WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:31.439 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.280 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:15.359 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. I invite you just to bow your heads in prayer, please. 00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:27.840 Father, some of us this morning who are gathered, or those who are online joining us live or online downstream, 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:34.319 Father, some of us are having really good times. We're very healthy. Things are going very well for us. 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:42.399 And maybe our problem is lack of gratitude. And Father, you know that some who are here and some 00:01:42.399 --> 00:01:49.359 watching are going through very, very, very hard times. Maybe a season of profound sadness or sorrow, 00:01:50.639 --> 00:01:57.759 with bad news, not good news. And Father, here we come all together in different states of affairs to 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:04.560 together hear your word. And so we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would bring your word to each of 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:09.280 our hearts in our different situations and conditions, but that you would equally bring 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:16.159 your word deep into our heart, that your heart may form us, and that we might live with godly hope 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:23.200 in whatever situation we are in. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:32.879 Please be seated. It's a very common question for people to ask me. There's a Christian version of 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:39.039 the question and a question asked by those who wouldn't consider themselves Christians. And that 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:49.359 very common question is, why are these bad things happening to me? Why are these really bad things 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:54.960 happening to me? Because I'm a good person. And I'm a good person and these bad things shouldn't be 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:02.480 happening to me. And for people who are Christians, or maybe for those who do believe in a God, even if 00:03:02.480 --> 00:03:08.240 it's not the same God that Christians believe in, the form that we ask that question is, is why is God 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:14.400 allowing this? I don't understand why God is allowing this. I'm a good person. I don't know why God is allowing 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:20.640 something like this to happen to me. And it's usually asked not just because there's a very short-term 00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:24.400 hard thing that's happening, but because it's been something that's been happening to you for quite a 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:33.040 while. So the text that we're going to look at today has very deep wisdom in this particular, how to answer 00:03:33.040 --> 00:03:40.719 this particular question, how to live in light of this particular question. And it's in the context of a 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:46.400 story that a lot of us have our eyes glaze over because it's, you know, these unpronounceable 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:51.199 names and all of that type of stuff. So we're going to walk towards it. We're going to look at Acts 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:58.079 chapter 27. And one of the ways to help us to pause and actually dwell with Acts 27 so we can begin to 00:03:58.079 --> 00:04:04.000 hear how this speaks into this very profound human question about why are these bad things happening to 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:10.400 a good person like me? I'm going to divide it up into scenes or episodes as if we were doing an Amazon 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:20.720 or a Netflix series. And so if you turn in with your Bibles to me to Acts chapter 27, scene one or 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:27.920 episode one is travel setback. Travel setback. And here's how the story goes. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:34.560 And when it was decided that we should set sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:40.400 prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius. Now just sort of pause. What's just 00:04:40.400 --> 00:04:46.800 been happening is that Paul has spent over two years in criminal custody. He's innocent. Other than 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:52.080 the fact that he has a group of people who want to have him murdered, the authorities know that he's 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:58.399 innocent, but the authorities want to appease the murderous crowd. And so he's been forced to appeal 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:03.519 to have his court, his case tried by the highest court, which is going to be in Italy. And that's 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:10.399 now all been worked out. And so the authorities give him over. They're going to take him to Israel, 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:18.399 to Italy. And when it says here some other prisoners, those all would be prisoners who by the laws of that day 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:25.120 are, have been sentenced to death. Every single one of them would have been sentenced to death. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:30.239 But their death sentence isn't going to be carried out like by, you know, being beheaded or hung. 00:05:30.239 --> 00:05:38.319 They're going to transport them to Rome so they can die in the arena, to be either like eaten by a lion 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:46.159 or fight as a gladiator until they die. So that's how they're, to amuse the crowds in Rome, they're going to 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:51.280 go and be eaten by lions or killed by in battle. Those are the other people that Paul's traveling 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:56.400 with, like a really great travel group, right? Soldiers and these guys. But I remember I said, 00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:01.440 I'm calling this travel set, but what's the travel setback? Well, it comes up in what, in what isn't 00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:08.160 said here, but it comes up in verse two. So Paul is in Caesarea, it's a capital of a Roman province, 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:16.400 and there are ships that do sail from Caesarea right up to Rome. But when they get there, they 00:06:16.400 --> 00:06:21.840 find out that all of the ships for Rome have left and that there's none expected. So they're stuck. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:29.040 So to give you a sense of what's like involved with this, in 2017, I had the great privilege of being 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:35.280 invited by the SIM Missionary Organization to speak to all of their missionaries in Angola 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:39.519 at their week-long retreat and to also be able to do some other speaking while I was there. 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:45.199 And I really agonized over this. I recognized it as a great privilege. But just to be honest, 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:50.159 if I was to pick the top 50 places I'd like to visit in the world, Angola would not be on that list. 00:06:50.799 --> 00:06:55.839 In fact, I don't know if it would be on the top 80 places that I'd want to go to. Over a half of 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:58.159 Angola still has unexploded mines. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:10.240 They have boa constrictors and poisonous snakes. I have a snake phobia. It's a very, very poor country. 00:07:11.200 --> 00:07:17.600 They don't speak English. Like they don't, don't, don't, don't, don't speak English, period. In fact, 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:25.680 I really, I've had a profound, ever since I landed in Angola for the first time and the translator that 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:31.439 was supposed to meet me was late, I now have a new sympathy for immigrants who come to this Canada, 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:36.879 to this country, not speaking English. Because I, I come up to the officials and they speak to me. 