Against Us | Acts 27:1-12

Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, a community of the citizen saints in Kansas City following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together.

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Today we're gonna be reading in Acts 27, 1 through 12.

You may stand for the reading of God's word this morning.

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

And embarking in a ship of Andrematim, 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 to 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 Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lysia.

And there a centurion found the ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board.

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

And as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmon.

Coasting along with it difficulty, we came to a place called Fairhavens, near which the city of Lacia.

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.

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.

This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

It's awesome to have our friends from Arkansas, from uh the college team, from Conway and Jonesburg in the house.

Um let's give it up for you guys.

Round of applause.

So for for our people, for our Kansas Citians, we've had a team in Kansas City serving with us over the weekend.

They served with us Thursday, and then they were serving various church plants across Kansas City, spending their fall break serving church plants and believing in the work that God is doing here in Kansas City.

So thank you guys from the bottom of my heart.

They helped us knock out half of that sound booth, or like three-fourths of that sound booth.

So thank you guys for that.

Um, and all the other projects, the stuff we did outside, in the basement, organizing closets.

You guys are incredible.

Hands and feet ministry, so thank you guys so much.

Thomas, thank you for your leadership.

And where's the other, where's my other leader?

Reagan.

Yes, thank you guys.

Yes, and Michael, I don't know.

Michael.

Michael, yeah.

Thank you guys.

All of you guys that did the deal.

Um I also want to give a shout out to two people, three of our people, actually.

Bo, back there.

So, Bo, he he's on vacation from work.

He spent all day Thursday working on the sound booth.

So thank you, Bubbo.

Let's give it up for Bo.

John, thank you for all the work you did on the electrical on Saturday.

Um, it's it's such a huge blessing, man.

Thank you so much.

Let's give it up for John.

And then Delet Simbo, just hanging with us all day Thursday, serving wherever needed, uh handing drills and hammers and doing whatever Bo asked him, and then climbing them up high um to work on the projectors this morning.

Thank you, Domali.

Let's give it for Domali.

So, yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you haven't noticed, one of our projectors is down.

Sometimes when you have a big project, um stuff gets messed up.

And so we killed both of our projectors, but we got one up and working for this morning.

So we're we're chilling.

Um that's growth for us as a church plant because two years ago when we when we launched, we would have had both down and not been able to get either back up.

So little baby steps, right?

Um cool, cool.

Amen, Alana.

Good seeing you.

All right, so we're gonna jump right in.

We have some ground to cover.

We have been in a sermon series, walking verse by verse through the book of Acts.

We've been chilling in Acts for a good year and a half-ish now.

And so we're continuing in that.

We're in Acts 27, verses 1 through 12.

Acts 27:1–12

Um, so if you have your Bible, you can go ahead and turn to Acts 27, verses 1 through 12.

Acts 27:1–12

If you don't have a Bible, um, we've got some to give you outside of the sanctuary doors, um, our gift to you.

Before we dig in, though, um, I want to present to you a thought.

There there's I think that there's a prayer that many of you, some of you have prayed many times.

And maybe you've like stopped saying the words.

You you hold that the name of that person before God.

Maybe it's a son or daughter who you won't call you back.

Maybe it's a marriage that's hanging on by a thread.

Maybe it's a body that just won't heal.

Maybe it's a friend who keeps going back to the same thing that keeps tearing their life up.

Maybe it's a dream that God put in your heart years ago.

It's taken so much longer than anybody would have wanted to come to fruition.

And you started out praying it with your whole chest, on your knees, out loud before the Lord, and now it's just a feeble sigh on the way to work.

Maybe it's a name you now just whisper quietly to yourself.

Not because you've necessarily quit believing, but because you've gotten tired.

And somewhere in there, a quieter question has arisen.

And you haven't maybe said it out loud, but it's this it's did I hear him wrong?

Did I hear God incorrectly?

Because God said something you know he did, and then the weather turns, the storms came, the winds blew, and it hasn't turned back.

