Stuck

Amen. Amen.

We'll be right back. God, you've provided for us. You've shown us how much you care from the very beginning. With God, you've guided us, helping us navigate through every decision, big or small. You've been present. It sounds so simple, but it's so important, just knowing you're there. You're there when we need you. You've been patient with us, helping us to grow and learn from all the mistakes we make. And like God, you forgive us, offering us grace so those mistakes can never define us. And most of all, you've loved us unconditionally as only someone filled with God's love could. So today, we thank you, dads, for all of this and so much more. Happy Father's Day. Good morning. We are very thankful that you are here with us this morning. We're going to, in just a moment, begin with

the 103rd Psalm. Just a few verses of that, but I wanted to begin by just saying, Happy Father's Day. We are thankful for dads, and we're thankful for those who chose to be dads and who have stood in for dads, and we are so thankful for their influence on our life. And so as we gather this morning, one of the things that we're going to do today as we move through our time of worship, we're going to focus on the goodness of our Heavenly Father, who both shows us what fatherhood should look like as dads, but who also loves us as his children and cares for us and watches over us and helps us. And he also encourages us, especially dads. Sometimes it can be discouraging and difficult to be a dad, and so we look to our Heavenly Father who helps us and encourages us. So we're going to read from the 103rd Psalm, and then we're going to begin in verse 10. So if you would go ahead and be standing with me, and we will

read this together. The psalmist writes this: "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him." Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father in heaven, help us this morning as we begin our time of worship together. May you encourage us, may you strengthen us, may you help us to see your goodness as our heavenly Father. Thank you so much this morning for our earthly fathers and for those who have taught us and strengthened us and pointed us to you. We are so thankful for the good gift of fatherhood that you have given us. So be with us this morning as we worship. Help us to see your goodness. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to begin this morning by singing "Come, now is the time to worship."

Give your heart, come, just as you are to worship. Come, just as you are before your God. Come, just as you are before your God. Come. One day every tongue will confess you are God. One day every knee will bow. Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly cheers you now. Come, now is the time to worship. Come, now is the time to give your heart. Come, just as you are to worship. Come, just as you are before your God. Come. One day every tongue will confess you are God. One day every knee will bow. Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose you now. One day every tongue will confess you are God. One day every knee will bow. Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose you now.

Come, now is the time to worship. Come, now is the time to give your heart. Come, just as you are to worship. Come, just as you are before me, you're gone. Come, come. Next, we're going to sing Graves in the Gardens. In Acts 27, where we'll be in just a few minutes, we're going to see kind of a difficult, stormy situation. Paul ends up shipwrecked and having to swim to shore. But we see through all of the difficulty and uncertainty and fearfulness and waves and wind and all the difficulties that God is at work turning things upside down. So we're going to sing Graves in the Gardens.

Then you came along, and put me back together. And every desire is now satisfied, here in your love. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Then you came along, and put me back together. And every desire is now satisfied, here in your love. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you. Lord, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you.

I'm not afraid. To show you my weakness. My failures and flaws. Lord, you've seen them all. And you still call me friend. Because the God of the mountain. Is the God of the valley. And there's not a place. Your mercy and grace won't find me again. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you. Lord, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Nothing is better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you. Lord, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. You turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can. You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you.

Better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. is better than you. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Normally, this is the part of the service where we move into our time of communion. We're going to do things a little differently this morning as we look at God's goodness and His provision in Acts chapter 27 and the adventures of Paul. The chapter takes kind of a surprising turn at the end that I think will lead us to the table together. So we'll celebrate the Lord's Supper at the end of our time in Acts 27 this morning. If you haven't picked up communion, I'd welcome you or invite you to do so if you want to. We're using up the last of our emergency supplies. We ordered more this last week that came in, but we want to use up our emergency supplies before we break into the new stock. That's why they're a little bit different this morning, because with shipping delays, we never know when something's going to come in or not, so we try to have some extras on hand as well.

