interruptions.

He can't get there but he wants to get there. But now, verse 23, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you, there it is again. Whenever I go to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing and to be helped on my way there by you when I have first enjoyed your company for a while, but now I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Ikea have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them for if the Gentiles have shared in the spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.

Therefore, when I finish this and I have put my seal on this foot of theirs, I will go by way of you to Spain and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. So, you can see then in the in the book of Romans that he's repeating it over and over again and there's more in there but that I want to go to Rome and then I want to go to Spain. So, that was his plan. I want to go to Rome but he kept getting interrupted and then he says, okay, here's what's going to happen now. We're making this collection of money. We're

We're going to take it to Jerusalem and then once I'm there and I give that offering to the people in Jerusalem, then, I'm going to finally go to, where does he want to go to? Spain. To to Rome and then Spain, right? To Rome and that's Spain. That's what he wants to do and so, as we've been looking at Acts, you notice that he's finishing up the third missionary journey. He

He gets to Jerusalem. He gives him the offering, right? That money that he had for the poor people and then he's thinking, alright, finally, I'm going to go to where? To Rome, right? And what happens?

He's in, he's in Jerusalem in the temple and then he gets attacked and he gets mobbed and they're about to kill him and he gets saved by the Roman centurion and soldiers and they put him in jail. And so, god is thinking, you you know, Paul, I want to get you to Rome but I'm going to do it in a way different than what you're thinking. His thoughts were, I'm going to go to to Jerusalem, give them money, the offering, praise god, they're going to use it for the poor people, then I'm going to make my way over there and god said, I got a different way I'm going to get you there. Let's look at some more verses before we get to our text. I have a plan. I'm

I'm going to get you there, alright? I'm going to get you there. Now, now, just just listen or if you want to look it up, Acts nine and verse fifteen and sixteen. Look what he says here. But the Lord said to him, to Ananias, go for he, Paul, is an chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake.

Alright. So, this is when Paul was first saved. Paul, the enemy of Christianity and of Jesus, he hated Jesus Christ, right? And so lord saves him. He gets saved and then god says, now, I'm going to show Paul how much he's going to suffer for me.

And here's my plan for him. He's going to witness to Gentiles. That is anybody who's not a Jew is a Gentile in the Bible, right? And so, he's going to witness to Gentiles, to Jewish people, to kings, and to leaders throughout the world. That's my plan. And

And in that plan, he's going to suffer. He's going to suffer. And so just in case you feel like life has beat you up, just wait. Right? You you're not the only one and so, his plan is, he's going to be my instrument. I'm

I'm going to use him and he's going to suffer a lot as he serves me and then, notice Acts twenty three eleven. Take courage. Now, this is this is god speaking to him directly. Take courage for as you have solemnly solemnly witnessed to my cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also. So, as you know, at this point, he is in Jerusalem.

They almost killed him. They beat him up and he's in jail and and he's going to eventually get to Rome. God god says, I'm going to get you to Rome because you're going to witness for me in Rome. And so Paul had a desire. I want to go to Rome and god had a plan. I

I wanted you to go to Rome but it's going to be in a different way that you ever thought. Now, by this time, probably been a missionary, probably give or take around twenty years. They had planted churches all over the place. There was many of them. And during this time, from when he got saved and he became a missionary and he's serving god and preaching Jesus, listen to what happened to him.

Second Corinthians six four and five. If you want to just focus and listen, I have been through much endurance in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonment, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, and in hunger. How many of you want to be missionaries? And then I was thinking, you remember back in an earlier study that we did when John Mark quit when he was with the missionary team? I was thinking, maybe that's why.

After a couple of beatings and going through a lot of suffering goes, man, I'm out of here. This is too hard for me. I can't take it. And yet god is Paul was in god's will and being in god's will, he's going through beatings and suffering, imprisonments, and and all kinds of things. Yeah, I don't know what you're going through right now.

But man, I'm telling you, sometimes and he was in the will of god doing what god wanted and what was he getting out of it? Beatings. And and he goes on to say in second Corinthians eleven twenty seven, I have been in labor, in hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold, and exposure. Wow. Man, life dealt him a hard blow, didn't it?

And in second Corinthians eleven twenty three, he says this, he continues talking about his life. Imprisonments. Now, he was beaten times without number. That's what the text says. Second Corinthians eleven twenty three.

