Acts chapter 27, we're at the end of the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul is on his way to Rome to be tried and, as history tells us, to eventually be executed there as a martyr for the Lord Jesus Christ. But we find him here in Acts chapter 27, and they're sailing on a ship. And previously, just to kind of bring you up to speed here, the Apostle Paul said, we don't need to go today. He was not a meteorologist, he was not a ship captain, but he was God's man listening to God and the impression that was made upon him was that they didn't need to go. Well, everybody knows more than everybody else said, we need to go anyway, so they did. And that's where we pick up verse number 13. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Euryclodon. And when the ship was caught and could not bear up under the wind, we let her drive. And running under a certain island, which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat, which when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand, strike sail, and were so driven. And we being exceedingly tossed with the tempest, the next day they lightened the ship. And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, hope that we should be saved was then taken away. But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me, and nodded loose from creep, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night, the angel of God, whom I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God has given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe, God, that it shall be even as it was told me. You can be seated. As Paul and the shipmen experienced a tremendous storm that didn't go away overnight. In fact, the Bible said they had many days that the stars and the sun did not appear. I don't know how long they were in that storm, but you could safely say they were in it much longer than they would have wanted to be. In fact, the Bible says that after the storm had increased and had pressed upon them sorely, they began to decide that there were certain things that they once thought that were important that were no longer important. And they began throwing them overboard, even down to after so many days, they began to throw the tackling of the ship, the things that help us to do what we know to do to make this ship do what it's supposed to do. They began to throw it all overboard because nothing was more important than their own lives. It's amazing to me how that we tend to collect to ourselves sometimes things, sometimes opinions, sometimes various randomness, but you let a storm hit and we'll start trimming down to what we know is truly important. They began to look at what they had on that ship. And they began to toss it overboard, and things didn't matter as much as they thought they did. And you know, some things don't matter as much as you thought they did when a storm hits. Over and over in this storm, I get the impression, and God even says in His Word, that all hope was gone, that they should be saved. They reached a point in this situation, not every situation's like this, Sometimes you sit at a red light a little bit longer than you thought it should be red, and it frustrates you, and you're like, come on, you know? I wish it would change, but I'm not opening the door and throwing out my stuff. It's not that bad of a storm. I'll eventually get through this. This is one of those that is aggravating, but I'll get through it, right? Or maybe as happened to me this week, I was in line at, and I don't know who wrote the rules for self-checkout, People, they don't understand. They must have never went to kindergarten, all right? I went to kindergarten for about three months, and I learned everything I needed to learn, and then I dropped out, and that's a true story. But I did learn this. When you get in line, you're in line, all right? And if there's four of them little checkout things, then there ought to be four lines. Not one, and everybody just diving off of it as they will, right? So I'm in line the other day, and there's somebody stood at the checkout, and I'm standing there, and then they leave, and I go to get there. This kind gentleman stepped out of line where he was in the wheel checkout line, and come over there and got in my line. I'm talking about he already had his stuff, and they had the little thing, and the lady was beeping, and he decided he wasn't gonna go there, he was gonna cut over here and get in front of me. And I know he did it on purpose. I don't know all that. That's a frustration, isn't it? I knew at that moment, and I know it's the spirit of God inside me, and I've told my children this so many times, that I have to take my own medicine, and that is always behave in public. or food line, or Walmart, or wherever it is you are. Always behave, because you never know who's watching. You never know. But you know who is watching? God's always watching. So we do it for Him, and then you just let everybody else just figure out what they see. But I backed my buggy up and got back in line. And I don't know who saw me and who's gonna have a closer walk with the Lord because of that. But anyway, it's a frustration, but it wasn't the end of the world. I wasn't ready to push my buggy over to the side and cast it all away. But let me tell you something, sometimes you're gonna face a difficulty and a storm that's so big that nothing else has any value, merit or matters anymore. This is the only thing in my mind right now, we've been there. You've been there many times. If you live a long enough life, sadly, just one of the things that comes with life is trouble. The Bible said man is born to trouble, sure as sparks fly upward. The Bible said man that is born of a woman is of a few days and full of trouble. And I look at this trouble, this storm that the Apostle Paul was in and those men who had no idea they were in a Bible story, but they began to do what we would do. They began to prioritize their lives. And they realized this storm is much bigger than anything we've dealt with in a long, long time. And my