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:43.600 I haven't a vaguest idea in the world what they just said to me. And I can't speak to them and they 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:47.280 can't speak to me. And there's this feeling of powerlessness. Anyway, that's not the point of 00:07:47.280 --> 00:07:51.120 the story. My point of it is this. So eventually I say, and of course we all know that missionary 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:55.920 agencies, how they deal with this is they say, well, just send our Learjet to Ottawa and we'll 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:01.680 fly you directly to Lubongo. Because where I'm going in Angola is, is where no tourists go. 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:08.879 And then to my horror, I discover this is how I'm going to have to get to Lubongo. I've been to Africa 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:12.960 before. And I thought, you know, it's not that, you know, if I flew from, you know, Ottawa to Amsterdam, 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:19.199 Amsterdam to Nairobi, like it's not a big deal, right? Well, to go to Lubongo, I had to fly from 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:26.159 Ottawa to Montreal, from Montreal to Frankfurt, from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 00:08:26.159 --> 00:08:33.759 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Vinduk, Namibia. And then in Vinduk, Namibia, I had to leave the airport, 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:38.559 travel to the complete other side of the city to get on a plane at a different airport, 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:44.799 for which I would then fly to a small little outpost in Namibia, right beside the Angolan border. 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:50.559 And then I took another flight from there to Lubongo. I get tired just telling you that. 00:08:52.319 --> 00:08:57.519 So these guys, they think, thinking, okay, we're going to go to Rome. There's ships from Caesarea to Rome, 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:04.639 all gone. Instead, what you're going to read now is a puddle jumper that goes along and makes like 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:09.439 a hundred stops, because they're now going to try to end up, they found that there's a ship that's 00:09:09.439 --> 00:09:12.879 going to take a hundred, not a hundred stops, you know what I mean, like lots and lots of stops, 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:17.919 including ones not named here, that will eventually get to a place where he's told there probably would 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:22.559 be a ship that will go to Italy. So that's what's happening here in verse two, with all these complicated 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:29.759 names. And embarking in a ship in Adramandium, which was about to sail to the ports, notice that, 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:33.759 along the coast of Asia. And they're not going to name all of them, that would be too long. 00:09:34.079 --> 00:09:40.639 We put to sea accompanied by Aristarchus, so Macedonia from Thessalonica. So Paul will be traveling 00:09:40.639 --> 00:09:46.399 with Luke and with Aristarchus. And the next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:51.359 gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for. And putting out to sea from there, we sailed under 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:56.080 the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. And when we had sailed across the open sea, 00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:03.759 along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. Boom. They don't tell you how many 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:06.879 days, this would have taken a while. They stopped at other ports, they don't mention them all, but they 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:16.639 finally come to a significant port where ships that will go all the way to Italy can be found. And so 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:22.639 there, and then there's travel relief. There is this really, really good news. What's the good news? 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:29.120 Look at verse six. Then the centurion found a ship of Alexandria saving, sailing for Italy and putting 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:35.360 us on, and put us on board. And you can just imagine Paul and the others going, oh yes, finally, no more 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:44.399 of all these little stops. Off we go to Italy. But then, that's scene two. Scene three is new travel 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:51.759 setbacks. It's like getting on a plane, and it's been delayed, and you get on the plane, and you sit 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:56.879 down, and you sit, and you sit, and you sit, and then they say there's this worrisome light in the 00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:02.480 dashboard. We have to get it fixed. And you sit, and you sit, and you sit, and then they finally tell 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:06.000 you after you've been sitting there for a long time that you all have to leave the plane, and a new 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:11.200 one has to come. I don't know how many of you have traveled and had that type of a setback. That's the 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:16.000 sort of thing which is about to happen here. Look what happens. There's going to be new travel setbacks. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:24.240 Verses seven to eight. We sail slowly. Why do we sail slowly? Well, they tell us, we sail slowly for a 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:32.720 number of days, and arrived with difficulty off Nidus. And the wind did not allow us to go further. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:39.759 And we sailed under the lee of Crete off of Salome. Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:47.200 place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lassia. So the wind just was against them. And it made 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:53.360 that what should be a fairly simple bit of sailing take quite a bit of time. So another question is 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:59.680 what they're going to do. They're still on a ship. That ship has to go to Italy. The centurion has to 00:11:59.680 --> 00:12:04.560 go to Italy. So does Paul. So they have a bit of a discussion about what they're going to do. Now, 00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:09.600 to understand this discussion, it's a discussion. If I'm going to entitle this, if you put it up there, 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:16.080 the title of this scene is Optimism Reigns. And this is the sort of time when, you know, 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:22.160 of course, North Americans, it's all about optimism. You know, it's a really funny thing. 00:12:22.160 --> 00:12:27.680 I can't remember the movie I was watching. It's coming to me more. It had that wonderful actor, 00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:32.240 Kevin Bronach, in it, playing a Russian oligarch. And they make some type of comment about, 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:36.240 you Americans believe in American stories, but we Russians believe in Russian stories. 00:12:36.800 --> 00:12:42.240 In other words, it's going to end with death or something like that. But optimism reigns. And here's 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:47.519 why there's optimism. You have to know that they're going to mention a fast. And that fast 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:55.919 is October, took place on October 5th, 59 AD. But there is common wisdom of the Roman Empire. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:13:03.360 You know how the Roman Empire referred to the Mediterranean? Our lake. Because the Roman 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:07.360 Empire completely surrounded the Mediterranean, completely surrounded it. They just viewed it as 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:12.000 our lake. But it's a huge ocean, obviously. But they'd sailed it for so many years, they had some 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:18.320 rules of thumb. And the rules of thumb is that from March 11th to September 14th, it was completely 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:24.639 safe, as safe as sailing would be. But it was safe to sail the Mediterranean. From September 14th to 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:31.759 November 10th, sailing was uncertain. You should beware. Because storms can arise. It can be deadly. