Gavin and Kevin Robert Hams preach on Acts 23:11, where Jesus tells Paul to testify in Rome despite danger. They use bioluminescent dinoflagellates and HBCU marching bands as examples of how disruption reveals inner light. God's presence shows up not in the absence of enemies but in thriving amid them.
Chapters
The following night, the Lord stood by Paul and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, So you must testify also in Rome. You may be seated. Thank God for you, for connecting with you, and last, thank you. But just to— I knew I was hearing something. For just a few moments this morning. I want to lift up the thought, the must that moved me. The must that moved me. I've seen several of you at HBCU football game. And as you all know, that at an HBCU football game, the game is played on the field, but the entertainment is in the stands. In the stands, typical HBCU game, not only do you have two football teams playing on the field, but there is this informal competition in the stands between two bands. And one thing that I've noticed over the years is that a lot of times one band will start playing before the other band stops. And it always has sparked my curiosity because it made me curious to wonder how can one band play their song without being distracted by the noise of the other band. That preached to me and let me know that when you look at the band, the bands are trained to look at one individual. And their notes— their notes that they play is based upon what their director moves. Translated, even though there may be a lot of noise going on around, if the band focuses on who is directing them that no matter the noise, they can focus on what God has called them to do. Here in Acts chapter 23, Paul is in the midst of a lot of noise. Sanhedrin Council is plotting to kill him for his preaching of Jesus Christ. He's going from various trials to trials. He's going from circumstance to circumstance. He's going through issue and issue, and Paul's life is literally on the line. All right, but here in verse 11, in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the noise, in the midst of the opposition, somebody sneaks up to Paul while he's encapsulated and tells Paul, me and her, that I know you have a lot of noise going on right now, that I know there are a lot of distractions right now, and I know that there's a lot of chaos and uncertainty that you're facing right now. But the Lord himself showed up to Paul in the midst of the chaos and told him to be encouraged, because here it is: just like you have testified about me in Jerusalem, you must testify about me in Rome.
In other words, Jesus is telling Paul that, Paul, you don't have to worry about what's going on here because my—
your assignment is not just here, but you have an assignment that's beyond here.
So don't let the confusion confuse you. And don't let the chaos stop you, because even though you going through it right here, God has an assignment for you over there. And I'm preaching to you already, and you're looking at me like I'm crazy, but God is sending this word this morning because there are many of us who are just like Paul. You have been doing things for God, and you thought that what you have been doing for God was gonna make the chaos stop. You thought because you came to church 2 Sundays in a row that certainly the bill collector was going to stop calling you this week. You thought that since you did said your prayers for 5 minutes this morning as opposed to 4 minutes, that all of a sudden you were going to have a new check in the mail. But now, to your chagrin, you have discovered that chaos is still going on, that calamity is still going on. And if you are not careful, it will make you stop in what you're doing for God. But God sent me all the way down 167 this morning to let you in on a secret. And that secret is, is that the chaos does not mean that you need to stop, but the chaos means that you need to keep going because God is taking you to a higher height despite the chaos. And before I go into minute 4 of my sermon, I want to ask this room, is there anybody who needs that word this morning? That you are tempted to quit because the chaos is too crazy, you're tempted to stop because life is turning up the heat, But God has a way of coming up and teaching us this morning that if you look and listen to me, no matter what's going on outside, but if you look at what I'm directing you to do, then the best is still yet to come. And I want to let somebody know this morning that God said that you can't stop right here because it's a must that you go higher. And the reason that you're gonna make it through what you're going through right now is because God say it is a must that you keep on going because there is more in store for you. And what I'm trying to tell you is that the next assignment that you have in your life is what's gonna protect you and propel you right here where you are. In other words, the reason you gonna be healed in this situation is because God needs that body for you to do more in his name. The reason this calamity is not going to stop you is because God has a higher height that he wants you to serve him in. The reason these lies won't be able to stop you is because God wants to use you on a higher platform. The reason what they're doing to try to hinder you won't work is because God says you have more in store, and it is a must It is a declaration. It is a mandate that you make it past this moment. I just gave you some good news and I don't think you got it yet. I'm trying to tell y'all, I'm trying to be patient and tell you that you gonna make it through this because God wants to take you to that. You can't stop in sadness here because God wants to take you forward. You can't let this situation hinder you because God has more success for you. You can't stop here because God wants more for you to do.
