Well, good morning Bible Church family. I'm here to read God's Word for us. I'm going to be reading from Psalm 103. I would encourage you to follow along in the scripture. We can come in and there could be a lot of things on our minds and what should be on our mind is Christ and what he's done for us. And so reading God's word and praying will help us get in that appropriate mind and mode to worship him. This is Psalm 103, beginning in verse one. This is what God says to us. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity. who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses and his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Let's pray. Father, we are here this morning to bless you and to praise you and to worship you for your compassion toward us and for your steadfast love toward us. for the fact that even though we are dust, and even though we deserve to pay the penalty for our sins, that you, through your son Jesus, paid the penalty for our sin. And that because of that, we are your children, and your citizen, and your servants, and your representatives. Father, I pray that you would help our minds and our hearts to be focused upon worshiping you. And so as we worship you in song, and as we worship you in giving, and as we worship you in fellowship, and as we worship in sitting under the proclamation of your word, may we be transformed this morning. May we see unbelievers come to know you. May we see us as your followers continue to grow closer and closer to you. And God, as we lift our hearts to you, we pray that you would be pleased and that we would continue to grow in our joy and our delight and our devotion to you. Thank you for the opportunity to bring us together as your family to worship you. And we pray that you'd receive all the glory. And we ask this all because of what Christ has done for us. Amen. Amen. All right, church family, would you stand as we worship the Lord? In this first song, Magnificent, Marvelous, Matchless Love, Pastor Josh quoted one of the verses from it a few weeks ago. I'm going to read another piece of the song. Verse two, it says, You crown every meadow with color. You paint every shade in the sky. Each day the dawn wakes as an encore of the magnificent, marvelous, matchless love. Let's sing that together. Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love, too vast and astounding to tell. Forever existing in worlds above, now offered and given to all. O fountain of beauty eternal, the Father, the Spirit, the Son, Sufficient and endlessly generous, Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love. Creation is brimming with thankfulness, the mountains exultant they stand. The seasons rejoice in your faithfulness, all life is sustained by your hand. You crown every matter with Every shade in the sky Each day the dawn wakes as an encore of Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love How great, how sure His love endures forevermore That gifts and marvelous matchless love what grace that you entered our brokenness you came in the fullness of time how far we had fallen from righteousness but not from the mercies of Christ your cross is our door to redemption your death is the fullness of life Deep pain can explode as a flood Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love How great, how sure His love endures forevermore Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love United in your resurrection You lift us to infinite heights Could anything sever or take us from Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love? How great, how sure His love endures forevermore Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love How great, how sure His love endures forevermore Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love I walk through the valley and I can't see the way When the shadows surround me I will not be afraid For I know You are with me You will always provide Though the path may be lonely You will stay by my side I will rest my soul I'll trust in you alone For the Lord my shepherd in the darkest valley I know I know my shepherd is all I need Lord I know that you seek me when I'm trying to hide and your love it pursues me all the days of my life I will rest my soul I'll trust in you alone for the Lord my shepherd leads is all I need. In the darkest valley, I know, I know my shepherd is all I need. I rest my soul in You alone. You light my way, You lead me on. I rest my soul in You alone. You light my way, You lead me on. For the Lord my shepherd leads me, leads me and He is In the darkest valley I know I know my shepherd is all I need What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer? There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom. my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace. To this I hold my hope is only Jesus, for my life is wholly bound to His. O how strange and divine, I can sing, All is mine, yet not I, but through Christ in me. The night is dark, but I am not forsaken, for by my side the Savior, He will stay. I labor on in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need His power is displayed. To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me Through the deepest valley He will lead O the night has been won, and I shall overcome the end of life, but through Christ in me. No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven The future sure, the price it has been paid For Jesus fled and suffered for my pardon And He was raised to overthrow the grave. To this I hold, my sin has been defeated. Jesus now and ever is my plea. Oh, the chains are released, I can sing I am free, yet not I, but through Christ in me With every breath I long to follow Jesus For He has said that He will bring me home And day by day I know He will renew me Until I stand with joy before the throne To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus All the glory evermore to Him When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat Yet not I, but through Christ in me To this I hold my hope is only Jesus All the glory evermore to Him When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, Yet not I, but through Christ in me. When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. And with that, you may have a seat. What a great reminder for us, right? That it's not us, but Christ through us and in us and for us. Friends, as we continue in our worship this morning, I want to make all of you aware as our church family, just of some things that are happening, are going on. Oftentimes we'll call them our gospel opportunities, but wanted to make you aware of them. The first is next Sunday is a fifth Sunday, which normally, typically means we have a combined worship service with our English ministry and Spanish ministry. Our Spanish ministry is gonna be away at their family camp. but we're still going to have a similar service. So we're going to gather together. We're going to read through Hebrews 9 and 10. We're going to celebrate communion together. And then afterward, there are no life groups. We are having a picnic together here. And then after that is our church family meeting. And I want to encourage you as strongly as I can. Typically, when we have church family meetings, not all of you come. And you are part of the church family. So I would strongly encourage you to come to our church family meeting because we have some things that we as