Speaker: Alright, good morning church.
Speaker: Today's scripture reading is taken from Acts chapter 27 verses 13 to 44.
Speaker: When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity. So they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.
Speaker: Before very long, a wind of hurricane force called the Northeaster swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind. So we gave way to it and were driven along.
Speaker: As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, We were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. So the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together.
Speaker: Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, They lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.
Speaker: We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
Speaker: After they had gone a long time without food.
Speaker: Paul stood up before them and said, "Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete.
Speaker: Then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost. Only the ship will be destroyed." Last night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, "Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me." Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.
Speaker: On the 14th night, we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea.
Speaker: When about midnight, the sailors sensed they were approaching land, they took soundings and found that the water was 120 feet deep.
Speaker: A short time later, they took soundings again and found it was 90 feet deep.
Speaker: Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.
Speaker: In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow.
Speaker: Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved." So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.
Speaker: Just before dawn, Paul urged them all to eat.
Speaker: "For the last 14 days," he said, "you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food. You haven't eaten anything.
Speaker: Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head." After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all.
Speaker: He then broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves.
Speaker: Although there were 276 of us on board, when they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.
Speaker: When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.
Speaker: Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders.
Speaker: Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.
Speaker: But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground.
Speaker: The bow stuck fast and would not move and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.
Speaker: The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping.
Speaker: But the centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan.
Speaker: He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship.
Speaker: In this way, everyone reached land safely.
Speaker: This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker: Please be seated now.
Speaker: Alright, what were my initial, before I got interrupted to release the Kids Church, I'm reminded to release Kids Church.
Speaker: We had the greeting, we usually do that as kind of a part of welcoming each other to the church, but also passing the peace of Christ to one another, so that's kind of a tradition of ours here at our church, if you're new with us here this morning.
Speaker: Again, if you're new and you'd like to connect, feel free please to fill out a connect form on the iPad at the welcome table here at the front of the lobby.
Speaker: That would give me the necessary information to be able to reach out to you and get together.
Speaker: It's good to be back. If you haven't noticed, I haven't been here for the last two Sundays, maybe you haven't noticed, but me and my family have taken a bit of a small break to just mentally, spiritually, and emotionally reset, so that we can continue to serve the church moving forward.
Speaker: Please continue to keep us in prayer as we serve the community here and as we continue to serve the church.
Speaker: I also want to extend my thanks to all of our elders who were entrusted with leading while I was absent, as well as all of our volunteers who stepped up.
Speaker: They were given a responsibility that they might not have completely been comfortable with.
Speaker: Stepping into something that is new can often create anxiety and nervousness, so thank you to all my elders, leaders, and volunteers for stepping up during our absence away from the church.
Speaker: Thank you so much for doing that.
Speaker: It feels like over the last few weeks we've been counting down to the end of our current series here on the Book of Acts.
Speaker: A few weeks ago it was like 10 plus weeks, now it's like the second to last week before we step into a new sermon series on Christian community and what that's all about.
Speaker: That series will be an 11-week series beginning in August 2nd, so I hope that you join us for that as we embark on that new journey.
Speaker: But as for today, as Ollie has read for us, we are going to be looking at Acts 27.
Speaker: Allow me to open up with a question here this morning.
Speaker: Does anyone like roller coasters here?
Speaker: No. Anybody like roller coasters?
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Okay, so there's a few thrill seekers among us.
Speaker: I'll be honest, I hate roller coasters.
Speaker: First of all, if you know me, I don't like heights.
Speaker: Okay, so roller coasters are generally high above the ground.
Speaker: And secondly, I don't like going that high above the ground so fast.
Speaker: My wife Ruby, however, loves roller coasters.
Speaker: She loves them, but she hates Ferris wheels.
Speaker: I, on the other hand, also hate Ferris wheels.
Speaker: So I don't like going slow and high or fast and high.
Speaker: I just don't like going high above the ground.
