Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #24492 - Following The Winds of Change - Acts 27:1-26

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#24492 - Following The Winds of Change - Acts 27:1-26 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Open your Bibles to Acts Chapter
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27 as we start a new chapter today, Acts Chapter 27.
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This is our 92nd Bible study in the book of Acts.
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We're on study #92 and I've entitled it Following the Winds
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of change. Following the winds of change.
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If you like to write in your Bibles over the header of
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chapter 27, you could write the word overruled.
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Overruled. Because that's what it feels
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like when we make our plans and we have our desires and we
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really think something is from God and He changes it on us.
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You know, we've prayed and we prepared, we're ready and
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receptive, but things changed. Things changed.
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They didn't go according to our plans.
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A new direction, new place, new situation, new people.
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And we don't always like change. It's different.
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It changes our course. So when you think of change,
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this is where Paul's on. He's in the middle of all these
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changes that have been brought upon his life from external
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forces. These are not his choices.
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Most of the choices being made for Paul or being made in Paul's
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life are being made for Paul and for in his life, the things that
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he has control of, he is making those those choices to honor the
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Lord, to share the gospel, to be patient, to pray, to be
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encouraged. But really what he's living,
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he's living under God's over ruling Providence.
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It's kind of a technical way, a theological way of looking at
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Paul's life here. He's experiencing first hand in
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a painful way the sovereignty of God, just like you do and just
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like I do, the sovereignty of God, His power and authority
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over our lives. It is God's sovereign
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prerogative. It's His sovereign will that is
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best for us and also best for Him.
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Jot it down, would you? In Psalm 37, I actually turn
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there. Go ahead and go back to Psalm
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37. I want you to see this one of
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those passages we use quite a bit.
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Notice with me. Psalm 37, hold your places and
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acts. Come back and pick up there in
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verse 23, very important verse. Psalm 37, verse 23, it says the
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steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in
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his way. The steps of a good man, the
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steps of a good woman are ordered by God.
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They're not suggested, they're ordered.
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We just know this is God's will for our life.
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And Paul through the difficulties, he's discovering
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God's will for his life. God's will for his life is to be
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imprisoned. God's will for his life is to
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not have freedom. God's will for his life is to be
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taken from the Sanhedrin, to be falsely accused, to be taken to
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Felix, to be taken to Festus, to be taken to Agrippa, and now to
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be taken to Rome. This is all God's will.
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It's all happening because this is God's will for his life.
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So the steps are being ordered for him.
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But also, I believe this is a truth where not only are the
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steps of a righteous man order of the Lord, but so are the
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stops, the direction going forward, the direction to stop.
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We need them both and we received them both from our
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Heavenly Father. This up and down, left and right
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kind of life is seen. As we look at Paul's life again,
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his heart was set on Jerusalem and you know, God gave it to
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him. Everybody warned them, said it
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was going to be hard. So it's going to be difficult.
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He could have said, I'm going to blow it off.
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I don't want to experience. No, I'm going to Jerusalem.
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God gave it to him and it's been a, it's a mess in his life.
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It's been hard from day one. The church really didn't receive
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him. They want him to prove himself,
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which he did. He's like, whatever, whatever
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you want, He comes with this huge gift financially to help
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the church. Never thanked, never
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appreciated. There's not even a mention of
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how it was exchanged or even used.
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And then he gets accused and then he gets threatened, then he
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gets arrested. It's been now he's going to be
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on a shipwreck because of God's will for his life.
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It'll even get harder and harder.
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He's going to face difficulty here.
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Notice with me, we'll pick up at the end of verse 20.
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Yeah. Chapter 26, verse 32, just by
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way of context, it says then Agrippa said to Festus, this man
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might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.
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And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they
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delivered Paul and some of the other prisoners to one named
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Julius, a centurion of the Augustan regimen.
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So entering a ship of adramitium, we put to sea,
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meaning to sail along the coast of Asia.
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Aristarchus the Macedonian of Thessalonica was with us.
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Notice it was decided. These things are being decided
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for him. It was decided.
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They head off and he's put under charge of Julius here.
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Julius, we don't know exactly the the exact role that he had,
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but we know he had great proximity and responsibility in
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relation to Caesar and he's in charge of the prisoners.
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And then just notice very quickly here in verse one, it
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says it was decided that we should.
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And then again in verse 2, we put to sea and then Aristarchus
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the Macedonian of Thessalonica was with us.