So we're going to start, before we move into our message this morning, we're going to sing Cornerstone. I think the heart of Acts 27, in fact, the heart of all of the book of Acts, is that Jesus is at the center. You know, the book of Luke tells us, you know, what Jesus did here, you know, to the cross and resurrection. The book of Acts begins by Luke telling Theophilus that I'm going to tell you what Jesus continued to do, this time through his apostles and through his church. And we'll see how God is at work and is our cornerstone, which in a world that feels so shaky sometimes and so discombobulated and so confusing, this is an important thing for God's people to be reminded where our foundation is. So we're going to go ahead and sing Cornerstone, and then we're going to dive into Acts 27.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong in the Savior's love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all. When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. My anchor holds within the veil. Christ alone, call us Lord. We pray strong in the Savior's love. You're the storm. He is Lord. Lord our Lord. Christ alone, call us Lord. We pray strong in the Savior's love. Through the storm, He is Lord. Lord our Lord. And He shall come with trumpets sound. O may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone. Let's stand before the throne. Christ alone, call us Lord. We praise all in the Savior's love. Lord of all, He is Lord, Lord of all.

All right, before we dive into Acts 27, I just want to give you a couple notes. If you like following along on the handouts, the handouts contain a lot of what we're going to cover this morning, but they don't contain everything. You may have noticed that our whole text is not there. That's because our whole text is the 27th chapter of the book of Acts. And so in just a minute, we'll pray and we'll talk a little bit about some context for what's happening in Acts 27, then I'm going to kind of read through the whole chapter and comment on a couple parts. So if you would like to follow along, you can grab, there's some Pew Bibles there if you don't have one with you, or grab your phone and grab the app if you want to follow along

as we go through Acts the 27th chapter to kind of see what's happening. I'm going to read it on some paper I printed out a little bigger, because as I get a little older, the print has to be a little bigger. And one of the ways, just a kind of a glimpse into how I write sermons, I print out my sermon text and I carry it with me and just make notes on it, and then eventually we'll kind of put it all together. Also on the back of one of these pages is a recipe for pizza dough. So if you're fast enough, you can catch our family pizza dough recipe. So we're going to go ahead and pray, and then we'll dive right into Acts the 27th chapter. Father in heaven, thank you for letting us be here this morning.

We thank you for this chapter that at first seems like kind of a frustrating experience for the Apostle Paul, not being listened to, the struggle in the midst of the storm, the ultimately being shipwrecked, and help us to see that sometimes you lead your people into seasons of struggle and difficulty, but that even in the midst of the storms, we know that you are Lord. You're Lord of all creation, of the wind and the rain and the seas, and even of the shipwrecks. So I ask that you would encourage us this morning, help us to fix our eyes on you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I don't know if you've ever had that experience where you are driving somewhere and you're trying to figure out if you are in your place. It's happened to me a few times in life.

One of the, I think, most memorable for me was probably 12 or 13 years ago, and I was going to spend the weekend or spend Sunday and Monday with some friends who had a cabin in West Virginia. They said, "Hey, you want to come up?" It was Labor Day. They said, "Come up for Labor Day. You can camp, and we can hang out, run around in the woods, and we've got this great cabin." I said, "Yeah, it sounds great." They said, "I'll head up as soon as church is over. I'll head up." So they gave me directions, because at this point, GPS would not get you to where you were going. And the directions were a little bit concerning. Like, I got the main road part, and it's like you turn off the main road onto this side road,

and then you're going to turn off that side road onto another smaller side road, and then you're going to see a chicken farm, and you pull in behind the chicken farm houses, and there looks like a trail going through the woods. Just follow that trail, and you'll eventually come to the cabin. And so I did okay with the main road. I got off onto the first side road, and it was starting to get a little bit concerning, because, you know, leaving Virginia, you've got four-lane roads, and then you go down to two lanes. And then I was on a road with, you know, it was two lanes, but there's no lines, because it's not wide enough for that. And then you go a little further, and it turns into dirt. And I'm going, you know, there's no cell service. There's no, you know, GPS wasn't going to find this,

