Anchors in the Storm

INTRODUCTION

Good Morning CrossPointe

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for worshipping together

Thank you to AD for preaching last week.

Background & Good Friday Service

Good Friday Service

We began going through the book of Acts in September of last year and next week will be our last.

We’ve seen God promise then fulfill his promises to 1) empower the disciples for proclamation of the gospel among all peoples (1:8) , 2) draw people to himself from all backgrounds (18:10), and 3) to build his church (2:41-47).

Though the church is in different locations and sometimes numerous churches in one city - we know that we are part of one family, one church, under the leadership of one Lord - Jesus.

It is one thing to know this but it is another step to act on this knowledge.

On Tuesday, our worship director and myself had lunch with the pastors at Viva Church after they invited me to preach at their Good Friday service.

I really enjoyed our time with them and am excited for this opportunity to remember Jesus’ death together together with 3 different churches gathering together.

I encourage you to join us for this special service. It will be a bit different from what you are used to here and that is a good thing.

PRAYER

Background

We will be in Acts 27

Question: Have you ever felt like you’ve messed up in a such a way that God will abandon you?

Maybe these feelings are based on something you’ve done

Maybe its because of horrific sins committed against you

Regardless, I’ve talked with people who feel like they are some how abandoned by God

Maybe he just doesn’t care because you consider yourself insignificant

Maybe it’s because of things you’ve done in your past or sins that were commited against you.

This morning, my prayer is that you walk away with

A story within a larger story -

Do something a bit different

Rather then reading the story and then re-walking through the passage, let’s just go through the passage together slowly

RETELL THEIR STORY

Goal with Great difficulty

Winds were against us

Remember though, , The Lord stood before Paul saying, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

Even though God was leading Paul to Rome, there was difficulty along the way

How do we understand the open door and closed mentality of knowing God’s will?

Is it really a closed door? Did God not want him in Rome?

Sometimes hardships are just part of the journey and we don’t always know why BUT sometimes the hardships we face is because of our own sin and disobedience or that of others.

- Paul says the spirit blocked him - we don’t know exactly know HOW the spirit blocked him.

Not just circumstances alone but need discernment.

Disobedience

Don’t go, storm is coming

Julius decided to listen to the pilot and owner of the boat rather than the prisoner.

Can we really blame him though?

If you were in charge of a prisoner and just had a rough experience at see, who would you trust - the prisoner in chains, or the experienced pilot?

Judgement

The wind blew gently

See Paul, the pilot knows better - let’s set sail - what does his know

Storm arrives

Soon, the storm arrives

Northeasterner - these are extremely dangerous in this area because it’s when opposite air currents meet, causing a sudden violent storm.

Pulling them out to sea, they try to fight against it but the wind is too strong

They try to save themselves, throwing things overboard,

They bound ropes around the hull of the ship hoping to hold it together.

They dropped archor or the mainsail hoping to slow the drift

“jettison the cargo” - throwing cargo overboard, wheat (food) or whatever they were most likely being paid to transport

“ship’s tackle overboard” - one commentary said this may have been the beam that supports the mainsail

But their efforts have no impact and the internal fear becomes external darkness as the sun, moon, and stars and blotted out by darkness for several days

This leads to one conclusion - all hope is gone

The prisoner was right - some of us, and probably all of us are going to die.

Now they have no food because they threw it overboard

Paul stands up - his first words - “I told you so...”

God - to whom I belong

Mercy of God

Paul stands up - his first words - “I told you so...”

God is about to show them mercy - “not giving them the punishment they deserve”

God is with us (God is Present)

“This very night and angel of God stood before me...”

angel spoke

“The God to whom I belong”

Identity here

Paul is a child of God

Purposes, cannot be thwarted by our disobedience

“You must stand before Ceasar” - This was God’s purpose all along

The sins and disobedience of others cannot thrwart the purposes of God.

Let this truth sink in for a moment -

God has a purpose for you life, from the beginning of time he has prepared good works for you to walk in.

Your past, present, and future failures - sin and disobedience - cannot thwart (avoid) the purposes of God

AND - the sin and disobedience of others can not thwart the purposes of God in your life.

Salvation

You will be saved

Take heart

“all were brought safely to land.”

God in his mercy, chose to save the very people who chose to listen the “wise men” (pilot) instead of the man of God. People who tried to save themselves rather than looking to God. People who even after they were saved would look to kill Paul.

This is the mercy of our God

RETELL OUR STORY

God’s Goal

Creation (,) - created the heavens and the earth and said they were good. even now God’s creation display the invisible attributes of God. says that God created Adam and Eve in his image - the reflect his glory.