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:37.120 And you do no sailing from November 11th to March the 10th. Now, as you're going to hear in this next 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:42.319 bit, Paul's going to remind them that October 5th has passed. Sometime in the future. We don't know 00:13:42.319 --> 00:13:46.960 whether it's two weeks ago, three weeks ago, four weeks ago. But we're coming to the end of October. 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:52.960 November 11th is coming very soon. So this, listen now, understanding this and why optimism reigns. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:57.600 And here it is, verse 9. Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous, 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:04.000 because even the fast was already over. That's the October 5th Day of Atonement fast. 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:11.360 Paul advised them, saying, Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss. Paul 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:17.360 is the realist, not the optimist. I could ask for a show of hands later, how many of you consider 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:22.160 yourselves to be realists, and how many of you consider yourselves to be optimists? The realists 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:29.439 know what's going to happen in the next scene, by the way. The optimists, well, the realists are going 00:14:29.439 --> 00:14:35.679 to be high-fiving other realists in their imagination. But Paul is the realist, verse 10, 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:41.039 Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:48.159 but also of our lives. But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:55.120 than to what Paul said, to the optimists. And because the harbour was not suitable to spend the winter in, 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:02.639 suitable doesn't mean impossible, just not desirable. Okay? The majority decided to put out to sea from 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:09.519 there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, about 40 miles away, a harbour of Crete, 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:15.519 facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there. So, the optimists win the argument, 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:25.759 and off they go. Well, scene five is reality meets optimism, which is where the realists are high-fiving 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:33.279 each other privately, while the optimists, well, I guess, I don't know. What do all the optimists do 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:39.519 when they meet reality? I'm not an optimist, so maybe after the coffee time you can tell me how optimists 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:44.639 meet. Verse 13, actually, I'm going to talk about how optimists think about it in a moment. Verse 13, 00:15:45.439 --> 00:15:51.039 where reality meets optimism. Now, verse 13, now when the south wind blew gently, 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:58.639 supposing they had obtained their purpose, the optimists all cheer, let out loud hurrahs, and with 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:03.840 energy start getting ready. They weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:13.440 And now the realists begin to smile. Verse 14, but soon a tempestuous wind called the northeaster struck 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:20.000 down from the land, and when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:29.360 were driven along. And pause there. Now, scholars, when they look at the book of Acts, one of the things 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:33.759 they say about this chapter is it's quite a remarkable chapter in ancient literature because 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:40.639 it describes very realistically what happens when a ship is in a storm and about to sink. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:47.680 And the way the experts view Paul, Luke, who wrote this, is that Luke has two characteristics. One is he 00:16:47.680 --> 00:16:52.960 was probably pretty nerdy about getting the right terms. So he was probably one of those nerdy guys who 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:55.759 went around and said, like, what do you call that? Like, what do you call that? Like, what do you call 00:16:55.759 --> 00:17:00.319 that? And he remembered it? He wrote it down. On the other hand, he doesn't approach the thing like 00:17:00.319 --> 00:17:05.920 a sailor does, but he approaches it with good observation. So he observes everything, sorry, 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:11.119 and, but doesn't sort of, you know, it's not like a sailor talking about it. So he might not have 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:19.440 realized how important that last little bit is in verse 15. And when the ship was caught and could not 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:25.599 face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. This is a moment of horror to all 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:35.439 of the sailors. They would have sinking feelings. So the wind has come, they try to get the strip, 00:17:35.439 --> 00:17:40.399 the ship straightened so they can begin to tack back towards protection, and they're not able to do 00:17:40.399 --> 00:17:46.399 it. Now what happens next? Now, I haven't told this story in a long time, but I've had a weird thing 00:17:46.399 --> 00:17:52.480 happen to me before I was married. It's the only time in my life, neither before or after, where I experienced 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:59.920 time in slow motion. And it was when I was with two buddies and we were barreling along the 401. 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:07.120 And I move into the fast lane and there's two school buses that I'm going to pass. 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:11.279 And as I come up to the first school bus, in other words, the one that's second, 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:17.759 as I'm up beside it, all of a sudden, the school bus jerks into my lane to pass. They didn't shoulder 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:25.839 check. And all I know is this huge, huge wall all of a sudden coming and it comes within inches of me. 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:34.400 And this is when time slows down for me. I'm going, I don't know, it's 401, 125 kilometers an hour. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:41.200 Like what is the normal speed on the 401? I'm going that speed. The bus comes, it almost hits me. I 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:45.680 remember everything that happened over the next two seconds. And it was literally as if it was in 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:52.080 slow motion. I remember noticing in my rear view mirror that I had a car and thank being thankful 00:18:52.080 --> 00:18:58.480 it was close, but not tailgating me. I took my foot off the gas. I remembered not to brake because if you 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:04.240 brake at that speed, you lose control of the car. I take my foot off of the gas and I move the car to the 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:09.440 left to go over to the shoulder. But on the shoulder, there's gravel. And then I remember thinking to 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:14.640 myself, if I'm not careful, we're going to keep going into the grass and into the ditch and car's 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:19.360 going to flip. But then I noticed at this point in time, all of a sudden, the bus has jerked back 00:19:19.360 --> 00:19:24.799 to the side. So I'm now, I wrestle the car, still without my foot on the gas, to try to go back into 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:29.519 the lane. And at this point in time, my car goes into an uncontrollable spin on the 401. 00:19:31.840 --> 00:19:38.799 And here's where time slows down for me. I remember, I can still just with effortlessly, 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:44.960 the complete and utter look of panic on the person sitting beside me. And I remember thinking 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:50.319 that the guy in the back who was asleep was going to die without ever waking up. 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:55.519 And as the car is spinning and you have this feeling of hopelessness, because there's nothing 00:19:55.519 --> 00:20:00.399 you can do in the spin, like you're spinning. And I wasn't sure if the car was going to flip over and 00:20:00.399 --> 00:20:05.680 I would die, or I kept also waiting for the crash of the cars behind me to hit me. 