If that's you, and I would venture to say there are several, if not many, in the house that that is them, I want to tell you that today's text is for you.

Today's text is for you.

Paul, remember, he has a promise from Jesus himself that he will go to Rome and be a witness of the gospel.

In this chapter, finally, Paul is on his way to Rome, and he encounters storms and winds in his face.

So every mile is earned, and the promise of God never flickers once.

So, so, real quick, let's refresh on where we are at.

Back in chapter 23, if you remember Paul, he was arrested.

He ended up in a Roman barracks in Jerusalem, and Jesus stood beside him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must also in Rome.

So that is a promise from the risen Christ that Paul would go and testify in Rome.

And the promise is from the very mouth of Jesus.

And then Paul is arrested.

He spends two years in a holding cell in Caesarea.

Felix, he encountered Felix, he encountered Festus, he encountered Agrippa, all these men that directly or indirectly opposed him, but also helped to move God's plan forward.

And now we finally get to chapter 27.

You have the ship.

And I think like if you were writing the story, this is where like the text speeds up.

The promise kicks in, there's winds behind the sails, and he is just flying to Rome to preach the gospel.

But that's not what happens.

Once again, everything slows down in the book of Acts.

You have 12 verses of ports and winds and ship transfers, you have a committee meeting.

Sailors who have read this chapter say, Luke got every detail right.

The rigging, the winds, the harbors.

It's one of the most detailed accounts of a sea voyage that we see in the scriptures.

And almost every sentence of it is wind in Paul's face.

And I want to present to you, family, that that is on purpose.

Because I think that here is what Luke wants us to see.

He wants to see that God's promise to Paul was at work the whole time.

Every mile of the voyage, but nothing about the trip looked like it.

And it's that gap, it's within that gap between what God said and what you can see where a lot of us live.

So, with that, there's three things I want to pull from this text.

There's three truths that we will look at.

First, notice the kindness on the way.

Second, keep going when the wind is against you.

And thirdly, listen to the voice the majority ignores.

I'll pray and then let's dig in.

Heavenly Father, we love you.

We praise you.

We thank you for bringing us here today from neighborhoods across Kansas City, from Conway and Jonesboro, Arkansas, from different backgrounds all across the states and the world.

And Lord, I just praise you that we get to open your word.

I praise you that we get to open your word that is living and active, that's sharper than a two-edged sword, and we get to like dig into it and feast on your word, Lord.

God, I pray that you write the truths of your scripture on our hearts today.

That you would move in this place.

Lord, we love you.

We praise you.

It's in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray.

And all God's people said.

Amen.

Amen.

So point number one, notice the kindness on the way.

Notice the kindness on the way.

Acts 27, verses 1 through 3, starting in verse 1.

Acts 27:1–3

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

So, right off the rip, don't miss the word we.

We see this word we.

So what that shows us, the author Luke, is back.

He is on the ship with Paul.

He hasn't been mentioned, he hasn't been on stage since chapter 21.

And now he's stepping back into the story that he wrote.

He's on the boat.

And verse 2 says Aristarchus is with them too.

And if you remember, he's a believer from Thessalonica who's been with Paul since the riots in Ephesus.

So we got Paul, we got Luke, we got Aristarchus, we got three Christians in a ship full of soldiers, of sailors, and prisoners.

So here's the first thing that we should notice.

Paul, he is in chains, but he's not alone.

He's got some brothers with him.

Jesus didn't send him to Rome by himself.

Because here's the thing: the way of Jesus, it's never been a solo trip.

What do we say here often?

Rachel Mossman always comes to you on this one.

A lone ranger is a dead ranger.

There's no lone ranger Christianity in the way of Jesus.

And we see that in the book of Acts.

From the first page of Acts to the last, there's always a we.

There is always a we.

Now looking at verse 3, that 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.

So I want us to slow down here because Luke, he chooses his words carefully.

He says, treated him kindly.

So you can hear the word philanthropy that we get within it.

That's love for people.

It's a rare word in the New Testament.

