He said, I think you would like this song. And I knew the name Squire Parson and George Beverly Shea and a number of people that we would try to pick a song they'd have. And that one, he showed that song to me. Man, I love that song. That's a great song. It's got good words. All right, if you have your Bibles tonight, turn with me to Acts chapter 28. Acts chapter 28. We want to look at a portion here dealing with verses 11 through verse 15 on lessons from the storms. Lessons from the storms that we go through. We're gonna look as the Apostle Paul, he went through quite a few here and we looked at, he was a snake bit last week and how the people had misjudged him thinking that he was a criminal. And I believe they probably knew he was a prisoner, but they were suspecting he was probably a murderer or whatever have you. That wasn't the case. The snake bite didn't harm him, although it was a poisonous snake. And we see that that kind of changed around for him. And he was able to minister through verses eight through 10. And we'll see him continue to minister here. But I want to deal with the lessons from the storms tonight. We'll read a few verses. Now, bear with me. There are several names in here that I look them up, I spell them. I can see him, but I can't pronounce him a lot of the time, so bear with me. I'll pronounce him six ways from Sunday. All right, I think this morning I was dealing with Abraham, and someplace they call him first Abram, and then call him Abraham. I think everybody was getting the gist of who I was talking about, but not to confuse anybody here. But I do work at it. Verse 11, now read with me, and then we'll read down to verse 15. And let me turn on my lapel microphone here for the gentleman in the back there. Verses 11, chapter 28, verse 11, he says, and after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isles, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. And if you look that up, I have a study Bible. Probably most everybody in here, how many of you have a study Bible in here? We'll just get to that real quick, okay? Some people have a study Bible. Study Bible, if you have a decent one or a good one, there's several that you can get. This one here, it deals with If you look it up, it deals with the signs and astrology and stuff like that. But that's kind of what he's talking about here. And so in verse 11, that's what he's bringing up. And then we see in verse 12, and landing at Sacros, we tarried there three days. And from thence we fetched a compass and came to Rigum. And after one day, the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Ptolemy. Now there in the first part of verse 13, I'm kind of catching as we go here now, when you see from Fred, we fetched a compass. At that time or that time and place, historically there was no such thing as a compass. That compass, what they're dealing with in the context, you've got to read the context, is They made a circle or they went around about. So they went into the sea and they made a circle, sailed in a circle, find out where they were at. So that's what's kind of what that is dealing with. And if you look it up, if you have a study note, a good study Bible, it will probably tell you that in its notes. Some cults, I won't name names, some cults, they'll tell you that that was a compass, and they had people at that time in history that had a compass. It's not true. It's not true, and that's not what the Bible is meaning here. So just a note, Bible student, pick up on that. And then he says, we came next day to Pataloi, and verse 14, where we found brethren and were desired to tarry with them seven days, and so we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Abilife Forum, and the three taverns whom, when Paul saw, thanked God and took courage. Let's deal with these verses here for tonight. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you again, and I ask that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit, be with me, and Father, be with the message. And I pray that, Father, those that have come out tonight, that you would bless them, give a blessing to their heart, Father, allow the Holy Spirit to do a work again through your word. And I pray that there would be not only a blessing, but an encouragement and strength and fortification, Father, for our week ahead and what you have planned for us and what we're going to face. And Father, I pray that you'd go before us, especially again tonight we bring up Miss Ida. I pray that you would be with her. And Father, that you would wrap your arms around her, strengthen her. And Father, hold her tight, and Father, whatever have you, but be with her and Miss Sue's with her and the doctors. And Father, I pray that you'd be with her body, lift her up, give it strength. And Father, have your will and have your way. And Father, I pray that we'd be attentive to the needs of the saints and our brothers and sisters. But Father, tonight, just for a few moments, meet with us. I pray that you would do a work in us as well. Hold us up, strengthen us. We ask this in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, so some context here. Paul suffers a snake bite that helps him minister to the people of the island, kind of what we read last