Paradox on a Sinking Ship (Acts 27)

Joshua Kehler: Let's go to Acts chapter 27.

Acts 27 · chapter mention

Almost the end of the book.

Acts.

Twenty seven.

Yes.

There you go.

verse six we'll pick up.

Acts 27.

There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing

for Italy and put us on board.

We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off of Sinaitis.

And as the wind did not allow us to go further, we sailed under

the lee of Crete off Salomon.

Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens,

near which was the city of Elissa.

Since 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 this

voyage will be with injury and much loss.

Not only of the cargo and the ship, but also all of us.

But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of

the ship than to what Paul said.

And because the harbor was not suitable to spend winter in, the majority

decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could

reach Phoenix, a harbor in Crete.

Facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.

Verse 13, 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 northeaster, struck down from the land,

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

And we're driven along running under the lead of a small Island called Kata.

We manage with difficulty to secure the ship's boat after hoisting it up.

They use support to undergird the ship, then fearing that they

would run aground on Certis.

They lowered the gear and thus they were driven along.

Since we 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.

Luke's such a good writer.

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 from 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 of the ship, for this very night there stood before me.

An angel of the God to whom I belong, and whom I worship.

And he said, Do not be afraid, Paul.

You must stand before Caesar.

And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.

So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be

exactly as I have been told.

But we must run aground on some island.

When the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven across the Adriatic

Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.

So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms.

A little further on they took a sounding and again found fifteen fathoms.

And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from

the stern and prayed for a day to come.

And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship's

boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the

centurion and the soldiers, Unless these 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.

As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them to all take some food, saying,

Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and

without food, having taken nothing.

Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will give you

strength, and not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.

And when he had said these things, He took bread, and giving thanks to God

in the presence of all, he broke it.

Then they were all encouraged and ate some food themselves.

We were all 276 persons in the ship, and when they had eaten

enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.

Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed

a bay with a beach on which they planned to possibly run ashore.

So they cast off the anchors and let them in the sea, and at the same time,

loosening the ropes that tied the rudders, then hoisting the foresail, they To the

wind they made for the beach, but striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground, the

bow struck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf.

The soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners lest any of them 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 to

make for the land, and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship.

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

This is the word of the Lord.

Father, what a beautiful paradox of a story.

And, Lord, as we peer into eternity, help us to see your majesty and your glory

and your greatness and your goodness and your nearness to see, Lord, the

freedom you've given us, as human beings.

And so God, we just pray you'd encourage us.

And again, We want to be people who aren't tossed about by every wind that

blows along, whether it be the wind of weird doctrine or the circumstances

that the storm represents, suffering in hard times, evil and injustice.

And so God root us right now, anchor us into who you are as sovereign

king of the universe for your glory and our good in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen i've always known that god has me somewhere when it comes to work

Because he's always blessed what i've done like weirdly like It.

My dad used to call it the Midas touch, and then he, if it was bad,

he'd call it the minus touch, and King Midas turns things to gold and so I've

just always had this I don't know.

I remember walking into a job and you, we had 20 electricians scrambling around.

And they're like, you do something.

We got to get this power back on.

it was a, like five story building.

And I'm like, I don't know what to do.

And I just looked at the gear and put my hands on it.

It was all, I kid you not.

They're like, what'd you do?

I'm all, the flex capacitor was incapacitated, and it was crazy.

and so I've just, that's just always been something that God just doesn't He

just blesses and, there's favor there and until, we're down in, Santa Barbara and it

started good or we were living in Ventura.

but we'd moved down there to be raised up as a church planner, but I worked

as an electrician in the meantime, went back to work and things were

great and had favor and everything.

And then I hit this season where everything I touch was a disaster.

And I could not wrap my mind around it.

I hadn't changed anything.

my prescription and my glasses was the same.

like I, there was no human explanation except like disaster followed me.

water leaking into a clean room where they make computer parts, really bad.

just.

My foreman pulled me aside and he said, Hey, I'm going to ask you a question.

Are you cursed?

And, I said, maybe.

and so was, and I've always struggled with this.

Is did I miss the plan?

Am I Jonah?

Did I go off track?

Is God sending a storm after me?

Is he chasing me down because I've disobeyed in some way?

Did we move down here?

and God's that was not the right plan.

Boom.

And, I've struggled with that all my life.

the idea that, am I, where God has me, am I going to go off track?

Am I going to, am I going to miss something to the point

where then I'll be so worried.

that I'm missing something.

Then I fluctuate to the other side where I get this cynical and different

attitude where it's I don't care.

I don't care about the plan.

Like I don't care.

God can do what he wants to do.

And I fluctuate between these two things where it's like somebody on

a teeter totter, really not very simple, just wondering why God, why?

What are you doing?

And are you doing a good job?

And maybe if you're there, maybe it's me and maybe I've gotten off track.

Is there a plan B?

Is there a plan C?

In my case, is there a plan F?

have I fooled myself into thinking

that this is just brokenness you're taking me through to refine me?

When really you were done with me and, and so a real wrestle.

I remember asking the pastor at the time.

I said, I think I'm going to quit.

I was ready to go that day and quit.

and I stopped to talk to him first.

I said, I think I'm Jonah because God is sending a storm after me and it's

a storm that I've never experienced.

It's a storm that I wake up every day knowing I'm going to fail.