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So Paul's not traveling alone. We know that Aristarchus was
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with him because he's mentioned, but we also now know that Luke
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is with him again. And we know that because the
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word we is used, who's the author of the book of Acts,
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Luke. So then when Luke changes the
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the verbiage and he says we are with them, we know now at least
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Paul has Luke to encourage him and Aristarchus.
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And one of the things that encourages me, I may develop a
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Bible study in this in the future, but one of the things
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that encourages me is the remarkable loyalty of the people
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that stuck close to Paul, Luke, Aristarchus, very loyal men.
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It's amazing how much loyalty is no longer valued in our culture.
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And it is true, over time, loyalties tested, sometimes
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loyalty fails, but how important it is for the Church of Jesus
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Christ to remain loyal to the Lord and loyal to each other and
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really loyal to the mission that God has for the community.
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Again, with the last few years and the political cycles and
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stuff, it's made the church cannibalize each other and
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divide against each other for just a few little opinions.
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Seriously, you think about all the argumentation, all the hard
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line, all the Facebook post, all the night over what, a candidate
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for a political office? Really, you're going to sell out
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a relationship because you disagree on a candidate?
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It's even less than that. Sometimes I see churches, they
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divide over what Bible version to use, what color are the
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carpet to come in or what whatever.
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Loyalty is important. Church loyalty to come alongside
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those that God has put in our lives.
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Loyalty to our marriages, loyalty to our families, loyalty
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to the church family. Luke and Aristarchus have chosen
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voluntarily to suffer with Paul. That's a pretty big deal.
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They didn't have to go. They they are free.
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They're not. They don't need to go on this
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ship. But they love Paul.
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And this is one of the expressions that they have,
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again, when we think of loyalty, it looks like I'm developing the
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study right now as we're going. But when we look at loyalty, it
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doesn't mean blind loyalty. It doesn't mean, you know,
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approving of sin. That's not loyalty at all.
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Actually, if you're loyal, you'll be like Nathan, right?
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You'll come and tell the truth like that's true loyalty, to be
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a friend, to even say the hard things.
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But truly, you see this as they join him.
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They didn't have to join them. They chose to.
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And they're faithful and close because Paul didn't always
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experience just like Jesus didn't.
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The longer Paul served, the less and less people stayed loyal to
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him. You remember there's even an
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example of it with Demas. You see the ministry of Demas
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with Paul until the end. How is Demas described his final
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description? Paul says Demas has forsaken me
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because he loved this present world and he left the Lord.
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He walked away from the Lord and then he walked away from his
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friends and his loyal friend Paul.
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Notice verse 3, the next day we landed at Sidon and Julius
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treated Paul kindly and gave him liberty to go to his friends and
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receive care. So Paul's just one of the many
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prisoners on Rome. But notice he was treated
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kindly, or another way of saying it is he was, he found favor in
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the sight of the Lord. And this is something you can
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pray for like, you know, because the posture you take in
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difficult situations can either make you or break you.
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And so you got a difficult boss right now, somebody that
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overseas your life makes decisions for you.
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You can ask God to give you favour with that boss.
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You don't just need to badmouth them all the time or pray.
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You know, we already learned last week, don't pray for their
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teeth to be broken, right? Don't do that.
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You pray with a heart for them and go, no, Lord, I want to, I
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want favour. I, I want favour, not selfishly.
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I, I don't want it because I want some kind of progress or I
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want to raise or a promotion. I want favour because I know if
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you give me favour, I will make more progress for the gospel
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here and they will see you in me.
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And if raises come and promotions come, that's great.
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But what I'm seeking after God is to please you, because when I
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please you, you'll make even my enemies be at peace with me.
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The Bible says, and Paul's gets favor here.
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I think this is one of the prayer requests that we don't
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pray enough. I mean, we might pray.
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I want favor for myself. But you, you wonder why?
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Well, why? Why doesn't God answer that
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prayer so often? Well, because you're not in line
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yet with the reality of what God wants to do in your life.
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He just doesn't want bless me, Lord, bless me, bless me club.
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He wants you to extend the blessings that He gives to you
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in other people's lives. So he finds favor.
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And we're going to find out right now why God gave him favor
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with Julius, because God's going to use his mouth again.
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And you know, just some of you, God uses your hands, others of
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you, God uses your feet, other of you, God uses your brain.
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Some of us, God just uses our mouths.
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That's how it that's some of you, God uses your mouth.
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Sometimes you use your mouth, but many other times God uses
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your mouth. And that's how Paul, Paul, his
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mouth was the instrument that God used.
