Review / Introduction:
I Can Be Fearless Knowing God is In Control:
- You will find there is no Plan B. (Acts 27:27-32)
- You will find things to be Thankful for. (Acts 27:33-38)
- You will find Favor even from non-Christians. (Acts 27:39-44)
Romans 1:21 - For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they obecame futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-00:52
Alright, open your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts 27.
00:54-01:00
Our message today is, "I will not fear the storm." Part 2.
01:02-01:07
Just as a review, if you missed part 1, we have been following through the book of Acts the apostle Paul.
01:07-01:12
At this point, he's a prisoner on his way to Rome.
01:12-02:19
Remember, he was accused of parading Gentiles through the restricted part the temple or whatever. It was just the bogus charges because of the mobs and the riots. Paul knowing he wasn't going to get a fair trial, he appealed to Caesar, as was his right as a Roman citizen, and off to Rome he goes, but the ship hit a terrible storm. We saw last week that God had promised Paul that everyone on board this boat was going to make it, and Paul relayed that to the rest. So in our story, Paul was a prisoner. He wisely knew that sailing was a bad idea this time of year, and they didn't take his advice. The storm came and now everything is out of his control. And I love this story for this reason. This is lesson for all of us. Because there are times in our lives that it just seems like everything is out of our control. Amen?
02:20-02:41
Maybe some of you are going through that right now. Like, "I just can't get a grip on anything right now. I just feel like everything is completely out of my control." People make bad decisions that affect us. That's exactly what happened to Paul. People make bad decisions that that affected him. That happens to us.
02:42-02:43
The storm hits.
02:45-02:49
Here literally, for us sometimes metaphorically, the storm hits.
02:50-02:53
Suddenly we're in a hopeless situation, we have zero control over.
02:53-02:54
For you, maybe it's a health issue.
02:56-03:03
Maybe it's a health issue that you've been trying to get under wraps, and you can't get it under control.
03:03-03:05
It's out of your control.
03:05-03:10
You've seen doctors and you've tried everything, and it just seems out of your control.
03:11-03:14
Maybe for some of you it has to do with your job.
03:15-03:25
Maybe they've been downsizing at work and you unfortunately got released from your job, something you had no control over.
03:26-03:29
But I was at this position for 30 years and they just let me go?
03:31-03:32
Out of your control.
03:33-03:36
For some of you it might be a financial issue.
03:36-03:46
I've been trying and trying and trying, and I just can't seem to get straight financially.
03:48-03:54
We have a couple of great Financial Peace University seminars coming up this month, which you don't want to miss, if that's you.
03:56-04:02
But for some of you, maybe you are in a financial situation that is just spiraling out of control.
04:04-04:05
For some of you, it might be your marriage.
04:06-04:14
Like, I have tried and tried and tried to do the right thing by my spouse, and it just seems like everything at our home is out of control.
04:15-04:21
Well, last week we saw, how can I be fearless when I have no control?
04:23-04:26
The message this week, if you're taking notes, jot these down.
04:27-04:32
Today we're gonna be talking about how I can be fearless knowing that God is in control.
04:33-04:34
See, it's the other side of the coin.
04:34-04:36
How can I be fearless when I have no control?
04:38-04:40
I can be fearless knowing God is in control.
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And you are going to find yourself there.
04:43-04:44
You're going to find it.
04:45-04:46
That's what we're talking about all year, by the way.
04:47-04:48
The righteous are bold as a lion.
04:48-04:53
Our theme this year is to have a fearless faith in Jesus Christ.
04:54-05:00
So what we're looking at today is how can we have fearless trust in God when everything is out of control?
05:02-05:07
Well, you will have fearless faith when you find these three other truths that Paul discovered.
05:07-05:09
You're going to see them all right here in the text.
05:09-05:10
Number one, jot this down.
05:11-05:14
You'll have fearless faith when you find there is no plan B.
05:16-05:19
You will find there is no plan B.
05:20-05:21
Look at verse 27.
05:21-05:44
It says, "When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven along the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors suspected that they were nearing land." So you remember on this boat, you had prisoners, yes, but you also had soldiers transporting these prisoners, but you had sailors that were guiding the ship, right?
05:45-05:48
"So the sailors suspected that they were nearing the land.
05:48-05:51
So they took a sounding and found 20 fathoms.
