Travel Mercies | Acts 27:1-26

Uh, we, we've talked a lot about, uh, the weather today, and, you know, every

single time it, it rains, and we get our, like, our first rain of the year, um, or

our first rain of the fall, I should say, it's always, like, a big conversation

piece, especially among Californians.

Um, I think number one, because people don't know how to drive in the rain, but

number two, because it's just so rare.

We're like, "Oh yeah, it's, something happens sometimes.

Precipitation happens, um, even in Southern California."

And I was thinking about it, and really, the weather i- is just one of those,

um, perennial, uncontrollable things that does remind us that we are very,

very small and not very powerful.

We think of, um, so many things that we've, we've mastered

under certain circumstances.

Yeah, sure, maybe we don't need as much, um, rainfall in order to water

our crops because we have advanced, uh, irrigation systems and things like that.

Like, we made the, the cultivation of lettuce in Imperial

Valley, which is a desert.

We made that happen, and, you know, it's pretty good.

But o- overall, like, to some extent, like, we are still much beholden to the

weather in many of the things we do.

Just think of even in your recent life, like how many things and how many

plans have been kind of marred by bad weather, whether it was the heat or

whether it was the rain, um, you know, unexpected rain on certain circumstances.

Um, I can think about, uh, my, my poor daughter who was, uh, born on August 10th,

and every single one of her birthdays it's, you know, 110 degrees, and so it…

we're limited to the things we can do.

Um, and I, I just think of how much weather is a good check on our lives

to remind us that we are powerless.

There's one quote from the, the 19th century that's often attributed to

Mark Twain, but it goes like this.

Um, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody seems to do anything about it."

Isn't that, that funny?

Um, I recently saw a, a movie, if you guys have seen it, it was in theaters

earlier this year, called, uh, Pressure.

Anyone seen Pressure with…

Apparently.

O- okay, a couple people.

With, uh, Brendan Fraser.

He played, uh, um, Eisenhower.

Well, Eisenhower is, is a main character in the movie Pressure, but really most of

the, um, most of the plot and development is about, um, a man, a British, uh,

meteorologist named James Stagg, and an American meteorologist named Irving Crick.

And they're kind of at loggerheads because they're trying to interpret

the weather because they wanna ha- give Eisenhower assurance on whether it'll

be good weather on D-Day when they, when they invade, um, Europe- And they

eventually, um, do move it from…

The, it's the, basically the story of how D-Day was moved from June 5th to June 6th,

and what kind of planning went into there.

And you, uh, halfway through you're like, "Okay, they made an

entire movie about the weather?

That's, that's interesting."

But, but it really is.

It's called Pressure because it's, hey, these guys are trying to predict

the future, trying to determine what's going to happen, and they

find themselves frustrated that, that really at, at, at best they can just

guess, and they don't know for sure.

Well As much as, um, we see the trials happening to the Apostle Paul in the Book

of Acts, um, one of the things that really hasn't happened quite yet is adverse

weather, and that's what we're gonna see in his travel to Rome right here.

But the point of this passage in scripture, I think, is

to show us that pass…

Uh, uh, uh, that the Apostle Paul is not simply himself a, a, a demonstration of

God's mercies and God's, um, glory in, in sharing his gospel, but that God uses

the Apostle Paul's witness in times of actually dire situations brought on by

weather to show his word and his hope not only to the Apostle Paul and around

his immediate companions, but to people who are, um, w- in the Gentile world.

He sh- he shows himself in a real way to the Gentile world by showing himself

to Paul's companions l- um, in a large sense as he's traveling to Rome by ship.

And so let's go ahead and, and start and ta- look at, um, the, this, the

journey that Paul sets out on to Rome starting, uh, in Acts 27:1.

Acts 27:1

It says, "And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they

delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centerni- uh, centurion of

the Augustine cohort named Julius.

And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, 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 from there, 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

Cicil- um, Ci- uh, Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia.

Then 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 Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed

under the lee of Crete off Salmone.

C- coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens,

near which was the city of Lasea.

