How To Survive a Shipwreck

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Let's pray together.

Lord, we're mindful today that the rain's gonna fall and the wind's gonna blow.

But whatever we're going through, we're gonna make it through.

More importantly, God, whatever our kids are going through, they're gonna make it through.

There's not a one of us in this room that hadn't walked in the nursery and said, give it to me.

Don't afflict my kid with this, give it to me.

And you gave it to them anyway.

Because you have more faith in our kids than we do sometimes.

Give us eyes to see.

Pull back the curtain and let us see what you're doing in our kids' lives.

You're not afflicting them, you're sanctifying them.

You're preparing them to be men and women.

They're little boys and girls now.

They were gonna be men and women who live lives that bring you much glory.

And so we don't want to get in the way of our parental concern.

We still got to pray the prayer, God give it to me.

But when the rain falls on our kids, we're not gonna rescue them.

Because we're gonna trust the fact that you're their father in heaven.

And compared to us, I mean, us compared to you, we're evil.

We're evil compared to your goodness.

Now, Lord, we read earlier in 2 Peter 1 that your word is a byproduct, a revelation of your glory and your goodness.

And so we open it now and increase our capacity, Holy Spirit, to do everything that we do for your glory and to reflect your goodness in a world that's so bad.

This is our privilege.

And we we get up under that mantle this morning and we say, Yes, Lord, we accept that.

Increase our capacity to not only accept that, but to enjoy that in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Acts chapter 27.

Acts 27 · chapter mention

I want to talk to you this morning about how to survive a shipwreck.

How to survive a shipwreck.

Some of you are like me, you're like, dude, I don't get on ships.

Uh someone said, I met a guy the other day, he's been on 14 cruises in the past four years.

And then he looked at me and he said, Have you been on a cruise?

And I said, No, I'm not really a cruise person because I like to be in control.

And he said, Yeah, you're out in the middle of the ocean.

You can't see land anywhere.

And I started getting dizzy.

So I said, Stop talking right there, okay?

And you pay for this experience.

But anyway, how to survive a shipwreck?

Acts chapter 27.

Acts 27 · chapter mention

We're gonna read the whole chapter because the whole chapter is a story about how this did this guy, Paul, who's who's been God sent to get to the city of Rome, because it's the center of the universe at that time, because he wants to spread the gospel.

He wants to get there and infected uh uh uh the city with the gospel.

But on the way, now get this the God who is sovereign over the winds and the waves does not rescue Paul from going through this experience.

And he's not always gonna rescue you and I either.

He's gonna let us go through some things.

And so, how to survive a shipwreck, I'll break it into sections.

We'll read a little section, then I'll just kind of point out some things.

And so let me just get to it because there's a lot of wood to chop here today.

Acts chapter 27, verse 1.

Acts 27:1

We'll read the first uh first eight verses.

He says, And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius.

And embarking in a ship to Adramidium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica.

The next day we put in at Sidon.

And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for.

And putting out to sea, there was that we sailed under the Lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us.

And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamplia, we came to Myra in Lycia.

And there a centurion found a ship of Alexandria, that's Egypt, Alexandria, sailing for Italy, and he put us on board.

We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off uh Nidas, and the wind did not allow us to go farther.

We sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmon, coasting along with difficulty.

We came to a place called Fair Havens, next, which was in the city of Lycia.

Now we'll stop right there.

How to survive a shipwreck.

Here's the first thing you've got to do in order to survive a shipwreck.

You have to have friends.

You have to have friends.

One of the themes all through the book of Acts, uh, we've been in a while, and so it's been easy to miss it, is that this theme has been all through there that Paul had friends kind of everywhere he went.

He's the guy that you get somewhere and you're like, hey, I need I'm in this town, I need some help.

Where do I eat?

Who can help me out?

You call Paul because he's got friends, and he's on the ship right now with two of his friends, Aristarchus, who's this Macedonian guy, um that uh who's been with him on other missionary journeys.

And then you notice in the first eight verses it says, We, we, we.

That is Luke who records the book of Acts.

He is on the ship with Paul.

There's a good chance that they consider themselves Paul's slaves, his servants, which was not beneath them.

They were like, dude, we want to serve this man of God.

So call us slaves, call us servants, whatever.

But I'm just gonna say, if you're gonna survive a shipwreck, you've got to have friends.

Now, friendship in the Bible is different than it is today.

Here's one of the things that weren't, they weren't as mobile as we were.

They traveled some.

Paul, best we can tell, traveled 3,000 miles by sea.

So they they didn't, work didn't control their lives in the Bible.

Pause.

Like if the boss came and said, We're gonna transfer you to Boston, they were like, No, I'm here.

These are my people.

They weren't as transitory as we are.