05:51-05:56
A little farther on, they took a sounding again and found 15 fathoms.
05:57-06:05
And fearing that we might run on the rocks, "He let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come." So what's going on here in these verses?
06:05-06:06
Well, there's no navigation.
06:08-06:12
They didn't have some electronic satellite-powered GPS.
06:13-06:20
We saw last week, they would have navigated by the sun and the stars, and they couldn't see anything in the sky.
06:22-06:28
Now when it talks about the Adriatic Sea, that's not referring to the sea that today is called the Adriatic Sea.
06:29-06:31
it's referring to the central Mediterranean Sea.
06:32-06:35
And they didn't know it at the time, but they were actually near Malta.
06:35-06:37
We'll talk about that down the road.
06:37-06:40
But the Bible says they took a sounding.
06:40-06:41
What is that all about?
06:41-06:46
Well, it was basically just putting a weight on the end of a rope to see how deep the water was.
06:46-06:49
And the first time they did it, there was 120 feet.
06:49-06:52
Then they did it again, and it was about 90 feet.
06:53-06:56
And what that told the sailors was, it looks like we're getting closer to land.
06:56-06:58
The water's getting more and more shallow.
06:58-07:00
So what are we going to do? They said, here's the plan.
07:01-07:05
Let's just drop anchors and pray for day to come.
07:06-07:13
And once daylight comes, maybe we can see the land that we think that we might be close to or something.
07:15-07:17
Desperate, desperate situation.
07:19-07:20
Look at verse 30.
07:21-07:23
This is kind of humorous.
07:23-07:26
I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time, but I think it's kind of funny.
07:27-07:53
It says, "As the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, 'Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.' Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go." This is just kind of funny to me. I don't know. Maybe it's just me.
07:54-08:25
Okay, so you see this situation, you have these soldiers transporting these prisoners and these sailors and this horrible storm, and they're like, "Let's just drop anchor "and pray for day to come." But meanwhile, some of the sailors were like, "We're just gonna go check on some of the anchors "in the front." And they put the lifeboat down, and they're like, "Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo." And their plan was to get on that lifeboat and get the heck out of here.
08:25-08:26
They're like, "We're close to land.
08:27-08:28
Who cares about these stupid prisoners?
08:30-08:32
Leave 'em, leave 'em.
08:32-08:36
We're saving ourselves." So, but Paul totally, he was like all over it.
08:36-08:37
He totally knew.
08:37-08:39
He's like, "Guys, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
08:40-08:50
Look, God says we're gonna be saved, but we all gotta stick together." So, and this just adds to the humor to me.
08:50-08:53
But the soldiers, do you see that in verse 32?
08:54-08:59
The soldiers who previously didn't believe Paul when he warned about sailing and all of this.
09:00-09:05
It says, "The soldiers cut away the ropes "of the ship's boat and let it go." Do you think you might need that later?
09:06-09:08
I mean, wasn't there a better plan?
09:08-09:13
Maybe, I don't know, stick in a part of the boat and like, nobody touches this, we're gonna wait.
09:14-09:26
But they're just like, "Well, we'll show you about your escape attempts." "By boat?" Like, "Ahhh." And you're gonna see, they really could have used that.
09:28-09:30
So why in the world did they do that?
09:32-09:34
Well, again, it was showing, and we're gonna see this here.
09:35-09:37
It was showing that they were starting to trust Paul.
09:38-09:39
This is gonna be so key.
09:39-09:40
We're gonna talk about this in a couple minutes.
09:40-09:42
It's showing that they were starting to trust Paul.
09:44-09:46
They ignored him, and now they're like, "You know what?
09:47-09:49
I think we need to listen to what this guy has to say.
09:51-10:02
So Paul was saying, as he said throughout, and this is how we closed last week, he's saying listen, we must trust God, there is no plan B.
10:03-10:13
In church, in desperate situations, we tend to trust things like ships and cargo and tackle and sailors.
10:14-10:28
In other words, we have a tendency, church, to put our trust in human things, in other words, useless things, to somehow manage to gain control when we feel like the situation is out of control.
10:30-10:31
What do you mean by that?
10:32-10:33
What I mean is this.
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You know what I've found, even in the church, to our shame?
10:37-10:45
life seems out of control, let's be honest, sometimes for us God is the last resort.