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Sometimes I got him in trouble, but many times people received
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what he said and life was changed.
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So good favor. I love this.
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You can pray for favor. Verse 4.
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When we had put to sea from there, we sailed from under the
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shelter of Cyprus because the winds were contrary.
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And when we sailed over the sea, which is off Cilicia and
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Pamphylia, we came to Myra, city of Lycia.
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There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship selling to
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Italy, and he put us on board. And when we had sailed slowly
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many days, and arrived with difficulty off Snydus, the wind
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not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of
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Crete off Salmone. Passing it with difficulty, we
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came to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Lasia.
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If they're, you know, we're basically following Paul on a,
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on a journey. This is when you're reading
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through the Bible. This is one of those places in
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the Bible you just kind of read through and you wonder if
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there's anything significant in this because it's just like a
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travel log on a ship, a trip on a ship that Paul's taken to
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Italy. But there are a few things I
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want to draw out from you because nothing's in the Bible
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by accident, and it's worth our time to slow down and let God
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speak to us for some of these things.
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Again, looking at Paul's life here, I want you to notice
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things do not get easier for him.
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I just want you to see this because part of your hope right
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now is misplaced, which will only lead to more discouragement
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in your life. And here's the misplaced hope.
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Your misplaced hope is that things might get easier faster.
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And I'm here to remind you things might get harder, faster
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or harder for longer periods of time.
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I don't know. I don't know how things are
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going to turn out. I'm not sure.
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I have things in my own life. I, I, I understand.
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I want them to end. I'd like them to end faster.
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I get it. But I also have to step back and
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go, no, I live under the over ruling Providence of God.
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I live under the sovereignty of God from my life.
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I live in such a way where I have a dramatic example and I'm
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sure some of you do too. I have already been given the
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freedom to live my life my way and it didn't work out so well.
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Now that I'm born again, I have an opportunity to live my life
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according to the ways of God. And let me just say, it's
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working out just fine. God has been very faithful to
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me. Has life still been hard?
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Yes. Has it been challenging?
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Yes. Have we met with tragedy and
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pain? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
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But in the Lord it's very different.
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My hope is not in circumstances changing.
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My hope is in the Lord. He knows what he's doing with my
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life. He knows what you're doing.
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Paul, if he's sitting around, I can't wait to be delivered.
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Oh, I can't. I wish I would have never said
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to go to Rome and I wouldn't be on this ship.
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Then he'd be messing himself up. He'd be messing with his mind.
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He wouldn't be taking thoughts captive.
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But instead he's embracing the reality.
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And I want you to see how hard it is.
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So come back to the text with me.
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Just a few words that you can't miss.
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Notice in verse 4 it says that they put out from sea, and at
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the end of verse 4, what does it say?
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The winds were contrary. And then notice in verse five
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they sailed. They came to Myra, and then in
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verse 6 we got on a new ship. And then in verse 7 they sailed
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slowly for many days. They arrived with difficulty,
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the wind not permitting us passing verse 8 with difficulty,
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we came to the place of Fair havens.
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Those words describe some of your lives right now and if not
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now, maybe in the future. I mean, you think a contrary
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slowly, much difficulty, difficulty, dangerous changing
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shifts, all these changes, all of these situations.
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Actually those that did the math on this, this trip should have
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been very, very quick, but it actually took them six months of
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storms to get there. Six months, something that could
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have taken a few weeks took six months.
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And here's the application. You're ready.
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Here's the life action, something you can put to get put
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right in action and put to work in your life right now.
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And here's the truth. You ready?
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Christian maturity doesn't come overnight and rarely comes easy.
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Christian maturity doesn't come by reading a book or through a
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series of Bible studies. Christian maturity comes over
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time through enduring difficulties.
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Not just overcoming them, but enduring them.
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God allows tailor made storms specifically for your growth and
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for mine. And there are those promises in
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the Bible that I don't always like.
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There's some promises I love, I apply in my life.
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I love it, I love it, I love it. He's promised to return.
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I can't wait. He's promised to provide for all
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my needs. I can't wait.
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You know, they even used to make in the day.
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I think they do it electronically now.
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But you could buy these little boxes of promise verses and you
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just take it out and how much God loves you and you.
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Oh, yeah. What a great day.
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You need to take it out. How much God provides.
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Oh, great. All.
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Every good gift comes from God. Yeah.
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And then you pull out the card. In this world, you will have
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tribulation. No, no, I don't like that
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promise. No, I don't even put it back in
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the card. I'm just trying to RIP it up.