And here's what I'm getting at: they had long friendships.

This is one of the things that happens in an in an affluent technologically driven culture.

We don't have long friendships, we're more transactional than we are relational.

You'll be great friends with people for about three or four years, and then if you get the opportunity to make$10,000 more a year, you'll move to Massachusetts.

It's like, I gotta go.

They had long enduring friendships.

They had so much so, uh, because here's the thing: friendship was a context in which they lived out the gospel, uh, so much so that sometimes they referred to other Christians as friends.

And they didn't say, Hey, you're a Christian, I'm a Christian.

They just referred to each other as friends.

Like in the there's the Gospel of John, and there's towards the back, almost a revelation in the maps in the back, there's what's called the epistles of John.

There's 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John.

He ends 3 John with this with these words.

Hear this.

Again, they referred to Christians as friends.

It was that it was that intimate of our relationship.

He said, I have many things to write to you, but I don't want to write you a pen and ink.

I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

Peace to you.

The friends send you greetings, greet the friends by name.

He's talking about other believers.

I love what C.S.

Lewis said.

He said this.

He said, Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, What?

You two?

I thought I was the only one.

You should have people in your life that you're so intimately connected to.

That there was, you may not have used this language, but there's this sense of, what?

You two?

I thought I was the only one.

So if you're gonna survive a shipwreck, first of all, you gotta have friends.

Secondly, let's pick up in verse 9.

We're from verse 9 to 12.

He says, So much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the fast was already over.

Paul advised them, saying, Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.

But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and the owner of the ship than to what Paul said.

And because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.

I want to draw your attention to the phrase, on the chance that somehow.

This is why I don't go on cruises.

On the chance that somehow, because when I met the guy who'd been on 14 cruises in four years, somebody else is like, Oh, you've been on this one, have you been on this one?

Have you been on a distant cruise?

And they start comparing cruise notes.

And then one of them said, Yeah, we were on a cruise and there were 25-foot waves hitting the boat, and I was like, I gotta go.

And I was like, and that's what they said, uh furniture was sliding all over the place, and the captain had to come on the uh on the on the intercom system and calm people down.

I'm like, yeah, is there a helicopter that I can fly back to land?

No, I'm not doing that.

See, here's the second thing you gotta have if you're gonna survive a shipwreck.

You gotta follow truth, not the money.

You gotta follow truth, not the money.

You may be thinking, where did you get that?

Egypt was a grain supplier of Rome.

So they got on this ship that was headed for a ship of Alexandria, headed to Rome.

It was full of wheat, okay?

And so here's where I say follow truth, not money.

Uh, because sometimes we get ourselves in a storm because we love money more than we should.

We make decisions based on money instead of principle or truth.

And so what would happen was Rome would incentivize captains because, you know, they said it basically what they said in verses 9 to 12 is it's late in the season.

They said it's past the fast.

That's the day of atonement, okay?

Yom Kippur.

And so it is October.

Usually they would just shut the sea lanes down.

No one would sail during this time.

But Rome would incentivize people because they wanted to keep the wheat supply, the grain supply coming.

They would say, basically, week, week, we know it's dangerous.

Here's an extra 5,000.

What can this do?

Can you look the other way?

Can you avoid the obvious?

I mean, excuse me, ignore the obvious and just keep the food coming.

This is why they use language like they use when he says, on the chance that somehow.

Because the grease on the wheel is profit.

Now, again, there's nothing wrong with money.

Preachers stand up all the time and make it sound like money is an evil, wicked thing.

Money, I this may sound crazy.

Money is neutral.

It's your posture towards money that makes money sinful.

Does that make sense?

Money is neutral.

Like I hear this misquoted all the time.

People say, Well, you know, money's the root of all evil.

No, it's not.

If it was the root of all evil, you'd get rid of all yours today.

But it's not.

Matter of fact, some of you are bracing right now.

If you're visiting, you're bracing, kind of going, and now he's gonna make us feel bad and ask us for our money.

No, I'm not.

No, I just want to here's here's what's evil.

The Bible says it like this: 1 Timothy chapter 6.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

Not money, but for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs, many pangs, many sorrows.

See, money is neutral.

It's your posture towards money that makes it evil.

And in our context, in Acts chapter 27, what they would say was, hey, I know it's past sailing season.

Acts 27 · chapter mention

I know that the seas are terrible.

I know that they're a nor'eastern can blow in out of nowhere.

One minute looks great, next minute you're you're in peril for your life.

But I tell you what, we'll add an extra blank, you know, to the amount.

And people, they would incentivize people to take risks to go against common sense and what was safety.

So follow truth, not money.

Here's the third thing you gotta do when you're gonna survive a storm, you gotta face the wind.

You gotta face the wind.

