It Will Happen
If you have your Bibles,
turn to Acts Chapter 27.
This is the second week in our series called Don’t Stop.
based on the scripture…
Heb 10:36-37
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
If you were here last week,
we talked about how,
even when you can’t see God working around you,
He's always working within you.
And because of that you need to persevere,
until you finally receive the promise of God.
Even if you’ve been waiting a long time,
even if you don’t see any progress right now,
God has a plan for how to fulfill his promise,
and it might be right around the corner,
but you'll never know if you stop.
You’ve come too far in your marriage
to walk away from it now
just because it got tough in those teenage years.
You’ve come too far in your walk with God
to go back to your old life now.
How many of you could tell a story
about about a time when,
you almost stopped short,
you almost quit something important,
you almost gave up,
but you didn’t,
and now you're so glad you didn’t.
And now you can look back and say,
I was faithful,
and then God showed himself
more faithful than I could ever be.
Once you’ve been a Christian a while,
you don’t get as impressed by people
who have the faith to start something,
people are starting things all the time…
but you become very impressed by those
who have the fortitude to finish it.
I admire people, who don’t just have the faith to start,
anybody can show up at the start,
but those who pay the price in perseverance,
that’s who we want to be,
and that’s who God wants us to be.
Acts 27 has a story about the Apostle Paul,
who wrote about 1/3 of the NT.
And we often read his writings,
Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians, Timothy Titus Thessalonians Philemon
We read all his books,
but we don’t always understand
what was behind this man,
and what he suffered
to be able to learn and share all this…
In order to share about
the depths of the riches of Christ,
he first had to experience
some personal depths, and pain, and disappointment.
If you ever see somebody
who has great spiritual strength,
you can bet that
it was born out of some sorrow.
Well, in Acts 27, Paul is in trouble.
He's in transition, and he's in trouble.
And by the way, if you're in either of those stages today,
transition or trouble,
then I want to let you know,
that’s a good place to be,
because that's the place where
God does his deepest transformation.
When we're in transition or when we're in trouble,
and Paul is in both.
He's onboard a ship, headed to Rome,
and it would be one thing
if he was headed to Rome on Carnival Cruise line,
because he wanted to see the sights
and enjoy the climate,
but he's not going to Rome on a luxury cruise,
he's going on the ship
as a prisoner, in chains.
And then to make things worse,
along the way he runs into an unexpected difficulty
that wasn’t his fault.
Lets pick up the story in verse 9
Acts 27:9-26
9 Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them, 10 "Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also." 11 But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship.
If you think about it,
that is a no-brainer,
of course they did that.
If you were the centurion,
in charge of getting prisoners safely to Rome
to stand trial,
and you've got the pilot and the owner of the ship saying,
we can keep going,
it'll be fine.
but then there's a preacher on board,
and he tells you,
Just wanted to let you know, Centurion,
I've been talking to God, and he told me…
Have you noticed that
people will tell you some pretty weird stuff,
but they'll start it out with,
the Lord told me?
That’s like the Christian trump card.
I can say whatever I want to say,
and you're not allowed to disagree,
because the Lord told me.
Like the time I was in a meeting with some people,
and we had a difference of opinion,
but I was trying to be nice about it.
but then they told me that,
the Lord told them I was demon possessed,
and they wanted to cast it out of me right there.
I said,
yeah I have had some trouble with demons,
and they're sitting right here at the table with me.
Anyway, the Centurion has to make a decision…
Lets see now…
I can listen to the pilot of the ship,
whose been to nautical school,
and he has maps and charts
and understands sailing ships,
or I can listen to the preacher on board,
whose been arrested.
Lets see,
preacher-prisoner… or pilot-owner…
That’s a tough one, but
I think I'll go with the owner.
Now, God is being compassionate,
he's speaking through Paul to warn these men,
but they don’t care,
and they're not listening.
In our own lives, so often
God is compassionate to us,
and warns us through his word,
or through other people,
But what do we do?
we listen to all the other voices on the boat,
we listen to everybody else's ideas,
we listen to everybody else's opinions,
we listen to everybody else's assessment of the situation,
and look at all the other indicators,
before we listen to God.
So, just like the centurion,
you and I have to make a decision.
Will I steer by my senses,
or will I steer by the spirit.
You see, every ship is being steered by something.
The ship represents your life,
The ship represents the direction you're headed,
The ship represents all the things God has given you,
And your life is heading in the direction
of whatever is steering it.