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I don't like. But that's what Jesus said.
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In this world, you're going to have tribulation.
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Don't be surprised. And by the way, lest we forget
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and have short memories, those that have faith in Jesus Christ
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in this world have tribulation and so do unbelievers.
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We all have it. The difference, of course, is
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that your trial has purpose. God is working them together for
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His good, making you a better woman and a better man, a better
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mom, a better dad. I think back to some of the
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things I've experienced and I can say I don't think I would
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have said it in the beginning, but now, you know, a few years
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after, I'm like, yeah, God has made me a better man.
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I'm a different man. I'm a better man because of the
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pain that he's allowed into my life, the difficulties, the
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things that are refining me, causing me to cry out to him,
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increasing my prayer life. It's a good thing, as hard as it
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might be. Here's another promise you may
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not like. We must through many
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tribulations, enter the Kingdom of God.
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Isn't there a back door somewhere like I?
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What do you mean in many tribulations?
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But that's the truth. That's Acts chapter 14, verse
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22. Second Timothy chapter 3, verse
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12. Yes, all who desire to live
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godly in Christ Jesus. Yes.
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How many, How many of you just by saying yes to me, to this
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question, you can answer it out loud.
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How many of you today want to live a godly life in Christ
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Jesus? Just say it.
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Amen. Yes, yes, yes, say Amen.
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Say with me. Yes, yes, yes.
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Fill the room. Yes.
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You're ready, you're ready, you're ready.
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You'll suffer persecution. That's what it says.
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Just the desire, Second Timothy, chapter 3, verse 12, to live
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godly. And I heard all the yeses.
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I heard all the amens, Me too. It's going to bring suffering.
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You think it's going to be easy, some kind of think it is, but
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it's going to bring pain because this is how you grow.
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God's using even these circumstances on the ship to
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grow Paul, to grow Aristarchus, to grow Luke, to prepare this
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whole ship to hear the gospel. Notice now in verse 9.
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Now, when much time had been spent and sailing was now
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dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them.
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Now Paul is not a professional captain like a sea captain.
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He is never captain a cruise ship or nothing.
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He's, he's a, he's a rabbi, a former rabbi now an evangelist
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for the New Covenant. But he gets up to address all of
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these hardened, you know, shipmen.
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And he says, men, I perceive that this voyage will end with
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disaster and much loss. Not only of the cargo and the
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ship, but also our lives. Now this perception, we might
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use the word perception, we might say I sense this, I
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perceive this. But what's happening is the Holy
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Spirit in Paul is talking to him and warning him and warning the
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men there through him that this is not going to end well.
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This is not going to end well. And so he speaks up.
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He says, nevertheless, verse 11, the centurion was more persuaded
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by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things
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spoken by Paul. Now there's a, there's a
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contrast here that we can't pass up real quick.
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Here you, you've got the voice of the Lord and you have the
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voice of the world here, the voice of inexperienced but
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filled with the Holy Spirit and the voice of very experienced
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sailors that are at odds with one another.
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Now that's not what you're facing, but it's similar because
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every day what are, what are you and I facing?
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We're facing this voice of the world and the voice of the Lord.
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We're facing the culture and the pressure of the culture and the
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ideas of the culture and whatever's new in the culture
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and whatever we're feeding ourselves.
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What are receiving? You got that voice wanting your
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attention, wanting to persuade you.
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And then you have the voice of the Lord, which if you're not
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reading your Bible every day, you're not in prayer, you're not
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interested, then that voice you can barely hear, if at all.
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And the world just wins. Like here, the world's going to
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win for a moment. It's only temporary, but it's
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also very painful. Whenever you give into the
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world, this culture, whenever you and I compromise, it's
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always a painful decision. You don't want this to be, you
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don't want to be persuaded by the world.
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If you haven't learned yet, and I know some of you might even be
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disagreeing with with me right now, that's fine.
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At least you're hearing me. You can disagree with me, but
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I've been around long enough and I've seen it in my own life
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enough times. The world can be very persuasive
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and we can be very ready to believe the lies that are being
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served up to us. Not just ready.
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We we eat it like it's a meal sometimes.
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And it's always a painful choice, just like we're going to
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see here. It's going to be painful.
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But Paul speaks up, the world speaks up, and they side with
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the world, which makes sense because they're the world.
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They're going to side with the world.
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But here we go, Centurion, more persuaded verse 11 by the
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houseman and the owner of the ship than the things spoken by
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Paul. And you just have to remember to
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like God is not interested in saving ships.
