Latest / The Daily Word / October 27 – Don't Wait for the Storm
Transcript
- Cory: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good we hours of the night, whenever you are joining us. Welcome to the Daily Word Podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes and it is my privileged pastor, Architopa Campus. I'm excited to be sitting down with you for another Daily Word episode where we're going to be doing a devotion out of the New Testament portion of our life journal Bible reading plan. Today is October the twenty-seventh, and we are finishing out the Book of Acts with chapters twenty-seven and twenty-eight. In this chapter we see how Paul is finally brought to Rome. A pretty epic story here of the ship that was carrying Paul, sinking and them shipwrecking on Malta, an island. And what stood out to me here. is that before the ship ever took sail, before it ever left the port, Paul had a word from the Lord, and he shared it. He he didn't hold back, he shared it with the centurion. verses 9 through 11 of chapter 27. Now when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them saying, Men I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul. So Paul gives them a warning, gives the centurion, this Roman military official in charge of a hundred men, gives him a warning that if we go on this ship, this voyage, we're going to have catastrophe. We're going to lose the ship. We're going to lose our cargo. We're probably even going to lose our lives. But the centurion chooses not to listen to Paul. And what I want us to think of this as is yes, it is Paul speaking, but we recognize that Paul has a word from the Lord. Paul is carrying a message from the Lord. So more than just not listening to Paul, this centurion is actually not listening to. To the voice of the Lord. And he doesn't listen until they're in a storm, and the ship is getting tossed to and fro. And all of a sudden the voice that the centurion hadn't been listening to starts speaking again. And this time they start listening. Paul says in verse 21, Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed for Crete and incurred the disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. Paul comes and he starts speaking again. And this time the centurion starts listening to him. They all take heart. While they're in the middle of the storm, the centurion starts listening to the voice of the Lord. We see that demonstrated again in verse 31, when some sailors were starting to drop a lifeboat so that they could kind of like scurry away from the ship. And Paul said, Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. And the centurion immediately started not only being encouraged by the word of the Lord, but taking action on the word of the Lord. And they had the ropes to that lifeboat cut and severed. And then again in verses thirty-four through thirty-six, Paul has more encouragement. That I t verse thirty-four, therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair Will fall from the head of any of you. And then after that encouragement, the men started eating. But the point that I'm trying to make here is that the centurion did not listen to the word of the Lord until the storm arose and the centurion needed the voice of the Lord. It took the storm to get the centurion to begin listening to the Lord. And Valuing what the Lord had to say. So much so that in verse 43, when the other Roman soldiers wanted to begin killing the slaves, the prisoners, so that they wouldn't lose them, the centrarian makes them stop because he had begun to value Paul's life and what Paul had to say. And I can't help but thinking that there's some really practical application in our lives. Because all of us have things in our lives, even if we're walking in submission to the Lord, even if we're walking in relationship with him, even if we're reading our Bible every day and seeking what the Lord has to say to us in all of our lives, if you really examine your heart, you know that there is an area of your heart where you are not giving the Lord room to speak. And the danger there is that if you continue, if we continue to not value the voice of the Lord in that area of our lives, eventually there is a more than good chance that we're going to encounter a storm in that area that we are not listening to him in. Let's say it's in your health. You know that you should be making better choices in your eating and in your exercise. I'm preaching to myself here. And you just choose to turn your ear off and not listen to the Lord. Well, eventually these things, what you sow, you reap. Let's say you encounter a storm, and all of a sudden it takes that storm for you to start valuing what the Lord has to say. My only point is is this that we don't want to wait until the storm to start listening to the Lord. We want to open our hearts for him to begin speaking to us. And bringing correction or bringing direction when we're in a good place to respond and not panicked and not in peril or danger. It will spare us pain. All this shipwreck stuff, all the fear, all the worry, losing the ship, losing the cargo, all that could have been avoided. For this centurion, had he just listened to the voice of the Lord in the beginning. Yes, their lives were spared in this storm, but there was still a cost in it. And yes, God is good and he will c often come in, and he will step in and he will help us and he will spare us from the worst possible situation. But he could have spared us from so much more if we would have just listened to him earlier. So don't wait for the storm. To allow the Lord to speak into your life. Don't wait for the storm for him to begin sharpening you, molding you, encouraging you, directing you, disciplining you. Don't wait. Open up that conversation now. Open up your heart now and allow him to begin speaking. That way he can spare you. Let's pray. Father, I just thank you. I thank you that you love us. Hebrews 12, 5 through 6 tells us that you do discipline. Those you love. You're a good father, and you bring us discipline, you bring us correction, you bring us direction, even when it's things that we don't want to do in our flesh, even when it's a direction we don't want to take, even when it involves bearing our cross, picking that up to follow Jesus and declaring death to our flesh and to our desires. You have things that you want to speak to us in every area of our life. That way we can have good. You don't want to speak in our lives to bring death and destruction and pain. You want to speak into our lives to bring us life. The enemy is the one who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Jesus, you came that we may have life and life to the full. So I thank you, Jesus, that every time you speak into our life, even if it requires temporary pain, even if it requires temporary discipline and death to the flesh, everything you lead us in leads to life. Because you see the end from the beginning. You know the consequences of us not. Allowing you to speak into areas of our lives. You see the consequences of us continuing on the path in that area of our life that is leading to destruction. And you want to spare us that. You're a good father. So I pray right now that you would help us, grace us to open up those areas of our lives so that you can speak. Allow us to be receptive. I pray that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand, as Paul said in chapter 28. Lord, we thank you, Jesus, that you are leading us. You are guiding us. Romans 8.14 tells us that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. And I thank you that you're leading us. We praise you and we thank you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.