You say, what do you mean face the wind?

Verse 13.

Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, stop right there.

Now, when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore.

But soon a tempestuous wind called the nor'easter struck down from the land.

And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along.

Hear that.

They gave way to it and were driven along.

They couldn't face the wind.

In other words, if you can turn the ship into the wind, then you can kind of navigate the wind.

But when the big ship gets turned sideways and the wind is blowing like this, they were blown as far as 45 miles off course.

Because they weren't steering, they were just surviving.

You should ask yourself today, whatever I'm going through right now, am I steering this or am I just trying to survive it?

Because they were powerless.

They couldn't do anything.

The ship got sideways to the wind.

And the sails didn't matter because the sails help you go forward sideways.

As a matter of fact, they just bring the sails down and they just say, hey, we're gonna ride this out and hope for the best.

And so when I say face the wind, here's what I mean: whatever you avoid, you empower.

I said this to a lady in council this week.

Whatever you avoid, you empower.

If there's a conversation you need to have with somebody and you're avoiding it, I promise you, in your head and your heart, and what you think and what you feel, it gets bigger every day and every day and every day.

And pretty soon you start having conversations with that person in your head that you never have out loud.

That's a sign to you that you're avoiding something.

Matter of fact, multiple people of you have stopped me since I said it a couple weeks ago.

I said, and I meant it, that hey, I every once in a while I just say to people, hey, is there an awkward conversation we need to have?

And people are like, maybe.

And I'm like, all right, when you get ready, I'm ready to have it.

You can have it right now.

Yes.

Yes, absolutely.

Why?

Because I don't mind facing the wind.

I'm not gonna live my life where I'm just pushed along by something that I just choose to avoid.

Whatever you avoid, you empower.

And when you avoid it, it only gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

They could not face the wind, and so they're at the mercy.

They're not steering the ship, they're just trying to survive uh the this this process.

Let's keep reading in verse 16.

Uh, here's the fourth thing that the Bible tells us how to survive a storm.

Allow the storm to clarify what is essential.

Allow the storm to clarify what is essential.

You're like, I don't know what you mean.

Verse 16.

And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it, we're driven along.

Running under the lee of a small island called Kata.

Now, by the way, this is about the fourth time we've heard that phrase, running under the lee.

Did anybody have any idea what that means?

Say amen.

Amen.

There's a sailor in the group, okay?

Basically, they would get close to the shore because there were mountains on these islands and the wind wouldn't be as bad.

I remember this is my simple definition or word picture of running under the lee.

When I was a kid, we'd get we'd be on the interstate going somewhere, and we'd get beside an 18 wheeler, and on a bright, hot, sunny day, there's a big shadow that the 18 wheeler casts in the lane next to it.

You know what I'm talking about?

Say amen.

And I would say to my dad, hey, slow down and get in their shadow.

And every once in a while, my dad would listen and we would just drive right beside the 18 wheeler in the shadow of the 18 wheeler.

It was cooler and it felt cooler.

By the same token, when they said we run under the lee, this is what he's saying is, hey, we got in this place where the winds weren't as strong.

We were protected by some structure, so the wind couldn't get us and affect us as bad.

And so this is what's happening when I say allow the storm to clarify what is essential.

This is what I'm talking about.

Running under the lee of a small island called Kata, we managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat.

After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship.

They put cables under the ship and our ropes, and they kind of cinched it up.

It's the ship is made of wood, and they're afraid it's gonna break in half.

That's how rough the sea is.

And so they cinched this bad boy up, okay?

And said, after hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship.

Then, fearing that they would run aground on the Cyrtis, they lowered the gear and thus they were driven along.

Since they were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo.

And 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 no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.

This is what I mean when I say allow the storm to clarify what is essential.

Uh, like right now, I'm choosing to do without eggs because I can't afford$9 a dozen.

The storm has clarified for me what is essential.

I'm reading my HOA.

I've never read our HOA manual or whatever, uh, to see if I can have chickens in my backyard.

Because dang, I'm like, whoa! I was at Costco the other day, right over here, and we went in the little cold room back there, which I live in during the summer.

Sometimes during the summer, I don't need them in Costco.

I just go stand back there by the milk and eggs for about five minutes and lower my core temperature by five degrees.

But I'm standing there and the women come in and just get the eggs and put them in the car.

The men, there's like five men standing around.

$11 for two does an egg?

I ain't paying for that.

And the women are like, get out of the way, Skippy.

I gotta cook, I gotta manage my household.

Now, when I say allow the storm to clarify what it's essential, uh, where do you get that?

Because I mean, they uh they they're at the mercy of the storm and they begin to uh uh to throw things overboard.