elders who are in charge of shepherding you and loving you and caring for you that we would love to share with you. We're going to acknowledge our officers to you. We're going to give you an operations and financial update. We're going to give you an update on our philosophy of ministry. We're going to give you a missions update, a music and student ministry update, and then you will have opportunity to even ask some questions. It's really going to be a good time for the full squad, full church family, to get together to worship our Lord and then to see what the Lord's doing here and then pray and petition Him so that He'll continue to work for His glory and the good of our community. In addition to that, I also wanted to make both men and women aware of something. Men, we have an event coming up on October 25th, Friday night called the Beast Feast. It's gonna be awesome. We told you we were going to cook a pig in the ground. We were wrong about that. That wasn't a lie. We were mistaken, but we are going to cook a pig. but it's not going to be in the ground. I think it's going to be one of those where like, you know, rotisseries, like in rotates, which is even better to see what you're going to eat like that. But we are going to be gathering together and we have someone, his name is Nicholas, Nicholas Ellen. He's going to be coming and he's going to be sharing with us from God's word. Women, we also have a conference that Saturday, October 26, and you can sign up for both of those in church center. And I think if I'm not mistaken, we actually have a video regarding both that we're going to show right about Now, my name is Dr. Nicholas Ellen, and I'm excited to be joining you. And this is my lovely wife. Hi, I'm Dr. Vanessa Ellen. We can't wait to come to Santa Rosa Bible Church. Yes, I think we're with you on the weekend of October 26. I'm looking forward to spending the day with the ladies. We have many sessions, many great things to talk about how to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. So I'm super excited about that. And guys, I'm looking forward to the barbecue time with you and to share some wonderful insight with you and family. I'm looking forward to that Sunday where I'll be talking about learning contentment. Wait, you get barbecue? Yes. Man. Okay. It's all right though. I'm still looking forward to Saturday with you ladies. God bless you guys. We'll see you soon. See y'all soon. So Lord Willem, it should be a really encouraging weekend together. And so we would encourage you to invite your friends, invite your families, invite your enemies to gather together. It should be a great weekend of worship together. And then one more thing to make you all aware of. Beginning October 6th in room 305, and I don't know what room 305 used to be, but it's room 305 currently. Beginning October 6th from 845 to 915, we're going to be gathering together as a church just to pray for Sunday. You know, one of the really important things of our lives as Christians is that we should gather to pray corporately together. And so beginning October 6th, room 305, 845 to 915, we're just going to simply gather to pray for Sunday, for the worship of God together and for him to transform people's lives through that ministry. And so speaking of that, as we come into our prayer time, there's a few things that I want to make mention to all of you so you can pray throughout the week, but you also can pray with me this morning as I pray. The first is we want to be in prayer for the Homland family. This past week, their son Matthew went home to be with the Lord. And it was very unexpected, not to the Lord, but it was unexpected to us. And so we want to pray that God would be an encouragement to the family and God's word tell us that we are to weep with those who weep. And yet there's also joy because Jesus saved Matthew. And so Matthew right now is very much alive. but we wanna be praying for them and for their family. In addition, we wanna pray that God would use his word this morning to transform our lives. Preaching is not just a one-way thing, it's a two-way thing. The preacher preaches and then you listen and the spirit works through both to transform lives. We wanna pray for that. And then we also want to be just in prayer for the servant leaders of our church. The enemy is real and he's a beast. And we don't wanna be disqualified from ministering to God's people. So we want to pray that God would protect and guide and direct our servant leaders so they will be vigilant and faithful to Jesus all the way to the end. So if you'd bow your heads and pray with me as I lead us in prayer. Father, thank you that because of what your son Jesus has done, that we now have direct access to you. That we don't need to go to someone else who goes to you. That we can boldly and confidently come before your throne as a child to their loving, gracious, good father and worship you and praise you and adore you and ask you to work for your glory and for the good of others. So father, we come praising you and thanking you for what you've done. And Lord, as we bring these requests to you, we ultimately want your will to be done. And Lord, even if we're praying this right now and we don't necessarily want your will to be done, we pray that we would want to want your will to be done. God, we would pray and we would ask that you would use the family meeting and the time of worship next week to please you and honor you. And we pray that you would use this local church to continue to be a part of your mission of making disciples. God, would you and your grace and kindness allow us to be a part of planting gospel seeds? And God, would you and your grace and kindness would allow us to be a part of watering gospel seeds? And God, would you, in your grace and kindness, allow us to see those seeds grow and germinate? And would you allow us to pour into people's lives? And for the sake of your honor and praise, and for the sake of people knowing you, would you build your church, including Santa Rosa Bible Church, both spiritually, but also numerically? And Lord, would you do it for your glory? God, we also pray that you would use the women's conference and the men's event and our time on Sunday with Nicholas and Vanessa Ellen. We pray that your spirit would be guiding and directing and leading them. And we pray that your spirit would be guiding and directing and leading us. And that through it, that it would be a weekend where we treasure you and we grow in our trust in you and we are transformed. God, we pray that you would work in the hearts of people to desire to come and that unbelievers will come to know you. God, we also pray for this morning. We're so grateful that we've gotten to worship you in song. We're grateful that we can worship you in giving. We're grateful that we can worship you in fellowship. But Lord, we're about to come under the proclamation of your word. And we pray, Lord, for your servant, Chris, that your spirit would direct him and that your spirit would control him and that what comes out of his mouth is the truth. And that that truth would transform us. God, we pray that you would help us to be laser focused on what you have to say to us. And may it's truth transform us. May the unbeliever here leave a follower of your son, Jesus. And Father, may those of us who know you, may you convict us where we need conviction. May