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He's interested in saving souls, but the owner of the ship is
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more interested in saving the ship than in saving people.
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And that's just a philosophy of life.
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God is more concerned for you than he is for anything, even
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though you live in a world that's more concerned about
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things and power and position and prestige and titles than
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they are with you. And you just got to know, you
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want to jump into the world. You got to know what you're
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jumping into. You're not going to be very
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highly valued. You're going to be mistreated,
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taken advantage of, hurt, damaged, beat up.
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But the Lord, He's cares more about you than who you are and
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what your title might be. And you see a lot of things in
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this text. So it says in verse 12, because
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the harbor was not suitable to winter in the majority.
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That's something you might want to mark because we live in a
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culture where the majority seems to be always right.
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The majority isn't always right. You know that, right?
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The majority isn't always right. They're they're the loudest
23:59
perhaps, or they have the most you, you feel most comfortable
24:02
when you're around people that are the majority, but the
24:05
majority isn't always right. The Lord is always right.
24:09
You want to be on his side because you see through the
24:12
scriptures. You see, when there's a loud
24:14
voice and everybody's yelling and screaming, they're usually
24:16
on the other side of the will of God.
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They usually take it in a position.
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I think we're studying the book of Exodus and we're not there
24:24
yet, but we're going to see when they send the spies into the
24:26
land. They got 12 spies go out, 10
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come back or two come back with a great report.
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The majority come back with a fearful, freaking out everybody
24:36
report. And what was the result was the
24:38
majority right? No, 40 years of wandering, a
24:42
whole generation dies in the wilderness, not just because of
24:45
the report, but because they believe the report instead of
24:50
believing God. So that's another like you can
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see as a pastor now as I'm teaching you, like when I'm
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sitting on my desk looking at this, you can see now there are
24:59
times when I got, you know what, I think I should just stop at
25:01
this word and do a whole Bible study on this word because it's
25:04
throughout the scriptures as. And so trying to go through even
25:07
breaking the chapter down into a couple of sections is hard for
25:10
me because there there's probably 5 or 6 good Bible
25:13
studies just in this chapter, just all by themselves that it's
25:17
enough to comment on them now. But you may want to look at them
25:20
yourself. And you start paying attention
25:22
that the majority is not always right.
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Usually the voice of the Lord is in the minority.
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It's usually that voice that's crying in the wilderness like
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John the Baptist. Everybody's going in another
25:34
direction. But then there's this one voice
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or what the Bible would call the remnant, that small group of
25:40
loyal, faithful men and women. And so here the majority
25:44
advised, it says in verse 12 to sail from there.
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God said, don't. The majority said, we don't
25:51
care. So if by any means they could
25:53
reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete opening toward the southwest and
25:57
the northwest and winter there. So there's some logic here.
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If you look at all the different pieces as commentators do,
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they'll look at all the different details of the port
26:06
and everything, but they just think it's better than God's
26:09
word is what I see. Verse 13, when the South wind
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blew softly, Interesting. In the storm, God had a word for
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everyone. It was completely rejected.
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They're going to do their own thing, and as they're heading
26:28
off doing their own thing, look what happens.
26:30
They're met with a soft wind blowing.
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This is a really bad way to live your life.
26:38
To live your life circumstantially instead of
26:41
being led by the Holy Spirit is what we're going to see in a
26:44
moment. So this could easily be
26:47
perceived as confirmation of God.
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I know what Paul said, or even on a scale of where you are.
26:54
I know what the pastor said. I see it in the Bible, but I
26:58
don't care. I'm going to do my own thing,
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which is your prerogative. You do your own thing at your
27:01
own. We're at risk.
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But then you go out and go look, It's kind of working out for me
27:06
because it's a soft wind blowing.
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But here, if you guys read ahead, you know the soft wind
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blowing isn't a confirmation of a bad decision.
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It's just a slight little change in the weather pattern
27:18
temporarily. That's it.
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And Christians, if we're good at anything, we are good at
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justifying our own bad behavior, looking for any little thing to
27:29
justify our disobedience. That's what they're doing here.
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Oh, the soft wind is blowing softly.
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Also, if you like to write in your Bibles, this S wind blowing
27:38
softly, you could also write next to it.
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Being comfortable, that word comfortable, It's lulling them
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into a place of being comfortable and not even really
27:48
caring about what Paul says anymore.