Much…

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 the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo

and the ship, but also of our lives."

Verse eleven: 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 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 So where are we exactly in the book of Acts and the story of Paul?

Well, we're at a moment of decision where Paul, who having appealed to Caesar,

then as you, we saw last week, um, had an audience with King Agrippa, after which

Agrippa essentially cleared Paul's name and said, "I don't, I don't see this,

uh, Paul as having done anything wrong.

I see this as an innocent man."

His appeal to Caesar was still being carried out.

It was still a legitimate appeal, and by law, they were just saying, "Okay,

we're gonna bring Paul to Caesar."

And now that was…

all that was left for him to do, um, was just to get there, which was

no small task in the first century.

So we don't exactly know, um, who decided.

It isn't clear who decided to sail when they sailed, but it was likely some

Roman authority who gave the green light from, um, to sail from, uh, I believe it

was, was Caesarea to the city of Rome.

Nevertheless, we know from the whole of the narrative of the book of Acts

that no matter who decided when to do these things and where to sail, um,

the entire journey, just to remind you guys, was preordained by God.

God was still in control of Paul's eventual journey, yes,

to Jerusalem, but later to Rome.

Remember, this was…

What we're seeing now is in the fulfillment of the words of the

Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Um, after he had left, uh, uh, Eph- Ephesus, Act- chapter 19 says, "Now after

these events, Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia

and go to Jerusalem, saying, 'After I have been there, I must also see Rome.'"

And Luke has that note that it was not just Paul, he was just trying to do

some stuff, but he was led by the Spirit for mostly kind of unknown reasons,

for reasons that will be soon revealed and, and were soon to be revealed by

the narrative itself Later, after he is, um, uh, found and, and arrested in,

uh, Jerusalem by the religious leaders, uh, after the riot and everything, we

see in Acts chapter 23, "The following night, the Lord stood by him," i.e.

Acts 23 · chapter mention

by Paul, "and said, 'Take courage, for as you have testified to the

facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.'"

And it was God's way of revealing himself to Paul, and specifically

comforting and encouraging him to say, "Hey, you're in this dire situation.

Yes, you're in prison, and you're not gonna be free for a very long

time, but this is all going to plan.

You had purpose in your heart to go to Rome."

God essentially is saying, "I'm the one who g- put that purpose into

your heart, so you're in the right place, you're in the right time.

This is not chance- And though these seasons and, and what we see, these

details seem like ordinary, um, human choice and even random chance, uh, it's

a good reminder that God is in control of all circumstances and details.

And I think Luke goes into as much detail as he goes into in the passage

we just read in Acts chapter 27 because he's trying to describe the things that

Acts 27 · chapter mention

were happening and how they fulfilled God's eventual prophecies on Paul and

God's eventual promises to Paul, but not only to Paul, as we'll see, but

all to his c- traveling companions on the ship of, um, uh, the, for the

ship on which they were, uh, sharing.

So we see as they sail for Rome that it was two ships that they had taken.

Um, the first ship was a ship of Adramyttium, which was an area, um,

I think closer to the north that happened to be in the area, and it was

kind of like a, a connecting flight.

Like, we can see it as a connecting flight.

They, they…

It takes them not all the way to Rome, but it takes them to a, a place called Lycia.

And then here in this journey, we can note a couple things, that Paul was not alone.

Notice the narrative says that, um, we- starts using the word we, which means

that Luke himself was there, and he starts ref- referencing the, um, not

just Paul, but also his companions.

We also see that there was a man named Aristarchus who

accompanied him on the, um, ship.

If you recall, it was actually Aristarchus, um, when there was a

riot at Ephesus, um, and they couldn't find Paul, they started to find his

friends and grab him and seize him.

Aristarchus was actually one of those guys they found.

Poor Aristarchus.

But he was still very loyal to Paul, even though his association

was obviously a liability for him.

And so we see in addition to Paul being able to travel with his companions,

that Julius, the centurion who took over the charge of Paul and conveying

him to Italy, was very kind to Paul.