because it turns out it was not a real address. I see the chicken farm, and I was like, "Well, this seems kind of weird." Driving right through the middle of the guy's chicken farm, and I see the path going into the woods, and I'm like, "You know, they said this was where it was going, but this doesn't feel like I'm going anywhere." And you go through the woods a little bit on this little track, and then it's just a field. And it had been recently mowed, and there wasn't a lot of traffic to this cabin, so it's like, "Where do I go now?" Right here, I'm sitting in the middle of the field. At this point, I'm thinking, "You know what, I can just turn around, go home." I said, "Well, I'll start driving through the field." And so, but there's that uncertainty.

And I got to the other side of the field, look around, there was the path going through the woods, and I eventually made it to the cabin. But there is that feeling where you're sitting there going, "Am I in the right place? Am I where I'm supposed to be?" Because none of this looks right. And nothing in my life experience really prepared me for driving, you know, like a 1999 silver Chevy Lumina covered in rust through a field in the middle of West Virginia. I was not prepared for that. One of the things that will happen to us in life is we'll frequently find ourselves in places where we didn't feel like we're prepared for. Where we're in the midst of a storm. The wind seems to be blowing and buffeting us back and forth.

The circumstances are a struggle. Maybe it feels like it's a struggle for us to keep our head sort of out of water, and it may feel like we're just in danger of being overwhelmed. And one of the things that I think happens for us when we see difficulty and we see storms in life, we take that as a signal or a sign that maybe we shouldn't go the way that we're going, right? So when things for us become difficult or confusing or a bit of a struggle, we think, "You know what? Maybe I shouldn't go this way. Maybe I should find a way that is easier." And we've maybe said it or heard people say it, you know, "Maybe God is trying to tell me that I shouldn't go this way by putting this struggle in my path."

Or, "If this is the way that I was supposed to be going, wouldn't it be much easier for me to make this journey?" And so for many of us, I think when we encounter difficulty and uncertainty and storms in life, our first thought is, "Maybe this isn't where God wants me to be because He would never put me in the middle of a storm." What you're going to see in Acts chapter 27 is God does exactly that. He puts the Apostle Paul in the middle of the storm. And the same is true for us as we walk through this life. Even when we are in the midst of God's will, what we will find is we will find ourselves facing storms. Because Paul in this chapter is clearly in the center of God's will. He's obeyed God. He's gone to Jerusalem. He's been in prison. He's proclaimed the gospel.

Now he's heading to Rome, which God says, "You're going to go to Rome." So he's following God's will, but yet he finds himself in the middle of this storm. Paul is going where God wants him to go, and doing so is very difficult. So we're going to read through this text. And one of the things, like when I was in elementary school, and they were trying to help you understand the tone of the text, they said, you know, kind of go through and, you know, and underline everything that talks about how somebody's feeling, or something like that. I just want you to sort of mentally listen to these words and hear all the words for difficulty and struggle as we read through this text. So I'm just going to read through it, and then we'll sort of pause it at places and comment on it,

and then we'll talk a bit about what we can learn from this in the midst of the storms of long life. So remember, Paul has been appealed to Caesar, his appeal to Caesar has been granted, so he has to go to Rome, and so here's what happens. When it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners, the centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius. And embarking upon a ship of the Adramatium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, he put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go see his friends and to be cared for. And so it seems like the journey has been going pretty well so far.

The centurion seems like a very decent fellow, right? They get to a port, and he allows Paul some leave, sort of lets him out on parole to go see the church and be encouraged by the church, and then in verse 4 is where it all starts to get difficult. And putting out to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus. And so we'll hear that term several times. The lee is sort of out of the wind. So if you have wind blowing at an island, one side where the wind is hitting will be the windward side, and the side where the island blocks the wind is the lee side. So they're out of the wind going around Cyprus because the winds were against us. There's the first of our struggle language. And when we had sailed across the open ocean along the coast of Sicilia and Pamphylia,

we came to Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board. We sailed slowly a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Nydas. And the wind did not allow us to go further, and we sailed under the lee of Crete off Siloam, coasting along it with difficulty. We came to a place called Fairhavens, which was near the city of Lycia. Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because the fast, that's the Day of Atonement, end of September, beginning of October, was over, Paul advised them, saying, "Sirs, I perceive the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of cargo and the ship, but also of our lives." But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot, and to the owner of the ship, and to what Paul said,