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:11.840 And after what seemed like a long time, because I'm experiencing this weird, I didn't have my life 00:20:11.840 --> 00:20:18.080 passed before my eyes, I just had time slow down. And it ends with me having a flat tire parked, 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:27.519 blocking the complete 401. The bus is far gone. And as I look to my right, because I'm facing like, 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:33.680 the traffic's this way, and I'm facing this way. And to my right, I see shocked, horrified drivers 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:41.200 in cars that had stopped in time. Shaking, I get off the road. Anyway, we fix the tire, come home. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:46.560 I mention that because that's what ends up happening. Keep that in the back of your mind as you reach, 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:54.400 as you read this next scene, which is called, I called scene six, hopelessness. And it goes like this, 00:20:54.400 --> 00:21:03.840 begins at verse 15, sorry, verse 16. Hopelessness. Running under the lee of a small island called 00:21:03.840 --> 00:21:12.480 Kata. Remember, so it's as if, to put it for a moment, I realize when the car goes into the spin, 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:17.360 that there's nothing I can do. Before that, I try to prevent it. But as soon as that bus had started to 00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:21.199 move out, I knew I was in deep trouble. And so that's the same thing. These guys all know 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:29.039 that once they couldn't have to turn the ship around to face the wind, they were in deep, deep, 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:38.079 deep, deep trouble. So verse 16 continues, we manage with difficulty to secure the ship's boat. In those 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:44.319 days, the lifeboat was towed behind the ship to save room on the ship. But they bring it in. They don't 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:49.279 want to get rid of the lifeboat, obviously. So they bring it on board the ship. Verse 17, 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:54.559 and after hoisting it up, they use supports to undergird the ship. They fearing, in other words, 00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:58.639 they put extra ropes underneath the ship to try to hold the ship together while it's being battered 00:21:58.639 --> 00:22:04.480 by the waves. Then fearing that they would run aground on the Sirius, a Sirtus. And that just shows, 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:09.679 they lowered the gear and thus they were driven along. And that just shows you how they realized how 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:17.120 doomed they were. The Sirtus was hundreds of, like hundreds of kilometers away. And it was a place 00:22:17.120 --> 00:22:24.720 where ships hit, you couldn't tell that there was something underneath the water. It looked fine, 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:29.440 but you'd run aground and then you would die. And they knew that they were now going to be driven 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:35.519 along for a long while. Verse 18, and since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to 00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:42.720 jettison the cargo. And on the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:49.039 And when, verse 20, neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, which means they have no idea where 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:58.720 they are. You navigate by the sun and the stars. And no small tempest lay on us. All hope of our being 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:05.200 saved was at last abandoned. That's mean when the car goes into the spin. 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:12.720 Nothing you can do but wait to be flipped or wait to have another car hit you. 00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:15.440 And that's the state that they're in. 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:21.839 Now the next verses, I'm not going to say much about them right now, but we're going to circle back to them 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:28.959 at the end because they're the heart of the text. And it's where we will, it's within the whole story, 00:23:28.959 --> 00:23:34.000 these words within the whole story, that we can begin to walk towards this fundamental human problem. 00:23:34.959 --> 00:23:39.119 Why is God allowing these bad things to happen to a good person like me? 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:47.199 That human question that we ask. And so I've titled this, Scene 7, Peculiar Hope 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:53.360 Hope and a Common Hopelessness. I'm using Peculiar in that old King James version. It's like this very 00:23:54.240 --> 00:24:01.519 angular hope. You know, one of the things I teach when I try to encourage people how to preach is that 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:09.920 for the average person outside of the Christian church, they would have the... You know, there's that 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:16.960 feminist line, a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. And for many Canadians, they would say that 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:24.400 I need the Christian hope like a fish needs a bicycle. So it's very peculiar. It's not where... 00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:28.480 It's maybe changing a little bit in our culture, but it's not like a normal place that the average 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:36.080 Canadian would go to for hope. So it's a peculiar hope and common hopelessness. It's verses 21 to 26. 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:43.440 Read along with me. Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said... 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:49.600 Now, he would have been standing... I mean, the ship's being banged around, so he's probably having to hold on to a post. 00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:56.640 He says, Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. 00:24:56.640 --> 00:25:01.600 Now, just sort of pause here before I go on further. You'll notice that Paul doesn't say... 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:08.160 If you look at the end of verse 26, you'll realize that what Paul is now saying contradicts partially what he said earlier. 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:14.880 And the significance... I could talk about other things with it, but that take me away from the main point of the sermon. 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:19.279 The main point is this. Paul is... Nobody should read this and say, 00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:22.320 Yeah, you know, I guess it's all right for me to tell people, Yeah, I told you so. 00:25:22.320 --> 00:25:29.759 No, that's not the lesson of the text. The text isn't saying, Go and tell people, I told you so, when you're right later. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:38.720 That's not the meaning. There's only one hero in the Bible. And that's Jesus. 00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:45.519 Everybody else needs a savior. Paul is not the savior. Paul here is not at his finest. 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:53.119 Paul both is doing something he shouldn't. Told you so. He also is going to leave out, by the way, I was wrong. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:58.079 He's human. He needs a savior. We'll read this again, though. 00:25:58.079 --> 00:26:04.559 Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:10.000 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only the ship. 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:19.839 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship. 00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:25.039 And just sort of pause. Some translations of the Bible translate that worship as serve. 00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:28.639 And that's because both are equally good translations. 00:26:28.639 --> 00:26:34.079 One of the problems with saying, like that what Jono does at the beginning of the service is worship, 00:26:34.639 --> 00:26:38.240 is that's actually not what the Bible, and Jono knows this, that's not what the Bible teaches. 00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:42.480 Worship is not just singing and having emotional highs from singing. 00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:48.319 It's worship involves also how you serve, how you live your life, how you serve God is your worship. 00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:52.319 Anyway, so that's why some translations say serve rather than worship. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:54.639 I'll say it again from verse 23. 