And here it is. I don't want to rush along. Tony, I'm so happy to see you, man, because you the only one who want to hear me preach. So since you here and you want to hear me preach, Tony, here's what I came to preach. Take courage in chaos because divine necessity overrides human hostility.
Y'all want me to say it again?
No. Take courage even in chaos because divine necessity overrides human hostility.
Can I say it a different way for you? No matter what they do, you gonna make it through what they do because God has required for you to do something beyond what they doing right now. Let them talk, let them lie, let them plot, let them pass policies, and watch how we keep on marching on with God. They can do whatever they want to do in Washington, D.C. They can do whatever they want to do in Baton Rouge. They can do whatever they want to do in the UN. But if God has more for me to do, whatever policy you think, God has a mandate that overrides your crooked policy.
Well, let me know. It's 11:30. Time to turn this corner. Unpack my hermeneutic highlight, see if I can make my way up.
1:6-7.
Do y'all care to know what else God had to say about this must that moves us? God shows us in this text, without distracting faith, that there is a triumphant existence Y'all are so churchy that you missed the irony in verse 11.
Paul is in the midst of all of this.
Sanhedrin is against him.
His life is on the line.
We are in the book of Acts, which is the fifth book in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Acts is after the four gospels, which highlights and outlines the life of Jesus our Christ. In the book of Acts In the 23rd chapter, in verse 11, while Paul is in the midst of what he's going through, Luke tells us in the 23rd chapter of Acts that the Lord stood up and appeared and spoke to Paul.
The two churches, you missing it. I'm in the book of Acts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Acts comes after the Gospels, and at the end of the Gospels we see about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And in chapter 1 of Acts, that same Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father. That's in chapter 1 of Acts.
But I'm here after the gospels and after chapter 1, in chapter 23.
And the Lord who's that? The Lord who hung on Calvary, the Lord who was buried in Joseph's tomb, the Lord who stayed dead 3 days and 3 nights. And got up early Sunday morning with power in his hand and ascended to the right hand of the Father, said, I'm doing more than just staying at the right hand of the Father. But even in the 23rd chapter of Acts, when you thought that I was gone, when you thought that there was no more of me, that same Lord showed up and ministered to Paul. Is there a witness in the house? Who can testify that you thought that my Lord was dead?
You—
but my God is still alive, and he proves that he's alive because every time I need him, he shows up in my life. Is there a witness in Pilgrim Rest today who can testify that my Jesus is not dead? Because every time I need him, he shows up.
That's why it's important to have Jesus in your life.
That's why it's important to be saved, because when Jesus is in your life, he doesn't just stay at the right hand of the Father, but he comes down in the midst of your mess. He comes down in the midst of your mistakes. He comes down in the midst of your hurts and tell you to be of good courage because I'm still here.
That even though the chaos exists, honorable, guess what else exists? My Christ exists.
And in your life right now, you may have so much chaos, but you have a lot of Christ in your life. Didn't he wake you up this morning? Hadn't he put food on your table? Hadn't he dried your tears? Then when you think that it was nothing else that can be done, that same Christ showed up and said, I still exist.
I told y'all, y'all too churchy because y'all passed right by that.
We thought Jesus was gone, but Jesus said, no, I'm still here.
Here it is. Triumphant existence. I'm getting ready to knock y'all away. Y'all don't want to wrestle with me. Triumphant existence. Watch this. I tell you, teaching Paul is dealing with Satan. He's dealing with the enemy. Many of us who are God's children and belong to Christ deal with the enemy today. But here is something that bothers me. Hey, here's what bothers Sanhedrin and everybody is talking against Paul. Jesus shows up. Oh, oh, Jesus, I'm in this mess.
Why are you talking to me and not talking to them?
Hello. I know this is a soft spot for some of us because many of us are waiting on God to get them. You, you, you waiting on God to shut them up because you know Touch not my anointing and do my prophet no harm.
That's true, but that does not mean that God will always even look at him. Somebody in here right now, y'all didn't want to admit it, but you have to go Because you ready for God to shut them up.
You ready for God to get them out of office.
You ready for God to give your baby a new teacher.
You ready for God to put a whole new crew somewhere so now you can prove that God got your back. But come here, let's grow up for a second. The triumphant existence is not always administered in the non-existence of the enemy.
I know I ain't nothing.
I don't know why y'all looking like—
we think that the proof of God's presence is the absence of the enemy.
That's not biblical.