And a lot of us are like the centurion.
instead of listening to what the voice of God says,
because a lot of times that doesn’t make sense to us,
instead we're listening to what our senses say,
because that’s something we can understand.
But did you know that its common
for God to tell people to do things,
that don’t really make sense?
And if you live your life
only by what makes sense,
you'll never become a person of strong faith.
If it always has to make sense,
for you to obey God,
you'll never know what it means
to really trust him.
It didn’t make a bit of sense,
for Joshua to walk around the walls of Jericho 7 times,
and wait for them to fall down.
It didn’t make a bit of sense,
for Moses to stretch his staff over the Red Sea
and expect that the water was going to part,
It didn’t make a bit of sense,
for David to fight a giant in heavy armor,
when he's only got a slingshot.
It didn’t make a bit of sense,
for Jesus to allow men to hang him on a cross,
and then say, while he's hanging there,
Father forgive them for they don’t know what they're doing.
It didn’t make a bit of sense,
when the stone was rolled away,
for him to rise from the dead
and then appear to over 500 people.
It didn’t make a bit of sense,
that his little group of 12 followers
would expand and multiply
to over 2 billion people on the earth today,
Are you living your life,
only based on what makes sense?
You will never have faith.
We get so worried about,
Oh no, somebody's gonna think I'm weird,
people aren't gonna want to be around me,
people will call me one of those kind of Christians,
The truth is,
so much of this life just doesn’t make sense,
and if we're always trying to force it to make sense
by our own standards,
then you'll never walk in faith.
I want you to think about the key areas of your life…
Are you living according to your senses,
what you can calculate,
or are you living according to
confidence in Gods promises,
and you let him do the math,
when it doesn't always make sense to you.
Its been said,
Outcome is Gods responsibility,
Obedience is yours.
You don’t have to understand, to obey.
You don’t have to know where its gonna end up,
to take the next step.
And in this passage we see some men
who don’t want to obey a word from God,
and they keep sailing,
when they should have stopped.
So we already know
it's gonna be a disaster,
because anytime you ignore Gods warnings,
the winds will be against you.
Verse 13
When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along.
Notice, when they started out,
they're heading north,
and it says a gentle south wind began to blow.
So they had the wind at their backs.
It looked really good.
It looked perfect.
Did you know that…
sometimes when you ignore God's warnings,
it looks really good,
it feels like you're making progress,
but even the progress you think you're making
is ultimately leading you to disaster.
It looks good for a while,
we can’t see the consequences now,
but they're already on the way,
they're waiting for us, just over the horizon.
Have you been ignoring
a warning in God's word?
Jesus said, [Mark 8:36-37]
What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul?
What good is it for you to make more money,
if you have to cut corners to do it,
and then you don't even like yourself
when you look in the mirror,
What good is it for you to pile up possessions
but not be involved in the things
that matter most to God,
You're going with the wind,
and it looks really good for a while,
but it won't last,
if you ignore the warnings of God.
It says they were driven along.
Doesn’t that describe so many of us?
Driven along.
Things start to get out of our control,
so we're just going with the flow,
even though its not a good direction.
Verse 16
As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, 17 so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.
There's that phrase again.
Driven along.
I wonder how many of us here this morning,
are being driven along,
because you ignored the warnings of God.
At first things looked really good,
so you ignored the warnings,
but then the consequences kicked in,
and now you're being driven along.
And I could stop right here
and mention some of those warnings you’ve ignored,
but you know what, I don’t have to.
Because that’s what the Spirit of God does.
He doesn’t threaten you,
he doesn’t condemn you,
but he calls to you, with a gentle whisper,
and says,
you need to pay more attention here,
you need to put your heart back into this,
you need to go back and do it like you used to do it,
you’ve lost your passion,
you’ve lost your intensity,
you’ve lost your focus,
you’ve lost your first love,
so that now you're being driven along.
Verse 18
We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard.
So its getting worse and worse.
And I know this is supposed to be an encouraging message,
and I'm gonna get there,
but before I can get to the encouraging part,
I need to describe
what some people's lives look like right now,
where you're been driven along,
you're caught up in a storm,
and its not working,
so you're trying this and trying that,
and throwing stuff overboard,
and its still not helping,
the problems and trials and storms keep coming,
many of them which you created yourself.