10:47-11:05
We'll try money, we'll try working harder, we'll try "who do I know that can help me with this situation?" We'll try all of that, we'll exhaust every other human resource, and then the last resort as well, I guess we'll just have to have faith.
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That's not fearless faith.
11:11-11:15
When God is the last resort, our only hope is in God's promises.
11:15-11:26
And listen, church, God is frequently going to allow you to be in situations when you have no other option but to seek and to trust him.
11:28-11:34
When you get to heaven, just ask one of the Israelites that were backed into the Red Sea during the Exodus.
11:35-11:36
God brought them to that place.
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They were cornered.
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Here come the Egyptians, here's the Israelites, they're at the shore of the Red Sea.
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God brought them to that place to show, look, there's no human means that's going to rescue you.
11:49-11:51
Not a boat, not a bridge, not an army.
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The only thing that you can bank on is the power of the Lord God Almighty showing up on your behalf.
11:59-12:00
That's why he did that.
12:01-12:03
And he does that to every single one of us.
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He puts us in an out of control situation that all of a sudden it doesn't matter how much money or resources or people we have, it has to be God.
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God has to show up here because nothing else is gonna do it.
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It has to be God.
12:19-12:20
He's gonna put you in those situations.
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Stop making God the last resort.
12:26-12:34
And this is seen in, and some of you know this, this phrase, oh, I don't even wanna say it, but I have to say it.
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This phrase drives me insane.
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And I hear people say this phrase all the time.
12:43-12:46
How many of you, like, growing up, did your parents have the swear jar?
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You know, where you put money in the jar if you swore.
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Did anybody have the swear jar?
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No?
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Okay, you know what I'm talking about there, right?
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You've seen that in movies and stuff.
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Like, I think a swear jar's a bad idea, personally, but you know what I'm talking about, right?
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That if you swear, you put money.
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I think that we should have like a swear jar for this phrase that anytime I hear somebody say this phrase I'm about to share with you, you're gonna put $50 in our swear jar and it goes to missions, okay?
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We make that happen, Sean?
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All right, great.
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Here's the phrase.
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I'm serious, here's the phrase.
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All we can do is pray.
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Right?
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All we can do is pray.
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Do you realize how irreverent that phrase is?
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But people say it all the time.
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It's like, "Hey, we're having this situation here.
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We're having this hard time." And people are like, "Well, you know what?
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All we can do is pray.
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All we can do is pray." $50 right in the swear jar for that.
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All we can do is pray.
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Oh, okay, so what you're saying is all we can do, All we can do is to trust the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe who loves me and wants to show Himself mighty and faithful on my behalf in miraculous ways. That's it. That's all we got.
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Wow, does that seem like a stretch.
14:14-14:23
You see, pragmatism in this passage, pragmatism says, "Abandon ship. Do whatever it takes to get out of there." Pragmatism is like the sailors here.
14:24-14:29
"Look, let's just get on the boat and get the heck out of here. Leave 'em." That's pragmatism.
14:31-14:40
Faith says, "Stay on the dangerous boat and trust God to keep His Word." But faith says, "There is no plan B.
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I'm going to trust that God is in control." "I'm going to trust that God is in control." First of all, you're going to find there is no plan B.
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Secondly, you'll find things to be thankful for.
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You will find things to be thankful for.
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Look at verses 33 through 38 with me.
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Okay, so you're back in the scene, sailors try to sneak away, and the soldier's like, "That ain't gonna happen." They cut the boat, and there goes the boat, goodbye boat, and we're just gonna wait.
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There it is, verse 33, "As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense, and without food, having taken nothing.
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Therefore, I urge you to take some food, for it will give you strength." Here's the promise that Paul says, "Not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you." Remember, God told him that.
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God's like, "Everyone's going to be safe." Restating the promise, restating the promise.
15:49-16:06
"And when he had said these things, he took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all," underline that in your Bibles, "giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat." Look at verse 36, I love this.
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It says, "Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves.
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We were in all 276 persons in the ship.
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And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea." Verse 38, underline that last phrase.
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This is really fascinating stuff.
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This is the first historical documented evidence of people going gluten-free.
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Somebody's like, "Wait a minute, do people pay you to study the Bible?" Well, you can look that up.
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This started the gluten-free craze.
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But you will find things to be thankful for.
