Acts (Part 2) | The God Who Stands Beside You - Acts 27 | November 23

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So I feel like maybe, as Bree was sharing with the kids, maybe we should switch

things up just a little bit this morning and start with communion just because,

we have this amazing moment and yeah we didn't plan to do it this way.

But just feel like the Spirit leading us in this moment.

As we get into chapter 27, which we will after communion, we have this incredible

moment where in the midst of the storm and distress,

Paul breaks bread and he has them sit around and he gives thanks to God.

In the midst of the storm, he praises, he worships, he thanks God.

Let me just read that again specifically.

This is verses 33 to 37. Just as day was dawning, Paul urged everyone to eat.

You've been so worried that you haven't touched food for two weeks, he said.

Please eat something now for your own good, for not a hair of your heads will perish.

Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all,

and broke off a piece and ate it.

Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat, all 276 of us who were on board.

And this Paul's instance here, insistence, obviously it echoes the words that

he shares other places when he's, you know, partaking in the Lord's Supper with people in churches.

But even more specifically here in this moment, I'm reminded of Psalm 23 and

how it says that the Lord prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.

And Paul is kind of fulfilling those words in a way by preparing Thanksgiving,

which which is what we're entering into this week and what communion in essence is about a lot.

But he prepares this thanksgiving to God in the midst of the storm,

in the midst of the doubt and the discouragement that everyone seems to be experiencing around him.

He breaks bread and he encourages people. I love how it says,

and we'll talk about this as we get into it, but I love how he says,

you've been so anxious and so worried these last two weeks that you haven't

eaten. You need to stop and you need to eat.

And that's what courage, as we've been talking about, really does.

We're going to talk about the results of courage in a minute.

Marshall's going to read our chapter for us and we'll get into it a little bit.

But the results, if one of the results of courage is this non-anxious presence

that Paul seems to exude.

And so as he breaks his bread, as he gives thanks to God, as he praises God,

much like he would sing praises in prison as he's chained up in this same manner

of responding to life events with praise.

I just feel like maybe that's where we should start this morning rather than

singing a song and then doing it and then singing another song like we usually

typically do and have planned for today.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Marshall, you ready? Yep. All right.

Speak clearly into the microphone.

Is this? Okay. Can y'all hear me? Well, let us read Acts 27.

And when it was determined, we should sail into italy they

delivered paul and certain other prisoners until one

named julius a centurion of augustus band and entered

into the ship of edrimerium we launched meaning to sail by the coast of asia

one aristarchus a macedonian of desalunica being with us and the next day we

touched at sidon and julius critically courteously entreated paul and gave him

liberty to go into his friends and refresh himself.

And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus because the winds were contrary.

And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia,

we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.

And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria, sailing into Italy,

and he was put us therein.

And when we had sailed slowly, many days and scarce were come over against Nidus.

And when, not suffering us, we sailed under Crete over against Salon.

And hardly passing it, came into a place which is called the Fair Havens.

Nigh whereunto was the city of Lycia.

Now, when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous,

because the fast was already with them,

Paul admonished them, and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage

will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the landing and ship, but also of our lives.

Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more

than those things which were spoken by Paul.

And because the haven was not commodious in winter to winter in,

the more part advised to depend thence also, if by any means they might attain

to Phenis, and there to winter, which is a haven of Crete, and lieth toward

the southwest and northwest.

And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their

purpose, loosing thence they sailed close by Crete.

But no long after they arose against it a tempestuous wind called Iroclodon,

and when the ship was caught, it could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.

And running under a certain island, which was called Clotta,

we had much work to come by the boat, which, when they had taken up,

they used helps, undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they should fall into

the quicksands, straight sail, and were so driven.".

And with and we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest the

next day they lighten the ship and the third day we

cast out with our own hands of tackling of the ship and

when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on

us all hope that we should be saved was then taken away but after long abstinence

paul stood forth in the middle of them and said sirs you should have hearkened

unto me and have not loosed from crete and i have to gain from harm and loss.

And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any

man's life among you, but of the ship.

For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve,

saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo,

God hath given thee all them which sail with thee.

Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God, it is shall be even as it was told me.

Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. But when the fourteenth night

came up, as we were driven up and down in Adria,

about midnight the shipmen deemed that they are drew near to some country,

and sounded like found at twenty fathoms, and when they had gone a little further,

they sounded again and found at fifteen fathoms.

Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out

of the stern and wished for the day.

And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when

they had let down the boat into the sea under color as

thought they would have cast anchors out of the foreship paul

said to the centurion and to the soldiers except these abide in

the ship you cannot be saved then the soldiers

cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off and while the day was piling

on paul besought them all to take meat saying this day is the 14th day that

ye have tarried and continued fasting having taken nothing before i pray you

to take some meat for this is for your health for there

shall not an heir fall from the hand or the head of any of you.

And when he had this spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in presence

of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat.

Then were they all of good cheer, and they took some meat. And we were all in

the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.

And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ships and cast out the wheat into the sea.

And when it was day, they do not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore.

And to the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ships.

And when they had taken up the anchors, they commended themselves into the sea

and loosed the rudder bands and hoised up the mainsail to the wind and made towards shore.

And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground,

and the forepart stuck fast and remained unremovable.

But the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves,

and the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape.

But the centurion, willing to save Pa, kept them from their purpose and commanded

that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea to get the land.

And the rest put on some boards and some of the broken pieces of the ship.

And so it came to pass, they all escaped all safe to land.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. So I don't know why, but I can't really get

away from this, this idea, this word courage.

And I know we've kind of been talking about it for the last three weeks.

And maybe it's because that God's not done with that.

Maybe he's got more to say about the subject of courage.

Maybe he's got more prepared for us to receive.

Maybe it just takes a few times for things to sink in. And so we just need it

to sink in more because we haven't quite got it yet.

Maybe it's because all of these chapters starting in chapter 23 and even and

continuing to chapter 28 are all really one story about Paul and his journey to Rome.

And so maybe that's why we have more to understand about courage and more to hear.

And as we reflect back where we started a few weeks ago in chapter 23,

Paul is in prison and in prison, God comes to him and tells him to take a hold of courage.

To be courageous, to not let his heart be troubled, to not fear.

Sort of all of these phrases might show up depending on your translation.

But the idea is to take a hold of courage. Take a hold of what God is already

providing in this moment.

He says, you will make it to Rome and you will testify about me in front of Caesar.

And Paul sets off on this journey.

Even though he has every reason to despair, every reason to be discouraged,

every reason to fall into fear, probably God is telling him not to fear because

Paul is either already fearing or is experiencing that great temptation to fear.

And God doesn't shame him for that, but he provides him with hope in this moment

of despair and tells him to take courage.

And as we've talked about, courage is not the absence of fear.

Courage can only take place in the face of fear. So fear has to exist for courage

to be present, but it is the decision that fear is not going to determine my action.

Fear is not going to determine how I act and what I do in this moment.

It's taking hold of what God is already providing. It's not mustering up some

sort of inward strength of our own, but it's operating and receiving from this

fear that what God is already providing.

And courage is born in these moments that we remember who God is.

As we moved into the chapters 24 to 26, even last week, as we witnessed in this

chapter six in Paul's defense, as Paul is laying out his defense about God and for our King Agrippa,

as a byproduct of that, he is mentioning all of these reasons that he has to

take a hold of courage, all the things that God has provided and all these unwavering

reasons that he has for courage.

And you can sort of remember it in this idea that of who God is,

so who he is, where he'll go, where Paul will go, and what God will show him along the journey.

We remember who God is. We remember that there is a presence in the living in

the presence of God that awaits us in eternity.

And we're reminded of all of the ways that God has already remained faithful

and all the things that he will show us in the future. And Psalm 12,

Acts 26 is where he says, greater things than this you will see.

And so Paul has these reasons to take hold of courage.

And courage ultimately stems from that reality of when what we believe becomes

what we do and how we think.

When our belief moves into action and when it moves in and takes hold of our

hearts, regardless of what it costs us. that Paul believes Jesus is alive.

And so he risks testifying about Jesus that Paul believes wholeheartedly in

the resurrection and that it's real.

He says that over and over again. And so therefore he's not afraid of death

because death for him is the greater reward.

Paul believes the gospel must be preached. So he appeals to Caesar and testifies

to politicians and kings and everyone,

jailers, There's everyone along the way, standing in chains before these people

who essentially, we might all say, are deciding His fate.

He's essentially telling them in this moment that they think they have control over Him.

But they are not in control. That they think they have authority over him, but they don't.

His authority in his life and his future is held in the hands of the God who

created the galaxies and the God who controls every breath, even the next one he'll take.