27:51
They're happy with the things, they're happy with their
27:54
decisions, and they're happy with the way things are going.
27:56
They're finally kind of perceiving that they're going in
27:59
a way that is, this is the will of God.
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It's just a soft wind, though. It's not confirmation from God.
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It's a soft wind. And here's the thing about being
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comfortable. We will do.
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We will go to great lengths to protect our comfort because
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after all, we've worked so hard for it and we've made so many
28:17
decisions and we like our comfort.
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We like our comfort, just like we don't like change.
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We don't like change because it disrupts our comfort.
28:29
And that's just the way life is. That's the humanity.
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But our comforts are often disrupted by change.
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You know, if you like this, if you've been in this church for
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any length of time, as we look back on the last 25 years, I
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love change. I love changing things up.
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I like trying new things. I like, hey, if it works, great.
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If it doesn't work, that's great too.
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But we tried it under the Lord. I mean, not just change for the
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sake of change, but like really believing it's from the Lord.
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Let's just go for it. Let's try it.
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Let's let's test it and, and let's see if God's in it.
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I love that. But I also learned something
29:01
about myself in a very real way. So I can stand up here and go,
29:04
oh, I love change. And you go, you're like there.
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Well, you're a rare guy. Yeah, I'm not as rare as you
29:08
think, actually, because here's what I learned about myself
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during the COVID years. This is what I learned about
29:14
myself. I love change when I'm the one
29:18
initiating it. I'm not so keen on the changes
29:25
that are initiated on me. Just like you, I'm sure the
29:29
changes that you like are the ones you have some semblance of
29:33
control or it's big step of faith that you're taking.
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But the ones that are impressed upon you, not so excited about
29:39
them, I get it. But either way, I also I want to
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remember that God wants to keep me moving forward.
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So He'll use change. Whether He lets me make the
29:51
changes or He makes them for me or uses them for me.
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Whatever it might be, I am grateful for the changes that
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God will bring in my life. And here they are.
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Just because you're in a place right now.
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The South wind blew softly. If you've disobeyed the Lord,
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that soft wind means nothing. It's deceptive.
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If you have refused to hear the word of the Lord, that soft wind
30:14
in your life, that means nothing.
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Well, you don't understand it. I made the decision.
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I've got all this money now. That means nothing.
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If you disobeyed the Lord, it means nothing and it won't last.
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The South wind blowing softly will not blow softly at all
30:33
forever. I found this quote and I I
30:38
quote. Sometimes we need to be shaken.
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We've been on the path so long that our lives get into a rut
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and if not checked and changed, that rut will become our ruin.
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End Quote. And I don't want to be in a rut
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and I don't want to be ruined. So God uses changes in our
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lives. Notice verse 14 now.
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So the verse 13, the winds blowing softly, They supposed
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that they had obtained their purpose, but they didn't.
31:05
They don't have confidence. They put out the sea.
31:07
They sailed close by Crete. But not long after, a
31:11
tempestuous headwind arose, called a You're like, you're
31:15
right. You know what it's called.
31:17
You can call it. So when the ship was caught and
31:20
could not head into the wind, we let her drive and running under
31:25
the shelter of island called Claude, we secured the skiff
31:28
with difficulty. This is what happens when you
31:31
are not listening to the Lord and obeying Him and all the
31:34
little things, big things. Your life begins to be driven by
31:39
forces outside of yourself. And that's just not the way you
31:43
want to. You don't want to live your life
31:44
driven by anything. Some of you, that's kind of what
31:47
you put on your resumes. You know you're going for a new
31:49
job and that's one of your attributes.
31:50
I'm a driven person, but you know as well as I do a driven
31:53
person gets exhausted and tired and can't keep up most of the
31:56
time. It's hard to be driven.
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And God, he offers you an alternative to the driven life.
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You know what it is? The life that's led by your Good
32:05
Shepherd is not what we're promised in Psalm 23.
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I have a Good Shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, and I'm
32:11
not going to want. And what He leads me beside the
32:16
still waters makes me lie down. You don't want to have a driven
32:19
life of disobedience. You want to have a lead life.
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You know, we're going to see that in Galatians, the life of
32:24
the spirit versus the life of the flesh.
32:27
So now they're driven by the storm.
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They're. So they suppose that they had
32:31
their purpose, but they didn't because their purpose was in
32:34
Paul's mouth that they rejected. So they secured the skiff, it
32:40
says in verse 16, with difficulty when they had taken
32:43
it on board. They use cables to undergird the
32:45
ship, fearing lest they should run aground on the Certus sands.
