I think we're just going to have everybody in here and you get to hear the best pastor you have today. I'm going to preach on lessons from a sinking ship. It kind of fits with the music this morning. Lessons from a sinking ship in Acts chapter 27. A German airship, the Hindenburg, was a technological wonder in its day in 1937. It was a dirigible. It was a huge airship. The thing was over 800 feet long. It would be roughly as long as it is from right here where we're sitting up to that Dollar General store up on the hill up the street. And it was trying to land in New Jersey. Now it was filled with hydrogen gas which would be a dangerous gas, flammable hydrogen. And they didn't have less flammable gases because this was just prior to World War II and the United States had already limited and restricted the other gases that was available to Germany at the time. And so even though this airship was touted as being a very safe and efficient airship, they weren't concerned about that hydrogen and so as it begins to land, they had to drop down ropes to the ground for people to hold on to when they pulled it down. It was about 180 feet above the ground and flames, a spark, they think might have been static electricity. This thing had an aluminum, a lightweight aluminum frame all the way around it. interior and it was covered with a skin of cotton coated with a substance that was similar, they said, similar to rocket fuel. And so a spark, they think from static electricity maybe, was generated somehow and set the tail section of that airship on fire and in less than one minute it was consumed completely. As it fell, part of the people, there's about 97 on board. I mean, this was a luxury liner. I mean, they had a lounge and they had a dining room. They even had a grand piano on board that thing. And so they had 97 people on board. And as it caught on fire and began to descend from that 185 feet, a few of the people survived. The 37, I think, people lost their lives in that. A very great tragedy, an airship, and they caught it on film. And so we're going to see a tragedy of an ocean-going ship. this morning in Acts chapter 27. Let's read it together in Acts 27. We'll just start in verse 9 and read through verse 11. Now when much time was spent, Paul's on his journey towards Rome and they've already encountered some problems but they're going from island to island, hopping, trying to stay out of the wind and they're trying to deal with this but it's not working out very well. It says, Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul." Father, I pray that you'd bless us this morning as we look into the Word of God for some help and some encouragement, for some instruction. Lord, for some assurance of our own faith and well-being as we face some shipwrecks, sinking ships, storms in our own life. Lord, I pray that you'd strengthen us that way. In Jesus' name, amen. And life often feels like a storm. And sometimes these storms come up unexpectedly and violently as they did on the Mediterranean. And in Acts 27, Paul finds himself on a doomed vessel headed for Rome. They're going off their first course because the weather has gotten so bad. It's at that time of year when the storms arise and get very violent on the face of the Mediterranean Sea. And God's still at work. This vessel is headed for disaster because they won't listen to Paul. Paul had been included in on a conference with the ship's master and also with the centurion Paul had been in shipwrecks before and so they probably included him in on this council to take advice from different people on what they thought they ought to do during this terrible storm. But alas, Paul's advice was ignored. And the centurion, evidently, who maintained the greatest authority at this time, above that of even the ship's master, the centurion said, no, we're going to sail on and we're going to get to our destination, it'll be okay. And even in that, they wouldn't listen to Paul, but a tragedy came, and yet still God is working in the midst of a tragedy. It was not smooth sailing. but God was teaching him, Paul, the people on board, and us a lesson from a sinking ship. Notice with me in the first place the danger of ignoring God's warnings. The danger of ignoring God's warnings, we see if we read again the 9 through 11, those verses that we just read, we'd see that they did decide not to take Paul's counsel. Now Paul was a man who walked with God, was in touch with God, and God gave Paul special instructions through an angel, a messenger from heaven, to tell him that, hey, you better not get on this course that you're headed for. It's going to end in tragedy. But they rejected the godly counsel. How many times does it happen that tragedies get worse because people reject the counsel of God? Chapter 27 verse 11 says, Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul. Many people reject biblical counseling warnings for worldly reasoning. Some brush off the warnings of preachers who stand with the Word of God and give warnings, counsel, instruction. And some people say, well, that's just his idea. No, if it comes from the Word of God, if it's the counsel of the Word of God, thus saith the Lord is always good counsel to follow. It's always the best counsel to follow because the world will give you instructions but it's not always good