life is more valuable than the stuff that I'm hanging on to. And they began to throw away their stuff in hopes that it would lighten the ship so that they could be whisked out of that storm as quickly as possible. I noticed in the beginning that they made a bad choice. They should have never made the journey anyway. But don't you hate it when that's you? When you make a decision you shouldn't have made, and then when it all falls apart, everybody around you wants to say, I told you so. The apostle Paul did. He told him, he said, I told you so. I told you you should not have left, but you did it anyway. Well, I tell you what, sometimes we have to take a dose of punishment because we make choices that we shouldn't have made when we made them. but it doesn't change the circumstance right now. I'm in the middle of a storm that I have no control over. Sure, I should have not made the trip. Yes, we should have listened to the man of God. Yes, we should have done it a different way. And all that settled doesn't change where I'm at right now. You still have to deal with the fruit of the choices you've made. And that's what I see throughout this passage. The apostle Paul said, you shouldn't have made the trip in the beginning, but they made the trip. They're in the middle of the storm. Now they're prioritizing. They're throwing things out of their life that they wouldn't have had to if they had to listen, but they didn't listen. But now we are where we are, but God hasn't changed who he is. And I say that to say this, sometimes we make some very bad decisions in life. And God did not want us making that decision. We're reaping the consequences of that decision even as we speak. But God is still a God of love and a God of mercy, a God who is willing to reach into your disaster, reach into your chaos, reach into your storm and give you the hope that you now have lost. Paul said, all hope was lost, that we should be saved. It didn't look like it's going to come to any good end. I don't know who's in that situation this morning. And if you're not, I want you to take this message and put it in your little spiritual savings account and hang on to it for a day that you are. I thought about what I would title this message. And I had several different titles. As I read the scriptures, I read in Proverbs chapter three where he said, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not to thine own understanding. Boy, that's what they were doing. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Even in the middle of a storm, if I will start acknowledging him, he'll direct my path from this point forward. I believe that. I thought about Psalm 121, verse one and two, where he said, I will lift up mine eyes into the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. I remembered the verse, as I quoted a while ago, life is a few days and full of trouble. I read in Ecclesiastes, where he said, for who knoweth what is good for man in this life? All the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow. I thought about titling this message helpful when life is impossible or learning to trust God when you don't know what he's doing. But I settled on this title and I hope that this message will be a blessing to you this morning. What to do when you don't know what to do. I know what I should have done, but I didn't do that. Maybe you're here this morning and you look back and you say, I know what I shouldn't have done, but I did it and it got me in the shape I'm in. Hindsight is so 20-20, isn't it? We can all look back and be a wiser person yesterday, today, but yesterday's already gone. When we look back, we say we should not have set sail. Whoever was right, doesn't matter now, but the man of God was right. That wasn't his point, by the way. The situation doesn't change no matter who was right yesterday. No matter what we should have done or no matter what we shouldn't have done, the choices were made and we're in the situation. What are we going to do now? I don't know. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? We shouldn't have sailed. looking at all these boxes of stuff. Price shouldn't have bought that stuff. Why are you saying that? Because I'm throwing it overboard. It means nothing now. I'm throwing the tackling overboard. The very structure of my life has been affected by the storm that I am in. And until you've been in a storm like that, you won't understand what I'm talking about. But the very mechanics of my life and the tools that it takes to make my life what it is are falling overboard and being thrown overboard. And I wish we hadn't, but we did. I wish we would have, but we didn't. And all of those have brought me here to where I'm at. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? I could give you the direct answer and dismiss you, but I feel like preaching. So give me just a minute. Let me give you some biblical examples from the word of God. I'll quickly give you about three good Bible examples of what to do when you don't know what to do. And then we'll go right back to this text and show you what Paul said. And that's what you need to do when you don't know what to do. Alright? The Bible says, and let's look at a man quickly. We're going to talk quickly about a man by the name of Noah. In Genesis chapter 8 the Bible says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Bible said the whole world was filled with wickedness and corruption, and God repented that He had made man, and He's going to destroy him with a worldwide flood. But, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Bible says in Hebrews 11, here's what Noah did. By faith, Noah being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith. When we look at Noah's life, we have to say we see the providence of God. Noah had no idea what he was getting into. From architect to animal control, he didn't have any experience over any of that that we know of in the Word of God. But what he did have was a God that he was willing to listen to. Amen, that's right. By faith, how do we know it's by faith? The