You have an appointment with an angel, and 
you have an angel telling you right now,  

"You're going to make it. In fact, you're going 
to be better." It's all right. I've got an angel!

Now who are you going to listen to? Your 
angel or your enemy? My angel said I'm  

going to make it. My angel said I'm right 
on time. My angel said it's working for my…  

I've got staying power! I love what the angel said 
to Paul. "You can't die in this storm. You have an  

appointment in Rome. You have to stand trial 
before Caesar. Can I give you the good news?  

You're not going to die in this trial. Can I give 
you the bad news? You've got a bigger one ahead."

Greater things. Bigger storms. Better stories. 
I've got an angel. I've got an appointment. So  

Paul is like, "Oh, I can't die." Did you ever 
watch a TV show and you knew…? I remember when we  

started watching that zombie show back before 
that looked just like the news. The Walking Dead.

The trailer used to come on. (Don't send me 
a thing about the Word of God and The Walking  

Dead. It's in the Bible, the walking dead. Third 
day, Jesus Christ, Lazarus…it's all in there.  

Same stuff.) I saw the trailer, and I saw that the 
same guy who was in the first episode was still  

in it (because we watched it later) in the current 
season, so it took some of the suspense out of  

the first season, the second season, the third 
season, the fourth season, the fifth season.

Now, when you have a word from God concerning your 
life… And it could be simple. He said he would  

never leave me nor forsake me. So if he's going to 
stay with me, then whatever happens in this storm…

I already saw season 6. They can't kill Rick. It 
doesn't matter how many Walkers. They can't kill  

him. I saw the season finale! I've got 
staying power! I've got the Holy Ghost!  

I wish we could high-five our neighbors, but 
tell somebody, "I'm in the season finale."  

Staying power. That's what 
we're celebrating today:  

not that we avoided the storm but that we stayed 
in the storm. "The crowds were amazed at his  

teaching, because he taught as one who had 
authority, and not as their teachers of the law."  

He shared with them a parable. 
A certain man built a house.

Do you all know this story? It's kind of like 
the big bad wolf, but it's the big bad storm.  

He said two men built a house. "I'll show 
you what he's like who comes to me and puts  

my words into practice. He's like a wise 
man who built his house on the rock. The  

rains came down, the streams rose, the 
winds blew and beat against that house,  

yet it did not fall because it had a sound 
foundation on the rock." You got that?  

Rains came down, streams rose, 
winds blew and beat up the house.

That's what happened to the first house. 
That's the man who had faith. Let's go  

on to the second man. He was foolish. 
He didn't do what Jesus had instructed.  

Instead, he built his house on a sandy foundation, 
not a strong foundation. He built his house  

on something that was not stable, and it says 
the storm came. Rains came down, streams rose,  

winds blew and beat against the house. That's 
what happened to the man who did the right thing.  

Same storm.

What I wanted to preach today was "The 
Storm Is Over." I thought that would be  

cool. I thought that would get a lot of 
views on YouTube. "The Storm Is Over."  

But the Lord said, "You can't 
preach that in good conscience,  

because like these men who were headed to 
Rome and they didn't know how much longer  

the storm would rage, you have to teach 
people how to keep their hope in a storm."  

The Lord said, "You have 
to preach on staying power.  

You have to tell people to stay in 
faith." Doesn't it take faith to stay?

Come on, be honest. It's just us. There's 
not even anybody else in the church.  

It's just you and somebody you live with, and 
you can't even be honest with me like this? How  

are you ever going to survive in the real world? 
Doesn't it take faith to stay? To stay grateful  

when everything in you wants to complain? That 
takes faith. "Come on, man. Step out of the boat."

I know this message is probably going to be 
my least viewed sermon of all time, but stay.  

That's about the only thing 
I can control right now,  

and that's what he said would save 
them. "If you stay, you will be saved."  

That's when they taunted Jesus. They 
said, "Come down off that cross.  

Do something amazing." He said, "I am."

See, he couldn't come down 
and save you at the same time.  

God sent me with a word: You can't come 
down right now. You are like Nehemiah  

rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. He said, 
"I can't come down. I hear what Sanballat is  

saying. I hear what they're saying, but I can't 
come down right now. I'm doing a great work."

The Spirit of God says, "I'm doing a great 
work in your life. You can't come down  

now to a lower level. You can't come down 
now. You can't give up hope now. Not now."  