instructions and sometimes we learn it much too late. In Boston, years ago, there was a massive molasses storage tank and it was poorly constructed, I think maybe with wood and it held A lot of molasses, if you can imagine such a thing, is a huge tank. And there had been warnings that this thing was not safe, that it could give way. And the owners, in spite of the warnings about the danger involved, decided it's okay, everything's going to be fine. Well, when we tell other people everything's going to be fine, unless we got it out of the word of God, we don't know. We don't know everything's going to be fine. I mean, for the Christian, we know that in eternity, everything's going to be fine. But in this life, we don't know everything's going to be fine unless God specifically tells us in his word, because the word of God is the authoritative final word of all truth. Nothing else compares. Well, these people ignored the warnings. And in January 1919, that tank suddenly burst and a 25 foot high wave of molasses swept down through the town and people died. 21 people died in a flood of molasses. Just because somebody says it's gonna be okay doesn't mean that it's gonna be okay. God's counsel would have been much better. Fair weather can be deceiving too. In Acts chapter 27, in verse number 13, it says, and when the wind blew softly, And when the wind blew softly, they decided, OK, it's time we can sail on now. It looks like the wind has settled and this soft breeze is blowing. Everything's going to be great. Things seem to be safe when the wind blew softly. It can be deceiving. When everything's going smooth in life and you get counsel from the world, it might seem like everything's going great, but it can be deceptive. I went on a class trip in 1969 to Pensacola, Florida. We went to the beach, had a hotel on the beach as a graduating class. And I don't know, there were probably 30 of us. A bunch of guys got together on the beach, and we bought some of those styrofoam surfboards. They're like maybe eight feet long, six feet long. You get them for a couple of bucks. And you know how strong styrofoam is, right? It's really seaworthy vessels. And so we bought these styrofoam surfboards, and we're out in the water just a little ways off the sandy beach. We're out there playing and paddling and splashing each other. And unbeknownst to us, because we weren't paying attention, because there was this nice soft breeze just blowing. It's so comfortable out there. It was hot on the beach. That sand was blazing hot. But we were out in the water, and that soft breeze was gently and unobservedly carrying us further out into the Gulf of America. And as we're playing, we're ignoring things, the dark clouds begin to gather on the horizon. And we're still playing, we're just goofing around, having a good time. And those clouds kept moving over us. We heard a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning and all of a sudden that soft wind became a hurricane force wind coming across those waves and those waves were white capping over us and we're out there and we look and we're about a quarter of a mile out in the sea now away from the beach and the wind is blowing us further out than that. And so when we suddenly realize what has happened We tried to turn our little surfboards around, and we began paddling as fast as we could back towards the shore. You know what happened? The harder we paddled, the more that wind blew us further out to the sea. Later, one of our counselors from high school went and called the Coast Guard, and he was worried about us. He saw us get carried out, and he called the Coast Guard, and I don't know what rank the fellow was now, He was the guy in charge at that place where Mr. Harris said, we've got some guys that's out in the ocean, and the wind's carrying them further and further out. And the guy said, yeah, we lose a lot of them that way every year. Well, that didn't do the counselor much good. It didn't bring him much peace, and we didn't know anything about it at the time. And we're about to give up, because the harder we paddle, the more we're out of breath, the tired we are, our muscles are cramping. It's scary. Tornadoes were in the area, and we're still going further and further out. And we kept paddling and paddling and paddling, and finally the wind let up a little bit, and so we were able to make some more. By this time it's gotten dark, completely dark, and we see the streetlights along the beach over there. And so we're paddling and paddling and paddling. We almost lost our lives. Got knocked off of my surfboard once by a big wave. Knocked completely off of it, and I'm fumbling around trying to get hold of that thing again. we finally got close enough to shore. We're still like an eighth of a mile, well, probably not an eighth of a mile, probably three or four hundred yards maybe, I don't know. And I finally got knocked off my board again, and when I did, this time my feet went down and touched the sand, and I'm about this deep in that shallow water. Boy, did I ever feel relieved. There's some earth underneath me, and now we begin to tiptoe, holding on to that surfboard and tiptoeing our way out. That soft wind, that began to blow at the beginning was very deceptive. We thought everything's hunky-dory, but it almost ended in a tragedy, and many