week. And since it was late, somewhere around about late October, when they landed here in Malta, no ships would be leaving soon with the winter storm setting in. And we find Paul, Paul's still waiting, and again, there are three lessons here that we're going to learn about his life. And so let's get into this, and I think, make sure that I, yep, I'm looking at it right. Verse 11 through 13, we're gonna deal with number one, Paul gives patience during the storm. Paul gives patience during the storm. We see some things here dealing with verses 11. Now watch, he says, after three months. So they're on this island, they're waiting for the ship. And so finally they get a ship that picks them up. And we see that there was some time. on this island that's land. The Bible speaks of patience, of waiting of the saints, and he tells us time and time again in the New Testament, the writers tell us time and time again, our timing is not God's timing. More often than not, our timing is way ahead of God's timing. We're way ahead of God's timing when it comes to our life, maybe who we meet, maybe who we're going to marry, maybe even what God has planned or purpose for our life. We're generally way ahead. And what happens is when you get ahead, there's decisions that need to be made. There's side roads that we end up taking that God doesn't necessarily intend us to take. And so he's gotta work double time or work with the decisions that we make. If we just wait, wait on the Lord, have patience on God, God works a lot of things out in his timing. But it's the patience that we should have. The Bible says, let's take your Bible and let's go to the Old Testament and look at, at Psalms chapter 40. Psalms chapter 40, I wanna look at a verse here or a few verses in Psalms chapter 40. Now watch what he says here. He says in Psalms chapter 40 verse one, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. There'll be a time, hear this writer, he was crying out to the Lord. It might have been a prayer request or something that was heavy on his heart. Matter of fact, It was, and so he began to wait patiently on the Lord. Has there ever been a time in your life where you have cried out to the Lord, maybe with something that needed fixed, something that needed changed, something that maybe you were dealing with, maybe a struggle or a storm, and you cried out to God and you waited patiently, and God worked it out. As I get a little older, my mind gently engages just a little bit quicker on this, and I wait, hang on here, I'd get frustrated when something wouldn't work quite right or on time, maybe dealing with work or a job or obstacle, you're headed somewhere and you got a flat tire or whatever halves you, and you get upset. So you change the tire, you do this, you do that, and it kind of meshes your whole day up. But then it was the end of the day when you fall asleep and you're peeling your head and begin to pray for the day. Thank you for what happened. Then you're thinking God probably was watching out for me. There probably was a reason why I had that flat tire and I wasn't in the wreck 10 miles up the road. And my mind begins to slowly engage as I get older. It's like, hang up on this. Let's just wait on the Lord. And it's very important here in verse one. He says here, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He says in verse 2, and he brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock. I believe this verse was used or alluded to in Sunday school this morning. And he says, and he established my goings. Now that's hard to do if you're not waiting on God. That's hard to do when you're trying to climb yourself out of that miry pit that you're in. And so here in verse three, and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God, many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord. There'll be somebody watching, there'll be somebody you'll be a blessing to, and there'll be somebody that you will minister to by waiting on the Lord. And Paul, he is waiting, the patience of waiting. God gives patience during storms. He gives patience. Let me say this about our God. Sometimes the Lord calms the storm and sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms the child. That can happen either way. Think about when you pray. When you pray, in what mode are you praying in? Well, most generally, we're not in God's mode. And the reason why, that is because we don't have an infinite mind. We don't know everything. If we did, we would line up more with God, I would say, but beings, we're limited to what we know. We work more off of our experience. We should be working off of faith. And so we see here that God says, look, Sometimes I'll let the storm rage and calm you. Other times he says, I'll calm the storm so you can move on as a dear child. But God is able to do that. But one thing that is needful, one thing that is important to see is it takes patience waiting on God. God gives patience during the storm. We need to cultivate the discipline of patience in our Christian lives. It's very important. Now, we read Psalms 40, 1 through 3. I want to quote Psalms 46, 10 through 3, or at least read it from my notes. He says this in Psalms 46 and verse 10, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will