you comfort us where we need comfort. May you challenge us where we need to be challenged. And God, may you change us. May we grow in our affections for you. May we grow in our allegiance to you. May you be at work. And Father, we want to pray for the Homland family. God, we hurt with them because they're our brothers and sisters in Christ. God, we praise you that you delivered Matthew from his sin, that Matthew had a relationship with you. And God, even though we may struggle with the wise at times, we're grateful that he's with you, enjoying you. And we're grateful for resurrection and your return. And Father, we pray that you would be their peace. We pray that you would be their joy. We pray that you would be their comfort. And we pray that you would help us to be a church family that cries with them and listens to them and loves them and cares for them. Father, thank you again for this opportunity that we have to worship you in all of these different ways. We love you and we praise you and we thank you. And it's all because of your son, Jesus, and what he's done for us that we ask all these things. Amen. Good morning. I don't know if you realize today is the first day of fall so happy fall. A new season, a new season which means Christmas is just around the corner and if you've been to Costco you know that. Well, this morning we're going to be in chapter 27 of the book of Acts. So if you have your Bibles, turn there. And it's a difficult passage from this standpoint. It's historical narrative. It's basically Luke giving us in great detail this trip that he took across the Mediterranean with Paul on the way up to Rome to present himself to Caesar. And so I'm just going to read portions of it. I'm not going to read all of it, but I will give you a summarization of each section so that you kind of know what was going on. But as we begin, I want to start by sharing with you about my very first year of being a Christian. Do you remember your first year of being a follower of Jesus? Now, mine is very vivid because I was 19 years old, and my life changed very dramatically over the course of literally days. What happened during my first year of being a Christian, the first several months were relatively calm and quiet. And if I can use the picture of this voyage that Paul was on, the first part of the trip was reasonably calm. But as he got deeper into the journey, turbulence hit, and it hit hard. And that's the way it was for me. I was a freshman in college back in Winona, Minnesota, and I was saved maybe about nine months when the turbulence hit. In January, those of you who have been here for years, you know these stories. In January of that year, my mother died very suddenly, very unexpectedly at the age of 48. I was 19. A few months later, right around March, April, I was called into the dean's office at Winona State University where I was going to school, and they kindly told me I was dismissed from Winona State because I had not maintained my 2.0 GPA. I was a little directionless at the time. And then about two months later, The girl that led me to Christ and the girl I was pretty sure I was going to marry came back from college and told me that it was not the will of God for her to marry me and furthermore, she had found somebody else. And I remember thinking as a 19-year-old, just a nine-month-old baby in Jesus, something's wrong here, Lord. I was confused. And my confusion was due primarily to the fact that I was immature and I had a lot of misconceptions about what it was to be a Christian. Because I was under the impression that once you came to Jesus things would be much easier and I discovered otherwise. I remember I went to Bible school that following fall and immediately, because I was a singer, I had tried out, and they started putting me into different groups, and we started traveling all over the upper Midwest, and they would often call on me to share my testimony, and I thought, well, that's odd. I mean, I'm just a baby Christian. I don't have anything to say, but they kept calling on me, and so I went to one of my professors, and I said, I'm a little confused, because I'm thinking of myself as this very baby Christian and I've been through some hard times and I have no idea why I'm getting these opportunities. And he said something interesting to me. He said, well, Chris, you're spiritually mature beyond your years of being a Christian. And I began to realize for the first time that God put me through a crash course of stormy experiences because he wanted to grow me up fairly quickly as a follower of Jesus. And I was well discipled in the church where I was saved as well. That contributed to it as well. But what I learned, I learned early on in my Christian walk, in my voyage as a Christian, if you will, I learned very early on it wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Have you discovered that about being a Christian? It's not a walk in the park. But it would always be profitable resulting in God making me more like the Lord Jesus. So we're gonna explore this theme this morning that I believe is in this chapter. And the theme is this. The will of God isn't always safe and comfortable But the Lord is always present, perfecting His child for His glory. Let me say that one more time. The will of God isn't always safe and comfortable. And how many of you would say amen to that? But the Lord is always present, perfecting His child for His own glory. And how many of you would amen that? Amen. So from our text, we're going to look at three aspects of Paul's Mediterranean voyage on his way to Italy. First of all, the first 13 verses, we see his departure for Rome. Secondly, verses 14 through 38, we see disaster at sea. And then thirdly, we're going to see deliverance on Malta, which is an island, in the final portion of the chapter. So as we think of this passage, let me do two things. Let me first of all review and then let me just share a few brief insights about this unique chapter that we have here and we're looking at this morning. Up to this point, Paul has now completed his multiple appearances before the Jews and the Romans. He's been before the Sanhedrin, he's been before King Agrippa, he's been before the two Roman governors, Felix and Festus. Whenever I read those names, it kind of reminds me of cartoon characters. I don't know why, but it does. And as a Roman citizen, he has appealed to Caesar for a hearing. having broken no Roman law, and now he's on his way there to appear before the emperor. The chapter is an extraordinary peak. It's an extraordinary peak at a part of ancient life nowhere else recorded. It's recorded by a meticulous historian, Dr. Luke. Luke writes with meticulous accuracy because he was with Paul on this trip. 16 times in this chapter, he uses the third person plural, we, us, ourselves. So he is an eyewitness to all that transpired. And as a very, very excellent historian, he recorded in detail, minute detail, all of these events. He writes as an eyewitness, and it's the most interesting, and it's the most detailed record of a shipwreck from ancient history. As you think of all of the ancient writings, this is the most detailed record we have, and it's right here in our own Bibles. James of Montgomery Boyce, he said this, and I quote, Luke's words are accurate in terms of the route the ship took, ancient navigating skills, details of the ship's physical