Speaker: But when I think about roller coasters, I think that ride is very much a good analogy for life.
Speaker: It goes up and it goes down and it twists and it turns to its course, very much like our lives.
Speaker: And while a roller coaster offers the thrill of a ride, our lives, when it goes through twists and turns, ups and downs, we don't generally experience the same kind of thrill.
Speaker: So how do we respond in seasons when our lives are seemingly filled with grief and tragedy and darkness and uncertainty?
Speaker: What do we do in the seasons of life when we encounter storms?
Speaker: How do we weather those storms?
Speaker: Well, that's what we want to look at here in Acts 27.
Speaker: Church, it's interesting that Luke takes so much time to describe what is happening here in this journey to Rome.
Speaker: Luke's main point here is to show that God's purpose cannot be ruined or thwarted by powerful forces of nature, such as strong hurricane-like winds.
Speaker: And so many of us may never experience a storm like the way Paul had, but many of us do and will experience storms in life.
Speaker: And some of those experiences will cause us to be in such dismay and darkness and helplessness.
Speaker: But Paul's experience in this storm teaches us that if we will trust God's care for us in the storms of life, God will use us to bear witness to many.
Speaker: So from Acts 27, we want to look at three things here in our passages that we can learn.
Speaker: The first is that God is sovereign in the storms of life.
Speaker: Scripture teaches us that God is in control of all things.
Speaker: The word sovereign or sovereignty expresses this idea of God's authority and rule over all of life and creation.
Speaker: So when life feels out of control, they are never out of God's control.
Speaker: No matter how impossible our situation may be in life.
Speaker: I mean, look at Paul's situation.
Speaker: He was on this ship.
Speaker: It was completely lost.
Speaker: It was completely out of control.
Speaker: Paul and all those on board were at the mercy of this storm.
Speaker: They were helpless to do anything about their situation on the ship.
Speaker: And they did everything they could to control it, but to no avail.
Speaker: Their circumstances were so hopeless.
Speaker: And this is what Luke records.
Speaker: The storm was so terrible, so we gave up all hope of being saved.
Speaker: Now, despite their despair, the reality that they were not in control of their situation, the truth of the matter is that God was in control.
Speaker: And we must learn, church, to trust in God's word as Paul had done with God.
Speaker: You see, when our lives are spinning out of control, what are we putting our trust in?
Speaker: Maybe it's in people.
Speaker: Maybe it's in food.
Speaker: Maybe it's in our purchasing power and ability to buy things.
Speaker: Maybe it's in ourselves.
Speaker: But putting our trust in all of those things will inevitably fail us.
Speaker: They will inevitably disappoint.
Speaker: What we are to learn is to put our trust in God in the stormy seasons of life, because it's easy to trust God when life is well.
Speaker: And when, not if, those seasons of despair and struggle and upheaval, when they come our way, we are to put our hope and our trust in God and in His promises for us, despite not being able to see what is in front of us.
Speaker: It's a hard thing to do.
Speaker: I get this.
Speaker: I understand.
Speaker: But there's often tension, too, in deciding whether we should trust in God or put our trust in something else.
Speaker: Our ability to trust in God more and more is built on past experiences in which God has come through for us.
Speaker: It affirms and reaffirms that God can be trusted and that we can put our confidence and put our hope and our faith in God's word for our lives, because we've experienced Him coming through for us.
Speaker: There are times when we feel like when a storm is upon us in life, if we've done something wrong to deserve this upheaval or this stormy season in our lives, we question whether God cares for us.
Speaker: We question whether we are in God's will.
Speaker: And it's possible that we may be outside of God's will, especially when there is unconfessed and undelt sin in our lives.
Speaker: Now with that being said, we may be also exactly where God wants us to be, because sometimes storms are a part of God's will and plan.
Speaker: In Matthew's Gospel, Matthew 14, after feeding the 5,000, Jesus sends His disciples in a boat to reach to the other side of the lake.