They begin to throw cargo overboard because here's the thing it's not about hating your stuff, but when you get caught in a storm, all of a sudden you realize that you got a lot of stuff that's not essential.

You got a lot of stuff that you just wanted and you had money to get and you got it.

Like, for example, men, if your wife gets diagnosed with breast cancer, you're not gonna go to her the next day and say, How do you feel about a Disney cruise?

Not essential.

Now, is there anything wrong with the Disney cruise?

No.

The guy, you're like, dude, you're hung up on a cruise says, I get an endorsement fee.

No.

The guy, I got tickled because the people, the cruise guy, 14 cruises in four years, which I'm like, you got how much vacation do you have?

They were comparing, and one guy said, Have you been on some ship and uh there's one coming out next year?

It's gonna be the biggest and best.

And I said, What's the best cruise you've ever had?

He said, hands down a Disney cruise.

And I was like, Aren't you like 50 something, man?

You're a little old for that, aren't you?

Uh but hey, I'm not hating, but I am noticing.

Uh, when I say allow the storm to clarify what is essential, uh, again, it's not hating your possessions as much as remembering that I got a lot of stuff that is absolutely not essential.

I have a friend of mine that's a financial planner, sent me a picture one time, and he was in a client's house, and there was a sign in their bathroom that said, Lord, I remember a time that I prayed for all the things I now have.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now look at me.

I don't care what you have.

There's nothing wrong with having stuff you don't need, you just necessarily want it.

And God's been so good to you, you can just go out and get it.

But in a storm, the storm clarifies what's essential.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

It just clarifies.

So never waste a sickness, never waste a storm.

Because the storm will clarify what's essential and who's essential.

They begin to throw stuff overboard, okay?

And this is what this should do in us inject us with a deep sense of humbling gratitude at how good God has been to us for a long time.

Because the storm clarifies what's essential and your real priorities, the things and people that really matter manifest in a storm.

Here's the fifth thing that we see how to survive a storm.

Listen to spiritual authority.

It's verse 21 to 26.

He says, since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail for Crete and incurred this injury and loss.

By the way, look at me.

This is this is uh this is free.

The hardest thing you will do in life is to help people who didn't listen to you the first time.

Everybody that's got kids is writing that down.

Let me say it again.

The hardest thing you will do is lit is help people who did not take your advice or listen to you the first time.

And that's where Paul is right here in this little section of scripture.

He said, since it's been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail for Crete and incurred this injury and loss.

Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship.

For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong, whom I worship.

And he said, Do not be afraid, Paul.

You must stand before Caesar.

And behold, God has granted you, underline the word granted.

God has granted you all those who sail with you.

So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it'll be exactly as I've been told.

But we must run aground on some island.

And I say, Listen to spiritual authority.

This is Paul.

Now, by the way, Paul's not saying I told you so, as much as he's saying, God told me so.

Let me say that again.

Don't be the person that's like, hey, you should listen to me.

That's what happened.

I know it can on first blush, it can sound like that, but what he's really saying, he's not saying, I told you, he's saying, Hey, God told me so.

Earlier, back in verse 10, he said, I perceive.

Now he's saying, I've received.

I'm not talking about perception, I'm talking about reality.

An angel of the God that I worship visited me.

A messenger of this God visited me.

And then notice verse 24.

Now I had you underline the word granted.

He said, God has granted you all those who sell with you.

In order to grant something, there has to be a request.

Like, if you want to understand this, have you ever filled out a grant for government money?

Say amen.

I have a friend that is a grant writer.

And I'm like, what do you do for a real job?

I mean, seriously, I mean, it's like you're we, he said, No.

I specialize in helping people secure government funding for their projects.

And so I specialize in writing a grant.

And I went, that's a full-time job, and then some.

And yet, here's the reality: in the midst of a storm, all everything is busting loose.

The ship is gonna, they're gonna lose the ship, okay?

Paul says, You're not gonna lose your life, but you're gonna lose the ship.

And now notice the way people respond.

Here's the people you should respect.

When all hell is breaking loose, they got their head on heaven.

It's the word granted.

To be granted is you got to be making a request.

Your request has been granted.

While the storm's going on, Paul's not just praying for safety and a lifeboat and a life jacket and a flare gun, he's praying for everybody on the on the ship.

And God grants his request.

God, the angel says to him, God has granted you all those who sail with you.

So in the midst of a storm, Paul is not just praying for himself, he's praying for all 276 men on board.

This is how a person of spiritual authority thinks.

If you want to be respected, if you're in management or if you're an owner or whatever, if you got any kind of authority at work, go to work tomorrow and start asking people how you can be praying for them.

Or say to them, Hey, hey, Bob, we were talking last week and you said blah, blah, blah.

I just wanted you to know this weekend I spent some time praying for you.