I have to stay in this moment and 
let patience have its perfect work.  

The proof of faith is not change; it's patience.  

Patience is the active ingredient in faith. 
He decided to stay. He could have called  

legions of angels, and they would have 
come at his beck and call, but he stayed.

I wonder who will be saved if you stay.  

You'll save your own life if 
you stay. If you stay praising…  

I've decided that is my survival. Do you hear me? 
This is not some sort of extracurricular activity  

where… I appreciate the president and the 
governor saying that we are essential,  

you know, essential business, but I knew 
that way before the president said it.  

I knew that way before the governor 
said it. I knew we were essential.

This is essential for me. I have to praise him. 
I'm under obligation to praise him. He gave me  

life itself. If I don't praise him, the rocks will 
cry out! I have to praise him! I stay praising.  

It takes faith to stay…to stay 
encouraged while the storm is raging;  

to stay optimistic when the world is pessimistic;  

to stay expectant when you've been disappointed; 
to stay sweet when the world is sour.  

Staying power is what they 
experienced on the day of Pentecost.

Before Jesus left, he said,  

"I need you to do something that's going 
to be hard for you to do right now.  

Stay in Jerusalem." Jeru-salem. Salem, 
peace. "Stay in the city of peace.  

Even though there's a riot in the 
streets, stay in the city of peace."  

It takes faith to stay in a state 
of peace. It takes faith to stay in  

a boat when a storm is raging. It takes 
faith to stay in the middle of the sea.

It said they weren't saved 
until they cut the ropes.  

The Lord told me to tell you, "Cut the ropes."  

Quit trying to escape the stuff 
God is using to change you.  

You can't be changed unless you stay. You can't 
be saved unless you stay. You have to stay.

You can't bear more fruit when he's pruning you 
unless you abide in the vine. If you cut yourself  

off… But if you stay, he said, "I'm going to make 
you more fruitful." That's what Paul had in mind,  

because he always wanted to go to 
Rome. No matter how the storm raged,  

no matter how the boat rocked, he said, 
"I'm going to Rome. I have an appointment."

The Lord said, "I've appointed 
you, I've chosen you to bear  

much fruit, and the proof that I've appointed 
you to bear more fruit is that I am pruning you."  

Staying with the ship means cutting the ropes,  

but if I keep on trying to find a way out 
of it, how can I be changed through it?

Lord, I thank you for the faith 
to stay. You gave me this word,  

and you told me when I studied that 
someone was hearing two voices right now,  

and they don't see any stars to guide by. Their 
calendar has changed. Their rhythm has changed.  

They can't even go to the stores they used 
to go to right now. When they go there,  

it looks like the rapture, the Apocalypse. 
"Don't know what to do. Do I go in? Do I go out?"  

I don't have any answers for 
that, Lord. I'm just a preacher.  

But you told me to tell them that if they will 
stay in Jerusalem they will receive power.  

So, God, give us the faith to stay.
Look at me. You stayed with this whole  

sermon. Don't click off now. I know; I hear the 
kids in the background. Tell them to shut up.  

"Stop screaming!" Stay with me, because the 
thing I want to show you that's so powerful  

is that the only way they could receive the 
power of God was to stay in the place of peace.  

Keep your peace. Do you hear me? You have 
600 employees, and you don't know how to  

rebuild the organization to accommodate 
the new situation. God has given you  

the power not only to survive the storm, but he 
gave you the power for miracles on the other side.

I have the faith to believe that 
if we cut the ropes today, whether  

that's someone who's without a job and just 
trying to raise their own family or whether  

you are looking for wisdom as a leader and you 
don't know how to lead the people because you've  

lost what you are guiding by, I hear the Spirit of 
God saying what Paul said: "Stay with the ship."

Now, you say, "How can I stay with it when it's 
breaking?" No, no, no. Paul didn't promise that  

the ship was going to look the same when they 
got to the shore. He didn't say it would look  

the same. He said, "You're going to make it 
anyway." The disciples who accompanied Jesus  

through his ministry did not follow him to 
the cross except John, but he made it anyway.

What he started with he did not finish with on the 
cross, but he made it anyway. Now we look to Jesus  

and we hear the echo of Paul 
preaching to us, saying,  

"Last night an angel of the God whose I am and 
whom I serve… He will never leave me nor forsake  

me. There was an angel beside me. That's how I 
have staying power. That's how I can make it.