In verse three, we see that Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go,

um, to his friends and be cared for.

And so he essentially treated Paul almost like an innocent man, a non-dangerous man,

because I think it was well known at that point that everyone kind of knew that Paul

was not at fault with anything, and yet as a formality, they were journeying to

Rome as far as they knew Then they board the second ship, and it was a s- ship of

Alexandria, which in theory was meant to be the ship that was supposed to be- take

them from Lycia all the way to Italy.

But again, we start to see Luke starts to inject the difficulties

they had in trying to get there.

And he u- uses very specific, um, sailing terms where…

And this is, this is a point at which, like, I, I needed to call up, like,

John Bandman or something, someone who knew, um, sailing really well.

But they sail very slowly, in verse seven, for a number of days and arrive

with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther,

we sailed under the lee of Crete, off Salmone, and sailing across it with

difficulty we came to a place called Fair Havens, which was near the city of Lasea.

So without, you know, self-propo- propelled boats, and only, um, uh,

depending on wind, basically all they, um, all that had to happen to push

them off their journey and to disrupt and slow them down was the wind had

the power to simply not be favorable.

And when they reference sailing under the lee of Crete, um, essentially

it's, it's a, it's a sailing move which I, which I only learned about

recently after after having…

wondering like, "What is a lee?"

Uh, it's essentially when the, when the wind starts to blow in a specific

direction, it's when you use the island or a nearby land mass itself to, um, block

severe winds and as you kind of do your best to go against and, and, um, not even

in the direction you were intending to go.

But by kind of going maybe a little bit more south than you want

to, you can still get, um, very, very close to where you wanna go.

It's just very slow and very difficult and very tedious to, to, to sail this way.

And so Luke was basically saying by the time they got to this place

called Fair Havens, so much time had passed that, um, it was essentially

September, uh, late September.

He- Luke notes for the purposes of time that the fast ha- was already over,

which was essentially the celebration of Yom Kippur, and he kind of uses

that as the, a marker to say, "Hey, guys, it's late September, and now

we're into a more tumultuous season."

Paul starts to speak up, and he says, "Well, I perceive that the voyage will

be with much injury or, or with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo

and the ship, but also of our lives."

Paul may have had some special insight of what was gonna happen if they continued

But it's also true that like anyone with eyes who knew what was going on

of like, "Hey guys, we're going really, really slow on this journey," could have

gotten an indicator of what was going on.

You didn't need to be a sailing expert to realize that this was

a very dangerous and precarious journey were they to keep going.

But the centurion, whose job it was to get these prisoners to Rome, chose to listen

to the other sources in verse eleven.

He paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the

ship than to what Paul says.

And what's more, in verse twelve, is that they'll-- those guys, the pilot

and the owner of the ship who said, "Eh, yeah, it shouldn't be a big deal," they,

um, got the majority on their side.

That majority decided to put out to sea from there on the chance that

somehow they could reach Phoenix what, uh, which was another harbor of Crete.

So they were already on the island of Crete, a place called Fairhaven,

which actually seems really nice, but they started to go a little bit

further west off the chance that they could get a better harbor and,

um, continue on in their journey.

And you might think like, "Hey, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a, um, it's a…

Let, let's say it's a fair risk."

But the Apostle Paul was on the side of caution, and as we'll see, he ended

up being correct in his estimation.

Verse thirteen says this, as a result of their decision, '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.'

So in other words, they saw that there was a, there was a wind, and the wind

kind of died down, and they're like, "Oh, maybe we have some favorable conditions.

Maybe we have a week or so of good sailing, and we

can, um, make the journey."

Well, verse fourteen, 'But soon a tempestuous wind called the

nor-northeaster came down, um, or struck down from the land.

And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave wa-- we

gave way to it and were driven along.

Running along the lee of a small island named Cauda, we managed with difficulty

to se-secure the, secure the ship's boat.

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

Then fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, 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.'

So essentially, we see that this was a wrong decision.

This was an unwise decision to proceed from Fair Havens and

try to get to a new harbor.