people do get drowned that way every year somewhere in the world. Well, weather can be deceiving. Ignoring God's warning can lead to unnecessary troubles. Are you listening? When we ignore God's warnings it can lead us into unnecessary trouble. Things can happen when we don't listen to God. And it does happen. It happened on this ship that Paul is going on. He tried to tell them what God had revealed to him through his messenger. Most of us have enough trouble without creating more. Sin and poor choices cause trouble many times that could have been prevented. Sin and poor choices. People were warned on that ship to save their lives earlier just by listening to Paul, who had the word of God, but they didn't. People today, in our own culture, people today, they're told, counseled in the scriptures, that we ought to save up for a rainy day. The Bible doesn't say that in those little words, but that's basically what many places, especially in Proverbs, tell us, that we ought to save up for a rainy day. We ought to have oil in our dwellings and food in our pantry. Save up for a rainy day. And today, people oftentimes don't heed that advice. They just live from week to week and spend all their money. Whatever they make, they spend it. Don't save anything. And then finally they find themselves too old and crippled up to work and they got no money and they have to survive on a very meager source like social security that's not going to pay all your bills or something like that or depend on the relatives because they didn't heed the warnings of scripture that there has to be preparation. People have been warned to avoid unequal yokes. The scripture says, be ye not unequally yoked together. And yet, I've told a number of young people, you ought not to marry that person. But she would say, oh well, I know he's not saved, but once we get married, I'll take him to church and I'll get him saved. Oh yeah, that happens a lot, doesn't it? No. It's usually the other way around. You don't make a healthy person well by having a sick person to kiss them. And when somebody who is unsaved marries up with a saved person, more often than not, the unsaved person influences the saved person for bad rather than the good person influencing the bad person for good. Be not unequally yoked. God knew what the outcome would generally be and he gave warnings and yet so many people say, yeah, but he's so good looking or he has such a great personality. or even if he has a lot of money or if he's a regular. None of that matters. If he's not saved and you're saved, stay away from him. Same thing goes with guys. Marrying a woman for her looks, one day she will get old. If she doesn't leave you before she gets old, one day she's going to get old and wrinkled and ugly and then you're going to think, well, where did that beauty go? Well, don't be unequally yoked. People, Christians especially, They're warned to straighten up their life before something happens. They get warnings from the Word of God. They hear preaching and they hear teaching and they read the Word of God and they're warned. And they don't straighten up. And you know what Hebrews chapter 12 says? That God chastens His children. And so the time comes when God has told people over and over and over that they need to straighten out their life. And they say, I'll do things my way. I'm being Crosby. I'll live life my way. I'll do it my way. And that's usually not the good way. Frank Sinatra, yeah. If you ever want to know where the gambling place is on the Mississippi River, ask Paul. He knows about that. We're warned and warned and warned, and then God has to use the rod of discipline. Now, he does do that. A lot of times people don't want to hear that preached either because they just want to hear about their God of love, that Jesus would never do anything to inflict some pain on anybody. Well, I do remember one episode where Jesus took a whip and ran a bunch of money changers out of the temple. God warns and warns. There's Bible characters that we can think of. Adam and Eve, were they not warned in the Garden of Eden? Stay away from that tree. All the rest of everything that I've created is yours, but stay away from that one. And they said, oh, that one, we need that one too. You know how that ended up, right? That's why you have to get saved, because of their fault. They didn't listen to the warning. What about Lot's family? When they lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, and he was with his uncle Abraham, And he pitched his tent towards Sodom. And as he began to look down at Sodom, man, those people are having a good time, and boy, they live it up, they party. And so eventually he moves into Sodom, loses his family, and he's been warned. But how does that end up? The city gets burned down, and he has to flee. What about Noah's audience? He preached for 120 years and he warned people and warned people for 120 years and what happened? The flood came and took them all away because the warnings of God were ignored. What about Achan? He was warned and the whole host of the children of Israel before they went into the Promised Land and attacked Jericho God had said, don't you take anything out of that city. You can't have the silver, you can't have the gold, you can't have the clothes, you can't have the animals, you can't have