And Luke uses the noun form one more time in chapter 28.

It's when the islanders on Malta show the shipwrecked crew unusual kindness.

And Paul, he uses it in one other place.

Titus chapter 3, verse 4.

Titus 3:4

When the goodness and loving kindness of God and our Savior appeared.

So hold on to that.

We'll come back to it.

Then we see this language of to be cared for.

To be cared for.

That's a word that Luke has used before.

Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

A man is beaten and left half dead on the road to Jericho, and a Samaritan stops, bandages him up, carries him to an end, and took care of him.

So it's the same word, same author.

Luke, he wrote the Gospel of Luke, and he wrote the book of Acts, two essentially chapters of the same story.

So Luke is telling us, the readers, that Paul, the prisoner, is getting this good Samaritan sort of care.

And look who's giving it.

It's a Roman centurion, not a believer, from what we can tell.

It's a career soldier who's doing his job.

And his job is to deliver this man, Paul, to Caesar.

And we also see a church in Sidon caring for him.

Paul, he didn't plant that church.

There's no accounts of him planting it in the book of Acts.

So these believers, they go all the way back to the scattering of believers after Stephen stoning and beating twenty-something years earlier.

So here's the point.

God's care, God's loving kindness, usually shows up through people.

And oftentimes it arrives through people who you didn't expect and people you didn't pick.

A soldier with no reason to be kind.

A church you've never been to.

Somebody who doesn't share your faith but shares their lunch.

And maybe that's your story as well.

It's the maybe it's the season that you didn't choose, the chains that you didn't ask for, and the people who showed up.

We on Thursday nights with these college students, we split up into small groups, and uh Chelse and I were sharing in the conference room with a group, and I was just struck by the way that God uses people.

In fact, two years ago when this team came, God used Michael to speak into my life in a real, tangible, encouraging way.

Right?

Chelsea and I were walking through a tough time.

Michael sat down with me, spoke life and truth over me.

God used people to keep me on the journey, right?

And I think the same is true for many of you.

That's how God operates oftentimes.

Maybe for you it's the coworker who spoke truth into your life.

Maybe it's the neighbor who showed up and brought you a meal or mowed your yard.

Maybe it's the nurse who cared for you while you were in the hospital for whatever.

Maybe it's the church that you walked into when you'd given up on church.

What I want you to hear is that that was God.

That was God.

Don't miss this.

Julius, the centurion, he didn't say, The Lord has laid it on my heart to let you see your friends.

No, he just did it.

And Luke, the doctor, writing years later, saw it for what it was and wrote it down.

So here's what we should do with this: two things.

First, name who God has used in your life.

Who has God put in your boat, figuratively speaking?

Who showed up in a hard season and cared for you?

My encouragement to you, whether you're from Arkansas, whether you're from Kansas City, is to write them down and then thank them personally this week.

Hey, for me, it's uh well Michael, and then a guy named Cole, when I was newly Christian, he discipled me, he walked with me.

And so I need to thank him.

Hey, thank you for speaking into my life.

Thank you for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself.

That person who showed up for you.

Second, we should be the one who cares.

We should be the one who shows up for others.

There's somebody in your life who is in chains right now.

Maybe not literal chains.

Maybe they are.

Maybe it's a the chains of a diagnosis, the chains of divorce, the chains of a kid who is not okay.

Maybe it's a relapse.

You can't fix it.

You can't get them off the boat.

You can't love them into right living, but you can treat them kindly, you can show up for them, and you can care for them.

So that's not a small act, right?

Sometimes it feels like it, but it's not.

So in Acts 27, that's the first thing God does for Paul on the way to Rome.

So let's look at what happens next.

Point number two is keep going when the wind is against you.

Keep going when the wind is against you.

So watch what happens now after they leave Sidon in verse 4.

The text says, And putting out to sea, from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us.

Because the winds were against us.

They wanted to go west, but the wind was coming from the west.

So they they tuck up under the island of Cyprus, and they're using it as a windbreak.