So, I don't know about you but if I'm a missionary and they beat me up, I think after one beating, I'm like, okay, I quit. It it's hard serving god. And and life sometimes beats us up and we want to quit. Often in danger of death, five times, I received from the Jews 39 lashes, five times. I think if they would have beat me once, I was like, man, lord, you know, I'm I'm trying to serve you and what do I get? I

I get whipped 39 times. My body's all scarred up. this is ridiculous. I'm out of here. Five times.

I think the second time I would have quit. The third time I would have quit. The fourth time I would have committed suicide. Like, not again. And the fifth time, wow.

Three times I was beaten with rods. On top of the five times of 39 lashes back. Once I was stoned. Now, you imagine looking at Paul? Having 39 times five, who knows who's good at math real quick? 39

39 times five. One ninety five. 195 lashes on his back. Three times with rods. All right?

Stoned. What do you think his body looked like? Do you think he had scars everywhere? If you were to take off his shirt, what do you think it looked like? I mean, the guy was mangled.

Do you think he had arthritis and pains? I mean, I wake up in the morning, I don't even know why my body hurts. Right? And you imagine how he felt. And he was serving God. He

He was in God's will. Now on top of that, watch this. Three times, I was shipwrecked a night and a day I spent in the deep. And like, I don't know about you, but if I go through one shipwreck, I'm not going to get in a ship again. I'm like, man, I'm scared.

Right? And then he goes through a second one. Then he goes through a third one, and in that shipwreck, he's floating, you know, hanging onto a piece of wood, freezing cold. And then I guess the next day, it was a whole night and a whole day. And then finally, somebody comes and and rescues them.

Just in case you're encouraged because life has beat you up a little bit. This is what he's going through. Now, finally, let's get to Acts. Here we go. We finally arrived. Let's

Let's go to Acts 27. Let's go to Acts 27. I say this because I had to set up the scene before we get into the actual text. Acts 27. Now, as we saw last week, they're in the middle of a raging storm.

They're in a ship. They've been in the boat fourteen days and they're about to suffer a shipwreck. Alright. We'll look at that in a minute. Alright. Now,

Now, this is going to be Paul's how many shipwrecks for Paul now? How many, Four. Remember, he we just read in second Corinthians, he went to three shipwrecks and and where he was one of them was he was floating all night and all day until they rescued him. He lived obviously and this is his fourth shipwreck. And and you know what's interesting as you read the text and you read through the Bible, Paul never complained.

He's just expressing, this is what happened to me but he's not complaining. I remember when my when my sister got cancer for the fourth time. Kinda like, man, lord, again? Another time? Wow.

The fourth time. Now, Paul was going to speak to Jews and Gentiles, kings, and leaders. In in Acts twenty two and twenty three, he spoke with the to the Sanhedrin. That was a religious and political representatives of the Jews. In Acts 23, he spoke to Felix, the governor.

In Acts 25, to Festus, the governor. Acts 26, King Agrippa and Bernice, and he stood trial more than once in Rome before Caesar. The most powerful leaders of the world at that time. That was god's plan. Alright. Now,

Now, here we go. We're going to enter in in Acts twenty seven and thirty one. They're they're in in the middle of a massive storm. They've been in the ship for fourteen days. it it'll say it in a minute and verse 31, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.

Then the soldiers cut away the ropes that of the ship's boat and let it fall away. So in other words, the sailors, as they saw that they were finally approaching an island, they said, man, we're going to crash. So let's get in the little boats, a life saving boats, get on them and and get to to the try to save ourselves and get to the island and and Paul says, you better not let them do that. He told the the Romans and turned in charge because unless they all stay on the boat, we won't make it. And so, Paul by this time became the leader of the ship.

So, the the soldier listened to him. They cut away those safety rafts and they all stay there. Now watch. Verse 33, and until the day was about to dawn, Paul was encouraging them to take some food, saying, today is the fourteenth day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating and having taken nothing. Therefore, I encourage you to take some food.

For for this is for your preservation, for not a hair from the head of any of you shall perish. Wow. And having said this, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of all, and he broke it and began to eat. Now picture the scenario then. They're they're in the ship, 276 people, fourteen days going through a raging storm.

And have you ever gone in a ship fishing? I I went fishing because I used to live in Galveston, near Galveston, Houston. We'll go fishing, and one day we went out. We were we were out all day long. And I remember when we got back home from being in the waves for about a day, I I kept feeling like I was, like, going spinning right from from being in the waves.