"Because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority," so they put it to a vote, "decided to put it out to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, the harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there." I want you to just sort of take a moment and consider that phrase, "We decided to put out to sea from there, on the chance that we could somehow reach Phoenix." So imagine you're gonna go on a trip, and so you go to the airport, and you get on the plane, and the pilot goes, "All right, we're gonna take off," and you get up there. We've reached cruising altitude, and on the chance we make it to Phoenix, right, you know, hopefully we'll all have a good time and live life, right?

That's not something you want somebody to say when you get on an airplane, right? On the chance that we're able to land safely, on the chance that we reach our destination, but that's what this group decides, right? On the chance that we might be able to make it to where we're going. So you can kind of see some foreshadowing in Luke's account there. "Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along creek close to shore." So it seems like things are going well, and then verse 14, "But soon a tempestuous wind called a nor'Easter struck down from the land, and the ship was caught and could not face the wind, and we gave way to it and were driven along, running under the lee of a small island called Kata.

We managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat." So the ship's boat would have been like a life boat or an extra boat, and what they normally did was sort of towed along behind, but the ship has gotten so tossed around that that boat is in danger of either coming loose or turning into a projectile that crashes into the ship, so they pull it aboard. And what happens next sort of sums up how bad this storm was. After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. You're in a ship, a wooden ship, and the big storm comes, and some guy says, "You know what we need to do to hold the ship together? Let's get some ratchet straps and run them underneath the ship, around to the top, and then we're going to tighten those up so the ship doesn't split apart and go every different direction."

That's what they're doing, is they are running lines under the ship, tying them on top so that the ship isn't going to fall apart in the storm. Then, fearing that we'd be on the Sirtis, this is a sandbar that is miles and miles from anywhere to be sort of stuck in the middle of the ocean, the boat unable to move. They lowered the gear and thus were driven along, and so they would have lowered their sea anchors, which were kind of like parachutes that go in the water, that hopefully slow and stabilize the ship. But notice they're completely out of control, right? No sails, they're not facing into the wind, they're trying to stop from being sort of marooned off the coast of North Africa in the middle of the ocean. And since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo, right?

The weight of the cargo would have weighed the ship down, made them feel the waves. They want to ride on top of the water, so they began discarding as much weight as they can. And on the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. This kind of says that they're becoming hopeless, right? We're not going to need these ropes anymore. When neither the sun nor stars appeared for many days, no small tempest lay on us, and all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned, right? The storm has been so bad, nothing they've done has worked. There is no hope. Verse 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.'" Now, Paul is not saying, "I told you so," here.

He's reminding them that he had predicted what was to happen, and that his words have the weight of being able to tell them something about what is going to happen next. "Men, you should have listened to me and not set sail from Crete, and incurred this injury and loss, yet now I urge you to take heart. For there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of God, to whom I belong and whom I worship." And he said, "Do not be afraid. You must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you. So take heart, men. I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told, but we must run aground on some island."

When the 14th night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, right out of control for 14 days, about midnight, the sailors suspected they were nearing land. So they took a sounding and found 20 fathoms. That's how deep the water was. A little further, they took a sounding and found 15 fathoms. And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And so they're trying to slow the ship down. So if you do come to this island Paul has been talking about, water's getting shallow, that you're not going to crash into it, maybe you'll be able to dock safely or ground the ship safely. 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, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved." Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go. And so there's kind of a mini-mutiny that the sailors are saying, "Hey, we can probably make it in this little boat. Let's abandon everybody." And Paul goes to the centurion, "Hey, we need the sailors to get this boat to land." And so before the guys can get in the boat, the soldiers just chop the ropes off. Probably a little bit of a conflict, and the boat goes sailing away. Now there is no chance of escape. As the day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, "Today is the fourteenth day, and you have continued in suspense without food, having taken nothing."