And they crawl along the coast of Asia Minor to a port called Mira.

And then at Mira, verse 6, the centurion finds a bigger ship.

It's an Alexandrian grain ship bound for Italy.

Egypt, they they helped to feed Rome.

These were the biggest ships on the sea, hauling wheat across the Mediterranean.

And Luke's going to tell us later that there were 276 people on this one.

That's a couple.

So they transfer.

They hop on this new ship, but there's the same wind that is blowing against them.

It's the same wind.

Then listen to how Luke writes verses 7 and 8.

The text says, We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Sinidas.

And as the winds did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Krates off Salmon.

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

So they're moving slowly.

They're moving with difficulty.

The wind did not allow us, it says, with difficulty, the text says.

But there's language in here and words in here that the author Luke wants us to see.

Every mile is earned.

They can't go straight at the goal.

They can't go straight at where God has called them to go.

So they tuck behind another island.

Crate this time.

And they scrape along the south coast until they limp into a harbor called Pharaoh.

Havens.

So here's what we should see.

Paul, he had a promise from Jesus, the promise being, you must testify in Rome, and the wind is against him on the way to this promise.

Both things are true at the same time.

They are not mutually exclusive.

The promise, though, did not buy him a tailwind.

He is sailing against the wind to the promise.

And I think that we as Christians, oftentimes, we have this idea, and I don't necessarily know where we got it, but it's that if God is really in something, it'll be easy.

If God is really in something, then it'll be smooth.

Doors will fling open.

The wind will be at our back.

Everything will be all sunshines and rainbows, but that's not the reality we see throughout Scripture.

We think that when it's hard, when it's slow, when we're sailing under the lee of some island because we can't go straight, we start to think, hey, maybe I heard wrong.

Maybe God's not in this.

Maybe God doesn't want me to go here.

But I think that Acts 27 shows us undeniably that slow is not the same as off course.

Difficult is not the same thing as being wrong.

The wind being against you is not evidence that God is against you.

Paul is going exactly where Jesus said he'd go.

And he's doing it at a turtle's pace.

He's doing it two knots with difficulty.

I think of my daughter, you guys have all met her.

She's like 16 months, almost 17 months.

And we were, it was windy over the weekend, right?

Think of a little bitty toddler walking against the wind, right?

It's like it almost wants to blow her over, but she's like, you know, kind of bends down, just kind of goes with force.

She kind of walks all awkward, anyways, because she's a baby.

But like that's what I think about.

The wind being against her, but with determination, she's still going in that direction.

And I think that some of us need to hear this truth this morning.

College students, young adults.

Some of you guys are like three years into something, be it a degree, maybe it's a business that you're starting, maybe it's a career, maybe it's a calling.

And it's taking longer than anybody told you it would take.

You thought you'd be in Rome right now by now.

But you're in Fairhavens.

And what I would argue and present to you is that you are not lost.

You are sailing into the wind.

Maybe you're a couple years into a marriage and it's tough.

Maybe you thought you'd have some kiddos by now and you don't.

It just hasn't happened.

It's been difficult, it's been tough.

But what I want you to hear is that the Lord is still with you.

Maybe it's you thought you'd have that husband, or you thought you'd have that wife by now, and you don't.

But what I want you to hear is that that does not mean that the Lord is not with you.

He is still with you.

Or maybe you got a past.

I know some of us here we have a past.

Maybe it's drugs, alcohol, maybe it's something else, whatever it is.

It's like you begin a journey of life change, of turning from one way of life to the other, whatever it is that's in your past, and you think that, hey, now that I'm living right, now that I'm following Jesus, everything's gonna be just smooth sailing.

But oftentimes those early days are the slowest.

It's a plod.

It's one foot in front of the other on the journey.

And I think like an example for us is just like the work of church planting, right?

For all my people here in Kansas City, like that's that's often what it is.

With with church planting, we're often sailing against the wind.

We're two and a half years into planting, and at times it seems as though church planting crawls at a turtle's pace.