32:49
And they struck sail. And we're so driven.
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And because we were exceedingly Tempest tossed, the next day we
32:55
lighten the ship. On the third day we threw the
32:58
ship's tackle overboard with our own hands.
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Now they're getting rid of the stuff.
33:04
You start losing stuff when you disobey God, not gaining it, you
33:08
lose. You lose material things.
33:11
You lose your spiritual standing.
33:13
You lose your peace. You lose your you.
33:16
You really lose your comfort, the thing that you wanted so
33:19
badly. You lose because you supposed
33:23
that your way was better than God's way.
33:25
Verse 20, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days.
33:29
Now you know what that means, right?
33:31
They've lost all navigation. They've lost, you know, those
33:35
times when you're like, I just don't know what to do.
33:38
I don't hear from the Lord anymore.
33:39
It seems it could be because you look back, he's like, you just
33:44
have been disobedient. It's not as complicated as you
33:48
might think that that's one of the ways I live my life
33:52
personally, when I get to the place of confusion and and
33:55
complexity, because my life is filled with complexity and
33:59
unpredictability in the roles and the places God has placed me
34:03
in this world and things can get confusing.
34:06
I get confused. I'm not sure.
34:07
I don't even always have the answer.
34:08
I don't know when I get to those places.
34:12
I know this confusion's not from the Lord, so I'm not going to
34:14
act on confusion. I know that I need to stop and
34:17
slow down, and then the next thing I do is I break down the
34:20
situation into pieces and I start attacking the pieces that
34:23
are much clearer than the ones that aren't.
34:26
So for example, one of the things I look for is if there's
34:28
confusion in my life and darkness and just I don't know
34:31
what to do. I need to ask myself, is there
34:33
any area in my life where I'm willingly disobedient?
34:37
And I need to remedy that to the best of my ability.
34:41
I want to walk with the Lord. I don't want to be caught up in
34:43
my own decisions, my own. Maybe the confusion is because I
34:46
turned away from the Lord somewhere.
34:48
And I don't mean backsliding or anything, I just mean in life.
34:50
Like maybe maybe I've made a decision in my flesh I need to
34:53
remedy. Maybe I need to repent.
34:55
Maybe I don't need to humble myself.
34:56
There could be 1000 different things, but here they're in
34:59
darkness because of their disobedience and they can't
35:02
navigate their life. It says in verse 20, no small
35:06
Tempest beat on us. Now the storms are getting
35:08
harder because they can't see, they can't navigate.
35:11
They're losing everything. Doesn't that sound like
35:15
rebellion to you? It's exactly what rebellion
35:18
brings. You lose everything and then
35:21
live in the dark. It says finally all hope that we
35:27
would be saved was finally given up.
35:32
They're at a place of hopelessness, men.
35:35
And then Paul gets up after verse 21, after a long
35:38
abstinence from food. Now they're hungry.
35:41
And Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you should
35:44
have listened to me. It's like, whoa, slow down,
35:46
brother. Now he's not.
35:48
I don't believe it sounds like it, but I don't believe he's
35:50
like a smart aleck here. I think he's explaining the
35:53
situation because when everybody's in chaos,
35:56
everybody's all freaking out, Somebody has to speak up with
35:58
some sanity, some clarity. And that's why I think Paul's
36:01
doing. He's just being clear here.
36:03
He knows what God said and he's got this confidence.
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You should have listened. We we shouldn't have sailed from
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Crete and we wouldn't have experienced this disaster and
36:11
loss. But verse 22, I urge you to take
36:13
heart because there's not going to be any life among loss of
36:16
life among you, but only the ship.
36:19
For there stood by me this 9 an Angel of God to whom I belong
36:22
and whom I serve, saying, don't be afraid Paul, you must be
36:25
brought before Caesar. And indeed God has granted you
36:28
all those who sail with you. Therefore take heart.
36:31
Amen. For I believe that God that it
36:33
will be just as it was told to me, but we're going to have to
36:36
run aground. He says on certain it's going to
36:39
have to be even worse. But God's going to save your
36:42
life, if you listen to me, because God appeared to him and
36:45
changed his message. First we're going to lose life.
36:48
But now God says no, no life is going to be lost.
36:50
But this is what they have to do.
36:52
He's going to give them a second chance.
36:55
It's not so good. Gives them a second chance for
36:58
their life. Because he doesn't care about
37:00
God, doesn't care about ships and cars and houses.