I'm not trying to get rid of you.

Religious and cram religion down your throat.

But I want you to know when I prayed, I prayed to the God that I worship, the only true God I believe.

And I'm not hating on you, Bob, but I just want you to know I'm lifting you up.

Bob's heart will change over time, knowing, especially when they see results like this.

So if you're going to survive a storm, here's one of the things you've got to have people in your life that you respect enough to listen to.

And so one of the things that happens, Paul says, I perceive.

Now he's saying, hey, I've received from the Lord.

I've heard from the Lord myself.

And everybody on the ship, all of a sudden, to this narrative, Paul begins to rise in there.

Remember, he's on the ship as a prisoner.

Now you're like, why are they going to Rome?

In their mind, they're going to Rome to film Gladiator.

Yes.

They're like, hey, we got fresh meat for entertainment.

This is what they would do with prisoners.

They would put them in the arena and they would all, and the emperor would give thumbs up or thumbs down.

I think Paul's going to be like Russell Crowe.

He's going to survive.

But this is the way they thought about them.

This is how little they thought about them.

But you see that God's favor is on Paul because even the guy that's in charge of him, this Julius guy, he's a cohort, cohort.

He is like not smitten with Paul.

He respects Paul.

And so when everything goes down towards the end, they're like, hey, let's kill the prisoners.

And he says, No, no, no, not this guy.

We're not killing any of these people.

This is what happens when you act with spiritual authority, you get respect of people who don't even believe what you believe.

Here's the sixth thing you got to do in order to survive a storm.

Have a means of measuring progress.

Have a means of measuring progress.

Verse 27 to 32, it says this.

Now in the 14th night, get that.

Get a load of that.

When the 14th night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.

So they took a sounding and found 20 fathoms.

A little farther further on, they took a sounding again and found 15 fathoms.

And fearing that they might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.

As the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, they lowered the ship's boat into the sea under the pretense of laying out anchors from the bow.

Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless those men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.

Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.

Now you may be thinking, where do you get have a measure, have a means of measuring progress?

Well, it's that little phrase that says they took a sounding.

Now, unless you're a sailor, you don't know what a sounding is.

Here's what a sounding is they would take a piece of rope, and the average man, if a man stretched his arms out, it was just a little under six feet, okay?

And so every six feet, a little under six feet, they would tie a knot.

That was called a fathom.

And so they'd let the boat that had an anchor on it, they'd let it over the side down to the bottom, and then they'd count the knots.

And basically, they have a means of measuring progress.

They realize, hey, it was this deep, it was 120 feet, now it's 90 feet.

The water's not getting deeper, it's getting more shallow.

We're getting close to the shore.

Now, when I say to you and me, have a means by which you measure progress.

This is what I mean.

Without a means of measuring progress, your mind and your emotions begin to calibrate to the bad news.

You just think in my life, this is just it.

You become like Eeyore.

Every day is hurricane weather.

It's just like, what can happen now?

Now, I'm not preaching to you, I'm preaching to me.

It happened this past week, okay?

I have two trucks, okay?

One of them is relatively new, and one of them is 22 years old.

My favorite is the 22-year-old.

People ask me, can I borrow your truck?

I'm like, you can take the newer one.

You can't take sugar.

Like, why do you call your truck sugar?

Because she's white and sweet.

Because when I got the truck when my baby girl, Sophie, was three years old.

And she could stand up in the back seat and walk back and forth.

And she'd take, Daddy, I want to go to Sonic and get a cherry limeade in sugar.

I'm like, You got a new dog or something?

No, we call your truck sugar because she's white and sweet.

We've got a big caved-in rear quarter panel.

Okay, we'll go with that.

Well, sugar had some problems recently.

So I took it to my mechanic and he said, I said, Yeah, I smell burning oil.

He said, That ain't good.

You need to get your valve cover gaskets replaced.

I said, How much is that?

He said,$450.

I said, I can do that.

I'm gonna bring it to you, drop it off when I go to Alabama.

All good, I'll pick it up when I get back.

I got a phone call in Alabama.

Hey, we got in here and I don't know how this thing is running.

Your timing gear is broken and there's parts everywhere.

And if you don't get this thing fixed, timing's gonna be off.

It's gonna bend the rods.

I think they know, and they got a preacher on the phone.

This yeah who doesn't know anything.

Watch this, Al.

And he's telling me all this stuff, and I'm like, okay, what does that mean?

He said, We've gone from 450 to about 2,000.

Now keep in mind, I paid$3,000 for the truck 18 years ago.

And I'm like, I ain't looking to buy the thing over again.

And he said, We're in here.

Do you want to do it right?

We just put it back together.

Now I've got an honest mechanic who's good.