exalt the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Time and time again, we see in scriptures and scriptures teaches us that it's important that we have this patience to wait on God. Now we have patience when it comes to the things that we're really connected to. There's patience. I think about, I really like working with wood. I don't do it every day, I wish I did, but I like working on instruments and just messing around with wood. And the patience of building an instrument, it takes a lot of patience. Sometimes when you don't have patience and you think of the next project or the next step in a build or a repair, you say, I'm gonna do it, let's get it, we'll get it done today. And I kind of rush through that. I find that I do that work over again because I did something wrong. I skipped something or didn't have the right tool or the right material. And so it's the same way in our life. We kind of rush through the things that we think we can handle, we can do. And here with this, we're saying, look, we need to be still and know that the Bible says there in verse 10 that I am God. Sometimes just calm down, settle down, and let's put some prayer on this and let God work through this. By the way, God knows, God's way better at making decisions. God's way better at calling decisions at the right time. Imagine him calling the time versus us. We get frustrated because we're not really in tune to the things of God. When we're connected with the things we love, we have a lot more patience. Same with individuals. The more love you have for somebody tends to be the more patience you have. All right, and so here with God, we should have a love for God. God encourages us, teaches us that we need to a lot of times just be still, put some prayer on, allow God to move and make those decisions. I'm not saying back, set back and fold your hands and let God, you'll make the decision. But you need some leadership, you need some discernment, you need some wisdom and understanding, because when it actually comes time to make that decision, you've prayed about it, you've bathed it in prayer, you've thought about it, you've allowed God to put it back through your mind and your heart. He might totally take it out of your mind and heart and you don't have to make a decision anyway. Or he might say, nope, you're gonna have to do this. This is the direction. This is the safe direction. And he sheds light in the area or the way or the decision that you should make. And so we're talking about the patience of waiting. How about the purpose of waiting? We see the patience, but the purpose of waiting. We were in Psalms, I was in Psalms, you might still be, hopefully you are. Psalms chapter 27, we'll go back just a few chapters. Proverbs isn't going to work for me. Psalms chapter 27. Now I want to deal with verses 13, Psalms 27. Notice with me in verse 13, it says this, I had fainted. I'm in Psalms chapter 27, verse 13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wow, the purpose of waiting. Why would we have or want the desire or the reason to wait? Well, the purpose of that would be because we would believe God. He says, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord. A lot of times we're too busy making and calling that decision, or working our way through our obstacles or problem, where we miss the goodness of God in that situation. Something else, as I get older, begin to see, we'll rush through the situation worried about this, worried about that, but we don't see it as an opportunity to be a blessing or minister during that time. It's not till after it's over when we look back, we thought, wow, hindsight, and we reflect, and we're like, man, that person, God sent me past that person, or God had me run through that situation. I didn't even see it. I missed an opportunity to speak out for God or be a blessing to somebody else. all the while, all the while missing. We don't wanna miss. And so the purpose of waiting, the purpose of waiting, well, let's see here, verse 14, let's read verse 14. He says, wait on the Lord, be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart, wait on the Lord. I say on the Lord. So we see the purpose of waiting. God has lessons that he wants us to learn. He has people to whom he wants us to minister. God, remember, is omniscience. He knows what we need to move and when we need to wait. All right, we have to trust him to give us exactly what's best. And so God has a, I don't think God's that, God's that attuned. God's that attuned. Same with back in Acts chapter 28 when we see God. Matter of fact, let's go back there and we'll look at our second point for tonight. But we're talking God gives patience during the storm, the patience of waiting, the purpose of waiting. Now we see secondly, something else. Look at verse 14. He says, where we found brethren. He says, where we found brethren and were desired to tarry with them seven days, and so we went towards Rome. I wanna say this, God gives people during or during the storms. God gives people during the storms, given by God. We see a lot of things that we enjoy that we have is from God. But one of the things that we see here in our texts, there were brethren, there were people who tarried to