nothing. What did Achan do? He saw a goodly Babylonish garment, and he saw some gold, and he saw some silver, and he ignored God's warnings, and what happened? He and his whole family were stoned to death and placed into a pit. See, warnings that are ignored can bring great heartache and troubles and disaster. We warn the world today, Jesus is coming back one of these days and everything's going to be over. Jesus is coming back someday. And people mock and say, well, we've heard that all of our life and it ain't happened yet. But it will happen. He said, I will come again. And he will. And yet the world tends to ignore the warnings of God. Paul warned that whole boatload that's out on the Mediterranean Sea. What did they do? They ignored the counsel of God. Now notice the second thing, the need for faith in the storm. The need for faith. The storms will come. And when they do, we need to have some faith. In Acts 27 20 through 25, we'll single out one phrase out of verse number 22. Faith can see beyond the present crisis. Faith can see beyond the present crisis. In verse 22, Paul said, After all of this time, they're throwing stuff overboard. They're trying to lighten the ship's load. They're trying to do everything they can just to survive. Now, this was a wheat ship carrying grain from Egypt. They're developed, raised on the Nile River. They're taking it up to Rome. And so they take their cargo and throw it overboard. Now, it's not just getting the wheat to Rome. It's where you gotta save our lives, and they start throwing everything overboard, even through the ship's tackling overboard. And Paul said, in verse 22, See, God's still communicating with Paul. The man of God on board with them is what they ought to treasure in his advice, his counsel. They didn't listen to him the first time. Now he's saying, as the storm is beginning to cast them towards some land, Paul says, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. Even in the midst of a storm, terrible circumstances, when we do listen to God, we can be of good cheer. Have faith, have faith. I don't know of the times over the last 20 some odd years, nearly three decades now, I don't know how many times that our church checking account has been down to nearly nothing, right at the zero mark, right, Brother Paul? And it's been down there, and Brother Paul is our preacher, we got a problem here. There's payments coming up, we got missionaries we got to send checks to, and we got bills to pay, and we got insurance due, and we ain't got any money. And I always try to remember to say this, no matter how bleak the circumstances look, we need to speak encouragement, speak cheer, speak faith. I've said oftentimes, well, that bank account's about dry, but looks like we're gonna have to trust God. Oh no, has it come to that? Yeah, trust God. I don't know, I can't tell you how it's always turned out this way, but maybe somebody, maybe somebody, when we trusted God over these years, we trusted God, and when it looked like there's no way we're gonna make the payments this month, somebody would inherit something and give a large offering. Or somebody, maybe several people that had been gone and hadn't given anything in a while and they came back and they gave all at once. Maybe somebody came in with some extra money because they worked an extra job or because they sold a piece of property or a car or something and they gave extra. And boy, it was just in the nick of time. But God wasn't worried. Right? God wasn't worried. And as far as I know, over the past nearly three decades, we haven't, as a church, we haven't missed a single payment bill. We hadn't failed to pay any single debt. Although, I can't tell you how many months it looked like we weren't going to, but somehow God pulled us through. How faith, even in the storm, Had people tell me when we planted this church, 1997, 1998, boy, the first two or three years, it was really rough and rocky. Didn't have but a handful of people, and they were all poor people. Nobody had anything to give. And my family was deep in debt. Man, we were already like $36,000 in debt, credit card debt, trying to keep the church going while it was beginning to spring up, losing people, getting a few people back, losing some more people. And it had got busted down to where it was pretty low. We just had a few people after we'd gone through one of those times and just had a handful of people. And I heard through the grapevine where a relative of mine in another, not in Searcy, but from another place, relative of mine said, made this statement, does Rick think that little old church is really gonna survive? Does he really think that little old church is gonna make it? When I heard that, I looked up to God and I said, God, your name's at stake, so I'm asking you to help us make it. And now for three decades, we've made it. We're slightly short of 1,000 people in our attendance, but we've made it. We're slightly short of having double I'm out in the checkbook at the end of the month, but we're still making it. Because of the faithfulness of God's people who believe God will meet the needs. We've trusted God for 27 years. All I know to do is just keep trusting Him. Faith is rooted in God's Word, not in circumstances. Look at verse 25. Paul said, I believe God. By the way, that's the theme for next