construction, and the way in which the sailors tried to cope with the storm. Unquote. So it's a really interesting portion of scripture. So let's begin by looking at those first 13 verses where we find Paul's departure for Rome. What did it look like early on? And this is the only portion I'm gonna actually read extensively. I'll allude to portions of the chapter, but I'm just gonna read this section. This chapter is 44 verses long, and Josh keeps giving me these entire chapters to preach, and you know I love to camp on like three words, and so this is a challenge. But let me read this first part of the journey as he leaves for Rome. This is Acts 27, I'm starting at verse 1. When it was decided that we, there he is, there's Paul, would sail for Italy, they proceeded to deliver Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius. and embarking in an Amritanian ship which was about to sail to the regions along the coast of Asia, we put out to sea accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica. The next day we put in at Sidon and Julius treated Paul with consideration and allowed him to go to his friends and receive care. From there we put out to sea and sailed under the shelter of Cyprus because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed through the sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra and Lycia. And there the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy, and he put us aboard it. And when we had sailed slowly for a good many days, and with difficulty had arrived off Sinaitis, since the wind did not permit us to go farther, we sailed under the shelter of Crete of Salmonea. And with difficulty sailing past it, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Laecia. When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them and said to them, men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives. But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship than by what was being said by Paul. Because the harbor was not suitable for wintering, the majority reached a decision to put out to sea from there. If somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete facing southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there. When a moderate south wind came up, supposing that they had attained their purpose, they weighed anchor and began sailing along Crete, close inshore. Now Luke records here that Festus, the Roman governor back in Judea, granted Paul's request and he sent him to Rome to appear before Caesar. Luke traveled with Paul to Caesarea where Paul was incarcerated probably after the third missionary journey when they left Philippi. So he stayed in Caesarea with Paul to care for his needs while he was incarcerated. Now this is the longest we section of the book of Acts. And when I say we section, I mean those four sections where Luke is writing as an accompanying person with Paul. He's in the company of Paul. He's in his team. He's in his group. And this is the longest one. It starts here at the first verse, and then it goes all the way through mid-chapter 28, 16th verse. We, we, us, us, ourselves, ourselves, ourselves. And then in three previous chapters, 16, 20, and 21, he wrote similarly. What's the meaning of all that? Why is that important to us? Well, it's important because they assure us that Luke wasn't just making up stuff and then put it in the book. It assures us that he was demonstrating he had personally engaged in many of these events he wrote about. They were first-person accounts. He saw them with his own eyes. He heard them with his own ears. He was physically present with Paul. And what it does, it establishes his credibility as a writer of this book. You can trust this book, this book Luke, or rather Acts written by Luke. Paul and some other prisoners, according to the text, were placed into custody of a Roman military escort commanded by a centurion by the name of Julius. You know what I love about Luke? He gives us names. He gives us names of cities. He tells us about the weather. He goes into all kinds of minute detail. They boarded a coastal boat, which was a little different than the ships that sailed out into the deep waters of the Mediterranean. Coastal boat just literally did that. It just ran along the coast, stopping at different ports of call, dropping off, picking up, and then kept moving up the coast. So this is a coastal boat, and it's headed northwest to a place with a very difficult name to pronounce. So I'm not going to pronounce it. It's located on the west coast of what we know today as Turkey. Then it was Asia. And the ship would travel along the southern coast to its destination, stopping at all these different ports of call. Now Luke identified another Christian brother who was in this team, who was on this team. He identifies him as Aristarchus, who was a Macedonian, who was from the church they had planted in Thessalonica. And we know that from chapter 19 and verse 29. Paul, as a matter of fact, in Colossians 4.10 identified this man as one of his fellow prisoners when he was in Rome. So apparently Aristarchus stayed with Paul in Rome once Paul got there and he attended to Paul's needs. Philemon, he identifies Aristarchus as a fellow worker. So he was a part of this evangelism team, this missionary team that Paul was the leader of. So they're sailing, and they stop at Sidon, which is about 70 miles north of Caesarea. So the trip begins in Caesarea, where he's been in jail. They go up the coast to Sidon, which is in what was ancient Phoenicia. And in that day, it was Syria. Today, it would be Lebanon. And they stop at that port. And at that Port Julius, the centurion, he showed great respect, great deference, great trust for Paul because he permitted him to go ashore and spend time with some of the believers who lived in Sidon. There was a church there. Now, a Roman soldier probably accompanied him. His Christian friends there in Sidon cared for his immediate personal needs, and I suspect they even provided some supplies for the long journey ahead, because it was going to take a long time to get to Rome. Way longer, by the way, as we look at this story, way longer than they anticipated. Just a little bit of an insight here as we look at the fact that Paul was cared for by his Christian friends in Sidon. I want us to understand that God's people should take care of each other. We should take care of each other. I love it when I see a meal train for a family because they just had a baby. I love it when we do meal trains because families have had losses and we want to come alongside and make it just a little bit easier for them. I love it when I look out there in the lobby or in our fellowship, our life groups, and I see you checking in with each other and caring for one another, praying for one another, getting off to a corner and talking to one another. To me, all of that. is an expression of the body life that we should be engaging in. And I see that little insight here. God's people should take care of each other. The body of Christ should care for the body parts. Would you not agree with me? Now, they left Sidon, sailing north along the coast, and then they turned westward, and that's when the trouble began. They turned westward traveling between the island of Cyprus and the Asian coastline to the north because it provided some protection from the wind that was blowing against