want to spend time with the Apostle Paul. You know, going through a storm, going through a trial in your life, in my life, there will be individuals that will wanna see what you're going to do. They might even want to minister to you during that time. I told Ms. Sheila and Brother Tim when we were over there praying for him and just spent just a few moments with them and brought ourselves more into context with the surgery and what they were facing. And I told Ms. Sheila, look, let us, I know sometimes when you're in this situation, let us be a blessing to you. It gives us a blessing, it gives people a blessing to do something for someone in need or in a situation where they need some help, they might need help. And so I think she understood that, and Brother Tim understood that, but it's easy to say that, but then when you're the person getting that help, you're like, I don't need anything, I'm fine, I'm good, I can do it all myself, I'm fine. But you have to understand, there's people who wanna be a blessing. and you don't want to miss that opportunity. This is what we're speaking of. God gives people during the storms, there will be somebody going through something that you can be a blessing to and vice versa. Even going through your storm, sometimes to get yourself out of a storm, a child of God, God will run you through a ministry mode, a ministry time. You're gonna minister to somebody else when you're going through your storm. That'll give you the grace, that'll give you the faith because you see God working through you into another person's life. although you're going through a storm. And we see that God gives people during the storms. I got some verses on it and I'm gonna go all the way the other way. Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, look with me in verses 24 and 25. Hebrews chapter 10, I'm gonna move a little quick now. It says in verse 24, and let us consider one another. to provoke unto love and to good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. It's kind of hard to minister if you're not around one another. Imagine trying to keep a marriage together and never see each other. You know, let's say one time, you might do one time a week, twice a week, three. It's hard. That relationship is hard. And so that's why he says in verse 25, verse 25 is on the heel of verse 24. And it's in the church context that we see, and let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works. but now he says in how this is done not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together so this is the assembly you're going to symbol together and he says as the manner of some is so there was a problem here in the early church but exhorting one another you want to exhort that means build up to encourage and to build up to strengthen and so much the more as you see the day And so we see here, God gives us this, it's given by God. This is God, this is commandment. Our fellow Christians are gifts from God to us. Each one of us, each one of you is a gift to me. And each one of us is a gift to you, it's individual. Our Sunday school class is kind of going over that, where a body fitly put together has many members, yet it's one body. And I like what he says there, he uses the one verse where he says, you don't have many bodies, you have one body, but many members. And so this is the analogy that's going on here. Each one of you are and can be and have been, believe it or not, a blessing to me. All right, and that's what this is speaking of here. So the church is to be filled with believers encouraging each other. The way we view other Christians can tell us a lot about our spiritual condition. It's the same thing in relationships, same thing in a number of areas. You can apply this in business. You can tell how much somebody cares depending on their reaction or how they react or how they involve themselves. And so for the Christian, the child of God, their spiritual condition should be to encourage one another, should be to love one another. It's not to run down or condescend. All right, that's easy to do. Anybody can do that. My former pastor, Brother Charlie Davis, he'd say this. He said, you can always be mean. That's easy, and we always default, generally, if we're having a bad day, to a being mean, and that's never, that's never of God, that's of Satan. And he said to, you want to use us, Brother Chapel says that this one, I like this one, I've kind of taken this on, where he says, when you're in a decision, you're in a situation to where you either stick by the letter of the law or you have opportunity to use compassion, always choose compassion. So that's good because that's true. That's what the Bible teaches. That's what God taught his disciples. And that's true. Here's what I'm saying tonight. God gives people during the storm so we can be a blessing to or receive a blessing from. It goes both ways. And we're reading here in Hebrew, speaking of that, about our spiritual condition, but it's given by God. Let's go back to Acts chapter 28 and let's pick up another point here in Acts chapter 28. And he says here in chapter 28, now watch verse 15, and I got some more names here to get through. Watch verse 15, he says, and from thence