Help for the Hard Storms of Life - Part 2

The Book of Acts - Part 90

Acts 27:20-44

(Initial reading vs. 20-29)

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - July 12, 2015

*I've been in a few bad storms. In 1982, I was flying to Korea to help negotiate a contract for the Air Force. While we were out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we went through a terrible storm. I looked out the window, and the wings of that 747 were flapping like a bird.

*It was so rough, that the stewardess had to sit down in the aisle. And let me tell you, she was scared! My rule of thumb on an airplane is this: If the stewardess is happy, you're fine. But if your stewardess is scared, you've got a problem.

*Storms. Most of the worst storms we'll face in life won't have anything to do with the weather. And someday, you will find yourself in a storm just as serious as Paul faced here. What are we supposed to do?

*As we looked into God's Word last time, we saw 3 strategies:

-Try to miss the storms.

-Try to manage the storms.

-And trust God to take us through the storms.

*Now as we finish this chapter, we can get more insight from God's Word. Here's what to do in the storms.

1. First: Reemphasize your relationship with the Lord.

*Who am I? How do we define ourselves? There are a lot of ways to answer that question. But if we are Christians, that is the most important thing about us. And it's got to be the central focus of our lives, especially when we are in the storms.

*That's why in vs. 20-25, Paul defined his life by his relationship to God:

20. Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up.

21. But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss.

22. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.

23. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve,

24. saying, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.'

25. Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me.

*Here Paul defined himself with 3 simple statements. In vs. 23 he said, "I belong to God," and "I serve God." Then in vs. 25 Paul said, "I believe God." Paul emphasized and reemphasized his relationship with the Lord.

*And what a great definition of life for the believer! "I belong to God." "I serve God." "I believe God." Let that be the definition of your life, especially in the storms.

2. When you are in the storms, reemphasize your relationship with the Lord. Also be persistent in your prayers.

*We should never give up on God! Things seemed to go from bad to worse in vs. 27-29. It was a long, dark time, but the believers prayed through.

*Luke tells us:

27. But when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land.

28. And they took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be fifteen fathoms.

29. Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come.

*They kept on praying and so should we. George Mueller certainly did. Born in 1805, George Mueller was one of the greatest prayer warriors of all time. He kept an amazing prayer journal over his long life that recorded 50,000 answers to prayer!

*Dr. A. T. Pierson talked with George Mueller shortly before he died in 1898. Dr. Pierson asked George if any of his prayers had not been answered. George replied that for 62 years he had prayed for two men who were still not saved.

*Pierson asked: "Do you expect God to convert them?" George replied, "Certainly. Do you suppose that God would put upon His child for 62 years the burden of two souls if He had not purpose of their salvation? I shall certainly meet them in Heaven."

*After George Mueller died, Dr. Pierson was preaching in Bristol, England, and he told about that conversation. After church was over, a lady came up to Dr. Pierson and said, "One of those men was my uncle. He was saved before he died a few weeks ago." The other man lived in Dublin, and he was also won to the Lord. (1)

*George Mueller never gave up praying for those men. And we should never give up on our prayers.

3. When you are in the storms, be persistent in your prayers. And pursue God's plan for your life.

*God has a purpose and plan for all of our lives. Sometimes His plan takes us through storms, and sometimes His plan is hard to understand. For example, in vs. 30-32, the Lord had some unexpected conditions for survival of the passengers and crew:

30. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow,

31. Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.''

32. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off.

*In vs. 31, Paul told those soldiers that they were not going to make it unless the sailors stayed with the ship. That seems like a strange thing for Paul to say. How did he Paul know that for sure? And how did he know the sailors were trying to get away? No doubt, the Holy Spirit told Paul.

*And maybe the soldiers didn't understand what was going on. But once they heard from Paul about God's plan for their rescue, they were determined to follow God's plan.

*Church: That's the way we need to be. Please listen to this testimony from Paul Johnson. He was a very successful builder of Holiday Inn Motels and rehab hospitals.

*Paul said, "When I was 40 years old, I worked in a sawmill. One morning the boss told me, 'You're fired!' Depressed and discouraged, I felt like the world had caved in on me. It was during the Depression and my wife and I greatly needed the small wages I had been earning. When I went home, I told my wife what happened. She asked, 'What are you going to do now?' I replied, 'I'm going to mortgage our little home, and go into the building business.'

*My first venture was the construction of two small buildings, and within five years I was a multi-millionaire! Today, if I could find the man who fired me, I would sincerely thank him for what he did. At the time it happened, I didn't understand why I was fired. Later, I saw that it was God's unerring and wondrous plan." (2)

*God has a great purpose and plan for our lives. Of course, most of the time it won't involve God's people getting rich, but as the Lord reveals His plan to us, we need to keep following Him, even in the storms.

4. When you are in the storms, pursue God's plan for your life. And make an effort to encourage other people.

*Christians: God wants us to be encouragers. We need to be intentional about it until it becomes a good habit in our life. Paul was a great encourager twice in this Scripture. First listen to his encouraging words back up in vs. 21-25:

21. But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss.

22. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.

23. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve,

24. saying, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.'

25. Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me.

*"Take heart, men!" Paul was an encourager. Then Paul gave more encouragement in vs. 33-38:

33. And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, "Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing.

34. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.''

35. And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat.

36. Then they were all encouraged, and also took food themselves.

37. And in all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship.

38. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.

*God wants us to be encouraged, and He wants us to encourage everyone elar we can.

*In November of 1948, Time Magazine told a story of encouragement. It happened March 23, 1945, during one of the last major offensives of World War II. General Dwight Eisenhower was walking near the Rhine River and fell into step beside a young infantryman.

*The young soldier seemed depressed, and Ike asked, "How are you feeling, son?" The young man replied, "General, I'm awful nervous. I don't feel so good." Eisenhower then said, "Well, you and I are a good pair then, because I'm nervous too. Maybe if we just walk along together to the river, we'll be good for each other." (3)

*No barking orders -- No special advice. But what an encouragement to that young soldier! God surely wants to encourage us. And He is surely going to put us in situations where we can encourage other people.

5. So when you are in the storms, make an effort to encourage other people. And rely on God's ability to rescue you.

*Our God has infinite, amazing ability. Ephesians 3:20 tells us that He is "able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." So as believers, we should expect help from unexpected places.

*This is one of the things we see happening in vs. 39-44:

39. Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land; but they observed a bay with a beach, onto which they planned to run the ship if possible.

40. And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosing the rudder ropes; and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore.

41. But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves.

42. Now the soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape.

43. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land,

44. and the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land.

*God has all kinds of ways of helping His people! Here God used the centurion to keep the soldiers from killing Paul. But God also used something unexpected: the broken pieces of the ship.

*Some of those 276 men didn't know how to swim, but back up in vs. 24, God promised that all of them would be saved. So, when the time came, God made sure that the ship would be broken up. That way the non-swimmers had something to grab on to and float to shore.

*We should expect help from unexpected places, because God has countless ways to help His people. But the best way He ever helped anybody was through the cross of Jesus Christ!

*Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. And I like what Paul said about the power of the Lord's resurrection in Ephesians 1:15-21.

15. Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

16. do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:

17. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

18. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

19. and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power

20. which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

21. far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

*Jesus Christ has amazing ability to help us because He is risen from the dead! Years ago there was a missionary in the country of Turkey. Naturally, he was having great difficulty getting those Muslims to understand why they should believe in Jesus.

*One day he was traveling with some Muslims along a road that had no road signs. Eventually, they came to a fork in the road. Not having a map with them, they did not know which road to take to get to their destination.

*Right beside the road was a tomb of a Muslim religious leader. While they were trying to decide which road to take, the missionary said, "Let's go over to the tomb and ask the 'holy man.'"

*"But the man is dead!" his Muslim friends protested. "He cannot give us any information! See that house over there? Let's go there and ask someone who is alive!" "You are quite right," said the missionary.

*Then the missionary added great spiritual insight, when he said: "Never forget that Mohammed is also dead. He can give you no help or information. In him there is no life. But Jesus Christ is alive! And He will not only give you eternal life if you will trust him as your Lord and Savior. Jesus will give you the power you need for daily living!"

*Pastor Freddie Fritz told that story. Then Pastor Freddie said, "I have never been to Medina, but if I was to go to Medina, I would find a grave in which Mohammed is buried. I have, however, been to Israel. I have seen the graves of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All their bodies are in those graves. I have been to the grave of King David. His body is still in that grave. I have also been to the grave of Jesus Christ. And it is empty, I tell you! And because the tomb is empty, we can not only have forgiveness of sins, but also power to help us in our daily lives." (4)

*Yes! Jesus will give us the power we need for daily living, even when we go through the storms of life.

CONCLUSION:

*The truth is that some storms just can't be avoided. But God shows us what to do:

-Reemphasize your relationship with the Lord.

-Be persistent in your prayers.

-Pursue God's plan for your life.

-Make an effort to encourage other people.

-And rely on God's ability to rescue you.

*May God help us to do all these things when we go through the storms of life. Would you please bow for prayer.

(1) Adapted from -- A. T. Pierson Source: Signs of the Times, Copyright Pacific Press, December 3, 1912 - Source: 05302004 email from sermons.com

(2) SermonCentral sermon "Guidance" by Ewen Huffman - Psalm 32:6-9; 10 - July 2005

(3) Original source: www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853471,00.html (KERUX ILLUSTRATION COLLECTION - ID Number: 1891 - SOURCE: Reader's Digest - TITLE: The Fine Art Of Encouragement - AUTHOR: Mark Littleton - DATE: 1111989)

(4) SermonCentral sermon “Three Benefits of Jesus’ Resurrection” by Freddy Fritz - Matthew 28:1-10