Speaker: The word that Matthew here uses in Matthew 14, verse 22, is the word "made." So Jesus made them get into a boat.
Speaker: Now that word "made" means to compel by force or by pressure.
Speaker: So disciples did not really have a choice in the matter.
Speaker: Jesus was purposefully and deliberately sending His disciples into a storm.
Speaker: Why would He do that to them?
Speaker: I mean, Jesus first knew that the storm was coming.
Speaker: He was not being cruel or uncaring.
Speaker: This was not some sick joke when He sent His disciples into the storm.
Speaker: But what He wanted to teach His disciples was about His authority and power that He had over the fiercest storms that life could throw at their way.
Speaker: This was a moment of spiritual formation.
Speaker: So even when the disciples were in the storm, they were exactly where they were supposed to be.
Speaker: They were in God's will and plan at that moment in time.
Speaker: So just because we're in a storm in life does not mean that we are out of God's will.
Speaker: We can be very much in the will and plans of God even when we are in the storm because sometimes God sends us into one to teach us.
Speaker: Sometimes God's will and plan for us are to be in the storm because there is something that God wants us to reveal about Himself to us.
Speaker: Maybe there is something in our hearts and our lives that God wants to form in us and it can only be done in and through a storm.
Speaker: The tendency for us in these stormy seasons is to question whether God cares for us.
Speaker: Like when life goes astray, when it doesn't go according to our plans, we tend to ask God questions.
Speaker: We tend to question, "Does God really love me?" I want you to look at all of the men in this boat, all 275, not including Paul, people on board the ship had no idea where they were in this storm.
Speaker: They were lost.
Speaker: They couldn't even see the stars in the sky and that was primarily used to navigate where they were going.
Speaker: They had no control, but God knew exactly where they were in this lake.
Speaker: He cared for all 276 people on board, even for those who did not know God or didn't care to know who God was.
Speaker: God cared for all of them based on the fact that He spared all of their lives.
Speaker: He didn't just spare the people who believed in Him, He spared all of the entire crew.
Speaker: He protected and safeguarded all of them, not just the ones who believed in Him.
Speaker: There's a passage in Matthew's Gospel that says this about God's grace and love.
Speaker: It says that God causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Speaker: And so if you are a child of God through faith in Christ this morning, I can assure you that God cares for you in every storm of life that He takes you through.
Speaker: The apostle Peter would eventually write these words about God, "Cast all your anxiety on Him." Why?
Speaker: Because God cares for you.
Speaker: Knowing that God is in control and that He cares is great comfort and encouragement to those who have placed their faith and trust in Christ.
Speaker: But church, we still have a part to play in light of God's sovereignty.
Speaker: God's sovereignty is not reason for us to kick back and do nothing, be passive.
Speaker: And so this leads us to our second point here, this point that we want to look at, which is that our responsibility in stormy seasons is to trust in God's care for us.
Speaker: There are a few things that we want to look here.
Speaker: First, for us, trusting in God's care does not mean that we do not use good judgment or common sense.
Speaker: In other words, trusting God in His care for us doesn't mean that we are thoughtless and that common sense of discernment goes out the window.
Speaker: Paul was a deep man of faith.
Speaker: He testified specifically in the storm that he had faith in God despite the crew giving up hope.
Speaker: Paul had earlier advised, he encouraged the crew not to sail because it would have been dangerous.
Speaker: This was common sense at the time.
Speaker: And the reason why he says this is because around this time, the scripture says that around this time was the Day of Atonement.
Speaker: The Day of Atonement was the ceremony in which the high priest would go and make an atonement for the sins of the people, on behalf of the sins of the people, so that their sins would be forgiven.
Speaker: But the Day of Atonement also occurred around the month of October.
Speaker: And around this region, around this area, sailing at this time would have been risky.
Speaker: The weather was not good.
Speaker: There were many storms that took place.