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As a Christian, there are times that God's going to call you to step up, and speak for Him, and be an example of what it means to be fearless in the face of difficulty.
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That's exactly what happened with Paul here.
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Do you see him stepping up again?
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And we see his calm confidence encouraged everyone.
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He was the only one, as far as we can see, that had it together.
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Listen guys, we're gonna eat, you're gonna need your strength.
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God says we're gonna be okay, but you're gonna need your strength.
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There's times that you're going to have to be that person to step up.
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Whether it's at the funeral home, whether it's in the aftermath of a car accident, the aftermath of a heart attack or some sudden tragedy.
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People, because they know you're a Christian, because they know you go to church and you read the Bible, people are going to naturally be drawn to you.
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People are going to be looking to you as the spokesperson for God.
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And listen, the way you respond to these events are either going to encourage or discourage people.
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They're either going to help or hurt.
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You're either going to throw water on the fire, or you're going to throw gasoline on the fire.
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But you see that your attitude is going to be contagious.
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People are going to be looking to you.
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Like, "Well, I don't want them to look to me." It doesn't matter if you want to.
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People are going to be looking to you.
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They know that you know the Bible.
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They know that you pray.
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They know that you say you love the Lord.
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They know that you say you're a person of faith.
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And in times of tragedy like this, they're going to be looking to you.
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Your attitude is going to be contagious.
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You're like, "Well, what attitude do you mean?
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Can you be more specific?" Yeah, I sure can.
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Verse 35, I told you to underline it.
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I want to circle back here.
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Notice it says that Paul gave thanks.
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Despite everything that was happening to Paul, again, his advice being ignored, the storm has them all in a deadly situation, the sailors ready to bail on them all.
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Paul still found opportunity to be thankful.
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You got to mark this down.
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There is a direct correlation between faith and thanksgiving.
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It is a direct correlation every time.
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We're not going to turn there, but I just encourage you, write down Romans 121.
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Go back and read that, because that's Paul's whole thing.
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People who refuse to acknowledge God, Paul says, "Do you know one of the reasons why?
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People don't acknowledge God, they're not thankful.
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They're not thankful.
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There's a correlation between faith and thanksgiving.
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In other words, the person that can't find it in them to be thankful, has no faith.
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But on the other hand, the person that finds things to thank God for, even in the face of tragedy, demonstrates that the eyes of their heart can still see God's provision and for that they are thankful and they demonstrate true saving faith.
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So what about you?
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Some of you are going through some serious trials right now.
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You write the prayer request down in the friendship register and I pray for those through the week and the prayer team prays for those through the week.
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I know that some of you are going through some serious trials, but I have to wonder how many of you are going through some serious trials that never make the friendship register that we never find out about, you know?
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We don't find out about these things.
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And he said, "I know there's a lot of trials represented here that I don't even know about." What about you?
20:57-21:09
Whatever trial you're going through, can you still perceive, genuinely perceive by faith, things that you can still be thankful for?
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Like maybe you are going through some financial problems now.
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Can you see how God has provided for you despite how tight things are?
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Can you thank God for that or is that not even on your radar?
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You probably ate today which is more than millions of people around the world can say.
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Can you be thankful?
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Do you have problems at your job?
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Well can you thank God that you have a job even if things aren't optimal?
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Or are you so fixated on the problems and that really annoying co-worker, or I don't like the way my boss talks to me, and you're so fixated on these little minor things that it's just, it's not even on your radar to thank God for the list of 20,000 things that are great about having that job.
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And if you can't find things to be thankful for, listen, that says something about your faith or your lack of faith. If you're going to change what you focus on, if you change your focus to the things to be thankful for, even if the situation doesn't change, you're going to change. And as we see happen with Paul here, not only are you going to be changed, but you're going to be an agent of change for other people. Everyone was encouraged. Everybody was on the same boat, literally.
22:45-23:07
And here this one little Jewish prisoner speaks up and changes everybody's attitude just like that. That can be you, but notice Paul looked for something to be thankful for. Isn't that awesome? Our lives are in danger. People are trying to flee, the boat's going to sink, we're all going to die.
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And Paul's like, thank you God for this food.
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Thank you God, that even though all this other stuff is going on, thank you God that you fed us.
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Thank you God.
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That's awesome.
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You're like, well, Pastor Jeff, you know, things are pretty rough and sometimes it's really hard to find things to be thankful for.