That ultimately, his courage is in that belief, in that realization.

So that's the recap of where we've been over the last several chapters over the last weeks.

Now in chapter 27, this is after more than two years in jail.

This is after surviving many plots against his life.

This is after lots of more reasons for discouragement, more uncertainty,

and now approaching this imminent shipwreck, which is what this chapter is focused on.

The proverbial train wreck or car crash, if we move it into our you know, modern language.

This is an actual shipwreck, but we see a reminder. We see an intensification

in this chapter of God's call for him to take a hold of courage.

We see God reminding him in this moment of potential despair again,

and in verses 22 to 25, and not only is God reminding him, but Paul is taking

God's word and reminding others.

He tells the sailors, he tells the other prisoners, he says, take courage.

None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down.

For last night, an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside

me. And he said, don't be afraid.

Take courage, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar.

What's more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with

you. So take a hold of courage.

And Paul says these words, for I believe God. It will be just as he said.

So the destination has been set. Paul is going to make it to Rome.

He knows that. He has confidence in that.

But the journey is still being written. And so as the journey unfolds and discouragement

looms, we need to be reminded and we need to remind others along the way.

To take hold of courage. And this chapter of Acts 27 opens with a phrase that

repeats time and time again.

And I don't know what the translation you have is, but some translations will

translate it as with great difficulty.

So every moment they make and as the storm intensifies, the phrase that comes

about is with great difficulty.

It reminds me of the book of Jonah, if you're familiar with it,

as Jonah is running away from God and finds his way on the ship sailing to Tarsus,

farthest away from where he possibly, where God has called him,

he's picked the farthest point on the map.

And as he is moving away, the repetition that happens is that the storm,

the sea grew more and more and tempestuous against them.

So the farther Jonah got from God's call and God's promise, the more the sea

and the storm and everything raged against him and it intensified,

the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

It's as if that all of creation, not just these murderous men,

not just these plots against his life, but it's as if the very forces of nature

have taken up allegiance against Paul in this moment.

And as he nears Italy, as he nears the fulfillment of God's promise,

it's the difficulties increase with the eminence of the fulfillment.

So as he comes closer to God's promise, the difficulty doesn't abate,

it gets more intense and more significant.

And it seems like, it seems less likely that he's going to make it.

It seems less likely that they're going to arrive.

It seems more likely that they're just going and a fall away in hopelessness and despair.

And as Paul, again, finds himself at that point where for all the reasons he could give up,

He finds himself yet again at that point where it would be easy to despair and

to fall in discouragement.

And what we witness here in this chapter is that God shows up again to encourage

him and he reminds him of the promise, tells him that angel of the Lord showed

up and told him to take heart that not only he, but everyone else would be safe.

And so this idea of courage is not just this one time event that we take a hold

of and now it's a part of us.

And it's just our character, that we could describe ourselves as courageous from now on.

Like, look at Eric. He chose to take a hold of courage in that moment.

Now he is the courageous one.

You know, like, courage is something that we have to continue to take a hold

of because there are going to be so many times when we are tempted to despair.

And what we witness here is, in a sense, as I mentioned earlier,

what we could call the results of courage.

And you might think that the result of courage is courage, being courageous,

but that's kind of an intangible concept that we don't really,

we might be able to put words to, but we don't truly understand it unless we

put it in the context of a life that's actually lived, right?

So what are the results of taking hold of courage?

We talked about what it was. We talked about how God supplies us,

the reasons that we can take courage, but these are the results.

Now, I think the first and perhaps most obvious result of courage in Paul's

life is this peace and calm that comes over him.

This non-anxious presence in a world that is intensifying in anxiety and despair

more and more every year.

And as we have discussed in the past and as we think upon and muse upon how,

for all intents and purposes, we are living the safest life that has ever lived on this planet.

And yet, anxiety has increased more than ever. Worry has increased.

But Paul meets it with this peace and calm.

It's what he'll write to the Philippians in chapter 4 when he says,

then you will experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

The result of taking hold of God's courage is this non-anxious presence.

The soldiers were freaking out.

The sailors who were used to this journey had no hope left.

They left too late. The storms were upon them. They had given up.

They might as well try and save themselves, kill everybody else,

and maybe they'll be saved, right?

Everybody around them, Paul, is freaking out, but Paul exudes this non-anxious presence.

And taking hold of God's courage, one of the results of that is this peace and calm that comes over us.