them. And this was a sign of troubled times ahead. The prevailing winds in the Mediterranean in the fall blow from west to east and many times from the northwest to the northeast. And we know it's fall because in verse 9 he says the fast was over. And what that means is the fast is a reference probably to Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement which occurred in late September and as late as mid-October. and it was considered dangerous by most mariners to sail between mid-September and mid-November. So they're out on the sea at a time that you don't usually sail in that day and age. You and I can't appreciate the convenience of traveling in 2024. We just hop in our car and we drive somewhere and we're there in minutes. We get on board an airplane and I can be in Europe and I can be in Asia in just a matter of hours. And as we're going to see, the Apostle Paul is trying to make his way to Rome and it's going to take him literally weeks on the sea to get there. Dangerous time of the year. Most harbors were closed from September to March on the Mediterranean. There was a saying of the day that declared it doubtful to sail after September, but insane to sail after November. That's how bad the weather could be on the Mediterranean in the wintertime, in the fall. And Paul's ship is beginning to experience the reality of stormy false seas. As a matter of fact, in verse nine, Luke declared it was now very perilous to sail. It was dangerous to sail. They finally arrived at the next port of call. It was a place called Myra, a little further west. And it took them 14 days, covering 500 miles, having left Sidon to get there. 14 days on the sea in a little boat. And there they changed ships. Julius put the prisoners on an Egyptian grain ship which was actually headed to Italy. We know that from verse 6. It's called an Alexandrian ship. Alexandria was the capital of Egypt in that day. And we know it was carrying grain because in verse 38 it talks about some of the cargo that they were jettisoning to try and lighten the boat so it wouldn't sink in this horrific storm was wheat. It was wheat. Wheat was important to Rome. Egypt was the breadbasket of the Roman Empire and it needed hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat to feed its citizens and its troops who were stationed all over the empire. So this was a fairly larger ship, much larger ship than that coastal boat that was heading up the coastline. We know how big it is because according to verse 37, later in this chapter, it says, Luke identifying for us exactly how many people are on board, 276. So that's how big it is, maybe two-thirds of a football field long, maybe 50 feet wide, and from deck to hold, maybe about 44 feet deep. Not a big ship by our standards, but a reasonably good-sized ship in that day. Their trip was very slow, the text tells us, as they left Myra and they headed west. They were not making a lot of headway because of the prevailing winds, and they found some shelter from the winds as they sailed along the southern shores of the island of Crete in the Mediterranean. But even there, the ship was still fighting windy conditions, and they finally arrived at another port, a very small port called Fair Havens. It was mid-island on the southern shores of the island of Crete. Now, the dangerous conditions of the sea caused Paul to speak up. He's silent up until this point. We know he's on board. because Luke tells us he's on board as a prisoner along with some other prisoners. But he hasn't said anything yet, but he speaks up now. And he strongly urges Julius, who is this Roman centurion under whose care the Apostle Paul is being cared for, and he speaks to the ship's pilot, that's the guy at the helm who's directing and driving the ship, and then also the owner. And he says, we ought to harbor here for the winter. For the next several months let's stay here in Fair Havens, it'll be safer. Now he draws his conclusion according to the text based on the windy turbulent seas that they've been sailing through and he warns these men who are responsible for this ship that to push further on there's gonna be great loss. He says we could lose the ship. We could lose the cargo and we could lose the lives of many of us. Now I had to stop and ask myself, what would Paul know about sailing? He's an evangelist. He's a pastor. He's a missionary. He's an apostle. What would he know about sailing? But then I had to stop and remind myself, Paul had traversed these waters numerous times before on his three missionary journeys. As a matter of fact, somebody estimated, based on his missionary journeys, that Paul sailed some 3,000 miles on the Mediterranean in a GNC over the course of his lifetime. Now I had to remind myself of one more thing, 2 Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse 25. In that chapter, he says, I was shipwrecked three times and I spent a night and a day in the deep, that is out in the open ocean. So Paul actually came with a little bit of experience to be able to convey to these men, we need to put the brakes on, let's hold here because it's too dangerous now. So his advice was seasoned with years of personal experience on the sea. Unfortunately, the centurion Julius and others in charge weren't interested in his counsel. The centurion listened to the advice of the pilot and owner, which makes sense, right? They were the experienced mariners. They were the experienced sailors. One of the commentators said, sailors don't listen to land lubbers. I think that's true. They don't want to hear what you have to say. I'm the sailor. You're just an evangelist. I don't even know what that is. Fair Havens was a small harbor. It was not ideal for wintering in. Additionally, it was a small, boring place, not at all inviting to hardened sailors and soldiers who would have to spend several months there looking for some kind of distraction. The centurion and the ship's leaders decided they would try to make it to Phoenix, which was a little larger city west of Fairhavens, still on the island of Crete. It was a more suitable harbor for winter, so they thought, let's go there. It's a better harbor, more distractions for the sailors and soldiers if we have to winter there for a period of time. But I think there's another factor involved here that affected the owner in particular, and that had to be greed. You know why I say greed? Here's why. Because of the great need for wheat to feed the masses, Rome offered bonuses, tax incentives, and even Roman citizenship if ship owners would run the risk of sailing the treacherous fall and winter seas. So I think that directed their attention as well. So a favorable wind comes up, seemingly confirming they made the right decision. They pull up anchor and they set sail for Phoenix. And that is when the big trouble begins to fall upon them. Look at verses 14 through 38 now. And now we encounter a disaster, a catastrophe at sea. I want you to put yourself in Paul's sandals, if you will. Put yourself on this boat, and I want you to sense the urgency. I want you to sense the terror. I want you to sense how scary this must have been for them. Shortly after their departure, the favorable winds were overwhelmed by a fierce storm, according to the text. In the text, it's called a uraculo, and literally that means a northeastern We have them off the coast of the northeast here in America. They