Riding On Divine Assignment

Welcome, and thank you for joining this message by David Entry at Carish Church. In this season of Great Awakening, may God pour out His Spirit through His Word, refreshing! your heart and awakening you to His will.

Acts 27, 27. But when the 14th night was come, as we were dripping up and down in Adria, about midnight, the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country, and sounded and found it twenty fathoms.

And when they had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stand and wished for the day.

And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boats in the ship, and had a color as though they would have cast anchors out of the ship, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.

Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, this day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.

Wherefore, I pray you to take some meat, for this is for your health. For there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you.

And when he had that spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat.

Then were they all of good cheer. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea.

And when it was day, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.

And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves onto the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoisted up the male sails to the wind and made towards shore.

When falling into the space where two seas met, they ran the ship aground. And the four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable.

But the hinder part was broken with the violence of the wave. And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape.

And a centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to the land.

And the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of ship. And so it came to pass that they escape all safe to land. Here ends the reading of God's word.

Father, we thank you for giving us the privilege to get into your word again. We pray that as we get into your word, grace will get into us. And we'll be built up for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Hallelujah. So we saw how some four major aspects or I can call it chapters of this journey. The first one was the sailing.

And then we saw the second one was the storm. Okay. So the sails, the storm came and then there was a shipwreck. And after the shipwreck, we can also notice that they were safe.

So the sailing, the storm, the shipwreck and salvation, they were safe. They all safely landed. What we saw last week is that Paul told them that he should have listened to me.

Why? And not to have sailed from crates. Now, verse 20 is very significant. It says that after they've done all they could to save themselves and all hope was gone.

That's a very serious one. Now, when did that sun or star appear for many days and no small tempest beat on us? In other words, the tempest, the waves were heavy.

Beating on them, no sun, no star, pitch darkness. All hope that we would be safe was finally given up. So, they gave it up. They gave up. They know that now we are.

Let's get ready to die. There's no hope. And God waited for them to get to their wit's end. And then, poof! Look at the next verse. Once they got to their wit's end, but after a long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, Guys, you should have listened to me and not to have sailed.

But that's not why he was talking. He was not talking, referring just to stay on the past. The past is past. Now, we are in this situation. What are we going to do? But he said, I want to talk to you. Learn to listen to me.

That's why he made reference to first instruction they didn't follow. Now, he's about to give another instruction. That's why I made reference to the previous one. He said, You should have listened to me and not to have sailed from crates and suffer all this loss.

Then, go to the next verse. He said, And now I urge you to take heart. After all hope of being saved was gone. He said, I urge you to take heart. Chill out. Why? Who are you?

For there will be no loss of life amongst you, but only of the ship. Really? Who are you? What do you know? What scientific apparatus are you going to use to determine that?

He said, Don't forget. I spoke to you the first time, and I'm speaking to you again. He said, There will be no loss of life amongst you. So, no one will die. Watch this. He was talking to people who had given up.

All hope of being saved was lost. Then he tells them there will not be any loss of life. Why are you saying that? He said, For there stood by me this night an angel of God, whom I belong and whom I serve.

That angel spoke to me. The angel stood by me. You didn't see. You don't have to see him. I'm telling you I'm a man of God. That's why I gave you the first instruction. Just so you will be aware. I'm not speaking with my own authority.

I'm speaking from superior authority. And I'm telling you with higher divine intelligence, there will not be any loss of life. So, chill out. He said, The angel of the Lord, whom I belong to and I serve, stood by me saying, Watch this.

So, this was now. He was reporting. It's a reported speech. He was reporting to the people what the angels said to him. I did not mean for that. We wouldn't have actually known. But he was now telling them what the angels.

So, we are not being told what the angels told him. He was telling them what the angels told him. He said, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar.

That means you are definitely going to Rome. Because Caesar is not coming on board here. And he said, You must be brought. You are being taken somewhere.

He said, You must be brought before Caesar. And indeed, watch this. Indeed, God, the one you serve, you belong to, has not taken the interest only in you. He's also taking interest in everybody on your team.

He said, For God has granted you all those who sail with you. So, if you are going to Caesar, then they will also get there. That's what he's trying to say.

For God. Paul was telling them, God told me, I'm in charge of all of you. The angel told me, God has granted me, all of you, you are in my custody.