And if we meet life's storms, which we will, if we're in them now or whether

we've suffered some in the past or there are still more to come,

the storms that we are meeting along the way, if we are entering into that with anxiety and worry,

rather than this peace and call, that we may not be taking hold of God's courage in that moment.

We may need to be reminded to take a hold of courage that we might experience

this peace that surpasses all understanding.

So Paul has this courage, which brings peace, which causes this confident statement.

I believe God. I trust God.

God is in control. I believe him. And this is the source of his peace.

The second result of courage, as demonstrated in Paul's life,

is not just this peace and calm, but also this confident action.

If you'll notice, Paul tells the sailors that it's a bad idea to leave at the

beginning and they don't listen to him.

And there's this kind of sarcastic moment where he actually literally says,

I told you so, which is funny.

But there is this moment in the storm where Paul steps forward when everybody

else doesn't know what to do and he takes control.

He steps forward in courage. He doesn't become complacent and passive.

There is every bit the reason that he could just say, no, God promised this.

I'm going to sit back and wait because I know what will happen.

He could become passive.

He could just sit back and wait. And it would be really tempting for us to do that.

There's biblical evidence that

what we should do is not try and force the promise, we should just wait.

But God also values us stepping forward in faith and action.

Knowing and that he has promised, therefore stepping out into what he has provided already.

And this is where we meet Paul. Paul steps forward. He warms the sailors.

He guides the officers. He encourages the crew. He eventually basically becomes

the leader of this whole excursion at some point, for some reason, in some strange way.

And they all do what he says, and it brings them to safety.

So he moves forward knowing that God is beside him all the way.

He doesn't want to just sit back and wait for God's promise to be dropped into his lap.

He knows that God has called him to action in the waiting.

So he's faithful. And that's what faith is. Faith is active trust.

Faith is not passive optimism.

There's plenty of people in the world that can conjure up these positive outlooks on life.

And it can do quite a bit. But faith is not just about passive optimism that

doesn't sustain us in the long run. It's about actively trusting.

So Paul is calm. Paul takes charge.

Paul hopes the sailors panic.

He said to them in the end, to the commanding officer and the soldiers,

that they will die unless the sailors stay aboard, even when they're afraid and want to jump ship.

And what they do is they cut the lifeboat. They cut their lifeline and they

trust and listen to Paul.

And there's this kind of like twisting moment, ironic moment where as they are

cutting the anchors to let the ship run aground,

The source of that hope is that Paul has remained anchored to Christ all along the way.

So even as they are, it's almost the symbolism of cutting the physical thing

that they're hoping in and trusting in the one who is providing ultimate hope.

Because Paul remains anchored to this, that he is listening for the voice of God.

He's listening for the voice that spoke to him on the road to Damascus.

He's listening for the voice that has kept him through all of the trials.

He's listening to the voice that stood by him in the night.

And it forces this question on us.

What voices are we listening to?

Are we listening to the voice of the storm that shouts despair at us, that shouts all is loss,

that tells us to worry, that tells us to be anxious, that just shouts our circumstances

back at us, that it is hopeless?

Are we listening to the voice of the storm? Are we listening to the voice of

fear in that moment that's whispering all the reasons.

That we should worry and all the reasons we should fear and all the things that

are possibly going to go wrong.

Y'all probably don't do that. It's just me who internalizes all the worst case scenarios.

Are we listening to our inner critic, that inner voice that's just rehearsing

our past failures, our past shames, our past guilt?

What reason do we have to hope because of all of these things that I've done

and the way that I am, the way that I was?

Are we listening to that inner voice that does not love and does not forgive?

We are our own worst critic in that way.

Or are we listening to the voice of God who stands with us all along the way?

The voice who says, take courage, I'm with you. Do not be afraid,

I am beside you all the way.

Because we all know that storms are coming.

Everyone has a storm, whether you're in it now or it's coming.

And there's names to these storms.

There's divorce, diagnosis, depression, doubt, anxiety. The list goes on.

These storms give us the opportunity to reveal whether our courage is real and

comes from God or it's just a false front that we've put up.

The storms test the conviction of our courage.

They reveal what's truly there.

And like Paul, when he was in prison, and we see him and his fellow prisoners

singing and worshiping God.

The storms show us what we prioritize in our life.

And I want to, I want to put this out there for you as we reflect,

this is chapters and chapters ago. This isn't part of this story.