00:26:54.639 --> 00:27:01.599 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, whom I serve. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:04.639 And the angel said, do not be afraid, Paul. 00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:06.839 You must stand before Caesar. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:11.799 And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you. 00:27:12.539 --> 00:27:15.419 Paul has been praying that God would save everybody on the ship. 00:27:15.420 --> 00:27:25.660 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God, that it will be exactly as I have been told, but we must run aground on some island. 00:27:26.460 --> 00:27:27.660 Now just sort of pause. 00:27:27.980 --> 00:27:29.640 This is actually one of those turning points. 00:27:29.640 --> 00:27:35.000 We're going to come back to this in a moment, but this is where it's very helpful for us to pause and say, what type of story are we in? 00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:37.920 You know, as I said, I wish I could remember the name of the movie. 00:27:37.980 --> 00:27:38.940 I should have written it down. 00:27:38.940 --> 00:27:46.120 You know, the American CIA agent and his wife talking like they're in an American story and the Russian talking like it's a Russian story. 00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:50.019 And at the end of the day, the movie was made by Americans, so it was an American story. 00:27:50.019 --> 00:27:52.980 But there's different types of stories. 00:27:53.980 --> 00:28:06.099 And if you were a secular humanist, a certain type of secular person, the secular story would be that actually if you just follow my advice, you will never be in storms. 00:28:07.039 --> 00:28:15.200 Because I will teach you how to manage your life and how to manage your relationships and how to manage your career so really bad things like this don't happen. 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:22.539 And if they do happen because you forget my advice, I will show you how you can make money and triumph through it. 00:28:24.059 --> 00:28:26.059 There's a whole pile of self-help speakers. 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:27.539 That's how they would talk. 00:28:27.640 --> 00:28:28.779 That's the type of story they're in. 00:28:29.019 --> 00:28:37.080 If this was a Hollywood story, the Hollywood story will involve from the rest of the movie that Paul, of course, and his companions will all survive. 00:28:37.539 --> 00:28:40.019 And the mean guard will die. 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:45.019 And Paul will be shown to be always correct. 00:28:45.019 --> 00:28:46.240 That's a Hollywood story. 00:28:46.420 --> 00:28:51.539 If you're listening to sort of a spiritual story, the spiritual story would say, 00:28:52.119 --> 00:29:00.079 this story shouldn't even be in your book because no good God would allow you to ever experience something like this. 00:29:00.339 --> 00:29:09.339 So you should leave a religion that talks about things like that and come and follow my way of being spiritual because in my way of spiritual, God is only kind to you. 00:29:09.539 --> 00:29:11.259 That's another type of story. 00:29:11.259 --> 00:29:13.779 I have to be careful. 00:29:13.779 --> 00:29:24.859 But there's certain types of Buddhism which might say, well, the point of this story from now on is that you need to learn to understand that at the end of the day, there is no difference between death and life and you need to lose all desire. 00:29:24.859 --> 00:29:37.619 And as part of that, you need to learn mindfulness so you can step back from the flow and the terrible things that are happening, understand them that it's only terrible if you have desire and just sort of observe things. 00:29:37.619 --> 00:29:45.479 And maybe if you are a certain type of versions of Hinduism, you would say it's all karma. 00:29:46.479 --> 00:29:47.959 It goes around, comes around. 00:29:48.599 --> 00:29:51.239 Obviously, Paul deserves something like this to happen. 00:29:51.379 --> 00:29:52.699 It's just catching up on him. 00:29:52.700 --> 00:30:03.840 Whether it's things that he's done wrong in his life before or something that's gone wrong before him, he's in a karmic story and he should die because that's just your karma. 00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:11.380 In fact, that's actually underlying what is happening when people say, why am I experiencing this? 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:12.539 Why is God allowing this? 00:30:12.539 --> 00:30:29.240 It says underlying that is some form of a belief in karma, that God is punishing you for some reason because of something that you've done that you deserve it and you complain against God because you don't know anything that you've done that would cause you to deserve this type of suffering. 00:30:30.539 --> 00:30:34.359 If you're an atheist, you would say, sucks to be you story. 00:30:34.839 --> 00:30:40.099 The universe doesn't give a hoot and they would say something different than hoot as that last word. 00:30:40.099 --> 00:30:47.819 In Islam, they might say, this is a story that's teaching you just to accept the will of Allah and die. 00:30:49.000 --> 00:31:07.299 And by the way, I don't know if you knew this, but one of the teachings of the Quran is that any area on the planet that Islam doesn't rule is an offense to Islam because Allah has promised Muslims to rule the entire world, every part of it. 00:31:07.299 --> 00:31:14.960 So it might be that within that Muslim thing, they're saying, not only is it Allah's will, but really there should have been a Muslim in charge of the ship. 00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:19.000 Well, this is a Christian story. 00:31:20.100 --> 00:31:32.819 And so the Christian story is that Paul, who is innocent, and he's been held in criminal custody for over two years, is now experiencing this storm. 00:31:32.819 --> 00:31:40.700 In the midst of the storm, he's been praying, and God shows up in the person of an angel and says they're going to be rescued. 00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:47.220 And I'm going to, at the end, address the issue as to whether the Bible is saying, therefore, that God will always rescue you from storms. 00:31:47.259 --> 00:31:49.500 And I can tell you right now, at the beginning, he doesn't. 00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:52.099 And that's not the point of the story. 00:31:52.099 --> 00:31:55.559 Well, what happens next? 00:31:55.740 --> 00:32:00.079 The scene, eight, ominous sounds. 00:32:00.359 --> 00:32:01.699 So you have this promise. 00:32:02.179 --> 00:32:04.539 The next scene is ominous sounds. 00:32:04.859 --> 00:32:06.659 Continuing on in verse 27. 00:32:06.659 --> 00:32:17.740 When the 14th night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight, the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. 00:32:17.740 --> 00:32:25.700 They would have suspected that because they heard an ominous sound, and the ominous sound was the sound of waves crashing against rocks. 00:32:27.259 --> 00:32:34.420 I'm not much of a sailor, but I think I understand that you don't go towards where the water is crashing into rocks. 00:32:34.579 --> 00:32:39.380 That's not where you want to head, especially when the waves are over your head. 00:32:40.620 --> 00:32:42.440 So they suspect that they're nearing land. 00:32:42.500 --> 00:32:43.059 Verse 28. 00:32:43.160 --> 00:32:46.019 So they took a sounding and found that they were at 20 fathoms. 00:32:46.019 --> 00:32:50.359 A little farther on, they took a sounding again and found 15 fathoms. 00:32:50.500 --> 00:32:56.240 And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. 00:32:56.759 --> 00:33:01.839 And they would have done that, listening to the ominous sounds of waves crashing against rocks. 00:33:02.599 --> 00:33:12.099 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship's lifeboat into the sea under pretense, pretending, of laying out anchors from the bow, 00:33:12.099 --> 00:33:17.480 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. 00:33:18.159 --> 00:33:21.839 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes into the ship's boat and let it go. 00:33:25.319 --> 00:33:29.240 Now, by the way, Paul didn't tell them to let the lifeboat go. 00:33:29.319 --> 00:33:30.500 That's what the soldiers did. 00:33:30.500 --> 00:33:32.880 Paul probably was saying to himself, come on, guys. 00:33:33.140 --> 00:33:34.619 Like, why did he get rid of the lifeboat? 00:33:35.720 --> 00:33:37.740 You don't have to cut the lifeboat off. 00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:39.279 Just keep it down. 00:33:39.339 --> 00:33:40.759 It's going to be very helpful in a moment. 00:33:40.920 --> 00:33:44.240 Didn't I tell you that we're all going to be saved? 00:33:44.680 --> 00:33:46.559 Anyway, who knows what Paul was thinking. 00:33:46.640 --> 00:33:47.299 We're not told. 00:33:47.299 --> 00:33:56.119 But we come to the almost last scene, which is scene 9, which is called Remembering the Lord's Promises During a Crisis, verses 33 to 38. 