And not only that but I've taken other people on those boats and they get very seasick. It's not a good thing to see. Alright? So two weeks of of massive waves and storms and cold. It was a cold front.

And they finally are there and they hadn't even eaten. They were they were scared to death literally because they didn't know they were going to make it. And so Paul again became the leader and people were starting to look to him and he publicly says to them, you know what? For fourteen days, you haven't eaten. Now, go and take some food. You

You need to eat. This is not good and then he publicly prays. And they're all listening to him in in the storm. And then they pretty much knew that they were going to be shipwrecked because they saw the island and they knew that they were going to run aground sooner or later. So let's go back into the story then.

In verse 36, and all of them were encouraged and and they themselves also took food. And all of us in the ship were 276 persons. And when they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship. Alright. Now, go to verse 41.

But striking a reef where the two seas met, they ran the vessel aground and the prow stuck faster and remained immovable, but the stern began to be broken up by the force of the waves. And the soldiers plan was to kill prisoners, the prisoners, that none of them should swim away and escape. But the centurion wanted to bring paws safely through, kept them from their intention, and commanded that those who would swim could swim would jump over aboard first and get to land, and the rest should follow on some planks and the others various things from the ship. And does it happen that they all were brought safely to land? Alright. Now,

Now, as was explained last week, but just to to bring you in, whenever a a prisoner escaped from a centurion or Roman soldier, they would in turn get killed. They would get killed for that. And so they knew that the Roman soldiers says, you know what? when we go through this crash and everybody takes off, we lose our prisoners. Even if we save our lives, we're gonna get killed. So

So we might as well go ahead and murder all the prisoners. Go ahead and kill them. The centurion says, no. Don't do that. Now I have a feeling.

I know it's... I knew... I know it's conjecture, but I have a feeling that Julius, the Roman centurion, after watching him for those two weeks and even prior, I have a feeling that he got saved. Not sure but I have a feeling and and he he says, he prevented it but you gotta look behind that that god said, I'm going to get you to Rome. And and it doesn't matter what happens, no one's going to kill you, Paul, because my plan is to get you to Rome and you're going to get there.

How many of you know that no, you're not going to die until god says it's time for you to die. It doesn't matter if it's cancer or if it's an assassin's bullet, god has a plan for our lives and god's plan was, I'm going to get you to Rome. And he worked through the centurion so he wouldn't murder him And they preserved their life. You gotta understand that. Our lives are in god's hands not on faith or good or bad luck.

Praise god for that reality and so, think about it too. If you were on ship and you don't know how to swim, what would be the most terrifying thing? A shipwreck. And then you don't know how to get to shore. So, Paul said, man, grab on to a log or something, part of the ship and boom, and got got all of them to shore.

I've I've had friends drown in a beach because they got caught in an undercurrent. What is the possibility that everyone was going to make it to shore in a raging storm with massive waves that tore the ship apart? It's because God said no one's going to die. They're going to all get there safely, and they did. Think about that.

That in itself, you can see the hand of God there. And so while they they finally get off the ship, everybody made it to land, and let's cut into the story now in chapter 28. Okay. So, and when they had been brought safely through, then we found out that the island was called Malta. You can look it up in the maps. It's

It's near Italy. And the natives showed us extraordinary kindness for because of the rain that had set it and the cold, they kindled the fire and received the saw. So good news. Finally, it's not so bad. They they they turn up, they crank up a fire for em to warm em up. They

They were wet and cold and miserable. verse three, but when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. And when the natives saw the creature hanging on his hand... By the way, don't you love the way it says viper and creature? I love those words. Those

Those are cool. They began saying to one another, undoubtedly, this man is a murderer. And though he has been saved from the sea, justice had not allowed him to to live. However, he shook the creature off of into the fire and suffered no harm. But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead.

But after they waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happened to him, they changed their mind and began to say that he was a god. So, here we are again. They get the land. the the natives of people of the island receive them, help them all. They make a fire to help them warm up. It

It was cold and wet and and they're treating them well and here's Paul trying to find sticks to throw into the fire and wham a snake gets em. Because the the natives, the people from the that island said, oh man, that one got him. He's going to die because what did they think? Well, alright. You gotta wait. You

You you're a murderer. You you you got away from somehow you miraculously made it through that shipwreck. You got away from the sea but justice caught up to you, man. You're going to die and they're waiting for him to fall over. And what does he do? He

He just, the fire shook it off, fell down, and he keeps on his way and they're they're watching him. They're watching him. He going to die. God, god's plan was to get him where? To Rome.