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Well, you know, that may be true, but there's always two things I go back to.
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There's always two.
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One's pretty obvious, thankful for salvation.
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No matter how bad things are, right Tony?
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My best days are ahead, right?
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I have the promise of heaven.
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Yeah, there's gonna be a few bumps on the road along the way and whatever, but I'm heading to heaven.
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So I can thank God for that.
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Like God, thank you, yeah, life is rough, but this life isn't forever.
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I'm gonna die someday and be done here.
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So I'm thankful for that.
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Another thing you can be thankful for is the question mark.
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Like, sometimes you thank God knowing that He has a purpose for the trial, even if you can't see what the purpose is at the moment.
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You say, "God, I know you're gonna do something here.
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"I don't know what it is, but I'm gonna thank you "ahead of time for whatever it's going to be.
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"Thank you, God, thank you.
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"I don't know what it is, "but I'm gonna thank you ahead of time." Start there.
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But if the eyes of your heart are so inclined, You're going to run out of paper listing things that you can be thankful for even in the worst trials.
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That's fearless faith.
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That is fearless faith.
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Yeah, the boat's going down and the sailors are ready to bail, but thank you God, I'm finding things that I can still be thankful for.
24:53-25:22
And finally for today, you will find favor from non-Christians. And if you think this story was rough to this point, hang on it just gets a lot worse here. It says, "Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore." So they're like, "Woohoo! There's a beach! There's a beach!
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There's a beach! What's the plan? Let's ram it with the boat. Who cares about about what happens with the boat.
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Let's just get there, save our lives and whatever.
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So that was their plan.
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Let's just crash land and...
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It says, "So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea at the same time, loosening the ropes that tied the rudders, then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach." All right, home free, here we go.
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Full steam ahead, rushing towards the beach.
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Nothing's gonna stop us now.
25:56-26:00
You know, somebody hum chariots of fire, here we go.
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Oh man, look at verse 41, it says, "But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground." Okay, that's a problem.
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They, the front of the boat struck the reef.
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So now, okay, now we're stuck.
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It says, "The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the turf.
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So the front end of the boat was stuck and the back end was getting shredded by the waves.
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And oh, if you thought that was bad, things get even worse, believe it or not, because look at the next verse.
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It says the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners.
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Like, okay, what's the next plan?
26:45-26:47
Line 'em up, let's kill 'em.
26:48-26:48
Why?
26:48-26:55
It says, "lest any should swim away and escape." Worst cruise ever.
26:56-26:59
Losing a prisoner could cost a soldier his life, right?
27:00-27:05
If you lost a prisoner, that was just part of occupational hazard.
27:05-27:06
If you lost a prisoner, you died.
27:08-27:13
So that's why these soldiers were like, they're gonna swim away, get to the beach, and they're gonna be gone.
27:15-27:16
Let's just kill 'em.
27:17-27:17
Safest thing.
27:18-28:14
Right? It says, "But the centurion," that's Julius, the head guy, "wishing to save Paul kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land." It probably wasn't funny at the time, but I'm just picturing this in my head. Julius is like, "Does anybody know how to swim?" "Good. Swim. And the rest of you?" It says, "An arrest on planks or pieces of the ship. Oh, that lifeboat would have been handy here. And so it was that they were all brought safely to land. You get the scene. It's like you can swim, grab a hunk of wood, you know, whatever you can get to shore. But you see, Julius, number three, what do you find? You find favor even from non-Christians. Julius nixed this plan of killing all the prisoners because of his respect for Paul.
28:16-28:20
Everyone made it just as God promised.
28:21-28:25
Wasn't the smoothest landing, but everyone made it just as God promised.
28:27-28:35
God is in control, not just over His people, but over everyone.
28:37-28:58
You see here, God used Paul's testimony, his confidence in God's promises, his bold leadership in the face of disaster, his thankfulness despite the circumstances, his faith in God, and his faithfulness to boldly hold on to his convictions to get favor from Julius.
28:58-29:04
In other words, jot this down, your testimony can make all the difference.
29:07-29:10
Your testimony can make all the difference.
29:13-29:15
Your testimony can make all the difference.
29:15-29:16
Are there problems in your marriage?
29:19-29:34
Well, if you nag, or you become detached, or you use cutting words, try to get under your spouse's skin, you're not going to get any favor from your spouse that way.