That's really hard for me.

every day I would drive.

I felt that like grit, that stress in the back of your throat, where your

teeth are almost clenched a little bit.

your throat's tight.

And I just drove to work knowing I'm going to fail again.

And he said, maybe he said, but maybe you're not Jonah.

Maybe you're in the boat with Jesus.

And he wants to show you that he's the Lord of the storm.

I learned so much from that season of failing.

it changed my life.

And this is a very real wrestle, I think, that people and Christians have.

People in the world have.

Fate, determinism, is everything set?

versus, this free will.

it's a clean slate.

I make it up as I go.

Doc Brown, right?

Back to the Future.

Marty, the future is what you make of it.

is that it?

Like the future is what you make of it.

Because in my mind, you take that out to its ultimate conclusion.

you change one thing, and back to the future, he changes one thing,

and now his parents are cool, and they're not nerds, right?

That's cool, and people love that story.

Ray Bradbury, a science fiction writer, he talks about stepping on

a butterfly in the past, going back in time, and the city, disappears.

and that's how I think, is that much, Do I have that much control?

Like where, like the, if I'm one thing off, how many domino effects,

are going to tip and knock this one down and knock this one down and knock

this one down and knock this one down.

How many lives are impacted by my poor choice?

I think about my family.

Am I dragging my family?

You know here there because this is just some pipe dream that I

have am I ruining their lives?

What about where they grow up?

What about all these things?

What about the community that they lost when you know?

We left real like in the heartbreak that ensued like god like what is going on?

did I make the wrong decision?

Or is it like the calvinist who fell down the stairs and got up and said?

I'm glad that's over.

where it's all, it's all done.

it's all, one leads you to be paralyzed and one can lead you to be passive.

Everything's fixed.

Everything's written or it's a clean slate.

And now.

It's all up to you.

And so I came across this story in the book of acts about the ship and

it rescued me from this wrestle.

And I go back to it again and again.

And when I think about, our choices and plan a and plan B, I

constantly Go back to the story.

So I want to share it with you this morning.

Now it's important to know that the storm in Greek literature

was a picture of evil and chaos.

I think we know that we just talked about Jonah.

The voyage that they go on and hitting the storms and the difficulty they had.

It's a metaphor for life.

that in Greek literature all the time.

And they would write these stories because it revealed the character,

the person in the midst of the storm.

Who are you?

And Greek literature was filled with these kinds of stories.

And remember, Luke's audience is Greek Christians and Gentiles.

why this story of the shipwreck?

Why this certain story?

We know that Paul was in at least three shipwrecks, he says.

Do you want him aboard your ship?

I don't know.

That he talked about, and Luke saw this opportunity to show the

beauty and the power of the story.

And to do it in such a way that it would resonate with

the ancient culture of the day.

It was, because it was a storytelling culture and Luke says, I have a real

story and it gives you unlimited resources to deal with the storms of

life and that wonder and that confusion.

So how can we, because you look at Paul in the story and he's so even keel.

Paul is just he's he's like ministry to people.

He's taking care of things.

He's the captain.

It's almost like he said, I'm the captain now.

he's just, he's everybody's scrambling.

Everybody's terrified.

And he, how couldn't we be like him?

And This passage has so much to say, we'll look at the voyage, the shipwreck,

and the lessons of the voyage.

A little bit of background as we jump into the book of Acts.

Paul's been accused of teaching things contrary to the law of Moses.

And starting riots all because of his teaching about Jesus, the resurrected

Jesus, about grace, about Jesus, fulfilling the law, about it being faith

and trusting in Christ and what he's done for you, not what you do for him.

And that's just blown up.

In fact, somebody says in the book of acts, these people have come and

they've turned the world upside down.

So cool.

Or right side up.

And He's disturbing now at this point as riots are happening, the Pax Romana, the

Peace of Rome, and Paul gave a defense before Felix, the governor of Caesarea,

who kept Paul in custody for two years.

Then he spoke before Governor Festus and King Agrippa using

this amazing opportunity to what?

Use theological reasoning, philosophical arguments.

No, as he's in the presence of these powerful people He gives him his

testimony, the undeniable power of what Jesus does when he gets ahold of him.

And Paul, knowing that Festus wants to feed him to the religious

leaders to be killed, he appeals to have his case heard in Rome.

And Paul knows that God is calling him to testify there.

Earlier in the book of Acts, in Acts 23 11, he says, The following night,

the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to

the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also to the truth.

in Rome.

So God shows up and he's Hey, testify and enjoy your slum.

I'm going to send you to Rome.

So in Paul's mind, he's good as done, right?

Which is amazing.

And so Paul takes that opportunity as he's before King Rippa.

He's I appeal my case.

I'm a Roman citizen.

And, and so they send him on this long journey to Rome.

As the narrative of Acts leaves the area of Israel now, and it sets

sights on Rome, it's beautiful.

John Stott says the commentator, Luke shows that the Jerusalem

That Jerusalem and its temple are not indispensable to the church.

That the gospel is to go out into the rest of the world.

As God told him, you're to testify of me in Rome.

The spread of the gospel.

So Luke is with Paul on this.

He uses we language through the whole thing.

And, he's the writer of the book of Acts.

And, he's got a first hand account of this story.

And he's not just Having it handed down, to him, verbally.

so they come to the point of, Mera, verse six.

