[Scripture read before this sermon]
20 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. 21 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. 22 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, 24 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.’ 25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. 26 But we must run aground on some island.” 27 When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. 28 So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. 29 And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. 30 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, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go. (Acts 27:20–32)
Love Loud video before me. Repaired a fence and awning for two single mothers in our community Mullendore Elementary School. You are extending Christ’s love by doing a carnival Snow Heights Elementary School and a backpack program as well. Lastly, Multiple block parties are going on and I am so proud of you guys. By the way, Seven baptisms today scattered among our services – wow!
Sermon Introduction
Think about your life for a moment. Have you missed an opportunity you regret? Do you wish you had invested in Google 20 years ago? Do you think you have missed the perfect plan for your life? Do you think you are still on “Plan A” for your life? For many in the room with any years of experience, you feel like your closer to plan ZZ rather than plan A. You sit here wishing you had waiting for marriage before becoming intimate with someone else. Sometime in life we find ourselves saying, “I wish I would have listened.” For those of you who are married, “I told you so,” maybe ringing in your ears right now ?.
Returning to Acts
We are nearing the end of the book of Acts. Personally, I have learned so much because I was more familiar with the early part of Acts and these later parts – not so much. A few moments ago, you heard the middle part of a passage that really extends over Acts 27 and 28. Now, Paul, the prisoner is on his way to Rome by ship. The reason he was a prisoner was there were charges brought against him by the religious leaders of Jerusalem. His life was in great danger. In order for him to actually get any kind of safe trial, he appealed to Caesar so he could get a fair trial. As a result, he was on a ship, and they were sailing to Rome. A week ago, we witnessed Jesus predict Paul would go to Rome to testify about Jesus (Acts 23:11). Two years have gone by since Paul left Jerusalem. God has a plan for Paul’s life but a terrible storm threatens this plan.
There is no wreck is enjoyable – every kind of wreck is something I want to avoid! But perhaps a shipwreck is most terrifying of all for everyone on board experiences the prolonged agony of possibly contemplating their drowning. Unlike a modern cruise ship, Paul is on an Egyptian grain ship, which around one hundred eighty feet long by forty-five feet wide. Plus, the fact that they are two hundred sixty-six souls on board the boat around October, a time when most experienced boatmen knew to be on dry land, makes the narrative more chilling. It is an incredibly turbulent time & most of us cannot fully comprehend just how scary it would truly be.
Your life is not governed by dumb luck, chance, or fate. Our story serves to build our faith in God’s character and His control over our lives. Watch how you can be confidence in making real time decisions while we hearing from God.
1. Life’s Pivot Points
Every life has the big pivot points – your choice of school, your choice for marriage, or your choice of a job etc. I think back to my life and how I transferred colleges where I met my wife, Traci. I am really glad I transferred! But what if I stayed at my original college?
George Washington had two horses shot out from under hum in the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, 1755. Even more chilling is the fact that he was reported to have four bullet holes shot through his coat! Imagine the Revolutionary War without George Washington. Was he just lucky? Or was God guiding history?
What makes this passage so incredibly interesting is the interaction between God’s predictions of what will occur in future events and how human actions impact all of this. It’s one of the rare places in the Bible that shows God’s prediction of the future and human interaction “flowing together.” This can be really confusing for a number of Christ-followers. Let’s explore two of Life’s Myths that get a lot of people sidetracked. Now, the smarter you are, the harder this is going to be. But if you’re dumb, then you’ll say, “Oh, this totally makes sense” ?. Remember this: You Determine Your Future and Your Future is Fixed.
1.1 You Determine Your Future
Some of you believe, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” The character, Doc Brown, says in the movie, Back to the Future, “Your future is whatever you make it so make it a good one.” My basketball coach gave us all a framed poem after one season that’s pretty famous. It ends, “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” Certainly the Bible places a high value on your actions. But the Bible says you are NOT the primary mover and shaker in your life. Instead, God is. Let me show you: “I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship” (Acts 27:22b).
Paul said, “It is absolutely certain. God has spoken. God has planned nobody is going to die.” If you are kicking yourself for a past decision, I have good news for you: God is moving the events of your life. God is working to make you into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). Adam Smith called this “the invisible hand of God.” Now the promise that everyone on the ship will be saved is because God has predetermined that Paul will get before Caesar in Rome. Let me show you: “For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, 24 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’” (Acts 27:23-24).
These men had some “bad luck” for they choose to get on the boat late in the year. Note Paul’s words, “you should have listened to me” in verse 21. And they had the “bad luck” to have encounter terrible storm in verse 20 where they couldn’t see the sun by day nor the stars at night. But these 265 men had the good fortune to have Paul on the ship. If you are walking through some incredibly difficult things in life, be encouraged.
God’s Truth #1:: Knowing you don’t fully determine your future you have strength during your failures.