Even though we are in the custody of the centurion, I'm including the centurion, you are all in my custody. And then look at the next verse. He says, Therefore, take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me.

Wow. He said, Don't worry. Why shouldn't you be worried? Because I believe God. What has been told me, it's going to be like that. This is a man of authority. This is, when there's no hope, all hope was gone.

He stood to speak because he had a word from God. Not just a word from God. A word came from God because he belonged to God and he served God.

And so, the angel was sent to speak to not them, to him. But part of what was told him was that all the people who were journeying with him were his. Now, don't forget this.

This is a very significant statement and we'll come to that. So, that means that it gave Paul audience to the people. It gave him the right to speak to them.

And if you give Paul the right to speak, there's only one thing you are going to hear. Who's going to tell them that Jesus died? I believe that majority of them on the boat got saved.

So, you see, even though it wasn't recorded, if you read in between the line, what they encountered, it's like there's no hope for life again.

And Paul said, you will live. I'm sure they'll be telling Paul, Paul, we owe you our lives. Paul, we owe you our lives. Paul, I owe my life to you. What do you want me to do? I owe you my life. That's why I say, if anybody feels like committing suicide, just give your life to Jesus.

Because the life you don't like, you recycle it and do something better with it. We preachers like me, we are in the recycling business. Oh, yes.

I do business. I'm into recycling business. We recycle lives. How many of you, since you met Jesus, you can tell your life has really been transformed and reformed and recycled?

How many of you? Me, I met Jesus and my life has never been the same again. People who haven't met Jesus, they don't know. That when you come, it doesn't matter how worse it is. God is the only one who can take the mess out of your life and make a message out of it.

Hallelujah! So Paul said, be of good cheer. And then he told them that, let's look at the next verse. And then he says in the verse 26, he said, how be it we must be cast upon a certain island?

I think NIV or something says that we must run aground. We must run aground. We will be somewhere. He said, we must be cast on a certain island.

No Rome. Because where they were was very far from Rome. So they started their journey from Caesarea. They went to Sidon. And then they sailed around the coasts behind Cyprus and then came to Lycia or Myra in Lycia.

Right. And then from there, they went to Rhodes and then came to Samoni. And in Samoni, they came to Lycia and to a place called Fair Heavens in Crete.

And that is where, when they were supposed to sail, they found out that the winter was coming. And Fair Heaven is not a good place to winter. If you winter there, it can be quite harsh.

But it would have been better if they had. So Paul told them, don't sail from here. But none of them wanted to. And then when the south wind blew softly, they felt like they have achieved their aim.

So they set sail. Not long after that. So from Fair Heavens, they were setting sail and going all the way to Rome. And then when they set off from Fair Heavens, not long after, they had east wind called Eurocladon blew upon them and they lost control.

So between Crete all the way to Malta, they didn't know where they were. This is a long journey. This is a very long journey.

It's farther down from here to Scotland. Very long journey. And they were on the high seas and being tossed to and fro for 14 days.

14 days. They thought they are dead men. 276 people on this boat. So it got west around the Adriatic Sea.

All this area. So they actually didn't know where they were going. And then gradually. And then gradually. And I believe around somewhere here, Paul spoke to them. And Paul said, we must run a groundsham island.

How did he know there's an island? He said, don't worry, I'm in charge. We are going to land on an island. And so the verse 27 says that. But when the 14th night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria.

That's the Adriatic Sea I showed you. That's a very big space. Big area. About midnight, the shipmen deemed that they drew near some country. This is very important.

It's night. They couldn't see anything. But the shipmen, they knew that we are getting closer to land. How did they know? Because they are seamen. They are sailors. They knew it. Because sometimes it's believed that you hear the waves at the shore.

You see, when the waves are hitting the shore, you might hear a different sound. So they felt like, hmm, it looks like there's land around somewhere. We are getting close to a land. So what they did was, they had to now do sounding.

Sounding. The NIV uses the word sounding. So they took soundings and found out. So now soundings is, they will drop something into the sea. To see the depth of the sea.

The deeper it is, that means you are farther from ground. The shallower it is, that means you are getting closer to the ground. And Bible says that the sailors took sounding, in the verse 28, they took sounding and found out, the new king is, they found out it was 20 fathoms.

20 fathoms is about 120 feet deep. And then a short time later, they took soundings again and found out it was 90.