There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing

for Italy and put us on board.

Most likely a grain ship, where they throw the wheat off at the end.

Egypt was the main supplier of grain to the Roman Empire, and Rome

controlled the supply of grain.

That's why the centurion has the final say in decisions.

Above what the ship captains were saying, right?

because even though this wasn't a ship, he was the highest rank.

So Paul, Luke, and they have somebody else who's going to take a gift, from

Rome, the Roman church back to Jerusalem, Aristarchus, or among the other

prisoners, there was this whole crew.

This whole boat was filled with different kinds of people, thieves and criminals.

Perhaps those with death sentences already hanging over

their head on their way to Rome.

To be sport for the arenas.

There were the sailors and the soldiers and the grain merchants, people

from many backgrounds, some wealthy.

So I'm not having a denarius to their name, and they're

all in this ship together.

276 people and all right, and they're all on this journey together, this little

diverse city on a boat, little town on a boat that takes months and months to get

where you're going with much difficulty.

For seven and eight, say they slowly made their way to the port of safe haven.

And then in verse nine and 10, Paul gives his advice since much time has passed,

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.

So he warns them.

He's this isn't a good idea.

And Paul knew his stuff, right?

He says, three times I was beaten with rods in second Corinthians 11, 25.

Once I was stoned three times, I was shipwrecked at night

and day and as a drift at sea.

so he's got a feeling about these things.

He's gone down.

These other people, we don't know if they've been shipwrecked, but Paul's Hey,

I'm a journeyman, this is a bad idea.

You're going to lose.

There's going to be a loss in this.

some have calculated Paul's travels by sea and came up with at least 3, 500 miles.

He finally got the frequent sailor point card credit card, right

before that.

So weather was already getting bad.

They had a hard time getting into port.

So they're trying to decide.

Where they were, they couldn't winter there, because of how cold it got and

the, and so they were going to try to make it to another port that was

about 45 miles away where they could winter, and then so they set off and

Paul's no, we got to find another way.

There's going to be tremendous, loss.

So this is crazy.

The shipwreck, right?

or verse 11 and 12, the centurion listens to the advice of the sailors.

Of course, he would take their advice over a prisoner.

Yeah.

It's Paul, remember you're in chains and these guys do this for a living.

You are a preacher.

we hear they don't have many skills, outside of that.

and so of course he'd take their advice.

they won't, they won't make it to Rome before winter, but they

want a better place to harbor for the next couple of months.

So the shipwreck verse, 13, they're lured into a false sense

of security by the southern breeze.

So they start out and it's oh, we have a good day.

And they're like, Paul, they didn't know what he was talking about.

Go back to your commentaries.

And, and they just sail, determined to sail for just 40 more miles.

In verse 14, but soon a tempestuous wind called the

norther struck down from the land.

This is the dreaded storm in wintertime that they would not sail during that.

That's why there wouldn't be ships on the sea.

The wor word literally means whirlwind.

Hurricane typhoon, worse than the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean three,

where there's the whole whirlpool, that is just this crazy storm.

So the boat is blown off course by the wind in the storm.

In verse 16 it says running under the lee of a small island of Kata, we managed

with difficulty to secure the ship's boat.

So they're blown 25 miles off the course this far in verse 16.

But by the time they crash on the island of Malta, they're

blown 475 miles off the course.

That's a crazy storm.

That's nuts.

Because the wave and the wind are crashing so hard against the ship, they run

ropes under the ship and tie together so that the ship will hold together.

They secure the lifeboat that had probably filled with water.

Great difficulty to do that.

Each day they begin to get rid of things they didn't need to lighten

the boat so they wouldn't run aground.

Cause they're trying to stay as close to the shore as possible.

So they don't, blow out into the vastness of sea.

they threw over the support of the main mast.

They threw the cargo over, then they threw the tackle over.

And as verse 20 says, hope was lost.

We had abandoned all hope of being saved.

In verse 15, the way that in the Greek, it's beautiful that the

storm is, it's called, it says.

They faced the wind eye to eye.

That's the idea.

The storm was staring them right in the face.

Have you ever had this storm?

Because we weather storms a lot.

But then there's the one that looks you in the eye and says, I know your number.

I'm coming for you.

That stares you down and there are times in life where you've exercised all your

vast resources, but that storm comes and looks you right in the eye and you'll be

overcome and it sweeps you into the deep.

And it leads to this verse 20, this deep darkness, this darkness

of night, this darkness of soul.

So dark.

They can't see no direction, completely lost, not knowing where they're going.

They couldn't, the scripture says they couldn't.

They couldn't see the stars.

They couldn't even find out because they would use the stars, as a

map and a guide to know where they were to locate as a chart.

and so they're just completely, lost at sea.

In that moment, you find out who you are and what you really believe.

ballast for your life and an anchor for your soul.

Have you faced those times, the times where it's you're like, I can go this far,

but one inch more and it will break me.

And God's like, how about two feet more?

Because he's good.

So 14 days and nights in the darkness and the storm.

Nowhere they are, they can't use the stars.

They didn't have compasses.

They suddenly, they hear the crashing of waves, which means land is close.

So they took a measurement.

20 fathoms or 120 feet.

Then as they wait a little longer and they take another

measurement, 15 fathoms or 90 feet.

So they're actually getting close to land, but they can't see.

And the land was rapidly approaching and it was night.