Speaker: It was good judgment and common sense not to sail during the season because of how dangerous the waters could be.
Speaker: The point here is that Paul, in his human responsibility, used good discernment and common sense while he trusted in God's care for him.
Speaker: When I was younger, we used to have these discussions and we'd say, "Well, if God cares for us, why don't we just cross the street without actually waiting for the cars to stop?" As I've gotten older, I realize, I mean, that's a dumb thing to say, right?
Speaker: Could God cause the cars to stop while you're crossing without looking both ways?
Speaker: Sure, He could.
Speaker: But common sense and good judgment would indicate usually you probably, very likely, would get hit by a car.
Speaker: It's silly and it's foolishness.
Speaker: God cares for us, but that doesn't mean that we throw good judgment out the window.
Speaker: This was what Paul was saying to the crew.
Speaker: Trusting in God doesn't mean that we, yeah, just give up thoughtlessness and common sense and to do something foolish.
Speaker: God calls us to do something that the world, sometimes God calls us to do something that the world considers crazy because the world does not know God or trust Him.
Speaker: We have plenty of examples in scripture about men and women who are called to do something that the world considered dumb and foolish.
Speaker: For example, we have Gideon.
Speaker: If anybody knows the story of Gideon, Gideon had an army of thousands, but God doing it down to 300 men going to war against the Midianite army of 135,000.
Speaker: Now on a good day, those odds are still very bad.
Speaker: Gideon trusted in God, however, and his care for him and his men and even to our modern day ears, when we hear that, we might be tempted to think, "That's just stupid." The world definitely considers going to war with 300 men against 135,000 foolishness.
Speaker: What about Noah and his building of this boat, this ark?
Speaker: It took Noah about 100 years to build and finish the ark.
Speaker: This was not some kind of day project.
Speaker: This was a lifetime's worth of work.
Speaker: In the examples of Gideon and Noah, both were called by God in faith to do something that the world would have considered absolutely insane.
Speaker: And if we are called to do something like that, we better be sure that God is absolutely calling us to it or else we end up looking like fools in the eyes of the world.
Speaker: Trusting in God and using our minds are not against one another.
Speaker: But there are times when God does cause to do something extraordinary or what the world might think is ridiculous in faith and trust.
Speaker: To trust in God and his care also means that when we are in the storms of life, we respond differently than those who do not know God.
Speaker: Paul stands out in our story here in Acts 27, not because he was brave or that he was good but because of his faith in God.
Speaker: This is not to say that Paul wasn't afraid or that he was never discouraged or that he was never disheartened.
Speaker: Sometimes we tend to prop up these biblical characters in scripture and make them more human than they are, but Paul was very human.
Speaker: Even the most faithful Christ follower can be discouraged even if just for a moment.
Speaker: And this was true for Paul.
Speaker: He was afraid, but he stood out for how he responded in light of his fear in the storm.
Speaker: Trusting God does not mean that we are not afraid or that we are not discouraged.
Speaker: Trusting in God means that we move out in faith despite being afraid or discouraged or disheartened.
Speaker: Believing in God's care for us despite our fear.
Speaker: You see, Paul responded to the storm differently than all the rest on the ship.
Speaker: How was he able to do that?
Speaker: Because he was given a word from an angel of the Lord.
Speaker: Now at the time, the angels were understood as God's representatives.
Speaker: They were messengers of God.
Speaker: They were carriers of God's word.
Speaker: And this angel reminded Paul that he would land eventually in Rome, his destination, and bear witness.
Speaker: And that all those on board the ship would also be spared of their lives in this storm.
Speaker: Not one would be lost.
Speaker: And so then Paul then encouraged the rest of the crew on board about this promise that he had received from God.
Speaker: He then encouraged them to eat and openly thank God for the food before he ate.
Speaker: In front of the entire crew, sailors, soldiers, prisoners, displaying his trust openly in God.
Speaker: You see, Paul was able to respond to the storm differently because of God's promises and word and because of his belief in what God said.