call them nor'easters. This was a nor'easter. And the Greek text that's translated in English, violent wind, it actually used the root word for typhoon to describe this brutal gale that gripped this poor ship. And ancient ships did not possess the power to fight winds and heavy seas. So this is a problem. They had no alternative but to let the storm drive the ship wherever it wanted to. So what they did, they tied up the two rudders, two rudders at the stern, the back of the ship. They tied them up. They pulled up their dinghy, their lifeboat, their skiff. That's the boat that's referred to there. And that was usually just trailing behind them. And it was used for safety and it was used for transportation from the ship to shore, to and from. And it usually just trailed behind them. So they were trying to bring it up because it was filling with seawater and they wanted to prevent it from being smashed against the stern of the ship. And then they took ropes, this is how desperate they are. They get the dinghy up, then they take ropes and they wrap the ship from bow to stern multiple times with these ropes and tighten them as tight as they can make them because they're trying to keep the planks of the ship from separating and letting more water in and of course ultimately sinking. And the raging storm kept pushing them further and further and further south towards North Africa. And out of great terror, they dropped an anchor to try and prevent the ship from running aground on the notorious sandbars and quicksands of North Africa. In our text, it identifies a place called Sirtis, and that's Libya, just off the coast of Libya. And it was notoriously known to experience sailors as a graveyard for ships. And the next day, the storm increased in intensity. And out of fear of sinking, they now began to throw overboard their cargo. The storm was relentless, and the following day they continued to jettison whatever wasn't necessary. They threw it overboard, doing their best to lighten the ship so it wouldn't sink. The storm blackened the sky for days, obscuring the sun during the day and obscuring the stars and the moon at night. And you go, well, okay, what's the big deal on that? Well, the big deal is they didn't use sextants. They didn't have compasses. They usually navigated by the stars and by what they could see on the land. That's how they navigated, and they can't do either. This was the mother of all storms. and it caused all on board this ill-fated ship to lose, the text tells us, all hope. They thought they were dead men. We're gonna sink. We're goners. And due to sickness, probably sea sickness, and due to waterlogged food supplies, and possibly some were even fasting, hoping and praying that their God would hear and deliver them, all on board had gone for some time without eating. And so Paul, again steps into the limelight and takes charge. It's interesting, he started this doomed cruise as a prisoner, but he keeps assuming the mantle of leadership, even though there's a centurion on board, even though there's a ship captain on board, even though there's a ship owner on board. Paul, by the grace of God, steps into this leadership role. and he stands up in the midst of the storm and he speaks to all on board, including the centurion and the pilot of the ship, as well as the owner. Now, I want to read it, and then I want to comment on it, but in what he has to say, I think there's some rich spiritual truth for us. So let me take you to the next section, and I'd like to begin, let me start at verse 21. Now listen. When they had gone a long time without food, that's what I just referenced, then Paul stood up in their midst, the midst of all these people, 276 of them, and he said, men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss. Yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night, an angel of God, to whom I belong and whom I serve, stood before me, saying, do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you. Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe, God, that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground. on a certain island. So he stands up in the midst of the storm, and he speaks to them on board. And it sounds like he's gloating. When I read that, did you kind of go, oh, he's kind of gloating. He's kind of waving his finger in their face and saying, I told you so. You should have listened to me. I don't think that's primarily what he's doing. I think what he's doing, he's reminding them that he warned them about the dangers. before they left Fairhavens and risked sailing to Phoenix. In a way, he predicted the disaster that they now have found themselves in. Now he wants to gain their confidence. That's why I think he said this. He wants to gain their confidence and trust as he encourages them with another prediction, but this prediction actually comes from God. that he received when the angel came and visited him the night before. So he starts off by exhorting them to be courageous. As catastrophic as the sea is, and as dire as their circumstances are, he assured them, no one's going to die. Only the ship will be lost. Now that had to be a stunning statement, don't you think so? To those sailors, to those soldiers, to those passengers. Here's this guy who says, nobody's going to die. Ah, the ship's going to go down, but none of us are going to die. I think he had their undivided attention. And then he proceeded to tell them that God had sent an angelic messenger the night before who stood next to Paul and delivered this message of hope. God began by personally comforting Paul. Did you notice that? The first thing the angel said from God to Paul was, Paul, don't let fear overwhelm you. Secondly, God guaranteed what he had previously promised Paul. He said, you will appear before the emperor of Rome. I don't know if you ever stopped and thought about this. Do you know who the emperor of Rome was at that time? It was Nero, the notorious Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned. And then he blamed the Christians for it. Nero was an absolute madman who hated Christians with an irrational passion. I came across this interesting quote by Spurgeon, the great British preacher. He said this about this incident, about what Paul heard from God. I quote him, it seems no comfort than if the angel had said, you can't be drowned, for you are to be devoured by a lion. A reference to the fact that what Nero would do with Christians is feed them literally to lions in the Colosseum as entertainment for the people. God also promised that all who were with Paul on this doomed journey would be spared. And this is a wonderful picture of what theologians call God's common grace. God's common grace isn't saving grace. God's common grace is the fact that he shows goodness and kindness to all of his creation, whether they're followers of Jesus or not. And we see that taught in the scriptures. Psalm 145 verse nine. Matthew five and verse 45. This is the one most of us are familiar with. Listen to the words of Jesus. He talks about this very concept. He says, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he, your father who is in heaven, causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. And we see that illustrated here. So what Paul does, he cheered the men on with the conviction that he absolutely trusted that what God had said would indeed come to pass. But