So they let out their anchors and they'd try to make it to the beach

in the morning, verse 30 and 32.

And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship.

So the sailors were like.

Guys, let's just leave this, let's get out of here, this is insane,

lands right there, like we're so close, we'll take the lifeboats.

And so they tell him, they're like, oh yeah, so we gotta go to the front

of the ship and let down some anchors.

And they're like, anchors on the front of the ship?

I thought those were already down.

And Paul is like paying attention to all this.

Which is amazing.

and so he says to the centurion, unless these 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.

They start listening to Paul.

That's amazing.

like they're like, Paul, you're a preacher.

And then all of a sudden through that time, his calm and composure,

his peace, his joy in the midst of the storm, everybody turns to him.

And it's he's Otherwise, we're all going to perish and

they're like, you got it, Paul.

That doesn't make sense.

You don't get rid of the lifeboats.

He's that's fascinating.

Fascinating.

and Paul stands up and tells them to eat a meal, right?

It's been 14 days since they have eaten.

Therefore, I urge you to take some food.

It will give you strength for not a hair is to perish from

your head from any of you.

We might come back to that because Luke is remembering Jesus saying

that in Luke 21 about the, not a hair perishing from your head.

He breaks bread before them.

Thank you.

And gives God thanks, man, that's communion language, right?

There's hands and he gives God thanks and he breaks the bread, right?

Beautiful.

They're all encouraged and they throw the rest of the wheat into the sea to

make the ship as light as possible.

So they're like the reason we're doing this trip into the sea.

And that's our last meal.

I just am fascinated.

With the command and the trust that Paul has of everybody on board the ship.

So first the soldiers are the center ends, then the sailors.

And now the wheat merchants, like people are just like, yeah, let's get rid of it.

Who knows, if we're going to be out here for another two weeks, 14.

Do you let's go, let's get it off.

it's amazing.

And sometimes God breaks towards it in our lives so that people see the

anchor for our souls in the midst of it.

It's not always, it, God works on many levels.

And he's refining us, and he's, purifying, and he's making us more like himself.

But he's also putting on display what God does in a life that finds its rest in him.

Hides in the shadow of his wings.

That is bizarre to a watching world.

There are times I don't, I'm not trying, I don't go, I don't go

to work, and I'm not like, okay.

Let me read the 10 things I need to do today to represent Christ.

I have people pull me aside and they say, tell me about the piece you have.

You just found out this deadline and you've smiled.

Like they don't want to say that in front of anybody, but they're

just like, what do you have?

We had this one, and this is when I was an apprentice.

We had this one guy, he was the epitome of the superintendent construction worker.

Hey, Josh!

Hey!

Hey, I didn't just foul.

I didn't just, oh, just showing you stuff.

Just trying to get you to, Oh, I heard you're a Christian.

just, I'm gonna go after you, And then we showed up at a job like a year later.

He ran in and gave us a hug.

He's I'm like, whoa, what's going on?

Are you okay?

and he is, I got saved.

And, he's all, I'm born again.

it's like I'm saved.

And he told us we were 19.

I was 19, my brother was 17.

He said, I saw so much peace in your life.

And when I was at my worst, my wife was leaving me.

I was living in a hotel room.

I was ready to end it.

I thought of you guys.

That's crazy.

That's insane.

And we're not, again, that's Christ in us, the hope of glory.

that's, we are fools.

There are plenty of times that I'm anxious and I just shared that I'm

wondering about God's sovereign plan.

But when he gets a hold of your heart and he's an anchor, it's mind blowing.

and we need to be out there in these little towns on this journey together

where we experience storms together

so that they can see that.

So he stands up, tells him to eat a meal, he breaks bread.

so he catches those who are going to try to escape.

And the soldiers then, as the ship begins to break apart, because they do

run aground on the rocks, they're like, let's put these prisoners to death.

let's kill them right here.

And, because if they let a prisoner escape, you remember the jailer.

and Paul, then they would be under penalty of death.

It was their death sentence.

And the centurion is no, we're not doing this.

And again, I hope you're starting to see God told Paul,

everybody's going to be saved.

And yet there's tremendous work saying this has to happen.

Otherwise we'll be lost.

Very interesting.

And we're about to get into that.

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 to

make for the land and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship.

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

So again, that's the story.

That's what's happened.

So the lessons, the sovereignty of God and human responsibility.

Now, while there's a ton of mystery in this topic, always be a little Suspicious

of someone who said they've figured out God or a theology that says this We got it

to God you know a thousand years is a minute a million dollars a penny

like quantum physics is amazing like light as we Thought for years.

We, I throw myself in there, traveled in waves, right?

And then people were like, oh no, it's particles.

And then it's, we realized, it's both depending on how it's observed.

That doesn't make sense.

It can't be both.

It has to be one or the other.

Light can't change.

It can't change in a format like that.

It can't be both.

It's both.

And they're trying to figure that out.

They can't, they're having a hard time.

I, that's my residency.

Yes.

As an electrician for me, light deals in shocks and no travels that way.

I don't know how it works in the mystery of God, but I know

how it's worked in my life

where I like, yeah.

Use wisdom in community, get advice, make the best choice that I can.

And think that while I really blew it, maybe I need a new community and just

kidding, and now I'm on plan B and yet I go a little further down the road

and I look back at God's sovereign hand and realize that's plan a all along.