19 On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging,
Have you ever been in a situation,
when the storm keeps raging,
and you're thinking, when is it gonna end,
when am I gonna get past this thing,
but the storm keeps raging.
we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
Up to this point they were still fighting,
they're throwing overboard the cargo,
then the ships tackle,
anything they can do,
but finally they give up hope.
Maybe you're there this morning.
You've given up hope that it'll ever be any different.
You're thinking,
that’s just how it is.
I'm always gonna be depressed.
I'm always gonna be overweight.
I'm always gonna have these health problems.
That’s just how it is.
I'm always gonna be lonely.
I'm always gonna be bitter,
I'm always gonna have that habit or addiction,
I'll never get over it,
That’s just how it is.
Driven along,
they gave up hope.
He says,
neither sun nor stars appeared for many days
It got so dark out there.
As long as we could see something to direct us,
we kept trying
even though we were taking a beating,
but eventually we lost our guiding light,
and when we lost our light,
we gave up our hope,
and now we're just drifting.
I wonder if there's anyone here this morning
that’s just drifting?
And right now God is speaking to you,
and saying,
Yeah, that’s you, you're drifting.
Verse 21
After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them
And I believe
that’s what God wants me to do for you today,
is stand before you like Paul,
and say to all of you who've been driven along,
You might have lost some time,
You might have lost some money,
You might have lost some opportunities,
You might have lost some people,
You might have lost some relationships,
You might have lost some peace,
but its not too late,
God hasn’t given up on you…
Paul stood up before them…
and said: "Men, you should have taken my advice…
I love that part.
you should have taken my advice…
Some of you guys are thinking right now,
I'm so confused,
I didn’t know that the Apostle Paul was a woman.
[You should have taken my advice]
Just joking… kind of.
Paul stood up before them…
and said: "Men, you should have taken my advice…
not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now
I have to stop,
because those are the 2 most important words in the story.
But now
Do you know how important those 2 words are in your life?
But now
I can’t do anything about the way I screwed up the past,
But now
I can’t do anything about the decisions I made
when I was young and foolish,
I can’t even do anything about the decisions I made
last week,
But now
There's some things I would change if I could,
There's some things I would do over if I could,
unfortunately its too late for that,
But now
You know who Paul sounds like right here?
He sounds like Mary and Martha,
when their brother Lazarus had died,
And Mary and Martha came out to meet Jesus at the road,
and they said, Jesus if you'd been here
our brother wouldn’t have died,
but even now.
They knew that
even thought it looked hopeless.
it wasn’t over yet,
But now.
We serve a right now God,
not a someday when I die,
by and by God,
but a right now God,
who has the power to rescue us from any situation,
no matter how hopeless.
We serve a God who says in his word that
faith is the substance of things hoped for,
and the evidence of things not seen,
Paul says, I can’t see the stars,
I can’t see the dry land,
I can’t see the end of this storm,
but I still have faith in what is not seen,
Paul said I forget what's behind me,
and I reach toward what's ahead,
but now…
We're not gonna put off obeying any more,
we're not gonna drift along even one more day,
the right time to do the right thing is right now.
Paul says, but now…
I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost;
Not one of you will be lost.
Gods mercy is so great.
Sometimes you hear people say things like,
"If God gets you into a situation, then God will get you out."
And that’s great…
but what if he didn’t get me into the situation?
What if I got myself into the situation,
through my own dumb decisions.
God says, I'll still come looking for you.
I'll still come get you out,
I'll still save you.
I'll still give you another chance,
I'll still love you,
I'll still call your name,
I'll still accept you,
I'll still use you.
Paul said,
not one of you will be lost;
But about this boat…
its not looking good for the boat…
only the ship will be destroyed.
Let me ask you, is this good news or bad news?
I guess it depends on what your priority is in the situation.
If what you care about most, is the boat,
then when the boat goes down,
your hope goes with it.
But Paul said,
keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost;
Sometimes we put our hope
in how we want God to do something.
Sometimes our hope is in our plan,
for how we want to get
where we think God wants to take us.
But if your hope is in your plan,
then when your plan is interrupted,
your faith fails.
The truth is,
We all have our plans don’t we.
I thought that person would never leave me.
I thought I'd be farther along by now.
I thought I was gonna get into this university,
I thought I was gonna marry him,
I thought I was gonna get that job,
Are you so focused on your plan
for how it was supposed to happen,
that you're missing
the way God wants to bring it about?