year's Faithful Men's Conference, Hover Greenbrier, by accident. Well, maybe it wasn't an accident, maybe God planned that. But this verse of scripture says, I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told to me. Faith, you can't just have faith in anything, because other things could fail. But God cannot fail. So if our faith is rooted in God and His promises, He won't fail. Abraham believed God's promise despite his old age, and he finally had a son. Faith produces steadfastness in unstable times. Verses 23 and 24, watch this. For there stood by me this night an angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve. He's talking about belonging to God, not the angel. Whose God I am, angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. In the midst of all this storm, Paul's been in a few shipwrecks. Paul's been mistreated some. Paul's faced some storms and some heartaches. He's been beaten. He's been abused. But Paul has stayed stable through all of it. Remember the time he got stoned in Derby? I'm not talking about smoking something. I'm talking about when he got hit with rocks and he got knocked down to the ground and they just kept piling the rocks on and even his own accomplice or his own Associates finally just walked away and said, poor old Paul, man, we really like that guy. And they looked back and there's old Paul digging out from under those rocks. What'd he do? He said, this is it, fellas, I quit, I'm going home. No, that's not what he says. What'd he say? He said, let's go back and preach some more. Let's go back and preach some more. People still need to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's keep on serving God. Let's go to the next city and we'll come back and check on these people later after I cool off a little. Well, he's the kind of guy that's just stable. He's been in the shipwrecks. He's been stoned. He's been abused. He's been mocked. He doesn't quit. He doesn't get fearful. He just says, God's in charge. God called me. God says, I'm going to Rome. And so this ship can't go down with me on board. Everything's got to be OK. God told me already, I'm going to Rome to stand in front of Caesar. And so there's no doubt that I'll make it there because God said so. Faith produces steadfastness in unstable times. Don't we need steadfastness? when times look hard. You know, like, when it looks like your bills are not gonna get paid, looks like that child is not gonna obey, looks like that sickness is just not gonna give up. We need steadfastness. Where does it come from? It comes from God. Him alone. Well, faith is the key, but it also requires action. It also requires some action. You know, somebody said, It's not faith to lean on a shovel while you're praying for God to dig a hole for you. Better pick up that shovel and start digging. Faith says, if God wants me to use a shovel, he'll see that I get the hole dug. Hello? People, instead of wanting a handout, ought to say, well, I'm going to get me a job, and then maybe God's going to bless me with some finances. Faith is the key, but it requires action. Which brings us to this point, the necessity of obedience in the trial. When we're going through trial, listen, when we're going through trials, the worst thing we can do is quit on God. The thing that happens way too often is people going through a trial and they say, that's it, I'm not going to go to church anymore. That's it, I'm sick of praying because it's not working. That's it, I'm not going to read the Bible anymore because it's not proving to be true. And so people give up. Don't run away from God when you're in need, when you're in trouble and things are going wrong. That's the time you ought to run to God. And so, the necessity of obedience in trial. In verse number 20, I'm sorry, verse number 30 and 31, this one phrase, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. He said, some of these guys were trying to escape, some of the sailors are gonna escape off the boat. They said, this thing's gonna go down. And so they're trying to get the lifeboats and get out of there. And God told Paul, tell them this. You gotta stay, you can't run away. But if you run away, you're not gonna make it. Except you abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. He's talking about physical salvation there. Partial obedience is still disobedience. Reminds me of the guy that was bothered because he had cheated the IRS. And I've never felt real bad about stuff like that. But this guy, his conscience is bothering him because he's cheated the IRS. And, and so he, he owed him $1,000. And he couldn't sleep at night. And so he wrote a letter to the IRS and put a check for $500. And he said, my conscience has been bothering me. I can't sleep at night. So I'm sending you $500. If I still can't sleep after this, I'll send you the other 500. Partial obedience is still disobedience. I had one business man, one guy, he started a little business, man. He went to his preacher for advice, and he said, man, my little business is just kind of struggling, not really making any money out of it. And he said, we're just barely getting by. Could you pray with me about it? tell me give me some advice what to do and the preacher said yeah I'll be glad to pray with you about it he said first thing I'd do though is if I were you I'd start