Paul's been in prison lots of times, but as Paul's in prison and they're singing

praise, I want to put this out there.

What if they're not singing just because they're overflowing in worship?

What if they're singing because they have to?

When we despair, when we spiral downward,

when we are overcome by those anxious thoughts, if we don't worship,

if we don't sing, then we are going to be ruled by these thoughts that are not God's thoughts.

We're going to be ruled by these fears and anxieties.

What if they were singing to fight back and to take courage?

And this this thought's come to me as as we were

driving to the ccf event and

all we uh our family

had not a great reason to worry not a great reason to be anxious but it's been

a hard week and there are life circumstances which we're glad to share which

in the grand scheme of things don't matter but there's worry, there's anxiety.

And I remember driving and just singing these songs, praising God and God honoring

that fight by the worried dropping away, by the anxiety melting off.

I submit to you that Paul and them are singing because they have to.

And because that's what we do in the storm.

If you can worship God during the storm, there's nothing that the enemy can

do to If you can sing praise on the suffering, there's nothing that can touch you.

And this is the same God who stands beside Paul, who stands beside you,

quietly refusing to leave.

And so the question isn't, will God save me?

And the question isn't, can God help me? And the question isn't, will he be with me?

These are all things that he has promised. So the question is, will we stay with him?

Will we sing in the storm? Will we trust him? And will we take courage when

we have every reason to despair?

Will we stand beside him right now in whatever storm it is, knowing that he is not going anywhere?

I just want to have one more last thought about courage.

And I haven't planned what chapter 28 is going to be about.

So I can't promise it's not going to be about courage.

But it's probably not going to be about courage next week.

So one last final thought about courage. And it's this idea that courage is

courageous, is contagious.

Something happened from the beginning where they didn't listen to Paul.

And then the end of this chapter where now all of a sudden they're doing everything

he says, they're cutting their last lifeline because Paul said that if they don't, they'll die.

But if they stay and they believe and they trust, they will survive the storm.

Something happens in between here.

And even though they had no reason to trust Paul any more than they did at the

beginning, they had no evidence that he was right. The storm just got worse.

They had no, no truth that what he was saying was true.

And yet for some reason, at the end of the story, everyone's trusting Paul because

his courage and his faith in God is contagious.

That sometimes it just takes one person,

One person to believe, one person to have faith, one person to step out in obedience,

to take a hold of courage, and then it cascades into the rest.

And I'm sure there's some analogy with dominoes or something that we could pour

in here, but I think that is good enough.

Sometimes it just takes you.

And I can't look at every single one of you while I say that,

but I wish I could. Sometimes it just takes you to take courage and that will

overflow into the rest of us.

And sometimes that person who takes courage, if you're like,

it's not me, sometimes it's the person you at least expect.

Who is it that's the tipping point in this story? It might be Paul.

It might be Paul because he's the one that we see. He's the one he stands up.

He's the one who speaks out. He's the one that is visible for us.

So he might be the tipping point because he took a hold of courage.

God came and spoke to him after all, right?

But this chapter also starts in a strange way for a story about a shipwreck.

In verse 2, it says, for some reason, it just mentions this guy,

Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica who's also with us.

And that's a strange detail who is he why is he here what's going on.

And Aristarchus actually shows up quite a bit in the New Testament. He's not a stranger.

Paul mentions him many times. Earlier in Acts, he's dragged into Ephesus.

He's dragged into the theater along with Paul during the riot because he is

counted amongst Paul's companions and against those who stand up for the gospel.

So he's not unaccustomed to suffering alongside Paul.

Paul calls him part of his ministry team in Acts 20. In Colossians,

Paul calls him a fellow prisoner.

In Philemon, Paul calls him a fellow worker.

He's someone who shows up alongside Paul, but he also wasn't arrested with Paul.

So why is he on a ship that is only for prisoners, the crew,

and the soldiers guarding them? How did he get there?

Most likely, the only way he possibly could have ended up there other than being

arrested, which he wasn't, or maybe he was and it wasn't mentioned,

right? We'll put that out there.

Second option, which is perhaps more likely, because it's not just Paul,

it's not just Aristarchus, it's also the person writing Luke.

It's implied that he is there as he uses the word we a lot, right?

The second option is that Luke and Aristarchus wrote themselves down as Paul's

slaves and his attendants.

And that's the reason that they were able to accompany him on this prisoner transport ship.