Bible says faith without what? Works is what? Dead. So if it's real faith, it's going to have works attached to it. Now that works is not, you know, I have faith so I'm going to go chop wood. Not that kind of work. It's work like I'm going to act upon what I believe. I believe what God said and acting upon in obedience to the Word of God, that's the works that God's looking for. When you say, I have faith, the Bible says, show me your works. Show me how you're obediently following after that faith that you so-called believe. You can say you have faith, but if you don't have works, your faith is dead. It's not real faith until it's coupled with Working that obedience to the Word of God that you do know, right? Amen. So what did Noah do? By faith, Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear. There's his works. Moved with fear, prepared an ark. He did exactly what God told him to do. And what happened? He saved his house. We see the providence of God overshadowing the life of Noah. But we also see Noah who had no idea, no pun intended, he had no idea that he was how to build an ark. He did not know about animals. He didn't know how to do all that. You know what he did? He just said, I'm gonna obey God. I'm gonna obey the word of God that I've been told. And when he obeyed the word of God that he was told, The end result was he saved his house. The Bible said, to the saving of his house, and the Bible says, by the witch he condemned the world. His life, his lifestyle, his obedience to the Word of God not only rescued his house, but it also preached a message of condemnation to the world. When you don't live in obedience to the Word of God, you end up condemned. When you live in obedience to the Word of God, you end up blessed. So, Noah is a great example of someone, what do you do when you don't know what to do? He said, all I know is what God told me, and I'm going to do what God told me. And he saved his house. Let me give you another example. You know these examples. In Genesis chapter 22, verse 7 and 8, we have the story of Abraham and Isaac. And Isaac spake to Abraham his father and said, my father, and he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. Not only have we seen the providence of God this morning, but in this story, you continue reading, you know what happened, don't you? When he laid Isaac upon that altar and he raised the knife to slay his son, he was trying to do everything that God had told him to do, but God's plan was bigger than what he had told Abraham, and he said, touch not. He said, don't hurt the lad. And he said, look, and behold, there was a ram caught by the horns in the thicket. Not only do we have the providence of God this morning, but we also see the provision of God. Let me back up a minute. Who ever heard of this ever being asked of anyone before? Before this happened to Abraham, God had never asked anybody to do anything like this. Give your son, your only son, offer him as an offering to God. This was so outlandish. This was so unheard of. So was Noah's situation. The colors are different and the view is different, but the story's still the same. God has allowed these men to enter into a storm, enter into a situation that they have no idea how in the world this is gonna work out. What do you do when you don't know what to do? You know what Abraham did the whole time? He said, I'm just going to go off with the last thing I heard from God and I'm going to keep doing the last thing that God told me to do. I don't know how long it took him to get his stuff together and the servants and all that stuff and everybody heading up and he told the servants to stay here while I and the lad go yonder and worship and return. By faith, he obviously believed they were going to come back because he said we'll come back. How God's going to do it, I don't know. So he goes up there. I don't know how long of a span of time that took, but God hadn't said a word to him since the last word God told him. And the last word that God told him was, you offer that boy. You know what he did, brother? with a broken heart, with heaviness of mind. I don't even have a clue as to what all is going to go on here. I don't know how this is going to turn out. I don't know how I'm going to explain this. I don't know what all is going on in my life right now, but the last thing God told me to do is exactly what I'm going to do. Can I tell you something? What do you do when you don't know what to do? You just keep doing what God told you to do the last time God told you to do something, amen? Amen, that's right. Here they are in a storm, the apostle Paul and them are in a storm. These men are doing everything that they thought that they were supposed to do. Paul said, you should have listened to the word of God. If you'd have obeyed the word of God, you wouldn't be in this situation. But here we are, so what do we do? We see in Noah's day the providence of God. We see in Abraham's day the provision of God. God provided a substitute. Abraham experienced God's provision. By the way, Abraham ended up not offering his son Isaac. You did know that story, right? But there was a day when the father offered his son. Amen. The heavenly father offered his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and there was no substitute. He was the substitute. He was the sacrifice. He was the lamb because you know who should have died on that cross? Should have been me, should have been you for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life. It should have been us who died and paid the wages of our sin. But the father took his son to the top of the mount and offered him as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Thank God for that. Amen. And by the way, if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your personal Savior, today could be the greatest day of your life. Indeed, the greatest day of your life. When you turn your life to Christ, receiving Him as your Lord and Savior, I'm gonna tell you what, He will be a father to you. He will forgive you of your sins. He'll make you a child of God. It could be the greatest day of your life. Amen. Noah and Abraham, they didn't know what to do. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? Noah said, I don't know anything about art building, I don't know about anything about animal control, but all I do know is God told me to do this, and I'm gonna do what God said. Abraham said, God said he was gonna make my son and seed and all the promises, but God said offering. I don't know how God's gonna work this out, but I'm just gonna obey what God told me. Let me give you one more. 2 Kings chapter 6. You know the story, I'm sure. Verse 15. They're coming after Elisha, the man of God. They're trying to capture him. So they besieged the city round about. Verse 15 of 2 Kings 6 says, And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host come past the city, both with horses and chariots. And the servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? In other words, what are we going to do when we don't know what to do? When I went to bed last night, I felt safe. When I woke up this morning, all trouble broke loose. When I went to bed last night, I felt like that this was a good thing. When I got up this morning, my entire life, my entire city is compassed about with chariots and horsemen. Alas, Master, Lord, what am I to do when I don't know what I'm supposed to do? Verse 16 says, And he answered, fear not. That's pretty good instruction. If you have a spiritual control of your faculties this morning, you understand that was the right thing to say, fear not. But most of the time, when we're in a situation like that, when in the history of ever has fear not ever worked, right? It's like telling somebody to calm down, right? That doesn't usually work, but it's the right thing to do. And so we have to be spiritual and understand enough to know that even when I don't know what I'm supposed to do, that what is being told to me from the word of God is the right thing to do. Whether I feel like fearing not or not, I need to fear not. First thing he said was fear not. Fear not, why do you not fear? Because God's in control, obviously. He said, fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. Now, if I was that servant, if you were that servant, we'd have probably thought the same thing. He hadn't seen out the window yet. You need to borrow my glasses. Servant got up early, the Bible said, and he went out and looked. And he comes back with a report, and he says, what are we going to do when we don't know what to do? And Elisha, the man of God, said, first of all, don't be afraid, because there's more with us than there is with them. What does that mean? What does that mean? When I looked out the window, all I could see was Uroclodon, the storm. All I'm feeling is the wind and the waves and the water. All I'm experiencing is the loss of things and treasures of my life. Seems like my life is falling apart and you're telling me fear not. And then you're telling me that we're on the wind inside. And a body of flesh because we do have sight. It's hard for us to fear not when we're just simply told fear not. It's hard for us to regain our faculties and composure and to say, okay, I'll just believe God and his word. But can I tell you something, child of God, that's exactly what God wants you to do. Anybody can fall apart. Anybody can raise a white flag of surrender. Anybody can throw the stuff overboard. Anybody can quit while the quitting's good. Anybody can bail out. Anybody can belly up. Anybody can just throw it all in. Anybody can call it quits. But what are you gonna do when you don't know what to do? You're gonna reach way down inside there where the Spirit of God lives. and get a hold of something that got a hold of you and say, Lord, I'm gonna believe you. I'm going to trust you. I know what I see and I know what I feel and I know how the wind has blistered me and the boat of my life is rocking back and forth, but I'm gonna believe you. That's what that servant had to do. You see, that servant saw with his own two good eyes. He saw out there the enemy. He saw it. How are you gonna convince me I saw the enemy? And you're just gonna sit back here and say there's more for us than against us? Look at what the verse says. Verse 17, and Elisha prayed. He said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Amen. Amen. We come to the conclusion all too soon. We come to the end of the rope all too quickly. We don't realize that beyond what we can't see or feel, there's a God, and that God is in full control. And if He says, fear not, He's got a reason why you shouldn't be afraid. If everything you're looking at looks bad, everything you're feeling feels like a storm, everything that you're throwing overboard seems like a loss, your life is falling apart, I don't know what to do, what am I supposed to do? He said, fear God and have faith in God and believe the God of heaven that he is in control and you're his child and he's got a plan. He's gonna move, amen. What happened to Noah? Noah with no ship building ability built an ark, saved his house. Noah with no animal control experience, Two by two of every unclean, and by sevens of every clean. Who knew how to make the division? God did it. Abraham walking up, Isaac said, Daddy, we got the wood, we got the fire, what about the sacrifice? Son, I don't know what to do, and I don't know what to do. All I know is God said, and I'm just gonna, God's gonna provide. God's gonna provide. These men acted like they knew what the end of the story looked like, but they didn't. but they lived by faith so much that we who know the end of their story look at the beginning of their story and they were living at the begin of their story like they would have lived at the end of their story. Noah preached for a hundred years and built the ark. Abraham went all the way to the top of the mountain, laid the wood in order, put his son on there, raised the knife like he knew He didn't know, but what he did know was all he knew. As I'm going to have faith, I'm going to believe what God's