That's crazy.

Can you mess up God's plan?

Has he already determined everything doesn't matter

what you do beautiful, right?

I don't know how it works, but I know how it's worked in my life It is at the

same time intensely practical or every day lives as we walk through life and

life storms And while people constantly try to pit these two things together and

against each other CH Spurgeon said when Spurgeon was asked How do you reconcile

God's sovereignty and man's free will?

He responded, I never have to reconcile two friends.

Ever.

Did you notice verse 23 and 24?

For this very night there stood before me an angel of God to

whom I belong and whom I worship.

And he said, do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand before Caesar.

And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.

a messenger from the Lord said, this is from the mouth of God,

everybody's going to be saved, and you're going to testify before Caesar.

it's decided in the sovereign plan of God, it's done.

In Numbers 23 and 19 it says, God is not a man that he should lie, or son

of man that he should change his mind.

when you're reminded about something, you don't have all the information.

God has all the information, so he never has to change his mind.

He doesn't encounter a new, something out of the blue.

Nothing takes him by surprise.

He's got it all.

He knows all things.

Omniscience, it's called.

He said, he has said it, Numbers says, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?

That's why sometimes even we talk about God's promises is almost

like this, Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

it's, yeah, it's, almost you're betting on somebody and you got

some inside information, and I'm putting a lot of money on this

because I told this, he's good.

No, his promises are the facts of how he's written the story.

They're not like, maybe it'll happen, they're yay and amen to who God is.

Is there anything that can change this outcome that he's declared to Paul?

Is there anything that can change this outcome in the sovereign plan of God?

No.

But then notice, and here's the tension, Paul said to the centurion

and soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.

Wow.

Paul's seen, we all make it.

Why doesn't Paul go down like Jonah into the depths of the

boat and just take a nap?

God told him he can kick back and watch the show.

He can kick back and watch the story unfold.

But Paul does not do that.

He's engaged.

Most people are on one side or the other, right?

Fate.

It's fate.

Fatalist.

It's determinism.

Do things happen in spite of what we do?

Is everything Oedipus, the classic story about that, you remember, in

Greek literature, there was this oracle given that the birth of this baby,

Oedipus, that he would come along and that he would end up growing up to

kill his father and marry his mother.

Great stories.

Game of Thrones before Game of Thrones, right?

so the father.

sends his most loyal servant to go out and to kill the baby, take him out

into the field and kill him because he doesn't want this Oracle to come to pass.

The story goes, the soldier goes out to kill the baby, but he can't do it.

It's a baby, going to kill Hitler, a thing.

And so he doesn't do it.

Sends him away, far away, hopefully never to see him again.

Oedipus grows up, in another country.

But he comes and he ends up, as the story is, killing his

father and marrying his mom.

Not knowing who he was.

And so that's the way that the Greeks talked about it.

Everything is determined.

You can't change the outcome.

Everything is fixed.

There's nothing we can do.

We are just a by product of mechanistic evolutionary processes.

It's all decided because of our brain chemistry, how

we're hardwired genetically.

This is, I talk to people who, this is it, this is what they believe.

Even people believe that our genetic code determined We will be, whether

it's a criminal or, somebody nice or all these things, it's all pre wired

into us that there's no freewill.

There's nothing that we can do.

But if that's the case, then biology of the strong over the weak wins.

It's the only rational thought.

Biology wins.

And so if you're biologically strong, then you win.

And what basis then do we have to fight for justice and to take

care of the weak in society?

But we fight against injustice.

We fight against poverty.

We get mad against suffering and evil in this world.

We feel like this is a bad story and we can impact history.

That we want to change things.

Also, if we think through the implications, If you really think through

it, then that's just going to lead you to be passive, cynical, and indifferent.

If you really think through those implications, that everything's

fixed, nothing I do matters.

We're all just a ball of mud hurtling toward, the sun.

That's it.

We're dust, then we die.

That's it.

Nothing matters.

Then life will be a cynical thing.

There won't be beauty.

There, it will, you'll be indifferent.

And you'll feel

like I don't think we've been actually created to feel like nothing I do matters.

I think God, commissioned us in the garden to go and to tend it

and to make the world beautiful.

That was like before the fall.

And we carry that commission on.

As people are saved and our places we live are transformed physically,

spiritually, emotionally, social, like in every realm and every spectrum of life.

And the reality is that none of us live that way or very few of us

live that way that like everything's predetermined when we come eye to eye

with suffering injustice, we fight it.

We want to change it.

We say that it's wrong.

We want to write a new and better story.

The other way is that it's more like back to the future.

Your future is what you make it.

We love this idea that we're masters of our destiny.

Okay.

Does history and the world cause our choices or do our choices cause history?

But if we really think through the implications this paralyzes that

like every choice we make Impacts a thousand upon, keep multiplying that

out And this is how I would feel every one of my choices changes things.

So when I screwed up, I'm screwed How do you know that you're

making the right decisions?

Think about the decisions you made when you were 15 the things you wanted to be

The things that you thought were utterly important In junior high, this is it!

Five just, and now you're 46.

You're like horrified at that person and who he was and how he

thought about life and things.

but this clean slate doesn't have a maturity rating that you jump

into when you're old and wise.

It would mean that's all of, so if I am that dumb that early on, I'm

talking about myself I wore a shirt in junior high because I thought it

said Nero and Lime Turtle Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle green It said nerd

Before nerds were cool and on the back.