At other times, it's like boom, we got the tailwind behind us.

But what I want you to hear is that whatever it is, whichever way the wind's blowing, that does not mean that we're off course.

No, we're in all likelihood under the lee off the island, making our way towards the promise of God.

So, what's the word here for us?

It's this keep going.

Keep going.

Wherever you sit, wherever you are, keep going.

Don't read the wind as a verdict.

Don't read the wind as the final answer.

Paul, he kept going.

He got to Rome, spoiler alert.

It took a year longer than it should have, and he arrived on a plank, but he arrived.

Jesus kept his word.

And the truth for you is that Jesus will keep his word to you as well.

Might not be on your schedule, it sure as heck wasn't on Paul's schedule, but he will keep his word.

Point number three, and our final point this morning is listen to the voice the majority ignores.

Listen to the voice the majority ignores.

Verses nine through twelve, the text says that I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name.

Oh, I'm in the wrong chapter.

You're like, whoa.

Nine through twelve of chapter twenty-seven.

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.

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, verse 9, we see the decision.

Much time had passed, the voyage was dangerous because even the fast was already over.

Paul advised them.

So, first of all, I want to just point out a little like cool tidbit about this.

First, you see that phrase, the fast.

So, what that's referring to is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the one day, a year that Israel stopped everything and dealt with sin.

So it actually lands in early October.

The year this happens in Acts, it fell on about October 5th.

Luke says it's already over.

So where that's putting us is like mid-October.

So if there had been a calendar on the wall of this ship, it would likely say like the same week as ours, right?

A handful of years later.

But that's just a fun little tidbit for you guys.

So like think about what that tells us.

Like the it gives us a picture of what the season was, what the times were like, summer being gone.

And so in this context, after the if you're a sailor in the ancient world, in this place, after the middle of September, the sea gets doubtful.

So it's still not like early November, it's like, hey, don't go.

Don't be on the ship after November, wait it out until March.

But there's a window that they're still in, and this window is shutting.

So that's mid-October, they have but like a month-ish, if not a few weeks, to make it to Rome, or they gotta wait till the next year.

And Paul speaks up, he's like, hey, we shouldn't go.

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 that's serious, right?

Notice what Paul doesn't say.

He doesn't say he doesn't have a thus saith the Lord.

He doesn't say an angel told him.

That comes later on.

But in verse 23, in the middle of the storm, he says, I perceive.

So this is like a judgment that he's making.

He has some experience before the trip has ever happened.

He wrote, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, three times I was shipwrecked.

A night and a day I was adrift at sea.

That's in 2 Corinthians 11, 25.

So he's been shipwrecked before, so he knows what it takes to be shipwreck.

So what we should see, the prisoner that's on this boat, he's been through more disasters at sea than anybody on it wants to admit.

So what happens?

Well, verse 11, the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship.

The pilot's the expert, he knows how to navigate the ship, the owner's the money, he's the one who's like financially invested in the wheat that they are sending.

He has a schedule to keep.

And then the centurion, who's a good man, who was kind to Paul three verses ago, he listens to them.

And we might shake our fists at that centurion, but like to me it makes sense to listen to the experienced ship guy and to listen to the guy that's owning the ship and owns everything that's on it.

Because, like, if you're in that situation, who takes sailing advice from a prisoner over the captain, right?

Like, so it makes sense.

Then we get to verse 12, and because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter, and the majority decided to put out to sea from there on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of crates, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.

So there's a vote, the majority decided Fairhavens is uncomfortable, Phoenix is a better harbor, it's 40 miles down the coastline, 40 miles, that's like from here to Lawrence, Kansas, right?

So they weren't trying to cross an ocean.

They were trying to get to just kind of a nicer spot to post up, to park it.

And the whole plan rested on one phrase.

On the chance that somehow, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix.

I want us to be fair to our friend Julius here, the centurion.

One theologian he writes about this verse over 500 years ago, and he said, the centurion isn't blamed for this.

What should he have done?