Uh, there's a various…

there's a, a variety of things that happened to them where they were

blown instead of blown kind of try-- although they were kind of trying to

keep parallel and even with the island of Crete, they were en-- they ended up

being blown away from the island, and they were almost blown so far that they

were near another island called Cauda.

And they were trying to secure the ship's boat, which would have been a separate

boat tied to the ship and in tow, which was also in danger of, um, being torn

away from the ship or slowing down the ship or possibly sinking the ship.

They also, um, feared to run aground on the Syrtis, which was kind of like a,

um, uh, a s-- kind of a sandbank, which would have been too shallow and they

would have been shipwrecked on this.

And so they lowered the gear, and they tried to slow down as much as possible.

When that didn't work, they had basically, um, uh, stages of, uh, uh,

uh, tiers of, of responses, where then they s- went to the next item to say,

"Okay, well, if we, we, we're not going anywhere, then we have to save the ship."

And so in verse eighteen, they started to jettison the cargo, which means

that, like, it made this entire journey.

Remember, like, the centurion is essentially renting this ship or, or

commandeering this ship, but this is a ship of many, many other people.

Later in the chapter, it's gonna mention that it's gonna be over probably

two hundred people were on board.

And the whole reason why this journey was gonna be profitable

was because of the cargo.

They probably had wheat, they probably had these things.

And so they just thought, "Okay, well, this is no longer a

profitable journey at this point.

We're gonna overthrow the cargo."

And not only were they gonna overthrow the cargo, it came to the point

in, in terms of triage and, and self-preservation in verse nineteen,

they started to throw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands.

The ship's tackle meaning the basic items used to secure the ship and

used to ensure a safe journey.

And so basically, it was starting to proceed into, well, we're gonna make a

quick journey, it's gonna be great to, okay, we're gonna take a significant

financial loss, and now they're in dire straits, not hoping to even save the ship.

And in verse-- by the time verse twenty comes around, they are in

terror and fear for their own lives.

And they're not only thinking, you know, are we gonna make it by before

the end of winter, but they're thinking, are we gonna make it alive?

So they're in a dire situation very, very suddenly, very, we might say

unpredictably, but possibly predictably because of the seasons there.

And so finally, Paul speaks up again, and not simply to the centurion, but

to everyone on the ship in verse 21 and says this, uh, uh, "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 set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss.

Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be loss of life among you.'

Um, no, no…

I'm sorry, '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 before…

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

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

that it will be exactly as I have been told.

But we must run aground on some island.'"

What's happening here?

Well, it's a continuation of the way God is working in the life of the

Apostle Paul, especially as we near this section of the Book of Acts.

God could have, and God has in biblical stories before, calmed storms.

Jesus himself in, in, you know, in, in Mark chapter four calmed the storm

with his very voice, and the disciples who were on bo- uh, on board the boat

with him in which they were in the middle of the sea marveled and said,

"What kind of man is this that can actually calm the storm with his mouth?"

So God could have done that, but God does not do that, and rather he prefers to

speak to Paul and give him encouragement and exhortation and mercy, even in the

midst of the ship being tossed around.

We should take to heart that this was most of all what Paul himself needed,

but also what the sailors needed.

A reminder that God was sovereign, omnipotent, all-powerful, yes,

and in control of the situation

God spoke to Paul to, and comfort him in s- within the storm rather

than take the storm away from Paul and all of his companions.

And really the revelation of God in this moment is, is the primary, uh, turning

point for the remainder of this story We're gonna see some more details and see

how the story, um, f- unfolds next week.

But for

this moment, I thought it was important to slow down and really think about the

revelation that God showed to Paul, and by extension, his companions, and the

reality with which God often reveals himself to us in dire circumstances, even

while not taking the circumstances away.

That God, in his abundant mercy, knows that above all, we don't always simply

need to be delivered from a situation or delivered from a, a something

that's very difficult and frightening, but rather we need his encouragement

and the lifeline of his Word while we're in a, uh, an adverse situation.

Amen.

And so I have four things to share with you about this as we sort of

think about this passage and close.