It said never ending radical dude.

I

if that kid He already messed up my life Yes Never smart enough,

wise enough, strong enough.

No matter how long your life is.

And what's funny is, in our culture, this is the popular idea.

It seems empowering.

The future is yours.

The future is what you make of it.

You can do anything.

you write your own destiny.

You're the master of your own fate.

You're the captain of your ship.

You are the captain.

You are in charge.

You are charting the course.

One of the most terrifying things about that.

is when you run aground because you've charted the course.

Who's to rescue you?

If you're not smart enough and you ran aground, how are you

going to get yourself out of it?

These ideas, as you think through the implications of them, lead

you to be paralyzed on the one hand or passive on the other.

Like I told you at the beginning, I would fluctuate between these two.

Fluctuate between them.

Paralyzed.

Oh, did I make the right choice?

Am I going to make the right choice?

Anxious, up at night, doing the whole shake the Bible, shake and bake, where

you shake the Bible and you throw it down on the table and the first verse

you read, you're like, God, speak to me.

I need an answer now.

and I read, and Judas went out and hung himself.

I was like, no.

So I was like, round two, threw it on the ground.

Yeah.

And then I, first verse it said, and go and do likewise.

I was like, no.

but I'd been there.

I've done that.

I've been there with regret feeling like I messed things up.

And now my life is on this different take.

If you really believe that there was no plan in the universe, that

your own wisdom was all you had, why would you get up in the morning?

The Bible teaches God is absolutely in control and our choices absolutely

matter and we are responsible for them See, this is hard for us in our culture.

We're either or people it's either light or it's waves It can't be both.

So then what we do in theology as we find the percentage it's 20 percent sovereignty

50 percent free will it's 50 50 The Bible says that it's a hundred and a

hundred, and that's hard for us to grasp.

I think until you have kids.

When I had my daughter, Karis, I gasped.

I could not believe me and my wife made a human being that she was that beautiful.

And when I held her the first time I was like, bone on my bone,

flesh of my, like I lost it.

And I heard about it.

Everybody, Oh, you're going to lose it.

Oh, you're going to something.

You can't call it supernatural because God built it into us.

And all the love that I have for my wife, the commitment, I vow to love you.

I'll never leave her.

You're like all of that love.

That is so intense.

All of a sudden I had this, it was like the Grinch whose heart grew two sizes.

I was like, Whoa.

I love this human being and I was scared and then I got scared as a

dad because I loved her so Much I like it was bursting out of me and

then I Andrea got pregnant and I'm gonna have a son and I was worried.

I'm like, what does this mean for my love because there's no way I

can love him As much as I love her.

And then he's born in 15 minutes when we got to the hospital, little lightning

and thunder, that's what his name means.

And I held him and I loved him with as much love as I had for my daughter.

I it's super natural.

It's natural.

I, you can't explain it.

It's it's you're not pie charting it.

You're not pie charting it out.

And we're such either or people it's either this, it's either this.

And we, get in our camps, and I always say, we gotta, there's

mystery, we gotta be humble with this.

Because we're dealing with infinite God.

The uncaused cause, the creator of all things, whose ways

are so far above the heavens.

His, as high as the sky is above the earth, so are His ways above our ways.

He is the infinite one.

eternal, omniscient, omnipresent.

Sovereign king and ruler of the universe.

Yes.

Well, Mario comes into our life Nathaniel comes into our life

like you I literally thought okay.

It's by all Lord You're gonna have to like I want the same kind of love for someone.

I'm bringing into my family it happens How is that possible?

That is amazing.

And so I think of Jacob's story, Jacob,

family drama, favoritism, Jacob, just wanting to hear

his dad say, I love you, son.

And I'm proud of you.

And he never got it.

Because his older brother Esau got all the favor and, Isaac was

just like, he's the one I love.

So Jacob, just craving that, fools his dad, goes in and pretends to

be his brother just to hear his dad say, I want to bless you.

And then his brother finds out and he runs for his life.

And then he goes and beats him.

There's all this family drama and he wants to marry Rachel and it works for

her for seven years and they seemed as one day because the love that he had for

her but he gets Leah because every time you wake up after something you put your

trust in other than God it's always Leah and then you and then he gets worse for

another seven years and it's Rachel but then there's infighting between them and

then And he's creating the family drama all over again, and the concubines, and

he's having all these kids, and then they start fighting, and Joseph is proud and

feeling himself, and arrogant, and he's a dreamer, and he's You guys, one day

you're gonna bow down to me, and they're like, Oh, H, no we're not, and, they're

bitter, and so they throw him in a pit, they were gonna kill him, but they decide

we can make some money off of him, he goes to Egypt, And bad things happen to him.

He stands up for what's right.

God's refining his character.

He's in prison.

People forget him.

Then somebody remembers him at the time where the famine's about to come.

He interprets a dream and he's second in command and he saves the known world at

that time because of where God moved him.

And then he saves his brothers, one of his brothers who he reconciles with.

And he says, what you guys meant for evil, human responsibility, God,

his sovereignty meant it for good.

Calls him wicked.

It's wicked.

It's not just, it's not just your choice matters, and you're responsible for that.