Speaker: If we are to stand out in seasons and times when things are collapsing in life, we are not expecting or hoping the way life is going among those who do not know God, then we need to cultivate a spiritual rhythm and walk with God before the storm hits.
Speaker: If we are not building a spiritual foundation in Jesus Christ on which to stand, then when the storm comes, we have nothing to stand on.
Speaker: If we build a spiritual rhythm and foundation in Christ and seek his wisdom when life is relatively well, then when our lives are rocked or suddenly upended, we will respond differently than those in our world because we know and we trust God.
Speaker: We have experienced God's faithfulness in the past and that faithfulness reaffirms the work and the activity of God in the storm currently.
Speaker: This brings us to our third point this morning, and that is that God will use our trust in him in the storm to bear witness to many.
Speaker: When God had encouraged Paul through the angel's promise and word, he didn't just keep it to himself.
Speaker: He used the situation that he was in to tell them about the God that he trusts, about the promise that God would protect and spare their lives.
Speaker: He didn't have to pray for the food before eating.
Speaker: I think a lot of us sometimes think this is kind of a small thing.
Speaker: When we go out to eat, many of us might be like, "Well, I don't want to disturb everybody around us, so let's just pray individually." This is not Paul.
Speaker: Paul was like, "I'll disturb everybody on board." Not disturb them, but he's like, "Hey, I want to extend this.
Speaker: I want to allow everyone here, all 275 people on board, to know the God that I know, to know the God that cares for me." In dark seasons and trials, in stormy seasons, people tend to be more open to spiritual things.
Speaker: When life is out of control, nothing seems to be working, people tend to be open to hearing about a God who is in control.
Speaker: That gives us hope.
Speaker: We should not hesitate to be brave in telling people about the true and living God who offers eternal life through his son, Jesus Christ.
Speaker: As long as we are able to, many of us, all of us, have a tendency to find ways to cope without God until we are at the end of our rope.
Speaker: That's our tendency as human beings.
Speaker: We tend to give everything, we tend to go to everything else in life except God to cope and to overcome.
Speaker: And it could be a variety of things.
Speaker: Let me list just a few.
Speaker: We eat to cope.
Speaker: We entertain ourselves to cope.
Speaker: We shop and buy to cope.
Speaker: We take drugs to cope.
Speaker: We play video games to cope.
Speaker: We doom scroll on our phones to cope.
Speaker: We work to cope.
Speaker: We exercise to cope.
Speaker: And many things, many other things.
Speaker: We try to manage and overcome a storm or storms in our lives, whether internally, whether there's a storm inside our hearts or situationally.
Speaker: By turning to all kinds of these things and so much more, and you know what, church?
Speaker: It doesn't work.
Speaker: We are often left wanting more.
Speaker: We are left empty, maybe even exhausted than before.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Because not only do none of these things satisfy, but they do not help us overcome long term.
Speaker: And we are just like the sailors in Acts 27.
Speaker: They all heard Paul's testimony about how God will protect and save them from their storm and yet they were going to use their own methods and their own ways to try to save themselves anyway.
Speaker: God has only one way for salvation and that is through Jesus Christ.
Speaker: Because Paul trusted God and his word for not only him, but for the entire crew on board, all 275 lives on the ship were spared.
Speaker: And they heard about God.
Speaker: Now obviously he was able to unpack at that moment all of who God was or the gospel in full, but there is no doubt that Paul in the coming months following would have taken every opportunity to share and explain the gospel in more detail.
Speaker: But the point is this.
Speaker: Your trust in God in the storm can become someone else's evidence of God.
Speaker: Your decision to trust in God in and throughout the storms of life can be what someone else needs to see that God is tangible and that God is real.
Speaker: You see God will use your trust in him when life is hard to bear witness to the people God has placed in your life and who have not yet heard about him.
Speaker: Or people who have heard about him, but they see evidence of the God that you talk about through the way that you live.