But the proof of God's presence is that the enemy can be present, but they don't have the power. Preach, Kevin Robert Hams! Is there anybody in the house this morning? Your enemies are still there. You still gotta deal with fools. You still gotta deal with clowns. You still gotta deal with chaos. You still gotta deal with you. But look at you, you're still there. And the testimony that God is here is that you are still here even when they want to take you out. Y'all looking at me like I'm the problem this morning, but somebody in here knows that people have plotted against you, they've schemed against you, they've scandalized your name. But the more they did it, the more you kept lifting up your hands. The more they plotted, the more you said hallelujah. The more they had backroom meetings, the more God anointed you. And the proof that God is here is that you here. I had a problem with God.
I had a problem with Jesus.
Jesus, you really love me? I want you to do something amazing. I want you to make the thunder roll. I want you to make a voice cry out.
I want you to split the ground apart. And make my enemies fall in the midst of what you did. I guess I'm the only one who prays like this. Yeah, is that just me?
But God said, no, I really want to prove who I am by showing up and letting them know that no matter what they try to do, you belong to me. And who— if you belong to me, then no matter who is against you, if God be for me, who can be against me? I'm having fun all by myself. I don't even see y'all out there.
I'm just preaching to me right now.
The proof of God's existence is not in the absence of the enemy, but the proof of God's existence It's the existence of the enemy, but God's existence makes you triumphant.
It's almost— thank you, it's almost like the Sanhedrin tried to disturb Paul, but it ended up stirring up God. Stay calm, you got a suit on and you don't sweat too much. They tried to disrupt Paul, but it really just got the attention of Jesus because Jesus just minded his business, but the Sanhedrin made Jesus show up. There's this body of water these bays— I learned this from nature. There's this certain body of water that whenever waves hit or whenever the water is disrupted, the water actually lights up. The water has some type of algae in it called dinoflagellates. Dinoflagellates in the water. And what happens with dinoflagellates is that when the water is disturbed The water lights up. I'm trying to say it calm to make sure y'all digesting it. Uh, the water is disturbed by waves, but when it disturbs, it lights up because it has dinoflagellates in it.
Now here's the thing about it. The disruption does not create the light.
The light was already there.
But when the water is disrupted, it just doesn't go away. The water says, I'm gonna shine brighter.
Y'all making the priest. Here it is. When God lives in us, the enemy always comes against us.
The enemy does not create the God in us, but the enemy reveals the God that's in us. And the disrupted water does not have water. The dino— uh, flagellates— he's created by the disruption, but the disruption reveals what's on the inside of it. And somebody today knows that when the devil tries you, it just revealed that God is in you. And when you went through a storm, when you went through the rain, when you went through the trouble, it didn't create the glory in you. But it revealed that God's glory was already inside of you.
Here it is. I'm almost done. I'm almost— I'm on this point for 10 minutes, 37 seconds. I gotta close the point. Guess what? Y'all know something about disrupting water according to this illustration, and something that's true about our lives. I'm ready to get out this suit. Here it is.
Disrupted water glows.
I had both of my hands up and y'all didn't say nothing.
Disrupted water does not go away or evaporate, but disrupted water glows. And disrupted children of God Don't fall under the pressure, but you glow with the glory of God in the midst of the pressure. Come here, 3 Hebrew boys. They put y'all in a fiery furnace and thought your praise was gonna shut up, but your praise just glowed even more when you got put in the fire.
—there was a triumphant inclusion. Gabby, you got to hurry up and get to the second point. You got to condense this for the palate of people. Not only there's a triumphant inclusion, honorable, this text teaches us also about a transactional exchange. Transaction. I'm gonna see if y'all been— in the midst of this chaos, Jesus, or the Lord, shows up and told Paul to be up, get good courage, because as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, you have to, you must Because I said so, do it in Rome. Good job, players. Here's what happens in the rest of the text. Paul's here. Read the rest of this homework. Read it, please. Here's what happened. Rest of the chapter. After Jesus spoke and encouraged Paul, go ahead and Anybody ever had a devil at your house waiting on you after you got from church? Right when you got from church, you messing around and looked at your phone and you said, I should have looked at my phone right after church. What happened with the text?
I'm saying he's about 40 of them.
Luke says he had a plot. Guess what these fellas said? We got to kill Paul. And here's what they were so desperate and thirsty to kill Paul. These clowns said, we not gonna eat until Paul dead. But what happened? Because they said this after Jesus had already encouraged Paul and told him that while you're in Jerusalem, be of good courage.