If you need one, see me after the service.

This guy is straight up.

And I said, So what you're saying, he goes, I'm saying this is a miracle.

This thing is still running.

Well, she is sweet.

Her name is sugar.

Uh so I said, All right, do what you gotta do.

And he goes, All right, you got any other questions?

Do you take Visa?

Hung up.

I was like, oh man, got a call two days later.

Saw it on the caller ID.

He said, Yeah, your uh rocker arms are bent.

I think you're making this up.

Well, I got a rocking chair, I got a rocker.

Yeah, your rocker arms are on.

And then he starts to explain to me, we've got to take the cam out, and I'm just like, okay, how much is this?

Probably an extra 400.

I haven't answered a phone call since then.

So if you've called me in the past week, I'm sorry.

I'm just I'm looking down like, nope, I don't know that number.

It could be him not calling me on the business line.

I ain't answering that.

Because I caught myself.

When I say I'm not preaching, I'm preaching me.

I I chuckled out loud because I got in bed one night.

I was having a little pity party, and the Lord said, Hey, are you calibrating your soul to bad news?

You need to take a sounding.

It feels so much better to wallow in pity.

You know, I work for you.

My stuff shouldn't break.

I know you don't think things like that.

I'm a Republican, this shouldn't happen to me.

I voted for Trump, I'm on the right side.

Not funny?

No?

Okay.

I can feel some of you wincing.

That's enough.

Look at me.

Here's all I'm saying.

You got to have a means, okay, of measuring progress.

Otherwise, you just calibrate and look, listen to me.

You calibrate your expectations to bad news, and then you have to comfort yourself in ways that aren't healthy.

The enemy is crafty, beloved.

Be smart.

Here's the seventh thing.

We're almost done.

You still with me?

Like, how many points is it starting to feel like a Don Minton sermon up in here?

For some of you that weren't here, Don Minton, who hears this podcast, I asked him to preach on his way out.

He had a sermon that had 13 points in it.

I said, Good Lord, men summarize the redemptive history from the old New Testament.

I just wanted to say everything I had.

Well, you did.

Here's the seventh thing, okay?

If you're gonna survive a shipwreck, now by the way, you're like, dude, I'm not in a shipwreck now.

You will be eventually.

Yeah.

Here's the seventh thing.

Find something to be thankful for.

Verse 33 to 38, as day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, Today is the 14th day that you have continued in suspense and without food.

It's one thing to continue in expense, that's emotionally draining, and without food, that's physically draining.

Today's the 14th day, you've continued in suspense without food, having taken nothing.

Therefore, I urge you to take some food, for it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from your head.

Any of you.

And when he had said these things, stop me if this sounds familiar.

He took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat.

And then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves.

We were in awe, 276 persons in the ship.

And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.

When I say find something to be thankful for, they've been driven off course.

It's been almost a month now.

They're just at the mercy of this.

They didn't face it, so they're at the mercy of it.

They're not steering their life, they're trying to survive their life.

Paul stands up because spiritual leadership is not always profound.

Sometimes, I would say most times, it's very practical.

He stands up and tells them, eat something.

But before that, he uses very Eucharistic language.

Eucharistic, what do you mean?

That's for all you Presbyterians.

He uses very Eucharistic language, very Lord's Supper communion language.

It's verse 35.

When they said these things, he took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat.

Now, some people say, Well, that was Lord's Supper.

He would never celebrate the Lord's Supper with 276 unbelieving people.

They're not welcome to the table.

Here's what's happening: all hell is breaking loose, and Paul finds something to be thankful for in the presence of unbelieving men, and it's just this simple bread.

And notice what the Bible says, the outcome.

Then they were all encouraged.

At a time of deep, deep darkness and fear, people of faith stand out as encouraging others.

Because when you and I are thankful, what it does is it reminds people, hey, you got some things to be thankful for.

See, Paul has gone from being a guy in the a slave on the ship.

He's going to go to Rome.

They're going to put him, hey, we're going to be entertained by this guy's uh destruction.

All of a sudden, he's rising in the thoughts in respect of these men on the ship.

In the beginning, he's disregarded.

Now he's respected.

Here's the last thing: do your part.

Do your part.

It's verse 39 to 44.

Now, when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, if possible, to run the ship ashore.

So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea.

And at the same time, loosening the ropes, they tied the rudders and hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made it for they made for the beach.

But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground.

The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken by the surf.

The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners lest any should swim away and escape.

But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan.

He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest on the planks or on pieces of the ship.

And so it was.

All were brought safely to land.

Now I say, do your part.

Look at me.

We're almost done.

You still with me?

When you go through some hardship in America, it is natural and rewarded all of a sudden to become the biggest victim anybody knows.