00:33:56.379 --> 00:33:57.339 Here's how it goes. 00:33:57.819 --> 00:34:01.919 As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, 00:34:02.079 --> 00:34:08.440 Today is the 14th day that you have continued in suspense without food, having taken nothing. 00:34:09.219 --> 00:34:15.599 Therefore, I urge you to take some food, for it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you. 00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:22.480 When he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. 00:34:23.179 --> 00:34:25.960 Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. 00:34:26.839 --> 00:34:30.019 This, if you were doing this in a movie, this would be a solemn moment. 00:34:30.460 --> 00:34:34.619 It says here, we were in all 276 persons in the ship. 00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:36.759 And that's sort of more of a moment. 00:34:36.839 --> 00:34:41.420 You know how in movies they'll have a moment where the people who are about to undergo a big thing, 00:34:41.420 --> 00:34:46.500 they all stand up and they sort of, you can see them by their faces and they look at each other and they say, 00:34:46.619 --> 00:34:47.840 we're ready for this last bit. 00:34:48.340 --> 00:34:49.760 It might be a little bit of a roll call. 00:34:49.900 --> 00:34:53.840 The soldiers want to know, the sailors want to know how many there are so that when they get to the land, 00:34:53.940 --> 00:34:58.440 if they get to the land from their point of view, they can count and see whether everybody's made it. 00:34:59.200 --> 00:35:02.400 So there's a count, a roll call, a saying of names. 00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:04.000 Somebody records it. 00:35:04.260 --> 00:35:07.380 There's an engineer in the room who records the number of people. 00:35:07.380 --> 00:35:14.500 And then in verse 38, and when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea. 00:35:15.559 --> 00:35:21.019 And now we come to the final scene, scene 10, called the Storm's End. 00:35:22.619 --> 00:35:28.280 Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, 00:35:28.400 --> 00:35:31.260 if possible, to run the ship ashore. 00:35:31.260 --> 00:35:36.720 So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea. 00:35:37.560 --> 00:35:42.200 At the same time, loosening the ropes that tied the rudders, they hosted the foresail to the wind. 00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:46.440 They made a path for the beach, but striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. 00:35:46.520 --> 00:35:50.760 And the bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the turf. 00:35:51.240 --> 00:35:55.300 The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape. 00:35:55.300 --> 00:35:59.800 But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. 00:36:00.740 --> 00:36:05.440 And the centurion ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, 00:36:05.640 --> 00:36:08.160 and the rest on planks or in pieces of the ship. 00:36:08.280 --> 00:36:12.060 And so it was that all were brought safely to the land. 00:36:16.560 --> 00:36:20.720 Turn back in your Bibles to verse 21 to 26, but a couple of points in closing. 00:36:20.719 --> 00:36:27.339 One of the most common phrases that the Bible uses is that the people are lost. 00:36:28.319 --> 00:36:31.899 And there's a famous text where Jesus says, 00:36:32.019 --> 00:36:34.480 I came to seek and save the lost. 00:36:35.559 --> 00:36:38.219 And every time you hear this word, the lost, 00:36:38.980 --> 00:36:42.659 I've heard preachers and others use analogies of, 00:36:43.159 --> 00:36:44.879 like being, and I was in another city, 00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:47.379 maybe you're in Montreal, which has some, 00:36:47.379 --> 00:36:50.279 at least maybe it's changed weird traffic patterns. 00:36:50.719 --> 00:36:53.919 Of one-way streets and not always sequential, 00:36:54.199 --> 00:36:56.500 and one-way streets ending in streets 00:36:56.500 --> 00:36:59.579 going one way the opposite direction to you, 00:36:59.639 --> 00:37:01.219 and you have to turn and you get lost. 00:37:01.359 --> 00:37:03.059 And that's not what the Bible means. 00:37:03.719 --> 00:37:05.779 And sometimes people have used examples of, 00:37:05.839 --> 00:37:07.939 you know, you're with a five-year-old and they wander off, 00:37:08.019 --> 00:37:10.599 and for a moment you can't find them and there's feelings of terror. 00:37:10.899 --> 00:37:12.759 That's not what the Bible means by lost. 00:37:13.459 --> 00:37:15.899 Every time you come across the word lost in the Bible, 00:37:15.899 --> 00:37:17.139 think of Acts 27. 00:37:17.139 --> 00:37:22.759 Think of being driven along by the wind 00:37:22.759 --> 00:37:25.940 and being one of the sailors and know that there is no hope. 00:37:26.420 --> 00:37:27.739 You are going to die. 00:37:27.900 --> 00:37:29.599 I am going to die. 00:37:30.940 --> 00:37:34.199 And that is how the Bible wants you to understand being lost. 00:37:35.739 --> 00:37:38.379 It helps you to understand the beauty of the gospel, 00:37:38.879 --> 00:37:40.799 that when you were lost, 00:37:40.800 --> 00:37:42.840 and that means you are doomed, 00:37:43.260 --> 00:37:44.420 you are done, 00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:46.480 you are dead, 00:37:46.900 --> 00:37:48.300 but you're not dead yet. 00:37:48.760 --> 00:37:50.240 And in that situation, 00:37:50.920 --> 00:37:52.960 Jesus comes with this news 00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:55.420 that if you put your faith and trust in him, 00:37:55.580 --> 00:37:56.640 he has done all, 00:37:56.740 --> 00:37:58.420 he has come seeking you. 00:37:58.420 --> 00:38:01.240 There is no one so lost. 00:38:02.240 --> 00:38:04.720 There is no one so far from God. 00:38:04.719 --> 00:38:09.139 There is no one so far into death or sin or shame 00:38:09.139 --> 00:38:12.599 that Jesus has not come to seek you 00:38:12.599 --> 00:38:13.679 and to find you 00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:16.079 and to reach out a hand to you. 00:38:16.879 --> 00:38:19.539 No shame so thorough or so deep. 00:38:19.679 --> 00:38:21.139 No sin so horrible 00:38:21.139 --> 00:38:24.219 that Jesus has not come to save you. 00:38:24.219 --> 00:38:31.879 And so the next thing 00:38:31.879 --> 00:38:34.819 is that to understand in this text, 00:38:35.599 --> 00:38:36.899 I mean, the meaning of the text 00:38:36.899 --> 00:38:39.019 isn't that God is going to send an angel 00:38:39.019 --> 00:38:40.879 when you're having a really, really hard time 00:38:40.879 --> 00:38:41.699 and he's going to tell you 00:38:41.699 --> 00:38:42.679 that he's going to rescue you. 00:38:42.739 --> 00:38:44.199 That's not the meaning of this text. 00:38:44.299 --> 00:38:45.719 It can't be the meaning of the text. 00:38:46.139 --> 00:38:47.000 And we know that 00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:48.619 because if you read 2 Timothy, 00:38:48.839 --> 00:38:50.819 Paul will share with people 00:38:50.819 --> 00:38:52.679 that he's been saved many, many times, 00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:54.000 but this time that he's in jail, 00:38:54.079 --> 00:38:55.139 he knows he's going to die 00:38:55.139 --> 00:38:55.819 and he's correct. 00:38:55.960 --> 00:38:57.839 He gets executed by Nero 00:38:57.839 --> 00:39:00.199 sometime after he wrote 2 Timothy. 00:39:01.179 --> 00:39:03.119 But here's another thing about the text 00:39:03.119 --> 00:39:05.119 is that God does not make 00:39:05.119 --> 00:39:07.460 100 million promises to you. 00:39:10.679 --> 00:39:12.399 He doesn't make promises to you 00:39:12.399 --> 00:39:13.500 that you will be wealthy, 00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:17.559 healthy, wise, successful, 00:39:18.159 --> 00:39:19.699 powerful, beautiful. 00:39:19.699 --> 00:39:22.259 If you want to have a long, single life 00:39:22.259 --> 00:39:22.859 of thriving, 00:39:22.980 --> 00:39:24.079 he doesn't promise you that. 00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:26.399 If you desire to marry and have children, 00:39:26.519 --> 00:39:27.839 he doesn't promise you that. 00:39:28.939 --> 00:39:30.919 He doesn't make you 100 promises 00:39:30.919 --> 00:39:32.539 or a million promises. 00:39:33.379 --> 00:39:34.460 Christians who tell you 00:39:34.460 --> 00:39:36.239 that God makes all of these promises 00:39:36.239 --> 00:39:37.099 upon promises 00:39:37.099 --> 00:39:39.159 upon promises to you, 00:39:39.419 --> 00:39:40.399 all they will do 00:39:40.399 --> 00:39:42.359 is make you depressed and despair 00:39:42.359 --> 00:39:45.799 because hard times will come. 00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:49.720 But here's the thing about our great God. 00:39:49.940 --> 00:39:51.640 Our great God does not make 00:39:51.640 --> 00:39:53.620 1,000 promises 00:39:53.620 --> 00:39:55.500 or 100,000 promises. 00:39:55.880 --> 00:39:58.340 He makes a very small number of promises. 