"That this boat, soldiers, ship, and crew have not eaten for two weeks." "Therefore, I urge you, take some food, for it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any one of you." Now we'll talk about this next verse in a minute, but just listen to see if it sounds familiar to you. And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. And they were all encouraged, ate some food themselves, and there were 276 persons in the ship. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea. Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach,

on which they planned to run the ship ashore. So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, and at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders, then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf. And so what's happened is the front of the boat is secure, the back of the boat is being torn apart by the waves, and they aren't to the beach yet, right? There's still a whole bunch of water between them and this island. The soldiers' plan was to kill, lest any of them should swim away and escape. Remember, if you're a Roman soldier guarding a Roman prisoner, you're life.

So if these prisoners escape, the punishment that would have gone upon these prisoners would have gone upon the soldiers. They say, "It's going to be easier. Just take the bodies to Rome rather than trying to wrangle these guys as we get to shore." Listen to the goodness of the centurion. "The centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest on planks or pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land." So as we consider this chapter full of detail and storm and fearfulness and loss and a hopelessness, and even physical hunger, right? You're so worried and so fearful that you don't eat for 14 days. I want to just sort of think a little bit about this storm, right?

They ignore the common sense given to them by Paul. Their sort of struggle and fear and continual difficulty, right? All hope is gone. You've got a mini-mutiny, and then Paul almost dies at the hands of the people he's trying to save, and eventually everyone makes it to shore. And so I want us to think a little bit this morning about what we can learn from this text when we find ourselves in the midst of storms. Not necessarily a physical storm where the wind is blowing and the waves are crashing over us, but in those times when it feels like life is doing that to us. When we're struggling and we're uncertain, when we feel like we are out of hope. And so the first thing I want you to see from this text is that we should be thankful for the evidences

of God's grace, right? So typically what we tend to do is we count up the problems, right? The hurts, the struggles, all of those bad things in life. And it's so easy to take everything that has gone wrong and sort of stack it up, right? This went wrong, and this went wrong, and they did this to me, and it's just been horrible ever since, that everything sort of begins to pile up in this giant mountain of our struggles and hurts and difficulty. I want you to see, first of all, how Paul is encouraged by God's people. And not just by God's people, but also this sailor, this centurion who does not believe in God. In this text, one of the things we see is the blessings of companions. When it was said that we should go to Italy, this is verse 1, they delivered Paul and some of the other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius.

And embarking on the ship of the Adamantium, which was about to sail the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. Paul is about to walk into a very uncertain future. And one of the things we're going to see in this chapter, and also in the next, is that God's people walk with us when we go into uncertainty. And so we know that Luke is with Paul in this text, because throughout this whole thing he'll say, "We did this, and this happened to us, and we went here." And so Luke is very obviously writing this as somebody who has experienced it with the Apostle Paul. But what is also remarkable is this man, Aristarchus, from Thessalonica. We first meet him back in Acts, I think, chapter 19, where Paul is getting ready to go to Jerusalem.

And Aristarchus volunteers and says, "I will go along, and I'll help Paul, and I'll watch out for him, and I'll help him as he carries this offering to Jerusalem." And Aristarchus doesn't just stop in Jerusalem, but evidently as Paul is snuck out of the city, as Paul is arrested, as Paul is put before these Roman officials, Aristarchus is there with him. And when Paul gets on the ship, Aristarchus is there with him as well. And it's in all likelihood that Paul wouldn't have been able to bring friends with him. He's allowed to bring Luke because it's his doctor and he has a physical condition. The only way in which he would have been able to bring Aristarchus with him, according to the traditions of the times of prisoners being transported, is if Aristarchus had said, "I am Paul's slave. I'm Paul's servant."