You're not gonna stay here in Jerusalem because I'm taking you to a larger territory in Rome. In other words, I'm elevating you, I'm advancing you, I'm taking you to higher heights. Beyond Jerusalem, I'm taking you to Rome. And some of us, God has spoken something like that in our lives, and after God has spoken it, the 40 crazy folks showed up.
Y'all curious about what happened next? This obscure character in the Bible came up out of nowhere and happened to overhear this. Luke tells us It was Paul's nephew. What up, nephew? Nephew came in and saved the day.
Oh, nephew heard what was going on and went and told the commander.
And the commander, for whatever reason, by divine providence, said, no, this man's a Roman citizen.
So the commander got 470 people to guard Paul and help Paul escape. If I want to take this turn, if I wasn't disciplined, I'll take this turn and say that the God against— God is for you is so much more than the devil that's against you. But I gotta be different. 40, 9, 40 ignorant folks who said they not gonna eat until Paul dead. Matthew heard, went and told the commander. The commander calls 470 men to take Paul out.
Please, somebody ask me Where did they take Paul?
They took Paul to a place called Caesarea, the Roman territory of Caesarea. So since y'all missed it, The 40 fools led to Nephew getting the 470, and the 470 escorted Paul to Rome. Now I get it. Good night. Now I get it. This is why God doesn't eliminate enemies. Because I'm not going to eliminate enemies because they're going to be a part of the execution. I wish I had my cane so I could put on the step stool here today. The same fortitude led to Paul doing exactly what God told Paul he was going to do. And what I'm trying to tell you is that you won't see the elimination of the chaos, but God will use that chaos to help you keep on marching. You think that the sickness is going to be unto death, but God's word for you today is that this sickness is going to take you to a level of more trust in God and more reliance on God. You think that the circumstance is going to eliminate you, but God says, I'm going to use this to help you travel, and he's going to use it as a vehicle to your next level. I just say, Paul, I get why he was able to testify and say that all things work together for the good, because y'all think I got to Rome on a chariot, but no, I went through hell to get to Rome. I went through some chaos to get through Rome. I went through some trouble to get to Rome. Rome wasn't an easy journey, But thanks be to God, I made it, and he used the enemy to help me make it. I bid you good night.
This about all I'm gonna do. Now it's time to eat.
Either you or my brother gonna buy me something to eat today. I'mma let y'all figure that part out.
I ordered something the other day. Off Amazon. Might want to text me now, or some other day, off Amazon. And I have this same habit all of you have. The moment you press pay, you start looking for that tracking information. I was looking with tracking information.
I wish I could hoot on my package that I ordered.
Every day I look and see where my package is because I ordered it, and it's contractually— they're contractually obligated to deliver the package to where they said, we said.
But when I got the package the other day, I let the package preach.
Said, package, I want you to take a text. I want you to give me an exegetical invitation, and I'm going to accept. Package says—
I'm preaching to you now, Gavin. See, when you were looking at the tracking history to see where I was One of the places that you saw that I was located, you notice when you looked at the news that that place was in the storm. And I remember I heard you, Gavin. You thought that I was going to be delayed because I was in a storm. But if you listen to me, Gavin, I'm gonna help you preach Sunday. Because you see today that I made it to your house right on time. I say, yes, Mr. Package, I see that. Tell me what that means. It means that God didn't stop the storm, but he used the storm and said, the storm won't stop me, but the storm gonna help me get to you. Good night, Pilgrim Rest. May the Lord God bless you real good. I can't guarantee that God gonna stop your storm today. But this thing I do know, that God will use that thing and take you to a new place. He will use that sickness to take you higher. He will use those tears to give you a testimony. He will use that mistake to give you a ministry. Is there anybody today that can look back over your life and look at the storms that God got in the midst of and use that storm to take it to your world. He's still doing it, I tell you. He's still delivering, I tell you. He's still a waymaker, I tell you.
I'm done, I'm done. And the reason—
put the cup in my mouth so y'all know I'm done—
reason that Paul made it to Rome anyway was not because he was lucky, but it was a must that God spoke in verse 11.
And when God said you must do something, there is nothing in hell, earth, Venus, or Mars that would hinder it from happening, because my God has a must that moves me. I'm here today. I could be dead right now. I could be locked up somewhere crazy. In a straitjacket. But I'm preaching to you this morning, and the reason is because God say, gather, you must do this.
And I ain't seen nothing yet because there are some unfulfilled books that God has in your life. Bye!