he reminded them again, the ship would run aground on an island. And ironically, it would be a shipwreck that would actually save their lives. Incredibly is how the midnight arrives, and it's now the 14th day, the text tells us. It's midnight of the 14th day since they've left Fair Havens. Two weeks on this ship, two weeks fighting the winds and the waves of these storms. They're like a helpless cork bobbing aimlessly up and down on these huge waves on the sea. And around midnight, these well-seasoned sailors began to sense they were nearing land. And you might ask, well, how did they know that? Well, they're sailors, and it's often said that sailors can smell land. because they're out on the sea, and there's unique smells out there, but as they get closer to the land, there are unique smells that waft out from the shore. Additionally, I suspect they heard waves crashing on a shoreline, so they knew, we're getting close. And though these were subjective ways to sense land, they now took soundings, the text tells us, to confirm their hunches. They have a hunch, we're getting close, but we don't know for sure. So they were testing to see if the waters were getting shallower because that would indicate they're getting closer to land. Using ropes with lead weights, they determined that at the first sounding, they were at 120 feet. And then he took another sounding a little later on, and now it's 90 feet. They were indeed getting closer and closer and closer to land. The sailors were afraid they might run the ship aground on the rocky shore, so they did some things to prevent that. They dropped four anchors out the back, out the stern, to try and grab anything below to slow or stop their advancing to the rocks. And having done this, they prayed for daylight. Literally in the text, they prayed for daylight because then they could see what was ahead and they could better prepare for it. But the fear of crashing, sinking, and dying, it got the best of the sailors. Did you see in the text what happens? They prepared the little dinghy that they had brought into the boat. They prepared it for an escape. They were gonna abandon ship and leave the soldiers and the centurion and the prisoners on the ship without anybody to guide it. They prepared the lifeboat for an escape, but Paul took notice. Praise God, Paul took notice. And he turned to the centurion and said, you know, if those guys leave the ship, everybody dies. Because they're the guys who guide the ship. They're the navigators, they're the mariners. And so instantly the soldiers cut the line of the lifeboat and it fell into the sea. Now, I want to take a moment to catch our breath from all this drama on board this ship. Because I want to talk about some lessons we can pull out from this story. What can we learn from Paul? I think we can learn some pretty significant lessons from Paul here. The story is real history. This is not an allegory. This is real history. This really happened. But I think it can be a picture of our lives as followers of Jesus. Because fierce storms of various kinds come suddenly, often into our lives. That phone call you've been waiting for from the doctor after you went to him and he ran a bunch of tests and he says, you have cancer. Or that phone call late at night from back home and someone calls to tell you that your father died, that your mother died, that your brother died. Or you get called into the office at work and they proceed to tell you, you just have lost your job. And on and on it goes. Our trials are many and they are varied. As a matter of fact, in James 1, 2, he says, consider it all joy when you encounter trials, not if. Paul wrote to people suffering in 1 Peter 4.12, and he said, Beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, as though some strange thing is happening. Though the waves were huge, and the winds were powerful, assaulting the ship, Paul is calm, he's cool, he's collected, and he's confident. How was that possible? Well, he had some anchors. He had some anchors that kept him stabilized in that sea. First of all, he knew God was with him. In verse 23, I read it just a moment ago, it said, an angel of God stood before me. So Paul had as his first anchor the knowledge that God was with him. God hadn't abandoned him. God hadn't left him alone. I don't know what form your trial takes this morning. I think it's pretty safe for me to say, every one of you, to one degree or another, right today, on your voyage as a follower of Jesus, you are in crisis. Well, the first thing I want you to know is what Paul learned out in the sea, and that was he had the anchor of knowing that I am not alone. God is with me. We have that same comfort. Matthew 28, 20, you know, it's the last words of Jesus. What did he say? And lo or behold, I'm with you always. Even in the storms, Paul? Yeah. Paul, really in the storms, the Lord was saying to him. How about you this morning? Is he really with you in your stormy events of life right now? Yes. Hebrews 13.5, it says he'll never leave us. He'll never forsake us. And I love the latter part of the verse. The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. Have you been afraid? Have you been terrified? Have you been fearful because of that storm you find yourself in the midst of? I just want you to know this morning, this is an anchor that you can have, just as Paul had in the midst of his storm, literally, and that is, he knew God was with him, and I want you to know this morning, God is with you. Secondly, he knew he belonged to God. Verse 23, he says, the God to whom I belong. He knew he belonged to God. He belonged to God as a bride belongs to a groom. As a child belongs to a father. As a sheep belongs to a shepherd. And we are not our own, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6. We've been bought with a price. So we too belong to the Lord. We are his sheep. We are a member of his church, the bride. He is our heavenly father. We are his children. So the second anchor is he knew he belonged to God. This morning I want you to know you belong to God. In addition to him being with you, you belong to him. Thirdly, he knew he was in God's service. Verse 23 again, he says, the God whom I serve. He had a mission from God to bear witness of Jesus in Rome. And God would preserve him, protect him until he had accomplished that calling. And the Lord will preserve us until our work for him is finished. We've talked about that here many times. I'm invincible until that moment arrives that God determined in eternity pass for how long I was going to live on planet earth. I'm invincible until that day. And regardless of what's going on in your life right now, you're invincible. until God accomplishes His purposes in your life and you fulfill His calling for you. And then the final anchor is, he knew he could trust God's Word. In verse 25, having told the man what God said, he said, I believe God. I'm confident in what God has said. I absolutely take at face value what my God has said. God made a promise and he was absolutely confident that God would keep it. He had learned God doesn't lie. He had learned that God is truth. The Bible is filled with innumerable promises to us, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Every one of them you can take to the bank. because every one of them is true, backed by the God of the universe who cannot lie. I love this verse, one