That’s what Paul is trying to get these men to see.
He says,
we're not going to get there in the boat,
I know that was your plan,
but that’s not now God's going to do it.
There's no hope left for the boat…
In your life, there are some things
that are never again going to be like they were.
You can’t rewind
and do that part over.
But Paul says…
23 Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.' 25 So keep up your courage,
I believe that’s God's word for you this morning.
keep up your courage,
The boat might be going down,
but keep your courage up.
Your bank account might be going down,
but keep your courage up.
Sometimes the only thing that’s in your control
is your courage.
Your conditions are not always in your control.
You don’t always get to decide
what kind of weather you face,
You don’t always get to decide
what kind of seas you sail on,
There are some things that are outside of your control.
But your courage is in your control.
Some of you have lost your courage
and you’ve lost your confidence
and you’ve lost your hope,
and you’ve lost your joy.
You want to know why you lost it?
Because all your hope was in the boat,
your hope was in your circumstances.
God says, sometime I've gotta break your boat,
so that your hope will float to the surface,
and I'm gonna rescue you,
but it won't happen the way you planned.
So Paul says, Keep up your courage
Keep up your courage, Vineyard,
Keep up your courage, single mom,
Keep up your courage
even though your company is laying people off,
Keep up your courage
even though you didn’t want the divorce,
Even if everything else goes down,
keep up your courage.
for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.
It will happen.
Gods purpose in my life will be fulfilled.
He hasn’t left me.
He's still standing with me.
My hope is not in the boat,
its in Jesus Christ,
the one who didn’t need a boat,
he could walk on water just fine without one.
So Paul says, It will happen.
Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island."
And in verse 41 it tells us…
But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.
42 The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping.
43 But the centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. 44 The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.
Are you putting your faith in
the way you want God to do it?
or are you putting your faith in
God who said he would, do it?
And trusting him to do it any way he sees fit.
He said he'd provide for you,
but he didn’t say how he'd provide.
Do you trust him?
He said he'd be there for you,
but he didn’t promise that you'd always feel it.
He promised to meet every one of your needs,
but he didn’t promise to give you everything you want.
Do you trust him?
Gods word to you this morning is that,
It will happen.
It might take longer than you wanted,
and it might look a little different
than you thought it would,
but if God spoke it,
it will happen.
Phil 1:6
…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God finishes what he starts.
God is the one who started the work in your life,
and he will carry it on to completion.
Paul said,
Gods the one who started this,
Gods the one who let me get on this ship,
Gods the one who let me end up in chains,
I always wanted to go to Rome,
I didn’t plan on going as a prisoner in chains,
but if God put me on this ship,
he has a purpose for me here,
and if I have to float to shore on pieces of wreckage,
if I have to do the backstroke,
or dogpaddle,
whatever it takes I'll do it,
because God is still working,
so I'm gonna keep going,
God is still working,
so I'm not gonna quit,
God is still working,
so I'm gonna persevere,
and I'm not gonna stop short,
because I know that God's got a plan,
and it will happen.
Lets stand for prayer
I believe there's someone here this morning, and you're in the middle of a storm, and its been so rough and so difficult, that you’ve started to despair, Maybe you're drifting along without direction, maybe you’ve even given up hope.
At one time you felt like you had a stronger relationship with God,
but now you feel like you're drifting. You’ve done everything you know to do, but still you're in the storm, and you're not sure what to do.
Let me pray for you…
God you've brought us to this place, so you can show us your love, your mercy, your grace that’s been there all along. God thank you for your power to raise us up into newness of life.
God we're reaching out to you today, we're drawing near to you today, we say yes to you today. Would you come to us in our storm and rescue us, give us direction, stop us from drifting, help us to trust completely in you.
We thank you that as we follow you, your will and your promise for our life will happen, in your time, in your way.
Thank You Lord.
Scripture tells us that "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We've all blown it, we all go the wrong way at times.
And I believe there's someone here this morning, and God has let a storm come into your life, and let your boat get broken apart, so that you could experience a relationship with him, the one who created the waters, the one who gave you life. He didn’t bring you here to leave you, he brought you here to rescue you and show you his love.
If that’s you today, and you'd like to begin a relationship with God, just pray with me.
Heavenly Father I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of the world. Today I give my life to Jesus, and put my hope in him. I believe he died to forgive my sin, and on the 3rd day he rose again to give me new life. I want to follow you as best I know how, for the rest of my life.