Word said. Noah, what are you doing? I just believe what God told me. Abraham, what are you going to do? I'm just going to believe what God told me. Elisha, servant, what are you going to do? Well, I'm going to believe what the Word of God said. I'm going to go back there and look. He said, Behold, look, and the whole mountain was full of chariots of fire round about Elisha. So what are you going to do? 2 Corinthians 4.18 says, While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. If you're looking at the wind and the water and the waves, if you're looking at how big the art building project is and the fact that you have no experience, if you're looking at the only option being your son to be the sacrifice, if that's what you're looking at, then you're gonna find yourself in a very discouraged situation. But if you'll start looking at things that you can't see, By faith, faith is the substance. You can't see faith, can't touch faith, can't feel faith. But faith, when it is faith, has works attached to it, which simply says, I'm going to obey the word of God. When you start looking at things you can't see, you'll start seeing things that you never saw. Noah, inside the ark. Seven days, that door stayed open. I don't know what it sounded like outside, all them people. Hecklers, I'm sure. The devil probably said, you have really made a fool of yourself. I don't know what cartoon you saw, what storybook you read, but let me tell you what the Bible actually says. God shut the door. Noah didn't say, well, it's time for the rain to start. Somebody go shut the door. Sham, go shut the door. No, the Bible says God shut the door. I can imagine that that put a period at the end of the sentence. Amen. God shut the door. And then the rain started coming. And the floods and the fountains of the depths were broken up. I can imagine that the conversation on the outside of the ark changed dramatically. And before you know it, everybody on the outside, the ones that can get a breath, are screaming and crying and begging to be let in, and knowing his family's on the inside, probably shocked, big-eyed, realizing what faith and obedience has now got them. I'm so glad, I don't know who would have said this, maybe Japheth would have said it, Daddy. I'm sure I'm glad you listened to God. When nobody else understood and nobody else believed what you were doing, I'm sure glad you listened to God. Abraham's got the knife raised up in the air, he's ready, he's gonna plunge it into the chest of his own son. And God said, stop! For now I know that you'll obey me. And he said, behold, a ram was caught in the thicket. He offered it as a burnt sacrifice. I can imagine Isaac going down that hill. Hey, daddy, sure I'm glad there's a ram. Aren't you? And Abraham, yes, son, I sure am. Yeah, I know. I sure am. Hey, daddy, what about that? Well, God did that in a nick of time, didn't he, daddy? Sure did, son. Boy, daddy, what if he... No, son, I don't even want to talk about what if. Daddy, I sure am glad that God pulls through every time for us. Aren't you? Daddy, I sure am glad that when you put faith in God, He always does what He's supposed to do. Aren't you? Can you imagine Elisha's servant when he run over to that window? And he looked, turned around. I'm a preacher, so I kind of feel like I know what Elisha would have been doing. I feel like Elisha probably been just snickering. I know. Boy, I sure am glad, preacher, that we're doing what God told us to do. I know what everybody around us wishes on us. I know they'd love to surround us and they'd love to encompass us and they'd love to see us. I sure am glad that God's not doing what everybody else wants done. I'm glad God is going to do what he said he would do, take care of us. Well, what about you? Are you looking at things that you can see and that's all you're basing your faith on? Or are you going to look at what you can't see? The potential of your Christian life is not wrapped up in these things that you can see. Oh, it can derail you. But if you'll, by faith, look at what you can't see and say, there's a God in heaven. The last thing he told me was this. His word has told me, I'm just gonna stick by his word. I'm gonna obey his word. I'm gonna stay faithful to the word of God. And whatever God decides to do is what will happen. I'm just gonna be faithful to God. Psalm 121 once again says, I will lift up my eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. It's so easy to lean to our own understanding and all of our ways, acknowledge what we see. That's not what God wants. I'm gonna tell you this morning, help is not just on the way, help is already here. In the middle of that storm, Paul said, he gave him the clue from the very beginning. We tend to take it as Paul being a little bit of a smart aleck, but I think he's given him the answer the whole way through. He said, you should have listened. He said, you should have listened to me. Being the preacher, he's given him the word of God. It's not me. God told Paul to tell him not to go. You should have listened to the Word of God. You didn't listen to the Word of God, you got yourself in the shape you're in, but now if you'll listen to the Word of God, things can be better than they are. Look back with me in our text in Acts chapter 27. Acts chapter 27. Verse number 25, at the end of the story, Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me." So what are you going to do when you don't know what to do? I'm just going to keep believing what I was already told. I'm going to keep standing on what I already know is sure. I'm going to keep leaning on, not my own understanding, but I'm going to keep leaning on that that I've already proven to be stable. When I don't hear a word from God, I'm just going to go back on the last word that I did hear from God. Because you see, without faith, that's what faith is. Faith is just believing God. Without it, it's impossible to please God. With it, Waters part, rain descends, miracles happen when you just simply believe God. Let's stand together, our heads are bowed.