Speaker: Because inevitably the question comes, how is it that you are responding to this life storm with such peace and patience and hopefulness?
Speaker: It's not the myriad of ways of coping.
Speaker: It's not the myriad of ways of coping, it is because of Christ.
Speaker: When he is in the storm of life with us, when his presence and his promises are with us, we are given a new found posture and outlook on life, purpose, attitude within the storm.
Speaker: We see the storm not as just a storm, but as an opportunity for God to do something in us.
Speaker: We can overcome because we have hope and we have hope because we have Christ.
Speaker: And so if you are with us here this morning and you do not know Jesus and you have been attempting to weather these life storms on your own, my invitation for you friend is to come to Jesus today.
Speaker: You are not meant to go through these storms by yourself and I would love to help you enter into a relationship with Christ today.
Speaker: Come and find me after service.
Speaker: I'm like in this front row here.
Speaker: So what do we make of this passage here this morning?
Speaker: I think there are two things.
Speaker: First if we're in a season in life where we are experiencing a life storm right now, the invitation this morning is not to produce more confidence in your ability to overcome the storm.
Speaker: The invitation is simply to return to God and his promises.
Speaker: To return to the word of God because it is in scripture that we are given our hope.
Speaker: It is in scripture that we learn who our anchor is, Jesus, and how we can ground ourselves in him so that when the storm comes, and they will, we are anchored in Christ.
Speaker: We are anchored in his presence.
Speaker: We are anchored in his promise not to be taken away by the storm, not to be swept away.
Speaker: Secondly, who is in the ship?
Speaker: Who is in the boat?
Speaker: Or who is, in other words, who is in your social circles that are watching you in how you handle the storms in your life?
Speaker: Paul's faithfulness became the reason why the entire crew made it to shore safely.
Speaker: And maybe today you find yourself in a storm.
Speaker: Your faithfulness in Christ is not private.
Speaker: It is personal, but it is not meant just for you.
Speaker: It is not meant just for you.
Speaker: Your faithfulness and your trust in God are meant both for you and for all those that God has placed in your life.
Speaker: So how do we weather storms?
Speaker: How do we weather these life storms that come our way?
Speaker: We do so by trusting in God's care for us, and we trust in God's care for us by trusting in God's word for us.
Speaker: And as we do this, God will use our trust in him as evidence and testimony to also bless and encourage other people and point them to Jesus so that they also may experience the peace, the purpose, the salvation of God as well.
Speaker: Let's pray.
Speaker: God, I thank you for Acts 27.
Speaker: I thank you that as we near the end of our series that your word tells us that, Father, when we are in these storms of life, as Paul was, as Paul found himself in this boat on the way to Rome in this massive storm, a storm that was so big that it scared even the men on this ship who were seasoned in terms of weathering storms and on the waters.
Speaker: And so, Father, we pray and we ask that, God, maybe some of us here this morning have drifted away, have moved away from our rock and our salvation, from you and from your promises for us.
Speaker: Maybe we have drifted away in the sense that we have tried and we have attempted to weather these storms on our own, by our own authority, by our own power, by our own strength, by coping with all kinds of things.
Speaker: And we find ourselves wanting more because none of these things have actually helped us.
Speaker: Help us now to turn to you.
Speaker: You are our rock and our salvation.
Speaker: You are our fortress in the seasons where the winds are pounding against us, where things are collapsing on us.
Speaker: You are our refuge.
Speaker: And so, Lord, I pray that you would move us, that you would encourage our hearts this morning because the invitation from you to us this morning is to trust in you again, is to trust in your promises for us again.
Speaker: And so, Father, I pray, may each and every brother and sister, may each and every person in this place this morning return to you, the one and the true living God, our refuge, our fortress, and our hope.
Speaker: Thank you again for this word, Father.
Speaker: Bless your church, we pray, in Jesus' name.
Speaker: Amen.