I mean, if this happened today, people were on the ship, I tell you what, jump overboard.

I ain't jumping overboard.

You better tell God, come get me.

I've suffered enough.

Because what they were trying to make it to the shore, what they did, they hit a sandbar.

And so the ship is just wedged in the mud.

And there's a lot of water between them and the shore.

And the centurion says, if you can swim, jump overboard.

When I say do your part, sometimes, hey, God's taking care of you.

You're not going to perish.

That doesn't mean you get to be a victim and wait on everybody to come wait on you hand in foot.

Sometimes you still got to do your part.

He says, jump overboard if you can swim.

If not, get a piece of the ship.

Can you imagine you're sitting on the ship and the guy goes, grab a piece of the ship?

Why?

Because it's about to be broken to pieces.

The front is stuck in the mud and the back is slowly being ripped apart.

He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first, make for the land, and the rest of them on planks or pieces of the ship.

And hear this last part.

And so it was that they were all brought safely to land.

Brought safely to land.

Even when you're doing your part, God's at work and you're doing your part.

One of the greatest gifts God gives you is capacity.

The capability to do something.

So if you're here today and you're in a storm, you're just sitting down going, you know what, I can just stand.

I tell you what, God better, blah, blah, blah.

You might want to do your part.

Because even when you exercise your free will, it's God that gets the glory because He's the one that brings you safety, safe safely to land.

Exert yourself.

Again, it doesn't change the fact that it's God that brought you safely to land.

All over this whole thing, I want you to see that this guy named Paul starts off as a prisoner, and by the time they hit the shore, he's one of the most respected men on the ship.

If you want to be respected, realize you're going to go through some storms in life.

But also realize this, and I'm done.

All the prisoners around you are watching you for how you respond to the storm.

They're watching.

They just want to see somebody that when all hell breaks loose, you find something to be thankful for.

They're like, hey man, you're like the most relaxed cat.

Oh man, I got a kid off the reservation.

My wife cries probably two nights a week.

We pray for our daughter, we pray for our son.

We're sad at a level we don't have words for, but God is so good.

We exert ourselves every time we have an opportunity.

And even when we do that, even when we do something that changes our situation, God gets the glory.

Why?

Because He's the one that's bringing me safely to shore.

Let's pray together.

If you're our guest, let me just say, relax.

We like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.

Some questions come up on the screen.

Those are for our community groups to discuss next time they meet.

You can take a picture if you'd like.

Don't try to write them down.

Right now, let's just take a moment and think about what God's Word said to us today.

When we take time to read these long narratives in the Bible, even if it's a whole chapter, we can see ourselves in the Bible.

And we can understand we don't just read the Bible, the Bible reads us.

And so what do you need to measure some progress today?

So you don't let yourself turn into a victim.

So you can be ready to exert yourself when the time comes.

Let's just be still and think about some of these things.

Lord, that's our prayer.

We want to stand in your power, not just our willingness and our determination, but in your power.

Because if we show up and we're not under the power of God, then we don't represent God.

We represent ourselves and our capacity and our reputation.

We rob you of glory because we gloat over what we can absorb.

Instead of saying, Man, I was born on third base.

I didn't hit a triple.

God's been that good to me.

So, Holy Spirit, press in on us everything necessary.

Let everything else fall to the wayside.

We pray.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, let me say, thank you for being here.

You're always welcome.

If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard, this is not just to our guests, but everybody.

Some of our pastors will be available down front.

We'd love to answer any questions you had or pray with you if you're going through a storm right now.

If you're a guest, all we ask of you today is just text welcome to that number on the screen that gives us a record of your visit.

Uh, we'll reach out to you.

We will not invade you.

Uh, we'll respect your boundaries.

We just want you to know you matter to God, and because of that, you matter to us.

If you're going through something, we want to walk beside you and go through it with you, okay?

That's why we ask you to text welcome to that number.

We've always got things going on in the life of our church.

We make you aware of that by our video announcements.

Let's check out and see what's going on this week.

Here's what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Man of Grand Parkway, you have an incredible opportunity to serve.

Covenant Church of the Highlands needs support for hurricane relief efforts, including reconstruction projects and community aid.

This is a great way to make a kingdom impact while working alongside others.

Want to learn more?

Join the interest meeting on Sunday, March 2nd, right after the second service in the Fellowship Hall.

To conclude, the Gathering is a unique night of conversation and learning centered around a specific topic.

This year's topic is parenting.

So if you have children of any age or hope to and have questions, this is for you.

There will be a panel of seasoned women who will get real about parenting and share their wisdom.

Dinner and childcare is provided.

It'll be on March 23rd from 6 o'clock p.m.

to 8 30 p.m.

in the gathering room.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

I just have a couple things that were not in the announcements.