But God meant it for good, and he's working this all together, and so

Judah's reconciled to Joseph, and then Jo Judah has kids, and they

have kids, and they have kids, and eventually Jesus Christ comes onto

the world and he saves the world.

So God's plan carried out through human brokenness and their choices.

Was that God's plan all along?

Was he like, Oh man, I got to pivot.

I've got to do something different.

Is he trying to know that's the plan?

Were people choosing or were they just mechanical robots who had been

pre determined to follow course?

Are they free moral agents who

can respond to light?

And they can respond to darkness.

in Acts 2, it says Jesus was offered up according to the scriptures, but that he

was killed at the hands of wicked men.

Like again, here's the plan, but there's still the wickedness involved, right?

Yep.

Yep.

Jesus was offered up.

Was it planned by God?

Yes!

That's the ultimate plan of the universe!

Yet everybody who killed him was called wicked.

They weren't let off the hook.

God says, I will, and here it is, I will make your choices real, but on the other

hand I will do it in such a way that my plan for history is still carried out.

I will not let you mess up my plan.

If you make bad choices, then there is brokenness, right?

Look at the crew that didn't Brokenness, that was right on cue.

think about, Paul's advice to the sailors is you shouldn't go, if you go they'll

Isn't that what the book of Proverbs is?

The Book of Proverbs I used to think growing up was like, black

and white cause and effect.

if you obey, you will live long.

And then I'd hear about good kids I knew who got cancer, and I'm like

No, they're like, God is saying, this is the way that I designed the

universe to flourish and function.

But there's brokenness in the world.

This is the way that it flourishes and functions when the home unit, is unified.

There is a flourishing in there, but it doesn't mean that brokenness

still doesn't come into the world.

And that's what God is reversing.

That's why he came.

That's what he is healing.

So I will make your choices real, but I will do it in such a way that my

plan for history is still carried out.

I will not let you mess up my plan.

If you make bad choices, there's brokenness.

There will be loss.

Paul was not passive.

And he was not paralyzed.

And this is the whole crook of it.

He was confident that God was going to do what he said, but he knew that God had put

him in this storm for the good of others.

And that he had a part to play in God's great story.

And what does that do for somebody?

It makes him an anchor in the midst of the storm.

Because God's got it.

And he's got a plan.

Even though this looks like a terrible plan.

Another shipwreck, God?

Am I the shipwreck guy?

Is that gonna be my M.

O.?

He knows that God put him there, and so he flourishes in that.

He's gonna take every advantage.

He's at peace, because he's Jesus is in the boat!

he's the Lord of the storm!

He's not worried.

God told him, hey!

You're all, like the preview, you're all getting on, so he's working, and he's

helping, and he's preaching, and he's breaking bread, and he's feeding, and

he's taking charge and command, such peace, and calm, and boldness, and zeal,

he's not paralyzed, and he's not passive.

And that's what changed my life, this, I was like, oh.

It's 100 100.

Oh, I can't mess up your plan.

You've got the plan!

It's a good plan!

All my times and years and anxiousness spent thinking, plan B, plan, C, plan

D, plan, this is the story you're writing for such a time as this.

Acts 17 says that God puts us and ordains the times and places which we

should live So that people can reach out for God and He's nearer than we think.

Think he puts you in Manteca.

He puts you in Modesto.

He puts you in Stockton for such a time as this to be an anchor in the

storm, to those around you, not to be paralyzed, not to be passive waiting

for heaven to come or waiting for being rapture ready or whatever it is,

but to display the greatness and the goodness and the sovereignty of God,

and to let That security that he's so in charge of every atom of the universe

and you don't understand the story.

He sure does.

And he's making a much better story out of your life than you could ever think.

And let that fuel the goodness and, the confidence that you're where God has

you because he's writing a great story.

that is life changing for me.

I was just like, boom, what?

Man.

Yeah.

he was confident that God was going to do what he said, but he also knew

that God had put him in this storm for the good of others and that he had

a part to play in this great story.

So he was joyful that he could serve God in this way, but also bold in

knowing that God was in control.

I just, I don't know if this is helpful.

This was so helpful for me in my life.

so again, they're on the ship together.

They're going through the storm together.

And not only We're an anchor for

the sailors, the soldiers, and the prisoners.

They were an anchor for each other.

Notice that it was Luke who's writing in verse 20 and he

says, We had abandoned all hope.

Paul hadn't lost hope.

He knew it was coming.

But Luke and Aristarchus, they're like, Why'd we get on the guy, on the boat

with the guy who gets in the shipwrecks?

they're like, they had abandoned hope.

And Paul is not only an anchor, and guys, We need each other.

And I don't just need you when you're good.

And I, you don't just need me when I'm good.

I need you to be an anchor for me sometimes.

Because I still struggle with this.

I still look back and where I'm at.

it's so curing, but I still, there's other things that I need.

Someone, that's why I love, I just want,

I just want all the older saints to start a Bible study.

I just want to sit.

I just want to listen to them.

Just talk about how God is good every season of their life, because there's

so much weight and glory to it.

I need that anchor, and we all need an anchor, and we learned in church

to disappear when we're doing bad, and come report the victory, that we

pulled ourselves, we got ourselves up by our own bootstraps, and come report

the victory, and then we're good.

That's short lived victory and you're maybe you're healed maybe got it.

Maybe God was gracious.

He's I'll give you this one I'll help you out, but you're not helping

anybody else like we're a community we rise and we fall together.