Number one, that God extends his protection on all believers.

Does God protect us like he protected Paul?

Seems like Paul got, like, some special treatment.

Like, hey, Paul got a few, like, extra guardian angels or something like that.

But it's true that the Bible actually teaches us that God, when we are…

When we put faith in him, when we are his people, that God

does protect us generally.

This is the promise of God's providence over our lives.

You, if you are a Christian, are the recipient of divine protection.

In Psalm 121:7-8, which is often a, um, a psalm invoked in, uh, prayers

Psalms 121:7–8

for travel mercies, if you will, it says this: "The Lord will keep you

from all evil; he will keep your life.

The war- the Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from

this time and forth and forevermore."

What is that psalm trying to tell us?

That you're never gonna get in a car accident, that you're, you know,

always gonna be okay, that you're always gonna get the parking spot?

No, not necessarily.

But that everything that happens to you, your going out and your coming

in, no matter where you go, no matter what you do, is watched and, we can

say, divinely filtered by God himself.

Specifically, in addition to that, the Bible uses the imagery of even storms

and waters as a depiction of trouble from which God preserves believers.

Isaiah 43:2 says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be

Isaiah 43:2

with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

And when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the

flame shall not consume you."

That doesn't mean we are free as believers from death or suffering or sickness or

even third-degree burns, but rather that God holds our times in His hands until

we are in glory with Him in heaven.

Trusting in God's protection therefore means that we are neither presumptuous nor

risk-averse, that we don't get ourselves in trouble simply because we think that

God will protect us from anything, that we can just live a life of reckless abandon.

But neither does it mean that we should be afraid to be bold when we need to.

Therefore, God's providence over our lives, God's protection of His

believers, means that we can be bold in our callings and life without fear.

It's been said, um, and I couldn't figure out who said this

first, but, uh, the Christian is immortal until his work is done.

If we believe this, if Christians truly believe in God's divine

protection, then what happens?

Well secondly, our faith gains us a hearing in times of crisis.

The Apostle Paul, uh, when he might have sounded overcautious in the

moment, now actually sounds very reasonable in saying that number one,

they shouldn't have done that, but number two, I have an alternative.

I have some divine revelation from God.

The Apostle Paul in the last chapter was just accused by Festus for being

out of his mind, and maybe some Christians are thought of that way.

Hopefully not because we're, we're acting crazy, but hopefully we're accused for

bad reasons and false reasons, that, "Hey, all Christians, you know, you, you,

you have, you're too Pollyanna-ish or you're too optimistic about the world."

But in most cases, Christians are the most prepared for times of

crisis because they are not swayed by circumstances, by people, by competing

authorities, nor are they overly arrogant, trusting in themselves.

I love what Psalm 146 says.

It says, "Do not put your trust in princes, in a son of man,

in whom there is no salvation.

When his breath departs, he returns to the earth, and on that day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose God or whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is

in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is

in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed,

and who gives food to the hungry."

Because we believe that, and because we believe in d- God's divine protection,

we are not swayed, and therefore, often we have standing in times of

crisis to be heard, to be heard by our friends, to be heard by our unbelieving

family to say, "Hey, you've, you've kept it together during this bad time.

What's your secret?"

Thus, Paul speaks of not simply that he had a revelation, but he had a

revelation from the angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship.

Paul appealed to this authority.

He couldn't appeal to the authority of being a sailor or the authority

of being a wise meteorologist, but he knew above all that when life and

death were at stake, he could appeal to God for authority and his word.

You know, uh, this Friday is September 11th, and it's the 25th anniversary of

the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, and I think of, like, that's 25 years ago.

That's an entire generation of people ago.

But you think about what happened after that Sunday, if you guys remember where

you were and where you were in life then.

The…

It happened on a Tuesday.

The following Sunday, churches were absolutely packed because it was people

saying, "Well, we once trusted in the, you know, the United States government.

We once trusted in, you know, the Central Intelligence Agency to keep

us safe and to keep off international terrorists from attacking us.