Uh, I want to make you aware of.

Uh uh, a couple weeks ago we were in the book of Acts, and uh I talked about every everyone a Christian, no one a prisoner.

Uh, and I want you to know it's not just a phrase uh that we just think, oh, that's novel.

We try to live that out.

And so I brought you a couple pictures this morning.

Uh uh, first of all, uh, this is uh when you give to this church, uh, these bikes go to students at Oysterk Elementary, which if you go out here on the highway, go to the light right here at West Eport hangar right, it's right there.

It's it's a it's a driver and a seven iron from our church, okay?

Uh uh unless you're where you call your, then it's, you know, a driver, a seven iron, another seven iron, and then drop, take a mulligan, and then you're there.

Uh but I digress.

Basically, we buy bikes, the kids get perfect attendance.

They go into a drawing and they draw to see if they get a bike.

Now, somebody say, Well, why are you doing that?

Just to give a little bit of hope.

That's all.

Somebody asked me, they said, Well, this is a secular school.

I said, Yeah, my kids went to that secular school.

Uh, both of them.

How do you know they're not taking advantage of?

I said, You ever heard the phrase in the Bible, a man of peace?

Find the man of peace.

We have a woman of peace there.

Her name is Mrs.

Brock.

She teaches fifth grade.

And so she's our contact.

She's the person we trust.

And so you bought those bikes, and some kids that come from underprivileged backgrounds are going to get a new bike because you're faithful in giving, okay?

Uh also, here's another picture.

Uh the part that kills me, the part that kills me is the sign.

We don't ask them to make the sign.

They do.

This is a Muslim, I mean, excuse me, this is a Christian family that got into debt to their Muslim bosses.

Uh, because Christians in, I can't say the country, it's a South Asian country.

Uh, they they they they're Christians are the minority, so they live in colonies for protection.

Uh, and the Muslim are poor and so often exploited, like if they have medical expense or a funeral or a wedding.

Uh, they can't they don't have money, so they borrow from people in the town that have money, and usually it's the bosses of these brickyards or farms that are Muslim men, and they exploit these people by adding interest weekly on the note.

And so basically they're in debt, they become slave labor.

And so you help buy this family out of slavery.

Uh, and and so uh it's this family.

Yeah, you can clap for that.

Uh and then this family as well, uh, and and their five kids.

Uh if you the mom gets it more than the dad.

That's all I'll say.

Uh and here's why.

I I made notes, so I I would be sure to get all this right.

Basically, uh, once the debt is paid off, the family moves to get a better job.

Their kids can go to school.

This is why the mom's smiling.

The family can attend prayer meetings or church gatherings.

Uh, wives are not in danger of being assaulted by unbelieving men that they work with.

And then here's my favorite part: families that get set free, uh, they're taught how to budget their money so as to save, not getting dead again.

And they give monthly to a freedom account to help other slaves who need to get to freedom.

And so you've paid for that family and this family right here.

Also, you did this.

Uh uh, they love uh signs in this country.

Uh, our church and another church buys all these Bibles.

And here's what's happened: the money you give bought those Bibles in the South Asian country, they've been distributed to Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs.

Uh, over the past two years through Bible distribution, we've seen 150 uh new believers get baptized uh from different religious backgrounds, 120 prayer slash house gatherings have reached over 2,000 people, and over 150 leaders have been trained, and they're continuing to train others in discipleship and evangelism.

And so uh this is uh so I just want you to know we have people say, how do you go?

We have a pastor over there that we trust.

There's a man in our church uh that is missionally connected to him, and so we get money to him, and he buys the people out of slavery and buys the Bibles and they pass them out.

Uh, and it's a country that we couldn't go to because we would all kinds of alarms would go off.

So I just want you to know we practice full disclosure.

When you give, we're not just building a building and everything's going to that.

No, we're gonna keep doing everything we do in the name of missions, okay?

So nothing's gonna change.

Finally, ladies, Beth Brown will be here Tuesday morning at Lady's Bible study.

If you've been to the women's weekend, you remember Bev Brown.

She's kind of that lady that's like she's old and still crazy about Jesus.

So just a freebie, uh, that's happening, okay?

Uh we went a little long because I wanted to tell you about what God's doing with your giving all over the world.

But stand to your feet.

We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

So hold your hands out.

The rain is gonna fall and the wind's gonna blow.

But you're gonna make it.

You're gonna get to the shore, battered, bruised, bleeding.

You gotta drag your husband out of the surf.

Come on, we're not done.

But you're gonna make it.

Here's why.

Because God's bigger and better than the storm.

He has more power than the storm has.

So look to him, not to yourself and your resources.

Depart now and be thankful in the presence of others who are thankless.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.