Most scholars believe that they had to register as Paul's slaves or attendants.

So Aristarchus willingly acknowledges or willingly identifies himself as belonging

to Paul just to be on this ship, just to suffer with him.

And we've probably heard that old saying that good friends bail you out of jail,

but great friends are there sitting next to you saying we really screwed up, right?

Aristarchus took that further. He didn't even get in trouble and he was just

like, I'm going to be in jail with you, I guess.

So he's alongside Paul as a true friend who doesn't just help him escape,

doesn't just get him out of trouble, but sticks with him through the worst.

And this is why, as we end our time together, Aristarchus matters for us today.

Because perhaps even more than Paul, which Paul exemplifies courage in so many

ways, but if courage is contagious, and we know that Aristarchus is here supporting his friend faithfully.

Perhaps it's Aristarchus that is the tipping point.

Perhaps it's Luke, perhaps it's Aristarchus. Perhaps it's one of these guys

that doesn't say anything but is there that is actually the courage,

providing Paul with the courage he needs in fulfilling that promise that God

tells him to take hold of.

Aristarchus is the demonstration that courage rarely happens solo.

It rarely happens on our own.

It takes faithful friends. And I would submit this to you because we all would

say we have friends. And that's true. And that's good.

But a friend is not a companion, necessarily.

It doesn't just take friendship, it takes being on mission together,

taking the journey together.

You can have a friend that's hundreds of miles away, but they're not accompanying you on that journey.

So it's more than friendship, it's companionship, it's sharing a mission.

So perhaps it's Aristarchus providing Paul this moment.

He's also this living example of what discipleship actually is as he willingly

chooses to suffer alongside the apostle Paul.

That following Christ might mean suffering alongside someone who essentially

is the cause of your suffering, right?

Like you're willingly suffering with someone based on something that's happened

to them and not that's happened to you.

So he's the epitome of what it looks like to lay down our lives as a sacrifice,

a living sacrifice, pleasing to God.

And in that, he shows us that the gospel creates co-sufferers,

co-laborers, not spectators.

He models what it means to bear one another's burdens.

We're not supposed to stand on the sidelines and watch the gospel move forward.

We're supposed to engage in the mission ourselves.

And Aristarchus is this living parable of loyalty and love, fulfilling the words

of Paul himself that he loved him so much that he shared his life and his heart with him.

Loving Paul and trusting God and setting out on the mission that he's called

to so much that he willingly signs up for this journey.

And so maybe if it just takes one, one person to step out in obedience,

to take hold of courage, to be,

to walk in that next step of faith that cascades into the whole lot of us,

that overflows into all of Boone and the high country, maybe it's you.

Maybe it just takes you to take a hold of courage and,

To jump on the boat when everybody else wants to get off. To suffer alongside.

To encourage. I'm pretty sure

that word encourage means something like putting courage within, right?

So maybe some people need you to put courage in them because they can't take

hold of them themselves. Just takes one to be that tipping point.

And so I pray that all of this talk of courage, I pray that it will take root

in these receptive hearts.

And I pray that by the spirit of God,

by the presence of these co-laborers, this family that God has created,

I pray that we would take hold of what you are already providing.

And whatever that looks like in our lives, if it's to stand up and be counted

among God's people, when that might cost us friendship,

if it's to speak out against injustice, if it's to speak up for the gospel,

if it's to share Jesus with a friend or with someone,

when fear tells us to shrink back, when fear tells us the burden's not on us,

that's somebody else's burden.

If it looks like staying, if it looks like enduring, if it looks like crying

alongside our fellow companions.

If it looks like reminding others of the faithfulness of God,

whatever it looks like for you to take hold of courage or step out in faith,

God, I pray that you strengthen our hearts to do it this morning.

I eagerly await with excitement to see where that's going to fall.

Who's going to be the tipping point, how it's going to work.

And I just pray for this chain reaction to fall through our hearts as one story

of faithfulness turns and multiplies into a lifetime of faithfulness,

of generations of faithfulness, of generations who trust and hope in you as

we experience these greater things that you have promised, God.

We take hold of courage and we choose to trust no matter what we see,

no matter what we understand, we trust in the God who surpasses all understanding.

I invite you to stand and sing with us again to close us out this morning.

We're going to sing a song that hopefully we're all familiar with, but I know many of us are.

And I pray that it would be just an anthem to remind us the reasons we have

for courage and the hope that we have.