of the first ones I ever memorized in the Old Testament. I think it's in Numbers, and it says, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the Son a man that he should repent. Has he not said and will he not do it? Hath he not spoken and will he not keep it? Paul writes to Titus in the first chapter, and he says, God, who does not lie, It's not that God chooses not to lie, it's that God can't lie because God is truth. Sanctify them in thy word, Jesus said as he prayed to the father, for thy word is truth. It's what Paul believed. I love this verse, it's found in 2 Corinthians 1.20. It's a good verse to commit to memory as you think about how confident you can be in God's promises. This is 2 Corinthians 1.20. Listen to what Paul says. For as many as are the promises of God, and we find them in the book, the Bible, in him they are yes. Therefore also through him is our amen to the glory of God through us. Isn't that a great verse? You need to know them and you need to believe them. Whatever your storms are today, I want you to hold on to these anchors that Paul found great comfort in. He knew God was with him. Do you know that this morning? He knew he belonged to God. Do you know that this morning? He knew he was in God's service. Do you know that and believe that this morning? And he knew he could trust God's word. Do you believe that this morning? Now, back to the lurching deck. Dawn breaks. It's the 14th day, and all on board have had little to eat. Paul encourages them to eat something because they need some physical strength. They need a little fortitude physically for a couple of things that are coming up. They're going to have to jettison the rest of the cargo, which would be the wheat. And in addition to that, they're gonna have to do some swimming from the shipwreck to the shore. So he tells them to eat, he models for them the counsel he just gave to them, and he eats. They renewed their strength. They're ready for what's gonna happen next, which brings us to our final point, deliverance on Malta. Once daylight arrived, their fears were realized. They were on a collision course with land. So they had no idea where they were, but they saw a beach in front of them, and now they were going to prepare the ship to safely be guided through the rocks so they could beach the ship on the shore. So they cut the four anchors loose they had put in. They loosened the rudders, which they had tied up so they could steer the ship. They hoisted the sail to catch the wind, which would drive them into the beach, when suddenly the ship lurched forward to a complete stop. Its bow was stuck hard and fast on the rocks and sand just offshore, and the violent waves began to crash against the stern of the ship, and smashing it to bits, the weakened ship could take no more abuse from the angry seas. Fearing the prisoners might escape during the confusion of the shipwreck, the soldiers are planning to kill them, but Paul has an advocate in the The commandant, the centurion, he intervenes and he spares them, commands the soldiers to stand down. And then he did something else. He commanded those who could swim to jump in and swim to shore. Good thing they ate so they had a little fortification physically to get to shore. And for those who couldn't swim, he said, jump in and just grab some piece of debris from the ship. Use it as a life preserver and float to shore. So after weeks at the mercy of the angry Mediterranean, all, this is amazing, all 276 are on the shores of Malta, and they're alive, and they're safe. God kept his promise. His prediction to Paul had indeed come to pass, and this is a dramatic passage for this reason, because it emphatically teaches that God sovereignly controls circumstances to accomplish his will. And I leave you with this thought. The means God used to keep Paul safe, interesting enough, was a shipwreck on Malta. And from there, Paul made his way to Rome, and his desire and prayers to present Christ to the people and leaders of Rome would now become a reality. He had no idea what that journey would look like when he pulled up anchor in Caesarea, did he? He pulled up the anchor, got on board the ship, he had no idea what was in store for him. But despite the circumstances, Paul believed God knew what he was doing. And he did what we have to do. Simply trust him. Simply trust him. And that's my counsel to you. Someone as well said, God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. He promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. A.W. Tozer wrote, while it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is a God who has not surrendered His authority. The will of God isn't always safe and comfortable, but the Lord is always present, perfecting His child for His glory. And I'll leave you with the words of John MacArthur. I can't always rejoice in my circumstances. But I can always rejoice in the God of my circumstances. And that's where our focus should be, on the Lord. Father, thank you for the time in your Word this morning. Not exactly an easy passage, Lord, for a lot of reasons. But certainly one of the most powerful things we see out of it is, once again, We're never alone in the midst of our own storms. You're always there, always present. We belong to you, we serve you, and we believe your promises. We have your presence, we have our prayers, we have your promises, and we pray that you would help us to cling to them like an anchor that would bring stability even in angry seas. I pray for each one here today that they would hang on to those anchors and find comfort. And may they also remember that the outcome of what you want to accomplish in our lives is your goal. It's to make us like Jesus. But the journey, the passage, how you go about doing that, it's going to look different. than the way we want it to look sometimes. But we just look to you for the grace to just trust you. Because you haven't lost control. You haven't stopped loving us. You will provide us with the grace we need, the comfort we need, the strength we need. And we ask for all of this. In the precious name of Jesus, whom all of us need, amen. All right, would you stand once more? Let's close the song. I will glory in my Redeemer, Whose priceless blood has ransomed me. Mine was the sin that drove the bitter nails, And hung Him on that judgment tree. I will glory in my Redeemer, who crushed the power of sin and death, my only Savior before the Holy Child, the Lamb who is my righteousness, the Lamb who is my righteousness. I will glory in my Redeemer, My life He bought, my love He owes. I have no longings for another, I'm satisfied in Him alone. I will glory in my Redeemer, His faithfulness my standing place. Though foes are mighty and rush upon me, My feet are propelled by His grace. My feet are propelled by His grace. I will glory in my Redeemer, who carries me on eagles' wings. He crowns my life with lovingkindness, this triumph song I'll never sing. I will glory in my Redeemer Who waits for me at gates of gold And when He calls me it will be paradise His face forever to behold his face forever to be born I will glory in my Redeemer who waits for me at gates of gold and when he calls me in will be paradise his face forever to be born his face forever to be born Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us, that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. You are dismissed.