He knew he wasn't a sailor, so he let the experts lead.

And this theologian calls that a point of a wise and modest man.

So that's what makes this sobering for us.

Nobody on the boat was necessarily being reckless.

The decision was reasonable.

It was expert advice.

It was financially responsible.

It was democratic in nature, meaning they took a vote.

And it was wrong.

Reasonable, expert, well-funded, voted on, can all be wrong at the same time.

John Chrysostom, one of the early church fathers preaching on this in the fourth century, he put his finger on it in one word.

He said they were hurrying.

They were in a hurry to get somewhere better.

And how many of us in 2026, America, in our current cultural moments, are in a hurry?

Maybe it's a hurry to finish college.

Maybe it's a hurry to get that promotion at work.

Maybe it's a hurry to get that spouse.

Maybe it's a hurry to leave the old way of life behind.

Whatever it is, we're in a hurry, right?

So in the text, fair havens, it's the safe, boring place, if you will.

It's not necessarily where you want to be.

It's not comfortable.

Nobody's impressed, but it'll hold you through the season.

For some of you, the your fair havens is the job that is beneath you.

Your fair havens is the sober living house that you're living in.

Your fair havens is the church where nobody's famous.

Your fair havens is the boundaries that you set with that person.

Your fair havens is the budgets that you're setting for future well-being.

It's the slow, unglamorous, with difficulty life of actually following the way of Jesus.

And Phoenix is the better setup.

It's 40 miles away, it's got all the glitz and glamour, it's just on the other side of a cape.

It makes sense on paper.

You've thought it through, you've weighed the pros and cons on a whiteboard, you've talked to people about it.

The experts say it's fine.

The majority is with you.

You're saying, I'm not being reckless, I'm being reasonable.

Everyone agrees that this is what to do.

And church, can I just tell you that I have over the years watched people wreck their lives this exact way?

Most wrecks in this room didn't start with recklessness, right?

They started with reasonable.

It's just 40 miles.

I've got this under control right now.

I can white knuckle it and do it on my own.

Everybody says I'm ready.

The harbor's not comfortable here, anyways.

Here's the thing: nobody in the story was trying to sink the ship.

Nobody in this story was trying to sail into turmoil.

But that's what happens.

What they were trying to do is winter somewhere nicer.

And the voice that said stay was the one voice that nobody wanted to hear.

Why is it?

Well, it came from a prisoner.

We we see the apostle Paul on a pedestal as the rider of the majority of the New Testament, as the greatest church planner to ever live, but Acts 27, putting ourselves there?

Paul's a prisoner.

That's it.

So here's the question for you.

This is what I want us to ponder.

Ashley, you can come up and begin to close this in song.

Here's the question: Who is the voice in your life that you've been outvoting?

Who is the voice in your life that you've been outvoting?

Maybe it's the sponsor, maybe it's the spouse, maybe it's the friend who's been through what you're walking through and keep saying, don't do it.

Maybe it's the pastor.

Maybe it's the word of God sitting on your nightstand saying the same thing that it said for 2,000 years.

It's not that you haven't heard it.

We got some people here that do a good job of keeping their quiet times, right?

It's not that you haven't heard it.

It's that you paid more attention to the pilot and the owner instead of the God of the universe.

Wisdom from God, it doesn't always come with a sign.

Sometimes it comes from the guy with the scars that's been there, that's walked through it, that's done the stuff.

Or maybe to put yourself in the shoe on the other foot.

Some of you are the one that's saying, stay, that's saying, hey, stop doing that.

You're destroying your life.

And nobody's listening.

Maybe it's your adult kid, maybe it's your friends, maybe it's somebody in your small group.

Let's look at what Paul says.

He says it once clearly.

He says, I perceive this is going to end badly.

And then verse 11, they overrule him, and Paul doesn't say another word until verse 21.

He doesn't nag, he doesn't storm off, he doesn't say, Fine, I'm getting off at Fair Havens.

He stays in the boat with the people who ignored him.