So that tells you that they are getting closer to land. Do you understand it? This is a very interesting description given. Very accurate. They are getting closer to land. The verse 29 says that, Then, fearing less we should run aground on some rocks.

Because we are getting closer to land. That means that rocks might be showing up. And we don't want to run into a rock. Because that would be disastrous. So fearing that we should run aground on some rocks, they dropped four anchors to slow down the movement of the ship.

And then they also brought up and prayed the day to come. The next verse says that, verse 30 says that, And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they are let down there, skip into the sea, under the pretense of putting out anchors from the prowl.

So they were pretending they were fixing something. They were trying to lower their dinghy, their boat, live boat, brought them down to run away and leave their people. And we need the sailors on board.

So they are going to run away. And Paul said to the centurion, Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. He was telling the centurion, you can't be saved.

You, even you, your life. So your life is at stake. And they will listen to Paul now. And so the centurion commanded the soldiers, and they cut off all the ropes that were holding the dive boats or the dinghy.

And the boats drifted off so the guys couldn't escape. And then as they was about to drown, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, Today is the 14th day.

You have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing. Therefore, I urge you to take nourishment. For this is for your survival.

Because you are supposed to live. If you don't eat, you are dying. They hadn't eaten because of... You know how many of you know when you are so stressed, you lose appetite? Some people who overeat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When there is some serious crisis, serious crisis in your life, you lose appetite. Not just that.

It's also believed that they were, some of them were seasick, nausea, and they couldn't just eat. But you can imagine, 14 days they hadn't eaten. They were not fasting.

It's just different from fasting. They hadn't eaten for 14 days. They must be very weak. After lifting things and throwing them overboard, they must be very weak. And Paul stood up and he told them that, Guys, days don't eat.

14 days you have been eating. Eat something. Just for your strength, for your survival. King James said for your health. Food is necessary for health. Food is necessary for health.

There's what prayer can do. And there's what food can do. There's what an angel can do, that you will be saved.

But after the angel has spoken, better take your medicine. You see, how many of you know medicine is a type of food? Why did I bring you medicine? Because some of us, you are believing God for your healing, that God has healed you.

And you stop taking your medicine. Meanwhile, the pain is there. And you are not getting stronger. So keep taking the medicine and let the angel of the Lord keep doing his job.

It's very important. Paul, after the angel appeared, Paul himself had to eat. Paul, can you imagine Paul? He himself, it's your Bible. He charged them to eat.

So when he told them to eat, look at what he did the next time. He said that, and when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all.

They knew that this one was a man of gold. He didn't hide his relationship with God. He, when you go to a restaurant, don't be afraid to provide your food. Don't be afraid.

Sometimes when you forget and you finish the status and the meat comes, bless the food, including the one that has already entered your tummy. It's so nice for a Christian couple or Christian friends to go to a restaurant or a Christian man or woman go to a restaurant and they bring their food and you say, I bless this food.

I bless this food. Pray about it. Don't be afraid and eat it because you don't have a choice. Just eat it. But give thanks. The Bible says the food is sanctified.

Yes. With prayer and the word of God. It's first Timothy he said, it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Word of God and prayer. It sanctifies food.

It sanctifies food. Boom! When he had taken it, behaved just like Jesus. He took the food and gave thanks to God before all of them.

And after he had given thanks to God, when he had broken it, he began to eat it. He began to eat it when he had given thanks. When you look at Matthew 15, verse 36, just the same thing Jesus did in Matthew.

He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to his disciples and they gave it to the multitude. Seven loaves and fish. It fed thousands of people.

Why? Because what naturally that food couldn't do supernaturally after giving thanks and prayer. That's what I'm saying. I don't mean eat rough, but eat your best.

And if your best is not the best for your health at that material moment, your prayer can make a difference. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Because prayer and thanksgiving of our food has a way of activating a supernatural dimension. According to what we just saw in Matthew 15, 36, he says, give thanks and then he broke it and that supernatural dimension was activated.

Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm not saying you should go around eating everything at all. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that even the best restaurant you can eat, you are not in the kitchen. So Paul, after he had done that, he ate.

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 30 and 31. There's something about eating there. He said that, but if I partake with thanks, talking about going to eat food that has been sacrificed to idols, not sacrificed to idols, but maybe they chant all kinds of things.

But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of? For the food over which, giving thanks over the food changes the dynamics.