We bear each other's burdens So community, they contribute.

Notice the time where it says we dragged in the lifeboat.

They're not like, you should have listened, you fools.

But they identified with the people they were around and they helped.

They didn't put him down.

They didn't look down on him.

They didn't make him feel small and like they were smart or better or that they

had the truth, though they didn't have to.

And so we're to be in the city.

Paul also prays for the crew, right?

Calm.

How could he have such an, inner calm during the raging storm?

Verse 23 for this night, there stood before me an angel of God.

This is so beautiful.

You should underline this to whom I belong and to whom I worship to whom I belong.

that's a, that's, that might be tattoo worthy.

it's covenant language.

It's possessive language.

You guys realize that when God enters into a covenant with his

people, he says, Now you will be my people and I will be your God.

He's, it's possessive language.

Think about it.

I say, my Andrea.

that's not somebody I would say to anybody else, except for my kids, my

Andrea, my Kairos, my Ryden, my Brooklyn, my Hudson, my Mario, my Nathaniel.

that's why possessive language.

You don't say that about just anyone.

It reveals intimacy.

And in the midst of the storm, I know I am his, I belong to him, and he is mine.

He loves me, and he is committed to me.

And that grace filled theology, begins to impact.

Martin Lloyd Jones had this little test he would give people when they

were, like, struggling and depressed.

and they'd meet with him, and he had this diagnosis question, he called it.

He said he went and it's the simplest question.

He said are you a Christian?

I've tried this on people and most a lot of the time people would say

I'm trying really hard You know, I'm trying I go to church or I do this.

I'm trying.

I'm reading my Bible.

I'm doing these things You know, I'm trying I'm trying I'm trying and he

would he'd realize they don't know the first thing of what a Christian

is being a Christian is receiving a new status not trying to earn one

not trying to get one not And so it's that status that you receive.

What is the status?

That you're adopted.

That you're his.

To whom I belong.

Man, we should talk about God.

I want to hear a worship song.

to whom I belong.

Like he possesses me.

that's why I think it's so amazing when he talks about the hairs on the head.

Not a hair of your head will perish.

In Luke 21, Jesus said that.

And it's such a funny verse because Jesus says.

They're gonna kill you, but not a hair on your head will perish.

They're like, great.

What is he saying?

That's sovereignty language.

He says, I know you.

I know everything about you down to the number of hairs that are on your head.

I keep them.

I'm a shield about you.

I'm the lifter of your head.

I know the day of your birth.

I formed you in your mother's womb.

I gave you your personality.

I breathed life into you.

I know the day of your death.

I know your joys, your fears, your hopes, the secrets you keep from community.

Your dreams, your failures, your victory.

I've got you.

Fashioning a weight of glory in you.

I'm working everything together for good.

I love you.

I'm yours and you're mine.

It's the Song of Solomon language.

I'm my beloved's and he is mine.

like that intimacy and that possession.

then I think so importantly is the meal was ever before Paul and at

any opportunity, what is the first thing he hasn't eaten for 14 days?

I don't know if you haven't eaten for 14 days before, but usually

you're like hoarding the, he's no, I'm going to tell the gospel.

And he goes right back to the gospel story.

Let's eat.

It's the Lord's supper language.

What is the Lord's supper?

Luke, wrote about this, right?

And Paul tells the people in the midst of the storm about Jesus, the gospel,

the storm that Jesus experienced, the hope and confidence, and that everything

will be okay is because Jesus went into the only storm that I would kill me

and destroy me, that he threw himself into the chaos for me so that I could

be his precious, Possession so that I could be adopted into his family.

There was no other way and yet he went into the storm He took the only storm

that could destroy me guys If he did that for you, is he gonna abandon you in

the storms of life when things get hard?

I don't think so.

So

That's the story I hope it was helpful to you.

It has been an anchor for my, just that coming to that, just that

surrender really, because again, I want to be an either or person, cup

half full, cup half empty, and to just go, God's got it, but he loves

me enough to work through my choices.

And they matter.

I'm not a robot.

I'm not a robot.

and that he brings good out of even the failures.

And you look back and you're like, Oh, I see your hand all along the way.

So let me pray for us.

God, we thank you.

We thank you for your amazing grace.

I just think about Romans 8, 28, and we know.

That you work all things together for good to those who love you and are the

call to coordinate of your purposes.

Lord, I pray that would, we could say that with confidence today.

And we know, and Lord that you are working good in the midst of this storm.

So thank you for community.

Thank you for these precious saints.

Thank you for the stories.

Thank you for the saints who've been through three shipwrecks in

their life and who can be an anchor.

In those moments where we're so scared, where we're

passive, where we're paralyzed.

And God, we just pray as we worship you as we also break the bread right now.

We think of Jesus.

We think of the one who is sovereign on the throne, and yet did not lean, as

Philippians tells us, on that, but wrapped himself in human flesh, humbled himself,

and came in the form of a servant.

That you would do that is incredible.

And so we love you, praise you.

We worship you.

We thank you that we're yours.

We thank you that you know, the number of hairs that are on her head, that, you

know, our thought, while it's a far off that we're fearfully and wonderfully made

that you rejoice over us with singing that were ever before you, that you smile.

Over our lives, so we trust, put our trust in you.

Thank you for your great rescue, Lord.

We love you.

In Jesus' name, amen.