00:39:59.019 --> 00:40:01.120 But those promises that he makes 00:40:01.120 --> 00:40:03.240 are the most important promises 00:40:03.240 --> 00:40:05.340 and he will always keep them. 00:40:06.780 --> 00:40:09.440 And that's seen in this particular text 00:40:09.440 --> 00:40:11.080 when he, Paul, talks about 00:40:11.079 --> 00:40:15.559 the God to whom I belong. 00:40:18.940 --> 00:40:20.299 He was lost, 00:40:21.079 --> 00:40:22.400 but Jesus saved him. 00:40:23.340 --> 00:40:25.759 And Jesus doesn't just sort of save you 00:40:25.759 --> 00:40:27.139 and let you out of the mess 00:40:27.139 --> 00:40:27.579 and then say, 00:40:27.639 --> 00:40:28.139 off you go, 00:40:28.259 --> 00:40:29.599 just do all the sin, 00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:31.079 you know, do whatever, 00:40:31.159 --> 00:40:31.920 whatever it is you want. 00:40:31.980 --> 00:40:32.199 No, no. 00:40:32.259 --> 00:40:33.619 When Jesus saves you, 00:40:33.699 --> 00:40:37.119 he saves you by taking him to himself. 00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:40.539 And this image of belonging to God 00:40:40.539 --> 00:40:42.400 has within it a connotation 00:40:42.400 --> 00:40:44.779 of something precious. 00:40:47.559 --> 00:40:49.039 So when you as a Christian 00:40:49.039 --> 00:40:49.839 are able to say, 00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:51.199 God hasn't promised me 00:40:51.199 --> 00:40:53.139 that I will never have storms in my life, 00:40:53.159 --> 00:40:54.239 but he has promised me 00:40:54.239 --> 00:40:56.420 that when I put my faith and trust in him, 00:40:57.000 --> 00:40:59.859 I will belong to him forever. 00:41:02.480 --> 00:41:04.239 And so, yes, it is the case 00:41:04.239 --> 00:41:06.039 that maybe when you are having hard times, 00:41:06.039 --> 00:41:06.840 you can ask, 00:41:06.920 --> 00:41:08.239 are there things that I have done 00:41:08.239 --> 00:41:09.119 that brought this on? 00:41:09.179 --> 00:41:10.099 If you come to me 00:41:10.099 --> 00:41:11.179 and you say, 00:41:11.239 --> 00:41:12.119 I don't know why I'm having 00:41:12.119 --> 00:41:12.960 all these illnesses 00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:14.199 and inwardly I'm thinking, 00:41:14.300 --> 00:41:15.800 well, maybe you should not have smoked 00:41:15.800 --> 00:41:17.320 two packs of cigarettes a day 00:41:17.320 --> 00:41:18.539 for the last 30 years 00:41:18.539 --> 00:41:21.099 and drank a dozen beers every day 00:41:21.099 --> 00:41:22.639 for the last 30 years. 00:41:22.639 --> 00:41:23.699 And maybe if you did that, 00:41:23.759 --> 00:41:24.980 you wouldn't have those health problems. 00:41:25.039 --> 00:41:25.779 And I might think that 00:41:25.779 --> 00:41:26.820 and maybe I would say that 00:41:26.820 --> 00:41:28.800 because sometimes I'm not as nice a person 00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:29.539 as I should be. 00:41:30.420 --> 00:41:31.400 But generally speaking, 00:41:31.400 --> 00:41:32.559 when people ask these questions, 00:41:32.659 --> 00:41:34.079 they don't ask them at times like that. 00:41:34.159 --> 00:41:34.659 They ask them 00:41:34.659 --> 00:41:35.879 when they're just really, really, really 00:41:35.879 --> 00:41:37.739 having very, very hard times. 00:41:38.980 --> 00:41:41.559 And the thing to remind 00:41:41.559 --> 00:41:43.219 another Christian about 00:41:43.219 --> 00:41:45.059 is that they belong to Christ 00:41:45.059 --> 00:41:47.579 and nothing will change that 00:41:47.579 --> 00:41:49.219 in their circumstances. 00:41:49.480 --> 00:41:51.859 It's not a sign of judgment upon you 00:41:51.859 --> 00:41:52.819 that you are bad. 00:41:53.759 --> 00:41:55.879 And so the Christian question to ask 00:41:55.879 --> 00:41:58.039 in the midst of having 00:41:58.039 --> 00:42:00.079 very, very, very hard times, 00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:01.460 well, actually, 00:42:01.779 --> 00:42:04.119 the first step in dealing 00:42:04.119 --> 00:42:05.500 with very, very hard times 00:42:05.500 --> 00:42:06.380 is to remember 00:42:06.380 --> 00:42:08.599 that you belong to God, 00:42:09.360 --> 00:42:10.380 that you belong to Christ, 00:42:10.920 --> 00:42:12.179 and that you belong to him 00:42:12.179 --> 00:42:13.340 as his precious treasure. 00:42:15.480 --> 00:42:17.039 And it's from that basis 00:42:17.039 --> 00:42:20.059 that you can do these other things. 00:42:20.739 --> 00:42:21.920 You can pray to him. 00:42:22.079 --> 00:42:22.980 You should pray to him. 00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:25.440 And one of the things you can pray to him 00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:26.559 is ask him why you're having 00:42:26.559 --> 00:42:27.319 those hard things. 00:42:27.320 --> 00:42:28.260 And he might not answer. 00:42:28.360 --> 00:42:29.500 You might have to wait till heaven 00:42:29.500 --> 00:42:30.600 before he answers you 00:42:30.600 --> 00:42:31.720 on that particular one. 00:42:33.880 --> 00:42:34.860 But given that you know 00:42:34.860 --> 00:42:35.980 that you belong to him 00:42:35.980 --> 00:42:37.420 and that the end of your story 00:42:37.420 --> 00:42:38.820 is that you will see him, 00:42:40.300 --> 00:42:41.780 then what you can do 00:42:41.780 --> 00:42:42.160 is say, 00:42:42.240 --> 00:42:44.260 Lord, in this particular situation, 00:42:44.440 --> 00:42:46.200 even though it's very, very hard, 00:42:47.200 --> 00:42:48.460 and I'm afraid, 00:42:49.519 --> 00:42:50.380 the question isn't 00:42:50.380 --> 00:42:51.280 why is this happening, 00:42:51.360 --> 00:42:52.400 although you can ask him that. 00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:53.100 The question is 00:42:53.100 --> 00:42:54.519 how can I pray for others 00:42:54.519 --> 00:42:55.420 and serve you 00:42:55.420 --> 00:42:56.800 in this situation? 00:42:58.619 --> 00:43:00.039 That's what Paul did in the boat. 00:43:00.860 --> 00:43:02.699 He prayed for the others. 00:43:02.940 --> 00:43:03.500 He would have prayed 00:43:03.500 --> 00:43:04.360 not only for their 00:43:04.360 --> 00:43:05.920 spiritual salvation, 00:43:06.139 --> 00:43:07.099 but also for their 00:43:07.099 --> 00:43:08.239 physical salvation, 00:43:08.420 --> 00:43:09.780 and God granted him that. 00:43:10.219 --> 00:43:11.259 And that's what we can do. 00:43:11.340 --> 00:43:11.840 We can say, 00:43:11.960 --> 00:43:13.659 how can I bear witness to you 00:43:13.659 --> 00:43:14.920 in this storm? 00:43:15.179 --> 00:43:16.300 How can I pray 00:43:16.300 --> 00:43:18.460 for myself and for others 00:43:18.460 --> 00:43:20.240 in this storm? 00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:23.440 You see, 00:43:23.559 --> 00:43:24.480 it's in light of that 00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:25.380 that you can remember 00:43:25.380 --> 00:43:26.360 when I said that God 00:43:26.360 --> 00:43:27.840 doesn't make lots and lots 00:43:27.840 --> 00:43:28.880 of promises to you, 00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:29.800 but he does make 00:43:29.800 --> 00:43:31.300 a small number of promises, 00:43:31.780 --> 00:43:33.139 and those small promises 00:43:33.139 --> 00:43:33.980 are about the most 00:43:33.980 --> 00:43:35.039 important things. 00:43:35.400 --> 00:43:36.639 It helps you to understand 00:43:36.639 --> 00:43:37.880 the end of chapter 8 00:43:37.880 --> 00:43:38.460 of Romans. 00:43:38.619 --> 00:43:39.579 I'm sorry it's not up 00:43:39.579 --> 00:43:40.179 on the screen. 00:43:40.500 --> 00:43:41.220 You have to listen. 00:43:41.880 --> 00:43:42.780 Romans 8.31. 00:43:43.360 --> 00:43:44.920 What then shall we say 00:43:44.920 --> 00:43:45.780 to these things? 00:43:45.900 --> 00:43:46.920 If God is for us, 00:43:46.980 --> 00:43:48.179 who can be against us? 00:43:48.460 --> 00:43:50.079 He who did not spare 00:43:50.079 --> 00:43:51.000 his own son, 00:43:51.139 --> 00:43:52.380 but gave him up for us, 00:43:52.820 --> 00:43:54.159 how will he not also 00:43:54.159 --> 00:43:55.599 with him graciously 00:43:55.599 --> 00:43:56.800 give us all things? 00:43:57.340 --> 00:43:58.820 Who shall bring any charge 00:43:58.820 --> 00:43:59.900 against God's elect 00:43:59.900 --> 00:44:00.559 against me? 00:44:00.679 --> 00:44:02.220 It is God who justifies. 00:44:02.679 --> 00:44:04.360 Who is to condemn me? 00:44:04.840 --> 00:44:06.119 Christ Jesus is the one 00:44:06.119 --> 00:44:06.619 who died, 00:44:06.679 --> 00:44:07.320 more than that, 00:44:07.380 --> 00:44:08.039 who was raised, 00:44:08.139 --> 00:44:08.980 who is at the right hand 00:44:08.980 --> 00:44:09.460 of God, 00:44:09.720 --> 00:44:11.119 who is indeed interceding 00:44:11.119 --> 00:44:11.860 for us. 00:44:12.280 --> 00:44:13.639 Who shall separate us 00:44:13.639 --> 00:44:14.699 from the love of Christ? 00:44:15.099 --> 00:44:16.139 Shall tribulation, 00:44:16.340 --> 00:44:16.940 or distress, 00:44:16.940 --> 00:44:18.300 or persecution, 00:44:18.460 --> 00:44:19.400 or famine, 00:44:19.740 --> 00:44:20.559 or nakedness, 00:44:20.679 --> 00:44:21.420 or danger, 00:44:21.780 --> 00:44:22.519 or the sword? 