Yes, because he's a prisoner, but also what I would argue is because he's going to be needed in the storm.

So for us, those who are followers of Jesus and we're speaking life and truth over a brother or sister's life, my encouragement to you is to say the hard thing, to say it clearly, and then stay close.

To the people who outvote you in one instance, they may be the people who need you in the next season while they're in the dark.

Now, just to briefly look ahead, verse 13.

We're not gonna dig into it today, but I want you to see it.

Verse 13 reads, Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along, sailed along Crete close to the shore.

So what's coming is a gentle south wind.

After weeks of sailing into the wind, finally a breeze from the right direction.

We would think that that felt like confirmation.

It felt like God saying yes.

Supposing that they had obtained their purpose.

So here's what I want you to take home.

The gentle south wind is not how you know you're right.

The vote when everyone is on your side is not how you know you're right.

The experts, the money, the comfortable harbor, none of it.

Most of the disasters in your life, and my disasters, started on a nice day with everyone agreeing.

But the last word of this passage, it's not the weather.

If you go back to verse 3, Julius treated Paul kindly.

Remember that word, philanthropos, philanthropos.

And Paul, years later, he reached for that same word to describe the biggest thing that ever happened.

Titus chapter 3, verses 4 and 5 reads, When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.

Titus 3:4

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

So for all of us here, you and I are the prisoner.

We're the prisoner.

We're the one who are born into chains that we can't break, that are headed somewhere that we didn't choose with the wind in our face.

And God stopped for you on the road.

Did God say that to you?

No?

He didn't say, get to Rome and then I'll be kind to you.

He saw you beaten and half dead, broken and bruised on the side of the road, and he said, Take care of him.

And his take care of him was sending his son Jesus Christ to this earth to live a life, performing miracles, caring for the weak and the poor, showing his loving kindness.

Here's the thing about Jesus: He was the voice that the majority ignored.

The experts of his day, the religious professionals, said he was wrong.

The people with money and power said he was dangerous.

And when it came to a vote outside Pilate's palace, Luke tells us their voices prevailed.

The majority decided, and they said, crucify him.

He was outvoted and he was right.

He had a promised destination too.

And the road there was all headwinds.

For you, he went into the storm so that you could come ashore.

So this morning, if you've been sailing against the winds, sailing against the forecast, if you've been trusting the experts and the gentle south wind in the harbor that looks pretty 40 miles away, stop.

Put yourself in the care of the one who was outvoted and was right, who willingly went to the cross and died for the forgiveness of your sins.

He is kind, he loves you, he cares for you, he will take care of you, and he's never once lost somebody that he promised to bring home.

And if you're here today and you are already a follower of Jesus, my encouragement to you is to look around the boat.

Somebody near you is in chains, and the wind is against them.

So be the encouragement to them.

Be the one who speaks life and truth into their life.

Do it boldly.

Do it in the midst of fear and insecurity.

Just do it.

Make sure they're cared for.

And when they want us to leave the harbor on a nice day, say the hard thing and stay close.

That's the encouragement that we see from Acts 27, verses 1 through 12.

Acts 27:1–12

Ashton's gonna close us in song as we do each week.

But before that, I'll pray.

This is a time for you to get right before the Lord.

If it's singing songs of praise loudly and boldly, do that.

If it's sitting silently and praying, do that.

If it's coming to the altar and kneeling, do that.

If it's praying with a brother or sister or family member, do that.

Whatever the Lord is putting on your heart, you have the freedom to do that.

I'll pray.

Lord, we love you, we praise you, we thank you for this day.

We thank you that we are able to gather together each week and to look at a risen Savior.

We have a book about a risen Savior.

And that changes everything.

And so, Lord, I pray that you will uh just write these truths afresh on our hearts and in our minds that we would see clearly the sacrifice that you willingly made on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

Lord, let us truly embrace that reality.

We love you, we praise you.

It's in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, and all God's people said, Amen.

Thanks for listening.

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in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City.

Or find us anytime at the wakeac.church.