tithing you're coming to church and that's good but if you start tithing I believe God will bless you and so the man followed the preacher's advice they prayed and well the next Sunday he gave his tithe off what little he made He did that every week, started giving every week that way. The boy's business began to boom and grow and get bigger. Finally, he came to the preacher again after a few months. He said, preacher, I'm going to have to quit that tithing business. The preacher said, how come? He said, well, he said, I'm making $2,000 a week. I can't afford to tithe now. Do you realize how much that would be? That would be $200 I'd have to give. The preacher said, okay, I know how to fix that. He said, let's just bow down here at the altar and we'll pray that God will reduce your income back down to where you can't afford to tithe again. Partial obedience is not full obedience. God's instructions lead to deliverance. When we listen to God and obey God, following those directions leads to deliverance. God's deliverance may look different, though, than what you expected. Are you with me? When you pray and you say, Lord, I'm going through this storm and I'm on a sinking ship, what do I do? And God gives you instruction and you follow that instruction, it may not turn out to end the way you thought it would, but deliverance does come. It just might be in a different form than you thought. The guy prayed for more money and he went out and stood in the yard and waited to see if it was going to rain down from heaven. Well, God may give it to the form of a job. It may turn out to be different than what we expected. Some of these people on this boat, Paul's in. When that boat, the thing broke in two, it stuck in the sand and the nose of it stuck in and the back part of the ship fell off. Man, they're trying to get off of that. and they're grabbing pieces of boards, and they're an old wooden ship, you know, and they're just grabbing pieces of debris to try to, the ones that could swim were trying to swim out, and the ones that couldn't swim were grabbing ahold of pieces of planks and stuff, and they're trying to get to shore, and sometimes God doesn't remove the storm, but he brings it through it, through us, through it, in the way we didn't expect. The Apollo 13 disaster, April 11th, 1970, NASA launched the Apollo 13 mission with the goal of landing on the moon, but at about 200,000 miles away from Earth, an explosion took place. It was an oxygen tank, and boy, it crippled that spacecraft, and they were in big trouble. 200,000 miles away from home, and they have an explosion on board, and the oxygen is going away. That just hit them pretty hard. And they found themselves in a life or death situation. Their command module, the Odyssey, was losing power, oxygen, and the ability to filter out carbon dioxide. And the mission was no longer about reaching the moon. Now, this mission now is about trying to survive. And back on Earth, the NASA engineers were scrambling to find some way to save them, to bring them home. And in one of the most remarkable problem-solving adventures ever. They came up with a solution to recycle the air and filter out the oxygen. I think it involved duct tape and cardboard boxes. It was remarkable, but yet pretty laughable in a way, but it's all I could do. And it began to work. And so one of the biggest challenges was they had to move them over to that, was it a moon rover or a lunar module? They moved them over to that, which was only designed, there was three of the astronauts, and it was this lunar module that was attached to their craft, was only designed to support two men for two days. And yet they had to put three men in there, all three of them, while they could redesign their system inside the main spacecraft. And so, they endured freezing temperatures in that thing, and low oxygen. I mean, this was a struggle. They're just trying to survive. But somehow, they got back coming back to Earth. And as they got closer, then the problem arose. Even after they solved the problem of the oxygen, now they're coming back to Earth. Now if they come in at the wrong angle, they're going to skip off the atmosphere and go into outer space, never to be seen again. Or if they come in at too sharp of an angle, they're going to burn up, coming through the atmosphere. And for six agonizing minutes, NASA held their breath, nobody's talking while they're coming through that atmosphere. And it happened exactly right. And they plunged down into the ocean and were rescued. They made it home, but they were forever changed after that. I would be. This is not what their mission set out to be, but I think they were pretty glad about the way it turned out once it was all said and done and their life was saved. Same way, God often allows storms to reroute our lives. You may have your plans made and God may have you going in a certain direction, you think, and then you realize, uh-oh, he's taking me a different direction. Didn't Paul say, Lord, I'm willing to go wherever you want me to go? And the Lord said, I'm taking you to Rome. He just didn't know it was gonna be back and forth in a hurricane-type wind on the Mediterranean. And he didn't know, Paul didn't know it was gonna involve getting in a shipwreck again and nearly being killed. Have God ever rerouted you during some storm