29:34-29:35
It's just not gonna happen.
29:38-29:50
You have problems at work, if you just phone it in, like, "You know what, I hate my job, "I'm sick of it, my boss stinks," or whatever, and I'm just bare minimum to get by, I'm just gonna phone it in.
29:53-29:59
Or you become known as the complainer, you're not going to win any favor from your boss.
30:01-30:27
But, but if you work hard, Despite what anyone else is doing at work, at home, if you would seek to bless and to build up instead of tearing down, if you would display a positive confidence in your God, you're going to find that when things get critical, you're going to have favor from those affected by your testimony.
30:27-30:29
That's exactly what happened to Paul.
30:31-30:40
So you're either in one now, We're going to be in one soon, but eventually we all find ourselves in situations that are out of our control.
30:43-30:46
And like it or not, people are watching you.
30:48-30:54
This faith that you say you have, do you want to know what people are wondering about your faith?
30:55-30:56
They want to know, does it work?
30:58-30:58
Does it work?
30:59-31:01
Oh, you believe in Jesus, you go to church, wonderful.
31:02-31:06
"When the crisis hits, "when the out of control circumstances hit," that's what they're looking.
31:07-31:07
Okay, does it work?
31:08-31:10
How's that Jesus thing working for you now?
31:12-31:15
You say that you believe that God is in control.
31:15-31:16
Well, do people see that from you?
31:18-31:21
Do they see that you live your life as if there is no plan B?
31:22-31:23
Like, look, I'm trusting God no matter what.
31:25-31:26
No matter how things look, I'm gonna trust God.
31:27-31:29
You realize how bad this situation is getting.
31:29-31:33
I see how bad it looks, but I'm still gonna trust God.
31:34-31:35
That's fearless faith.
31:37-31:39
Do they see thankfulness from you?
31:41-31:51
Like, wow, you'd never guess that he was going through such a terrible ordeal right now because he's just constantly thanking God for the things that he's finding good in his life.
31:53-31:56
The bottom line is, do they see a testimony that's going to inspire them?
31:58-32:01
Do they see a testimony that says, man, I wanna know his God?
32:02-32:11
Or are they thinking, "Man, whatever his religious deal is, I want no part of that." People are watching you.
32:12-32:31
When things seem at their worst, when life seems out of control, sometimes I can almost hear - it's those moments that the Lord in that still small voice by His Holy Spirit, I can hear Him say, Okay, do you trust me?
32:32-32:33
Do you trust me?
32:34-32:35
Do you trust him?
32:37-32:42
Do you believe that God is still in control, even when everything else slips out of control?
32:43-32:43
Let's pray.
32:45-32:53
Father in heaven, we thank you for this incredible story.
32:55-33:03
You are in every word, You're in every syllable of this story, even though you're working behind the scenes.
33:04-33:06
And that's how it is in our lives too, Father.
33:08-33:22
And I just pray for my brothers and sisters here, God, because there's, God, as I said earlier, I know there's a whole lot of out-of-control situations that people are facing, and there's probably a whole lot that I don't know about.
33:25-33:29
Father, we want to have a fearless faith.
33:31-33:37
Worrying, being anxious, it's not gonna do us any good.
33:38-33:44
We've run out of resources when we should have turned to you first, in the first place.
33:44-33:50
Father, I pray that you would bring us to that place on our knees before you where we say, God, we trust you.
33:52-34:01
You have made some very clear promises in Your Word, and God, everything looks like it's going the other direction, but I will trust You.
34:03-34:06
Father, let us be people who don't have plan B.
34:07-34:11
You are, you are plan A.
34:13-34:18
Father, let us be people who constantly seek things to be thankful for, no matter how rotten things look.
34:18-34:21
Let us be people who are thankful.
34:21-34:26
And Father, let our testimony be contagious.
34:27-34:33
Let our testimony even win favor from people who don't yet know You.
34:35-34:52
Father, we thank You that You have never called us to take control of our situation, but instead have commanded us to trust You in any situation, knowing that You are in complete control.
34:52-34:55
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 27:27-44
Why is praying and trusting God often the "last resort" - even for many Christians? Why do we find it so hard to wait and trust, when things are out of control?
If you are going through a trial right now, what is one thing you can be thankful for (be specific)?
What was your big "take-away" from the passage this week?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.