If he hadn't humbled himself, he would not have been able to go with the apostle Paul. And you see the love that Aristarchus has for Paul, that he says to the Romans, "I'm Paul's servant, his slave, and I'm there to meet his needs." And what's interesting, if you look toward the end of Paul's life, for example, in Rome, as he writes to Philemon, or writes about Philemon to his, or writes to Philemon about Onesimus, he starts with this, "Aristarchus, who is with me, greet you," that Aristarchus stays with Paul, suffers with Paul, travels with Paul. There is a blessing with God's people. And one of the things in the midst of the storm that we see so clearly so many times, is how God's people stand with us, and rally around us, and how they help us.

The second thing we see is we can be encouraged by the providence of God, and evidence of God's grace is his providence. And we see this in the blessing of this centurion. He's an important guy of the Augustan cohort, named for the emperor, after the emperor. And so when your legion is named in such a way, it denotes importance. This guy isn't just a regular sort of Roman soldier or even a commander, but he's a commander in sort of an elite unit, an important unit. And somehow Paul gets the Roman soldier who is good to those he is guarding. And I think that somehow has to do with God. How God works behind the scenes to make sure this is the guy who's guarding Paul on the way to Rome. Because not only has he let Paul out of the boat to go see his friends,

knowing that Paul is going to come back, but when all the other soldiers are like, "Hey, let's kill all the prisoners because it's easier to transport a body than it is a live human being." What does this guy do? He stops them because he wants to save Paul. You see the provision of God. But we also see Paul encouraged by the blessing of God's word, and he'll testify to this, how that very night there stood before me an angel of God, whom I belong and whom I worship. 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." You see, God speaks to Paul encouragingly through an angel. That yes, the storm is mighty. Yes, it has been difficult. Yes, it has been fearful.

You don't have to be afraid because I am with you. You see, God speaks to us. God speaks to us. Maybe we don't see an angel all the time, but we do see his word. His word that assures us that he never leaves us or forsakes us. That he knows the circumstances. We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every way has been tempted as we are. We have an anchor in Jesus. One of the stories that I love in the Gospels, and it's recounted in Matthew and Mark and Luke, is Jesus in the boat with the disciples, and he's had a long day of ministry. He's preached, he's healed, he's taught, he's had controversy, and so he gets into the boat, and like a lot of us,

after a long day, we get into a car, and somebody else is driving, and it's so easy to fall asleep. Jesus falls asleep in the boat. And in the middle of his nap in the boat, right, a storm arises, and the boat's about to sink, and the disciples wake him up and go, "Don't you care if we die, Jesus?" Jesus calms the storm with a word, and then he'll say to them, "Oh, you of little faith." And he's not making fun of their faith. What he's saying, I think, is he's gently correcting them, saying, "Why is your faith so small? Here I am, and I'm in the storm with you, right? I'm not watching you from the shore or from a distance, but while you are with me, you are safe, no matter how big the storm."

And I think the message for us as we see Paul hearing God's word is to ask ourselves, "Are we, in the midst of our storms, listening to God's word?" It's so easy to become preoccupied and overwhelmed by our difficulties that we forget that God has spoken to us through his word. And we see that God does not abandon us in the midst of our storms. The other thing that I would have you to see is the importance of wisdom. In Acts chapter 27, in our storms, it's wise for us to act in a way that makes sense. In Acts chapter 27, 9 and 10, it says, "As much time had passed, the voyage was now dangerous because the fast was already over." End of September, Paul advised them, saying, "Sir, as I perceive, the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.