And it didn't matter if a poisonous snake got him or not. God says, nope. Nope. That poison is not gonna do anything to you. And and then the natives... The

The people, they're like, wow. He survived. And then he must be a god. Of course, that was their superstition. Right? He

He must be a god because he didn't die. Again, Paul is being taken care of by god because god had him going to Rome. Alright, so let's go into verse seven. Now, in that neighboring neighborhood of that place where lands belong to a leading man of the island named Publius. I think that's how you pronounce it. Is

Is that that sound right? Yep. Who welcomed us and entertained us courtesy three days and it came about that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with reoccurring fever and dysentery and Paul went in to see him and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him. And after this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured. Wow, this is amazing.

As you know, Paul, the apostle, all the the beginning of the church, the first missionaries, they had the ability or to do supernatural things and within that, sometimes they would lay their hands on people and they would heal and we see that throughout the book of Acts. We've seen it and so, this man had fever and dysentery. He went and prayed for him and he he was healed. Paul didn't heal him. God did.

But God used him to heal him. And then many people started coming to him and he was bringing healing to them. Interesting, it doesn't say anything else. Doesn't say that they repented of their sins, came to Christ to be saved. All it says that this is what happened and god healed them.

And wow, what a great thing was happening in that island. Alright. So, that's all I'm going to say with that. I know you want more, but that's cool for now. Let's go verse 10.

They also honored us with many marks of respect and when we were setting sail, they supplied us with all we needed. And at the end of three months, we set sail on an Alexandrian ship which had wintered at the island and which had the twin brothers for its figurehead. So all this is saying is the twin brothers was a superstition that if you had the twin brothers as your figurehead, which was to gods that was supposed to keep you safe when you're out in the ocean. So they say, look, after that terrifying experience of the shipwreck, we got on one that had the two... The the twin brothers as a figurehead.

That's what everybody was thinking. Oh, good. We're gonna have good luck. Of course, we look at it different as believers. Right?

It doesn't matter who was in the figurehead. It's God who got them through. And after we put out put in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. And from there, we sailed around to Rigium. And a day later, a south wind sprang up and put us a second and we came to Putulio at Tulii. Did

Did I pronounce that right? Putulio? Something like that? It's a it's a port of Italy. You can find it in your maps.

There we've found some brethren who were invited to stay I'm sorry and we were invited to stay with him for seven days and thus we came to Rome. So, they weren't they weren't at Rome yet. They were they were in Italy at this point And and verse 15 and the brethren whom they who had heard about us came from there as far as the Market Of Apias and three ends to meet us. And when Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. Alright. So,

So, they finally are leaving the island of Malta three months later. they get to Rome. I'm to Italy. I'm sorry. And on their way there, they run into Christians and check this out.

You would think that's a centurion would be in a hurry to get Paul and the prisoners to Rome to jail. But when they see Christians, those Christians invite them, hey, come in. Stay with us. Have fellowship with us. Let's have food and all that.

The centurion says, yeah, let's stay. With the soldiers. Seven days. I don't know about you, but that'd been a... It's been a long trip, and and I would be just anxious just to get rid of the dude and turn into prisoners and go on my vacation.

That's why I think that Julius got saved. I'm not sure. But it seems to me, Dick, is seven days. They're there and they're fellowshipping with the Christians. And people from different towns and mentions them three taverns or something like that.

Yeah, three inns, three inns. And the market, it's just suburbs. They came to that place to hang out with them. And he was so excited to be with Christians. Remember, wrote to them, I want to go to Rome and I want to meet with you guys.

So, three years later, in chains, through a shipwreck, a snake bite, cold, two weeks of a violent storm, they finally arrived. Verse 16, and when and when we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with a soldier who was guarding him. So, he preached to centurions, Roman soldiers, Jewish leaders, kings, sailors, natives, governors, and through it all, God kept encouraging Paul and opening doors. Well, at the end of the journey, they finally arrived three years later. Man, that that was a long trip.

God got him there. But look at how God was using him through this whole experience, through all of his suffering, and through everything that God allowed, God was with them. Now, there's three points, three things I want you to observe. Our journey is not over yet. We are still vertical and god has so much for us to do.