You look at the mess your life is right now and you think, “How could I ever overcome this?” You may be a mess today but God’s decree for your tomorrow is a triumph. “… he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Or let me give you one more… “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him…” (Ephesians 1:4a). Of you are in Christ, that’s your future – you will be “be holy and blameless before him.” Can someone say, “Truth?” You are NOT “the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” Doc Brown may have invented a time machine but he’s giving himself way too much credit. You are giving yourself way too much credit.
Here’s the second myth…
1.2 Your Future is Fixed
Here’s the second mistake we make, thinking everything is fixed in life and our actions don’t matter. If God has decided my fate, then why should I even try? If God had my future all planned out, I’ll just sit here and do nothing. This is commonly called, fatalism. Paul has made a prediction to all the men onboard the boat. He said he heard from an angel & the angel said the boat is gone but the men will be saved.
This is story really ratchets up the drama in verse 27. The wind, the rain, the lightning, the waves and on the fourteenth night of being driven on the Adriatic Sea, some men are attempting to take the lifeboat to get off the ship. Paul runs to the end of the boat, and he goes to the soldiers. Paul tells the crew who are about to escape, “Get back in the boat or you’ll die.”
Look at verse 31: “Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved” (Acts 27:31). Paul doesn’t say, “It doesn’t matter what any of you do, we are saved. God has all of us. Don’t worry.” No, he says, “Get back in the boat or you’ll die.” What happens in the next couple of verses is simply they do run aground on a sandbar off the coast of a little island really called Malta. The ship is destroyed by the waves, but all 276 passengers in the boat swim to shore and not one of them is lost. They swim to shore in that place in Malta which to this very day is called Saint Paul’s Bay.
God’s Truth #2: Knowing God’s fully determines your future, my actions and my decisions really matter.
Imagine if you wake up to an EMT who says, “You’ve been in a terrible wreck. We used the jaws of life to pull you from the wreckage and you’re now on life support. You’re going to be fine.” Would you immediately say, “Great, get these tubes out of me?” No, you would know you need to have antibiotics and have medical professionals watch over you to ensure you get better, right?
Watch how God’s promise of future evangelistic success made Paul even more bold: “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.’ 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:9-11). One of the biggest problems for those who are serious about sharing your faith is the doubts that grow because of the resistance you encounter. God says to Paul, “You will have success in this city.” God’s guarantee of success spurred Paul to do more.
Did you see what happened in a Richland freshman football game this week? It was Brandon Stanley’s birthday, the student manager of the team. Richland was taking on Haltom and the Richland team decided their team needed some inspiration. So they turned to Brandon, the equipment manager, to play in his first football game ever. Brandon got the ball and took it all the way for a touchdown. Brandon has a birth condition called microcephaly, which affects brain development. Special needs instructor Jenna Burns has seen Brandon progress from nonverbal to super expressive since becoming the team assistant. “His speech has just taken off. He’s now speaking wants and needs,” his teachers said. “He has to tell me every morning after a football game if they lost, if they won, how they played, who did what. As far as progress, as far as functional life progress — phenomenal.”
The truth is the team’s actions of encouragement matter. The special needs teacher’s actions matter. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). God has predetermined your life for God works, now do more of them! There’s no excuse for laziness among God’s people!
1. Life’s Pivot Points
2. Place a High Value on Trusting God
Our friend, Paul, had a high trust in God: “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you” (Acts 27:24). Watch his attitude in this adventure-filled chapter: “So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told” (Acts 27:25).
It wasn’t as if Paul’s future was easy – he was being taken to a trial for sharing his faith. No matter the challenge that comes your way, increase your trust in God. Turn up the volume on your trust in God even in the most difficult times. God has this amazing ability to bring great good out the most horrible parts of life. Don’t believe me? Remember this: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:23–24). One crazy man from Florida is sending bombs through the mail while another evil man kills Jewish people in Pittsburgh this weekend. Evil humans work their dastardly deeds but they don’t have the final word for even God works during the worst of the worst in life to bring about good.
During Hurricane Katrina, a minister rode out the storm with his eighty year old mother and his wife. His mother has Alzheimer’s. When the water got up to their knees in his house, he sought for safety in his boat. He finally got his mother into the boat, along with his wife, fighting a 125-mile hour wind and pelting rain. When they were situated in the boat, on a trailer, he realized it was tethered to a tree. He knew if that tree fell that their lives were in jeopardy. It was then his mother said, “We picked a bad day to go to town.” She said later, “If I had known this I would have stayed at home.” By the grace of God they survived the storm and lived to testify about it.
Remember It’s always too soon to quit when God is in your life. So turn up the volume on your trust in God. It’s always too soon to quit. So many of you struggle with depression. Live with hope that God is working in every little thing for your good. So many of you feel defeated in life. Fight against any and all your temptations knowing God has won the battle. So many of you question God’s love for you. Know that God wants you to feel secure in His love no matter what is happening around you (Ephesians 4:30).
God, I trust you to work in every nook and cranny of my life. God, I know you will lead me to victory in every temptation I face. God, I trust you to be my Savior and my Lord.
Closing