This is the purpose of God - that mankind would glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Disobedience

In the same way that Julius did not listen to Paul, also - Adam and Eve did not listen to God

God said - don’t eat from this one tree in orchard of trees. You know what they did - they disobeyed God

Can you relate

“for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Creation - Mandates

Judgement

“the wages of sin is death”

Physical death - separation of body and spirit

Spiritual death - separation of spirit from God

So what do we do - We try to save ourselves - Like the people on the boat

Like the people on the boat

Tie the boat together - pull ourselves up by the boatstraps

Try harder

Trow things overboard - if I stop sinning in this way, if I eat certain foods or follow certain holidays and not others.

Maybe if I’m more religious and go to church, stop cussing, stop drinking,

We can go and go but we cannot escape the closing darkness - the reality that imperfection cannot survive the presence of perfect. Darkness cannot exist in the presence of unimaginable light.

God’s wrath cannot not be avoided by human effort

Mercy of God

We need mercy - we need to not be given what we deserve.

We need to come to the end of ourselves like these sailors “all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.”

Have you ever come to this place?

The place of spiritual and emotional exhaustion and said to God, “I’m done”

I’m done trying

I’m done fighting

I’m done trying to save myself.

If I perish, I perish but my only hope is for God to save me now.

It’s here that we discover

God is present with us in the darkness and the storm

Our sins have not cause him to abandon us

The circumstances we got ourselves into has not caused him to abandon us.

God is faithful to his purposes

God created us to reflect his glory so we could enjoy him forever

Disobedience broke this purpose

God is faithful to restore - at great cost to himself.

God Saves- he is our rescuer

God love for his creation compelled him to give us Jesus as a substitute, meaning God punished Jesus for our disobedience.

So that whoever believes on Jesus will be saved

Saved in Life - Through Jesus’ death (spiritual death)

Saved for Eternity - Through Jesus’ resurrection (physical death)

Present - he did not abandon but sent his sonPurposeEither in pieces

Or on a ship

Ultimate purpose: God is Salvation

Ultimate and final salvation

This doesn’t mean everything goes well - look at Paul

CONCLUSION

Believe in Jesus

stop trying to save yourself

Remember

Sin

Our sin or that of others.

Mercy

God does not abandon us in our pain and hurts

He is present and sends his son as our rescuer

Hope

In this Life - Jesus’ Death

For Eternity - Jesus’ Resurrection

God is Present

God is Faithful

God is Merciful

FAMILY UPDATE

1st Quarter Goals

Spiritual Health - build and live out a healthy, grace-filled understanding of what it means to be disciples who make disciples

Elders Retreat, We Are The Church Series, Partnership Renewals

Deeper Community - grow in our experience and expressions of what it means to be the church outside of Sunday mornings

Church Picnic, Women’s Gatherings, Community Groups

Serving Others - expand our personal and congregational engagement inside and outside the church.

Missions Team, School, Children’s Home, Volunteers

Beautification Day - April 22 - hoping for 6 volunteers and also in need of hardy trees or shrubs

Finances

Budgeted Goal: $84,000

Actual Donations: $69,257 (diff of $14,743)

Actual Spending: $62,178 but our March books don’t official close until Wednesday

Upcoming Quarter

Leadership - finalize our elder search and our definition and installment of deacons

This has lingered and we want to bring closure.

We have actively met with different men in our elder process. These men need to weigh if now is the right time to step into the additional responsibility so we are continuing this process and hope to have it concluded this quarter.

I also help off on installing deacons because in the past we called all ministry leaders and all community group leaders deacon. We needed time to reconsider if this is the best application of the biblical definition of deacons. This has lingered and we plan on bring closure to this area as well.

Discipleship - invite a larger group to join the elders in exploring how we will live out our mission statement of becoming disciples who make disciples

The elders spent the last quarter solidifying our core convictions surrounding how we best live out the mission of becoming disciples who make disciples.

Starting this trimester we plan to invite additional people into this conversation with the desire to try some new things this fall.

What About Me - Incorporating people’s skills and gifts into the life of our church’s celebration, ministry, and service.

Arts - expressing truths from Ecclesiastes in various artistic expressions (spoken word, drawing/painting/ poetry, etc)

Service - people are serving in our community (inside and outside the church) in some creative and meaningful ways. We want to celebrate and connect others to these opportunities through stories. I believe we are a story-formed people...

Ministry - Over the years, I heard expressed desires of people who long to have use their gifts in ways that may not currently exist at CrossPointe. I’ve heard a desire for a men’s gathering, support for women who have suffered sexual abuse, support for those with mental illness or families memebers who care for those with a mental illness.

We want to have intentional conversations to consider these as we work with the group of people to discern how we best live out becoming disciples who make disciples.

This is an important quarter - please be praying with and for us. Join the movement.