So, why does god have you here right now? Because that's his plan and wherever he has, be all there because this is where god is going to use you. He still has you alive. He still has something for you to do. Our journey could include pain and disappointments, but many open doors to serve our savior.

And God will get us where he wants us, but it may not be how you envision the journey. I can remember in my young days planning out my life. I don't know about you, have you done that? Do you remember when you were young? Well, some of you are young.

You're... Some of you are in your twenties or not even there. And you're like, yeah, this is what's gonna happen in my life. I'm gonna study. I'm gonna have this career, and this is where I'm gonna be.

I did that. I was... In my mind, I was gonna be over here doing a whole different thing and god's mind, no, I'm going to have you over here doing this. Wow. How did I get from here from thinking I was going to be over there?

And a lot of rough experiences in between. And and through it all, god was bringing me there and that's how god works. He's going to get you where he wants you and and you're going to see his his hand guiding you and his grace. Why does god have you here? Maybe because he wants you to be saved.

He wants to heal you. He wants to work in your life, and he's gonna bring... And he has allowed things to happen in your life because he wants you here to bring you to himself. It could be that. Now I want to draw your attention to Proverbs 16.

If you turn there, we're going to look at four things as we close these thoughts out. And next in two weeks, Devin will finish the book of Acts. I want you to look at four verses in in Proverbs. We're going to apply them to to what's happening here. Proverbs sixteen one and I recommend you look at it in different versions because it gives you like different thoughts that kind of help you understand it better but look what it says, we can make our own plans but the lord gives the right answer.

I made my plans but god says, that's a good plan but I have you somewhere else. By the time you're 62, I'm going to have you somewhere else. He was gracious enough not to tell me how he's going to get me there because I would probably got depressed. Because life has a way of beating you up. Amen?

Yeah. But the lord has the right answer. Proverbs sixteen three, commit your works to the lord or your plans, right? And your plans will succeed. So, god, here's what I'm thinking. Here's

Here's what I'm envisioning. Here's my plan. You know, I want to get married. I want to have kids. I want to do this and I want to do that.

And god will say, yes or no and he'll say, yeah, I'm with you but man, in that plan of yours, I have some rough experiences because I want you to depend on me. Proverbs sixteen nine. Watch this. We can make our plans but the lord determines our steps. That's a good plan. I

I like it. But I'm going to get you there through a different route than you're thinking. But it's a good plan. Remember, Jeremiah, I know the plans I have for you. Proverbs sixteen thirty three, we can throw the dice, New Living Translation, trying to modernize it, right? We

We can throw or or your version may say, we may cast lots but watch but the lord determines how they fall. So, so back then, in order to figure out to understand god's will, you can even see in Acts chapter one, they would throw sticks down. For example, they were trying to determine who's going to be the person who takes the the place of Judas Excariot, right? The the traitor? And they had two names and they would throw sticks down and god would point them towards the one that that he wanted. That's

That's how they were determined as well. And so the Bible says, you can throw the dice down or the sticks down right? But god's going to point you in the direction he wants. Make your plans. Praise god, right? And

And and seek his will as you're doing that. Paul says, I want to go to Rome and I want to go on to Spain and god says, you are going to get to Rome because you're going to represent me. I want you to get to Rome because you're going to be before Caesar and you're going give witness of the resurrected Jesus Christ. I'm going get you there but oh, did I tell you you're going to get beat? And you're going to get there in chains, and you're going to go through another ship, another one, another shipwreck.

Cold again. You're to get bit by snakes. All these things are going to happen to you. I'm going to get you there, and and through that whole journey, you're going to be speaking for me and representing me. And I'm going to use you for my glory.

They finally get to Rome. I don't know what God is doing in your life right now or where you're at. But God has a plan, and it's a good plan. And he's gonna get you to where he wants to get you. You just trust him.

And why does he have you here right now? If you're not saved, because he wants to save you and bring it to himself. Alright. Father, thank you for your word. thank you lord that you had a plan for this man.

It was a great plan. It was painful. It was a lot of suffering but you used them for your glory. And you accomplished your will in his life. And we have plans too Lord.

We pray that we would be in tune with you so we can know and do your will and be within that plan that you have for us. encourage us today, Lord. Thank you that nobody killed Paul because you wouldn't him in Rome. And Lord, we're in your hands. You're the one that are in charge.

Help us to trust you in Jesus name. Amen.