Look at the next verse. Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Make sure God is involved and it changes the dynamics.

Paul gave thanks before all of them and he ate. Watch this. After he had eaten, the people, look at the next verse, and they were all encouraged because they saw him eat.

they saw their pastor eat. They saw their leader eat. They saw the one in charge of them eating. And they believe the guy has met an angel. Look at the way he was.

I'm sure the way he was eating was even encouraging for them. Yeah. He was really eating. And it was encouraging for them. Bible said they were all encouraged and also took food themselves.

That's why sometimes you need to keep people who are godly in your company. Because in times of crisis, the way they react can keep you going. Yeah.

Can help your decisions. You make erratic decisions because you are connected to a man of God who is praying. You are connected to someone who believes your husband is a sound godly man.

Your wife is a sound godly woman. Your father is a godly man. Your mother is a godly woman. That alone gives you some encouragement that what the doctors just said, we can pray and change the matter.

Hallelujah. So, they were encouraged and they ate. And then, after they ate the rest of the food. Bible said they were all 276. After that, they threw and when they had eaten enough, they lightened the sheep and threw out the wheat.

Say the wheat. See, that wheat, that brought them into trouble. Eventually, they threw it out. They threw it out. They threw it out. That girl who took you out of church, that boy for whose sake you are backsliding, he is about to throw you out like wheat.

No, don't forget my ways. So, they threw overboard. Lighten your sheep. Lighten. I don't know who I'm prophesying to.

Lighten your sheep. Lighten your, tell somebody, lighten your sheep. God, the next stage you are going, you don't need all that weight. You don't need that weight.

Lighten your sheep. So, they lightened the sheep. Hallelujah. But there's one point, verse 34, I almost missed that to draw your attention to.

You need to see this. Wherefore, I pray you, take meat, eat some food, for this is for your health. Why? For there shall not an hair fall from your head.

You won't lose hair, even a hair. God can be that interested in every detail. God can be so interested in everything. In Luke chapter 21, verse 18, this is Jesus said, but not a hair of your head shall be lost.

That statement means you are going to be saved to the uttermost. Details. God is interested in the details of your life. Matthew chapter 10, verse 30, the same thing. It says that for the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Not counted. There's a difference between numbered and counted. Hair number one. So, if one strand of hair falls, God knows that hair number 322 has fallen.

Yes. That's how detailed God is when it comes to your life. All the hairs of your body are numbered. of your head.

Let's leave the head. Because the Bible says head, so I'll stay the head. Pastor, how about you? Yes. They are numbered.

Including those that have gone and come and then the beard are, they are all numbered. I might shave it, but God knows you just shaved hair, you cut off hair number 321.

He said, not a hair. That statement tells you the details to your salvation. 1 Samuel 1445, 2 Samuel 1411 said that not a hair of his hair will fall.

So, the same thing Paul was referring to them that none of you will lose even your hair. That tells you the extent to your salvation. Not the sheep, not the material things, but life will be protected because you are on board with me.

And then, so he encouraged them and they ate some food and they lightened the ship. Verse 39 says that and when it was they, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore into which they were minded if it were possible to trust him.

So, they saw a bay and then they targeted to go into that bay. If possible, they can land there. And so, the front of the ship went and stuck into the bay but the rear of the ship was broken into pieces by the storms.

So, that's the shipwreck. Paul said, I've suffered shipwreck three times. 2 Corinthians 11, 25. Three times I've suffered shipwreck, Paul. So, this wasn't the first time. So, they suffered shipwreck.

The first says that and the soldiers' council was to kill the prisoners because if a prisoner escapes under your watch, you have to pay for their punishment. So, you are in Acts chapter 12, 19, they killed the soldiers who were on guard when Peter was put in prison and he escaped.

So, that's the Roman system of government. So, the soldiers, instead of the prisoners escaping and we losing our lives, the prisoners should lose their lives and then we can save our lives, which makes mathematical sense.

So, they're about to kill the prisoners but the centurion wanting to keep his leader alive. I believe, I believe the centurion had been converted.

I believe Paul was his pastor. So, he wanted to protect his pastor. He wanted to protect his spiritual leader. So, he stopped them from doing, thank God.

You see, that's why we need people in power. Born again Christians, as some people are targeting the premiership, we are also going to believe God that this revival will begin to spread into power high places into the palace.