It was dangerous to sail at this time of year. In addition to the winter storms, the currents would shift and make travel much slower and much more difficult. Not a good time to sail." Now, Paul has extensively traveled by ship. We know in 2 Corinthians, he said, "I've been shipwrecked three times, a day and the night I spent in the open sea," meaning that he's without a boat, right? So Paul has had some experience, and so he says, "Look, guys, the season's getting late. Let's stay. Let's exercise some wisdom in the midst of this struggle of me having to go to Rome. Let's use our wisdom to choose the best path." What we also see is that wisdom so many times is overruled by our desires. But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and the owner of his ship than to what Paul said

because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, and the majority decided to put out from sea from there on the chance they could somehow reach Phoenix, the harbor of Crete. And so what happens is this city is called Fair Havens. One commentator suggested it was named by the, like, sort of the Chamber of Commerce to be Fair Havens because it was not Fair Havens. It was a bad harbor, but it wasn't somewhere that you couldn't last the winter, right? It just wasn't ideal. The problem, the real problem at the heart of why they want to leave is this is a terrible town to spend the winter in, right? There's nothing happening. It's a tiny little town. You've got soldiers and sailors, and most commentators will say the reason they want to leave isn't because of the harbor. It's because they don't

want to be stuck in this backwater town for the entire winter. That's why they're trying to get to another town before they stop for the winter, right? And isn't it easy to justify our desires, right? Their desire to be in a bigger town, and they look at the harbor and go, "Oh, it's a little small. It's kind of facing the wrong direction." It wasn't they couldn't stay there. It wouldn't have been ideal. But it would have been safer than the voyage that they were taking. And what you see is for the sailors and the soldiers, this storm was of their own making. Not for Paul, right? He doesn't have a choice in the matter. But sometimes the storms we face are because of the decisions that we make. The third thing I would have you consider about Acts chapter 27 is have you considered God's purposes for

you in the storm. Paul has an opportunity to speak about God and his faith. And also think about this: what would have happened to this ship, the sailors, the soldiers, and the prisoners had not Paul been with them, right? They're not just traveling because of Paul. They were already going and they kind of tagged Paul in at the last minute. What would have happened to this group had Paul not been there? And they made those same decisions. They would have died in the sea. And Paul, in the midst of this, encourages them. He feeds everyone. And have you considered how you can share your hope in the midst of the storms? But not only that, notice Paul doesn't just share spiritual hope. He shares physical help as well. Make sure everybody eats. So in the midst of those storms that you encounter or see others encountering,

we want to both encourage spiritually and help physically. I'm going to go to verse 33, as Paul talks about being nourished in the storm. And as the day was about to dawn, Paul urged them to take some food, saying, "Today is the 14th day. You have continued in suspense without food and have taken nothing. Therefore, I encourage you to take some food that will give you strength, for not a hair of your head is to perish from any one of you." Right? Food can be encouraging, right? We've maybe heard the term "hangry," or you've seen those Snickers commercials. It's like, "You're not you when you're hungry," right? And I know sometimes that's true for me. Rachel will attest that there are times I'll come home, and I'll be grumpy and, you know, grumping at the dog,

and it's, "Oh, it's so loud in here," and the kids are running around. She'll go, "When was the last time you ate something?" I was like, "I don't know," right? She's like, "Maybe go eat some crackers or something," right? You know, "Have a sandwich," right? And I'm like, "That'll never help. That's a terrible idea." And then I go and do it, and what happens? Your demeanor instantly changes, right? And all of a sudden, things aren't as bad as you thought they were, not as terrifying as you thought they were, not as annoying as you thought they were, right? So when we're hungry, especially we're not talking about just missing lunch or skipping breakfast. We're talking about 14 days without food, right? So in addition to the struggles of the storm and expending all your energy to try to keep this ship together,

you're also sort of physically without calories. And so your hunger influences your emotions. But I think Luke here wants us to see something more than a physical meal in this. Listen to what he says. "When he had said these things, he took bread, and when he had given thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat, then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves." Those words sound familiar to you? Luke will record this in Acts 22. "And he had took bread," this is Jesus, "and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'And we know the rest, right? This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me, and likewise the cup after they had eaten. This cup is poured out for you as the new covenant in my blood.'"