and you ended up having it all solved but in a different way than you expected? Instead of waiting for tragedy to bring us to obedience to God, wouldn't it be better though if we just listened to God in the beginning and do things His way from the start on a daily basis? A lot of us, a lot of us sometimes, we go through these times, we just don't need God, we can do everything fine, we don't need to pray, we don't need to read the Bible, we don't need to hear preaching, we're just going on our way, and it takes a tragedy to get our attention and bring us back. And it gets us in a storm. But even when we're disobedient, God's still there. and God still directs us. The sovereignty of God over the shipwrecks of life is one we need to remember. The purpose in the shipwreck, God's got a purpose for Paul. He's got to get him to Rome. God's plans are bigger than our immediate circumstances. We may think it's all over when one part of our plan falls through, but God's always in the background working. God brings us through so we can help others. Sometimes he brings us through hardship so that we can be a comfort to other people. Here's what it says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 4. Talking about God, who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. You know what he's saying? He said, God will let you go through a storm. God will let you be on a sinking ship. God will let troubles come into your life. He will let that happen. And it's not a total loss, though, because when you come out, you're going to have an experience. You're going to have a testimony. You're going to have some counsel or advice that you can help somebody else. You can empathize with what they're going through. You can give them some advice on how you made it through. And God gives us. Have you ever? I heard of somebody going to the hospital to visit somebody that was going through a terrible illness who had also been through a similar illness. They understand. They understand what they're going through. At least closer. And we're able to comfort them because God comforted us. Hello? That's why we ought to be concerned about our brothers and sisters in Christ. That's why we ought to be concerned enough to go out and to win others who are lost because God comforted us with salvation in our soul and we ought to be willing to tell others how to be saved because God comforted us with salvation, we can comfort others. Maybe we've been through a surgery, maybe we've been through a car wreck, maybe we've been through financial disasters, maybe we've had family shipwrecks and we can take our experience of that and be a comfort, a help, a blessing to somebody else who's experiencing a similar thing. How do we wrap all this up? Well, when the ship goes down, trust the captain. God was the captain in this situation. Because the other guy that's supposed to be the captain, he relinquished everything to the centurion who didn't listen to Paul. Jesus is our captain. And when the ship is sinking, we need to trust, trust how faith in the captain, he won't sink. A seasoned sailor trusts the captain even when the ship seems lost. Your life as a Christian will be one that will often experience a sinking ship because we won't have a perfect existence this side of heaven. We're going to get on some sinking ships sometime, but that's when we have to trust God and believe that it's going to come out okay if God says it is. Let's pray together. Father, I pray that you'd bless us. Lord, I don't believe there's a single person who would want to go through a shipwreck, a sinking ship, a storm, but Lord, yet we know they happen. Lord, I don't know a single person who would want to be nailed to a cruel, rugged, bloody cross, but Jesus was. He endured that just so people like us could be saved. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to look beyond the present circumstances and see that you're our captain and that we can avoid shipwreck. And if we end up in shipwreck, we can use this experience to help somebody else. I pray you bless the invitation time in Jesus name. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. I invite you to come if you need to pray at the altar. If you've never been saved, I invite you to trust Christ this very day. If you're watching online and think you'd like to be saved, you never have trusted Christ, but you're thinking about it, you could do it right now. You don't even have to be in a church house to get saved. Right where you sit, right where you stand, right in your own very present circumstances, you can place your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. He bled and died on Calvary's cross. pay for your sins, He rose from the dead to prove that He is the Savior of the world, that He does possess eternal life, and you can too when you trust Him as Savior. Christian, I challenge you, no matter what you're going through, if you're on a sinking ship, look up, be encouraged, look towards the Captain, our Captain Jesus who will bring us through, because He has a purpose for you. He has a purpose for you. And it's not just to destroy you. He came that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. And so when we obey Him, He's just giving us more abundant life. He's not taking things away from us. Do you need to pray? Do you need to be saved?