It will get to the palace. revival will get to the palace. That's why he said, Paul, you must appear before Caesar. You are going to the palace. Paul's life was for saving souls and preaching the gospel.

That's why he was on the ship, so that the angels said, I give them to you. God said, they are in your hands. That's why he was on the feet. So, he had a chance to preach the gospel to them. And that's not just that when they landed, the Bible says that after the shipwreck, they gave instructions, those of you can swim, swim.

But because they said, wait, no one will lose their life, it covered those who couldn't even swim. And those who couldn't swim did Miami style. Surfing.

They took surfing boards. They took surfing boards and they were able to surf and the broken pieces of the ship. Some used that to get to land. And the Bible said, I like the verse, they all escaped safely to land.

Hallelujah! They all escaped. This is what Paul said. They all escaped. All of them, the prisoners, they all escaped safely.

Next week you find out how after they have escaped, a snake said, Paul, you won't escape. But Paul said, I have a word from God. But I want to draw attention and when they escaped, they found that they didn't even know what they were.

They found that the place was called Melita or Malta. Modern day Malta. They found themselves in Malta. They found themselves in Malta. And the people received The Bible calls them the barbarians.

The barbarian is not uncivilized. In those days, if you don't speak Greek and you don't speak Latin, the Roman government or the Roman system sees you as a barbarian.

So it doesn't mean you are not civilized. Because your language is barbarian. That's how they're barbarian. They are speaking some gibberish. So the barbarians or those who spoke different language from Greek and Latin were so nice to them.

They received them. But next week you'll find out. I want to drive this in a bit! close. Next week you'll find out that they spent three months there and people were bringing their sick for Paul.

It was like a crusade. So you see, it looks like God wanted to save the people of Malta. He wanted to save the sailors, the prisoners, the soldiers, the centurions on the ship.

So Paul's life was not at stake. In spite of the storms he saw, his life was not at stake because he was riding on grace. He was riding on divine assignment.

Your life cannot be ended until your assignment on earth is finished. Let me put it this way, the way the great man of God put it, is that you are a man is immortalized until his assignment on earth is done.

Paul, as long as he had to go to you find later, even in Rome, many of the, because they chained him to a guard, a guard was taken care of all the guards, people in the palace have changed because of Paul.

So on his journey, you can imagine, in the ship, he got people born again. When they got to Malta, they got people born again. God, did he have to go through all this to the extent that he was even afraid, an angel had to come and tell him, don't be afraid.

You will find out next week that there was a point in time when they go on land, the Bible says he saw believers and he was encouraged. That means that discouragement will come through. The fact that you are discouraged doesn't mean God is not with you.

The fact that things are bad doesn't mean God is not with you. Sometimes things can be bad but all things work together good to them that are called. God is in charge.

It doesn't matter how long things are delayed. It doesn't matter how dark things look. It looks like you are in a cool sack but I came to let you know that if you are with God it is not a cool sack.

It might look like a cool sack but it is a runway. It's a runway for your takeoff because if God be for us who can be against that Romans 8 verse 28 said Paul had to go through all these things but I believe the main purpose of God was the saving of souls and sending of the message.

Don't be discouraged. Just avail yourself. Make yourself available that God if you can use anything Lord use me. If God can use a donkey to speak how much more you when he called Moses Moses said I can't speak I am not eloquent in that God doesn't need your ability he needs your availability he doesn't need your eloquence he needs your enlightenment in him once you are enlightened in God he can use you for amazing things and I came here to charge somebody make yourself available for God in the smallest and slightest way tell God God I am available to you use me like the storms so that he will push you into areas where he will do what he wants you to do if you are genuine towards him but it's always good to look out for what he is doing and align yourself to it and you will be the one who will benefit I believe that God has brought us this far for a time like this and your life will not be your life will not be put to shame his name will be glorified in your life his hand will be on you in spite of the storm

God is with you in spite of the difficulties God is your God in spite of the challenges God is on your side and you will be put to shame in the mighty name of Jesus so shall he be amen did you receive!

give Jesus praise hallelujah glory to Jesus hallelujah we're so glad you joined us for this message by David Entry we pray the word has inspired and strengthened you you can connect to David Entry on Instagram LinkedIn and other social platforms and you can listen to more messages on all major streaming platforms on the Karish Church app remember to like share and spread the blessing Thank you.