Now what do we trust in?"

And it was a question of life and death.

It was the beg, big question of, "What am, what is gonna happen to me and my family?"

That's a que- that's a spiritual question to be answered by a spiritual authority.

In your life and in your sphere of influence, you are, to some extent, to

a great extent, a spiritual authority to your friends and family, and you'll

gain a hearing in times of crisis.

Thirdly, God uses us as witnesses for his abundant mercies.

God was generous in his revelation to Paul because it wasn't just for Paul, but

it was also for those who were with him.

We see this in two ways, that God was generous in the fact that he divinely

intervened to protect the lives that, of all who accompanied Paul on the

ship, and that comfort extended and was used by Paul to be a messenger of God's

mercy to the people on board the ship

So we first see th- that God intervened in particular, and commentator, um, I.

Howard Marshall w- in this passage says that the wording implies that Paul

had prayed for his fellow travelers and that God had heard his prayer.

We think of Abraham even interceding for the people of Sodom in Genesis

18, where God listened to Abraham to, to a large extent, and so

they were saved by this means.

And we see secondly that when Paul knew of this thing to happen, he

went to applying the mercies of God to their comfort, and he told them,

"I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you."

He could have just not told them anything and said, "Well, you

know, God's gonna preserve them, and I'll just let them freak out."

But he took it upon himself to show mercy.

He took it upon himself to be a vessel of mercy to those around him and to

be the encourager during this time.

In the same way, God often makes us the vessel and the conduit

of mercy to those around us.

We don't have…

I mean, not lately for myself at least, but you know, I haven't had

a vision from the angel of the Lord lately, but I do have the revealed

word of God, which makes me a vessel of mercy and hope to those around me.

Lastly, when we should under- underscore and understand that the gospel is

good news for a hopeless audience.

Notice that Paul finally ge- got a great audience when everyone was out of

hope, and it reminds us the extent to which the gospel and the word in which

we proclaim is a message for hopeless people, that as things get worse in

our world, we can, not rejoice, 'cause that sounds a little bit weird, but we

can be grateful to understand that as things get worse and as people get more

hopeless, the appetite to hear a message of hope is even greater with our family

and our friends and those around us.

Ephesians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13 says this: "Remember that you were at

Ephesians 2:12

that time separated from Christ," talking about people before they accepted Christ.

"They were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers

to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought

near by the blood of Christ."

What was happening on this ship was a very accelerated version of the spiritual

re- reality for many of these people.

That when immediately confronted with death, they were like,

"Okay, what do we even do now?

We don't have any hope."

And the lack of a hope of any idea of being saved actually had them stop

eating, where we're gonna see in, in the next, uh, later in the chapter that

there was actually food available, but they even stopped eating because they

were just simply giving up completely.

And how much people, I think, in this world give up in life, give up and become

depressed, give up and become unmotivated simply because they have no hope.

Well, let me tell you that you can have hope.

You can have hope in Christ Jesus to bring you close to God, and it's not

simply to bring you close to God by any means, but rather to bring you

close to God, as it is in Ephesians 2:13, "By the blood of Christ, which

Ephesians 2:13

formerly separated you by your…

because of your sin."

The distance meaning that you were apart from God.

You were apart from hope.

You were apart from life, and therefore God brought you near to give you a

hope in this world and in the next.

So as we consider that and as we consider the promises that God has given

to us to share, let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank you for your Word.

We thank you for your exhortations and many aspects of hope with

which you encourage our hearts.

Lord, I ask for anyone in here who themself is struggling with a difficult

situation, who is struggling with a life-threatening situation, that they

would call out to you for hope, that they would call out to you for mercy.

And Lord, I pray for all of us in here who call themselves Christians, that

we would be bold in confronting people in hopeless situations with hope, that

we would confront people who need to make decisions, people who are at a

crossroads, that we would confront them with reasonableness and a, an effort to

point them to your Son, Jesus Christ.

Lord, I ask that you would be with us, you would accompany us, and

that, Lord, you would watch over us through your divine protection.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.