37:02
He cares about people. And he gives a second chance to
37:07
these prisoners, these rebels, just so much how he does with
37:16
us. A few things before we go when
37:20
we're out of time. But I got to share this.
37:22
First of all, in times of difficulty, times of crisis, the
37:27
last thing you need is to help yourself, right?
37:31
The the idea is I, I just need to help myself.
37:36
I need to figure this out. That's a phrase that's really
37:39
popular in this room. You're in a crisis.
37:41
I just need to figure this out. That's another way of saying
37:44
that you have all the solutions for your problems.
37:48
Even in our world, they understand this.
37:50
Our world attacks problems, not with hope.
37:53
You know that, right? The world attacks problems.
37:55
This culture attacks problems not with hope, but with self
37:59
help. Did you know that?
38:00
Self help? I did some research just for
38:02
this study. In the year 2000 the self help
38:06
industry coaches, mentors, books, seminars, all of that.
38:11
The self help industry was a 2 1/2 billion dollar industry.
38:16
That's a lot. Fast forward 24 years.
38:19
Now this last year or or up 2023.
38:24
This last year the self help industry exceeded $11 billion.
38:31
How does something go from 2 1/2 to 11 billion?
38:34
Now I know that inflation and my I get the economic pressures,
38:37
but I'll tell you this. I'll tell you one reason why it
38:40
went from 2 1/2 to 11. You ready?
38:42
It doesn't work. You're the last person you need
38:48
help from when you're in crisis. God has allowed this situation
38:52
in your life to bring you back to your fundamental first step
38:56
of following Jesus. You ready?
38:58
Jesus said if you want to follow me, you need to deny yourself.
39:04
Your hope is not found in some self help manual or some new
39:09
book or some new fad or some new Instagram ad.
39:12
Your hope is found in the Lord. Lest I be misunderstood, I do
39:19
know we can help one another and I do know there's good advice to
39:22
get. That's not what I'm talking
39:23
about. Of course we can coach and
39:26
mentor. Very helpful discipleship.
39:29
But the idea that a man can help you when God is calling you to
39:34
himself is a misplaced thought. You've got to get to him through
39:40
all of this web. And you know, maybe some of you
39:42
have thousands of dollars racked up in self help and you know
39:45
this you don't have. I don't need to tell you.
39:47
You could tell me it didn't work because God has been using all
39:50
this stuff to get you to Himself because your relationship is
39:54
with him. OK, four more things and then we
39:57
got to go. We are out of time, but I got to
40:00
share this. I'll maybe I'll pick up next
40:02
time. But Paul's standing there with
40:04
great confidence. They're all going through the
40:06
same issues, right? They're going through the same
40:08
storm. Everyone's freaking out, But
40:10
Paul, why? 4 things ready. 4 things Paul
40:13
has, they don't have #1 he has the presence of God.
40:17
He has the presence of God. Verse 23.
40:19
God has spoken to him, encouraged him, He's with him #2
40:22
he remembers that he is God's possession.
40:26
That God owns his life and he, God gave him a word and he can
40:30
trust because he knows he belongs to God.
40:32
Number two, number three, he stands strong because he
40:35
believes the promises of God. That's what he's holding on to.
40:39
So for example, you know, the promises we don't like.
40:41
If you're going through a trial, you can hold on to the promise
40:45
that God said this would happen. He said this would happen.
40:49
And Jesus and John 1633, I didn't finish the verse.
40:52
He said in this world you have tribulation, but be of good
40:55
cheer because I've overcome the world.
40:57
You can hold on to the promises. And the fourth thing that gives
41:00
Paul such great strength that also give us strength is he's
41:04
leaning on the past faithfulness of God.
41:07
This brother's been through so much already.
41:09
He already knows God's been faithful.
41:11
God's faithful in the past, God's faithful right now.
41:14
And so whatever he has for me in the future, I can be confident
41:17
in him. Amen.
41:19
Amen. We got a big Amen in the back
41:20
from that baby. The baby's going.
41:23
Let me out Lord, thank you for the word you give us today and
41:28
thank you for the baby reminding us even today that you said that
41:33
we're to come to you as little children trusting you with our
41:35
lives. And that's what we want to do.
41:38
We want to learn from this section of scripture.
41:40
We want to grow in grace and be the men and women you want us to
41:43
be in Jesus name, Amen. We pray that you've been
41:47
encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
41:50
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
41:53
Call us at 87730 grace that's 877-304-7223.
42:02
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42:05
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42:10
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42:13
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.