when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Epiphorum, and I'm not I am by no means going to pronounce correctly. I'm trying to, but bear with me. And the three taverns whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage. And we see here that God gives persistence during the storms. One of the things that will cause a Christian to falter or to fumble or to stumble going through a storm is they let go of it. The persistence is not in there. And you say, well, why would it do that? Why would they do that? Because their reliance, their self-sufficiency is not in God, it's in self, or it's in something else, and it's let them down. And so we find that the courage, you need courage in the Lord. Let me say that. Here's what I wanna show you in Ephesians. Let's move to Ephesians here. I'm watching that clock there. We got plenty of time, but look at Ephesians chapter six. Now we were just over here the other day, Ephesians chapter six, but I want you to notice verse 10 carefully here. And I'm speaking of courage in the Lord. God gives persistence during the storms. Now watch, he says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able He's telling us this, that we may be able to do something. He said to stand against the wiles of the devil. I don't think God ever tells us to stand against anything. Oh yes, he does. He tells and challenges the Christian to stand against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. You've got the world to stand against here. He says, and you got the devil to stand against and what he represents. Most Christians have a hard time discerning Hebrews chapter 5, what is of the devil and what is of God. It's not God that's confusing. God's true and right, it doesn't change. But Satan is so slick and subtle that he has mirrored what God does. So you have something that looks good, that looks right, that looks wholesome, that will take you in. And it will subvert you. And here he's saying, you need to be able to stand against the walls of the devil. So we have the world, it's set up, what it represents, you have to be careful with that. And then you have Satan, and then the biggest enemy that we have is self. Self-deception is the dangerous deception of all, because it's hard to listen to anybody else but self. And so you're totally convinced that what you're doing and how you think about something or whatever, with the decisions that you're making, is right. But what happens is they possibly end up wrong when you're allowing self to make the decisions for you and you lack courage in the Lord. You don't allow God to give persistence from him because of the courage you're lacking in the Lord. Here he's telling us in Ephesians chapter six and verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Let me ask you this, just casually ask you, when's the last time individually you stood up for something that you knew certainly you can identify as Satan or the devil and you wouldn't take in it? Nope, I'm gonna stand against that. Say, I don't think I've ever done that. I think everything's good. Let's go back to the third one, self-deception. That's where you gotta be careful. Satan is that good. I don't read everything that I see scribbled on a wall, especially in a bathroom, but I was in a Home Depot years ago and it said this about Satan, our adversary. It said that Satan's number one goal is to deceive. 70% of the world doesn't believe that there even is a devil. Think he's pretty good at his job. That's a pretty good rating, 70%. That's true, probably more than that now, I don't know. And so here, we wanna be mindful and be careful. God does encourage us to stand against some things and he commands it here in Ephesians chapter six. When we are frightened, when we're scared or discouraged, we always have the choice of turning to God for strength and courage. It's not like he keeps himself from us. It's not like somebody has to hold a gun on you to keep you away from him. All these and what I'm talking about tonight with these lessons that we learned during this storm is we have the choice of turning to God and trusting God. Tonight, Do you have courage in your Lord? Are you able to see the blessing of God even during obstacles? Here, there's something else. Not only courage in the Lord, but courage for the mission. I'm right there in the neighborhood, Philippians chapter three. We've really been looking at these books, and I believe we'll begin Philippians, looking at Philippians after we're done with Galatians. But Philippians chapter three, notice with me now these little verses in verse 13. It says, brethren, Philippians, I'm sorry, Philippians chapter three and verse 13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Notice how he's gonna focus the courage of the mission and reaching forth unto those things which are before. You ever get around somebody that wants to, I'll read the second verse here in a minute. You ever get around somebody that all they talk about is the past? Well, this is how it used to be, this is what I did, this is what, and you'll notice that most of the conversation is slated in the, what is it, participle, it's slated in the past. You think, what about the present? Here's what Paul's saying, look it with me again, now watch this. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. Here's what he thought about the past, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. He's looking in the future. Now watch verse 14. And keep this in mind, his moat. I press toward the mark. What's the mark? Whether the courage for the mission, the mission, that is to reach the lost with the gospel. He says, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We see that Paul not only had courage in the Lord, He had courage for the mission. Paul never let up his purpose for living. He had been called by God, and he was determined not to abandon that calling. What happens? We hit ministry crisis. We hit an obstacle pretty rough. We're in uncharted water, and the first thing that Satan's gonna probably advise you to do, and self is going to advise you to do, and the world is going to advise you to do, is you probably need to stop listening to God. You need to start calling your own shots. And so then we begin to move in that direction of those voices. And the storm doesn't get easier. It gets rough, rougher. Let's look at another one. Paul ministered in every situation. And when he was tired, when he was injured, when he was alone, and when he was weak, he still worked for God. He said, I don't know if I can do that. By God's grace and strength, you can do that. 1 Corinthians chapter two, 1 Corinthians chapter two. Let's look at a verse here. He says this in verse two, for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. You mean the Apostle Paul? Weak? In fear and in much trembling? You think it's easy getting up here and trying to speak, trying to keep a train of thought? And then having no, I wanted to say, and having no more sense than I have, it's really scary. It's really scary. But it can be, you can have fear if Satan, if you allow Satan to put it in your interject it. Also in your ministry, there'll be something, it might be a new ministry, might be something going on and God will interject, it won't be God, it'll be Satan, interject fear. Fear and he'll interject weakness. You're nothing. All right now watch this in in much trembling Have I've been there I've been there and you probably have too now watch what he says Let's read on to verse 5 in my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. That is definitely true All right, but watch he says but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith Whoa, man, how this changed that your face should not stand in the wisdom of men And man, we a lot of times walk out, we think our wisdom is in our education or what we can think or how quick we can think or decipher or make decisions. And it's in the wisdom of men or self. But he says here in the latter part of verse five, not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of who? Say it there, power of God. So yes, you can have strength, you can have power and victory if we go in God's string. When you feel that you can't go on, lean on God's grace. There is always enough to meet your needs. Here's what I wanna see, 2 Corinthians 12, and we'll end here, 2 Corinthians 12. Speaking of weakness, 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 9, the Bible says this, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. God doesn't know everything. God knows everything. And if God's telling you His grace is sufficient for us, then it is. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities. You say, why? It's because that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So you're not working or manufacturing out of your own power or strength, hopefully you're not, but you're working out of God's strength and sustainability, and this is what he does. And so when you're down, this is a verse, there's a song born again, we'll sing and we do, it's called Because of Grace. I think Brother Gary Doody wrote it. earlier or later CDs, but that song speaks of this point here. There's a lot of stuff that we're not able to do in our own strength, but because of God's grace, we're able to do it. And I'm saying tonight, the encouragement for not only the encouragement in the Lord, but the encouragement in the mission is it will need to be in God's strength. And it more than likely will be the weakness points where you'll see and feel God's strength in you and ministering through you. All right, tonight let's all stand the lessons from the storms. God gives patience during the storm. God gives people during the storm and God gives persistence. during the storms. What a wonderful blessing. We'll have a song of invitation tonight. If God has spoken to your heart, if the Holy Spirit has laid something on your mind or your heart, maybe just a thought to be thankful, maybe just a moment to pray for our dear sister, Miss Ida tonight. Maybe it's to whatever, maybe something in the message that God's spoken to your heart tonight. Listen to him. Listen to him. Mind the Holy Spirit. Don't shove him off. Let him do a work in your heart, in your life. It might be courage. It might be courage. It might be godly strength. There's a number of things that it could be. It might just be lifting the name of the Lord up and wanting to praise his name tonight. Whatever the case may be, come and pray. What's our song for today?