00:44:22.679 --> 00:44:23.780 Shall that separate us 00:44:23.780 --> 00:44:24.720 from the love of Christ? 00:44:24.980 --> 00:44:25.820 As it is written, 00:44:26.119 --> 00:44:26.920 for your sake, 00:44:27.019 --> 00:44:28.000 we are being killed 00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:28.980 all the day long. 00:44:29.139 --> 00:44:29.900 We are regarded 00:44:29.900 --> 00:44:31.360 as sheep to be slaughtered. 00:44:31.619 --> 00:44:31.980 No. 00:44:33.340 --> 00:44:33.840 No. 00:44:34.579 --> 00:44:35.940 In all these things, 00:44:36.059 --> 00:44:37.480 we are more than conquerors 00:44:37.480 --> 00:44:38.860 through him who loved us. 00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:40.019 For I am sure 00:44:40.019 --> 00:44:41.119 that neither death, 00:44:41.300 --> 00:44:42.059 nor life, 00:44:42.320 --> 00:44:43.079 nor angels, 00:44:43.420 --> 00:44:44.059 nor rulers, 00:44:44.480 --> 00:44:45.539 nor things present, 00:44:45.539 --> 00:44:47.000 nor things to come, 00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:48.139 nor powers, 00:44:48.500 --> 00:44:49.239 nor height, 00:44:49.559 --> 00:44:50.259 nor depth, 00:44:50.559 --> 00:44:51.599 nor anything else 00:44:51.599 --> 00:44:52.759 in all creation 00:44:52.759 --> 00:44:53.840 will be able 00:44:53.840 --> 00:44:55.179 to separate us 00:44:55.179 --> 00:44:56.179 from the love 00:44:56.179 --> 00:44:57.039 of God 00:44:57.039 --> 00:44:58.400 in Christ Jesus, 00:44:58.539 --> 00:44:59.239 our Lord. 00:45:00.079 --> 00:45:01.079 He hasn't made 00:45:01.079 --> 00:45:02.059 a lot of promises, 00:45:02.759 --> 00:45:04.019 but he's made the promises 00:45:04.019 --> 00:45:05.279 that matter the most, 00:45:05.860 --> 00:45:08.960 and by which you can stand 00:45:08.960 --> 00:45:10.759 even in the storms 00:45:10.760 --> 00:45:11.700 of life. 00:45:13.060 --> 00:45:14.440 Part of our task 00:45:14.440 --> 00:45:16.300 is to be a communion, 00:45:16.600 --> 00:45:17.660 a community of people 00:45:17.660 --> 00:45:18.380 who remember. 00:45:19.680 --> 00:45:20.820 So that when our brother 00:45:20.820 --> 00:45:21.780 and sister in Christ 00:45:21.780 --> 00:45:23.300 is having a very hard time 00:45:23.300 --> 00:45:23.940 to remember, 00:45:24.600 --> 00:45:26.240 we remember for them. 00:45:26.880 --> 00:45:28.200 We encourage them, 00:45:28.280 --> 00:45:29.540 not that it'll all get better, 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:30.460 and we don't, 00:45:30.600 --> 00:45:30.760 you know, 00:45:30.840 --> 00:45:31.580 it might be that 00:45:31.580 --> 00:45:32.400 the encouragement 00:45:32.400 --> 00:45:33.180 doesn't mean that 00:45:33.180 --> 00:45:34.460 we give hallmark-type 00:45:34.460 --> 00:45:35.380 greetings to each other, 00:45:35.420 --> 00:45:36.460 which just might piss 00:45:36.460 --> 00:45:37.320 the person off, 00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:38.980 but we remember them 00:45:38.980 --> 00:45:39.480 in prayer, 00:45:39.480 --> 00:45:40.320 and we ask that 00:45:40.320 --> 00:45:41.900 this Roman 8 promise 00:45:41.900 --> 00:45:42.719 that they would know 00:45:42.719 --> 00:45:44.019 that that is true for them. 00:45:44.639 --> 00:45:45.280 And part of the way 00:45:45.280 --> 00:45:46.280 we might just do it 00:45:46.280 --> 00:45:47.820 is by standing beside them 00:45:47.820 --> 00:45:49.099 in their hard time, 00:45:49.179 --> 00:45:50.139 maybe putting an arm 00:45:50.139 --> 00:45:50.780 around them 00:45:50.780 --> 00:45:51.820 or a little note 00:45:51.820 --> 00:45:53.179 that we are praying for you. 00:45:54.500 --> 00:45:55.840 But we are a community 00:45:55.840 --> 00:45:56.740 that is called 00:45:56.740 --> 00:45:57.500 to remember 00:45:57.500 --> 00:45:59.199 these profound promises 00:45:59.199 --> 00:46:00.320 that God has made 00:46:00.320 --> 00:46:01.219 to his people, 00:46:01.579 --> 00:46:03.019 and we are those 00:46:03.019 --> 00:46:03.780 who are lost, 00:46:04.280 --> 00:46:05.400 and he sought us, 00:46:05.699 --> 00:46:06.760 and he found us, 00:46:06.880 --> 00:46:08.139 and when we put our faith 00:46:08.139 --> 00:46:09.039 and trust in him, 00:46:09.039 --> 00:46:10.360 he saved us, 00:46:10.440 --> 00:46:12.119 and when he saves you, 00:46:13.019 --> 00:46:14.139 you belong to him 00:46:14.139 --> 00:46:14.800 as his precious 00:46:14.800 --> 00:46:15.940 possession and treasure, 00:46:16.360 --> 00:46:18.619 and he will never 00:46:18.619 --> 00:46:20.360 let you go, 00:46:20.480 --> 00:46:22.900 and he will be with you 00:46:22.900 --> 00:46:24.800 in the storm. 00:46:26.880 --> 00:46:28.480 And the end of your story 00:46:28.480 --> 00:46:30.039 will be to stand before him 00:46:30.039 --> 00:46:30.980 face to face 00:46:30.980 --> 00:46:34.659 like Jesus 00:46:34.659 --> 00:46:36.539 and filled with joy. 00:46:37.659 --> 00:46:38.399 That is the end 00:46:38.399 --> 00:46:39.559 of your story in Christ. 00:46:40.619 --> 00:46:41.579 Invite you to stand. 00:46:51.859 --> 00:46:52.739 Father, once again, 00:46:52.839 --> 00:46:53.480 I began 00:46:53.480 --> 00:46:55.899 my opening prayer 00:46:55.899 --> 00:46:56.699 was that you know 00:46:56.699 --> 00:46:57.859 some of us are really 00:46:57.859 --> 00:46:58.440 having a very, 00:46:58.559 --> 00:46:59.500 very hard time, 00:46:59.619 --> 00:47:00.239 and you know 00:47:00.239 --> 00:47:01.179 that some of us aren't. 00:47:01.739 --> 00:47:02.559 Some of us, Father, 00:47:02.639 --> 00:47:03.599 might just be coming out 00:47:03.599 --> 00:47:04.199 of a hard time. 00:47:04.279 --> 00:47:04.880 Father, you know 00:47:04.880 --> 00:47:05.539 that some of us 00:47:05.539 --> 00:47:06.799 might be just a week away 00:47:06.799 --> 00:47:07.500 from a season 00:47:07.500 --> 00:47:08.759 of a very hard time, 00:47:08.860 --> 00:47:10.420 some very, very bad news, 00:47:11.179 --> 00:47:12.000 and you know, Father, 00:47:12.099 --> 00:47:13.059 how easy it is 00:47:13.059 --> 00:47:14.059 for us to look around 00:47:14.059 --> 00:47:14.819 at other people 00:47:14.819 --> 00:47:15.980 who seem to have it easier 00:47:15.980 --> 00:47:16.659 and wonder why 00:47:16.659 --> 00:47:17.619 we aren't like that, 00:47:17.679 --> 00:47:18.639 and you know 00:47:18.639 --> 00:47:19.599 how easy it is 00:47:19.599 --> 00:47:20.139 for the devil 00:47:20.139 --> 00:47:21.599 to speak into our hearts 00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:23.319 and to accuse us 00:47:23.319 --> 00:47:24.239 and make us feel 00:47:24.239 --> 00:47:25.059 as if there's something 00:47:25.059 --> 00:47:26.179 bad around us, 00:47:26.219 --> 00:47:27.319 and we know, Father, 00:47:27.420 --> 00:47:28.039 that the devil 00:47:28.039 --> 00:47:29.500 will tempt us 00:47:29.500 --> 00:47:30.279 to despair, 00:47:30.639 --> 00:47:31.259 and so, Father, 00:47:31.260 --> 00:47:32.820 we ask that your Holy Spirit 00:47:32.820 --> 00:47:34.120 would bring these words 00:47:34.120 --> 00:47:35.680 of Acts 27 00:47:35.680 --> 00:47:36.720 and Romans 8 00:47:36.720 --> 00:47:37.940 deep into our heart, 00:47:38.880 --> 00:47:39.900 that we might know, 00:47:40.160 --> 00:47:40.220 Father, 00:47:40.280 --> 00:47:41.200 that you do not make 00:47:41.200 --> 00:47:42.580 a hundred thousand promises 00:47:42.580 --> 00:47:43.760 and promise us health 00:47:43.760 --> 00:47:44.260 and wealth 00:47:44.260 --> 00:47:44.840 and success 00:47:44.840 --> 00:47:45.800 in everything we do 00:47:45.800 --> 00:47:46.900 on this side of the grave, 00:47:47.240 --> 00:47:49.160 but you do promise, Father, 00:47:49.260 --> 00:47:50.500 that you save those 00:47:50.500 --> 00:47:51.180 who are lost, 00:47:51.240 --> 00:47:52.340 and when you save us, 00:47:52.420 --> 00:47:53.400 when you save me, 00:47:53.900 --> 00:47:55.380 when you save each person here, 00:47:55.460 --> 00:47:56.380 that we are now 00:47:56.380 --> 00:47:57.560 your precious treasure 00:47:57.560 --> 00:47:58.160 and possession, 00:47:58.159 --> 00:48:00.379 that you will never leave us 00:48:00.379 --> 00:48:01.379 or abandon us, 00:48:01.739 --> 00:48:03.219 and that you will bring us 00:48:03.219 --> 00:48:04.359 unerringly 00:48:04.359 --> 00:48:05.779 and unfailingly 00:48:05.779 --> 00:48:07.199 and powerfully 00:48:07.199 --> 00:48:08.579 into the presence 00:48:08.579 --> 00:48:10.440 of you, Father, 00:48:11.440 --> 00:48:12.559 where we will see you 00:48:12.559 --> 00:48:13.319 face to face 00:48:13.319 --> 00:48:14.599 and we will be like Jesus 00:48:14.599 --> 00:48:16.980 and there will be great joy, 00:48:17.879 --> 00:48:18.859 and that in Christ 00:48:18.859 --> 00:48:19.960 that is the end 00:48:19.960 --> 00:48:20.719 of our story, 00:48:21.259 --> 00:48:22.779 and we ask that you 00:48:22.779 --> 00:48:23.719 help us to remember 00:48:23.719 --> 00:48:24.399 these things 00:48:24.399 --> 00:48:25.119 and remember it 00:48:25.119 --> 00:48:25.699 for each other, 00:48:25.819 --> 00:48:27.000 and we ask all these things 00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:28.360 in the precious name of Jesus 00:48:28.360 --> 00:48:30.300 and all God's people said, 00:48:30.960 --> 00:48:31.300 Amen.