Right? You see Luke paralleling the language around the bread with Paul. And I don't think that is unintentional, right? Luke is a smart guy, a good scholar. What's interesting is the Lord's Supper in some religious circles will be referred to as the Eucharist. And what's interesting about that is that comes from a single Greek word, Eucharist, which means to give thanks. It comes directly from when Jesus gives thanks and breaks the bread. The word in Greek has its root in that Eucharist, Eucharisteo, to give thanks for something. And that's what Paul does, right? He takes the bread, he gives thanks, and they are encouraged. So is Paul celebrating the Lord's Supper? We don't know. It's possible, we know there's Christians there with him, that at least Luke and Aristarchus, maybe others have booked passage as well to try to help Paul and encourage him.

We don't know. But it's very interesting, and I don't think it's accidental, that Luke uses the exact same language that he does when Jesus celebrates the Lord's Supper. I want to share with you this quote from a commentary on the Book of Acts that says this: "What is the response of the church in the midst of discouragement and fear? Like Paul, the church takes bread, blesses it, and breaks it, and begins to eat. What good will it do, the world may ask, in this sign of hope, in the power and the presence of God, this Eucharistic or thankful witness to our confidence in God's will to give us what we need, even in the midst of the storm. The church not only feeds itself, but is a witness to the world. The Eucharist is food of confidence, shared in the middle of the storm.

We're going to pray and we're going to celebrate this meal of thanksgiving that nourishes us now and in the midst of our storms. Father in heaven, we thank you that you are at work in the midst of our storms, whether it's the small signs of grace, your people who encourage us and help us in your providential care, how you have worked things out on our behalf. Help us as we face these storms to do so with wisdom, to seek your strength and power. Help us in the midst of these storms to serve as a witness and a help to those who are struggling. Help us this morning as we come. May we be nourished by the Gospel, by the fact that you have loved us and your Son has taken our brokenness, our sin and our shame.

He has risen again for our victory, and that we celebrate with thankfulness and hope because of what you have accomplished for us. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And this is from Luke the 22nd chapter. Jesus took bread when he had given thanks. He broke it and gave it to them saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise, the cup after they had eaten saying, "This cup poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." We're going to stand, and we're going to sing a song about trusting and praising God, even in the midst of the storms, a song called "Raise a Hallelujah." So we're going to go ahead and stand and sing.

I raise a Hallelujah in the presence of my enemies. I raise a Hallelujah louder than the unbelief. I raise a Hallelujah. My weapon is a melody. I raise a Hallelujah. Heaven comes to fight for me. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder. You're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes, hope will arise. Death is defeated. The King is alive. I raise a hallelujah with everything inside of me. I raise a hallelujah. I will watch the darkness bleed. I raise a hallelujah. In the middle of the mystery. I raise a hallelujah. Fear you lost your hold on me. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder. You're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes. Hope will arise. Death is defeated. The King is alive.

Sing a little louder. In the presence of my enemies. Sing a little louder. Louder than the unbelief. Sing a little louder. My weapon is a melody. Sing a little louder. Heaven comes to fight for me. Sing a little louder. In the presence of my enemies. Sing a little louder. In the presence of my enemies. Sing a little louder. Louder than the unbelief. Sing a little louder. My weapon is a melody. Sing a little louder. Heaven comes to fight for me. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder. You're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes, hope will arise. Death is defeated. The King is alive. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder. You're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes, hope will arise. Death is defeated. The King is alive.

I want to thank you for joining us this morning. We're thankful to those of you who are here in person, and we are also very thankful to those of you who join us online. We're going to just have a couple of announcements. We'll be here Wednesday night at 7 p.m. for Bible study, and then next Sunday moving into the 28th chapter of the book of Acts. If you thought the storm was difficult for Paul, just read the first couple verses of Acts chapter 28, and you'll see he's kind of gone into another very difficult sort of slithery situation. So we'll be in Acts chapter 28 next week. I'm going to pray, read a verse from 2 Thessalonians, the third chapter, and then we'll sing the doxology and be dismissed. Father, thank you that through you we can sing in the midst of our storms. We thank you that you bring us through them.

Help us to be a people who fix our eyes on you, that you would be our hope and our strength. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul will say this as sort of a quick prayer for the Thessalonian church in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. He says this, "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ." Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. God bless you.