THE CHURCH | Week 5 | Full Service

When the ship seems to be sinking and breaking apart, we need to be anchored in faith, not fear. For example, what am I talking about? Like, with the end times, like yeah. There's lots of stuff that happened at the end. But I'll just tell you this. I've read the last book of the bible, and if you know Jesus, we win.

Matter of fact, everyone either the people either respond one or two ways with the with the with the end times in the books like that. It's like either you're so afraid of it, you don't even wanna see it because you're scared, or you're so fixated on it, you want to talk about everything about it and and and and and and and look at how does this fit that? How does that fit that? I don't even think the bible was intended for us to figure things out

in that manner. Matter of fact, Jesus, when he was asked, when are you coming back? He says, I don't know. You know, the father knows. And if you look at all the parables he taught about him returning,

they're all about the parable of the talents. He leaves. He comes back. They had no idea when he's coming back. And what was the question? What did you do with what I gave you? Same with the parable of bridemaids. Probably, like, almost every time Jesus was teaching about the end times that he was teaching us, you need to always be ready.

Not get in a panic when something might be the end. And I think the reason we panic is because we have a fear based response. You're like, I'm not fearful. I wanna at scripture on but we fear monger with it. The goal is not when is he coming. The goal is what are we doing with who he is in the meantime.

And I'm gonna look at a passage of apostle Paul. It's a great narrative story. He gets shipwrecked. And and in that shipwreck, we can see some principles out of this story that show us how do we respond to the shipwrecks in our life, the shipwrecks in the world, the things that scare us.

What are we supposed to be doing? How do we anchor ourselves in faith, not fear? And that's in a in a acts 27.

But to set it up a little because we've jumped a few chapters here towards the end, Paul is continuing to do what he does. He's going around planting churches, pointing people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus, and he gets pushed back.

He's been beaten. He's been arrested. He's been thrown in prison. He's been stoned and not the medicinal medicinal kind. He's and and and and and now he's he finally gets arrested, and he stands before the the Roman provincial

leadership, a guy named Festus. And when he goes through this trial, basically, they see that, hey. I think you got a good argument here. I think they're just this is made up stuff. Let's go back to Jerusalem and and finish this trial. And he says, no.

He has a Roman citizen. He claims his right. A Roman citizen, I think, could claim a right. I appeal to Caesar himself. He's gonna go be tried by Caesar himself.

And you're like, why would he do that? This guy even sees he doesn't have a problem. I think two reasons. One, he knows that the Jews are trying to kill him, and they might try to manipulate stuff and lie and set him up in Jerusalem. But I think the bigger reason is he's been wanting to get to Rome the whole time. Cause he knows that all roads lead to Rome, they said back in the day. They said that means all roads lead out of Rome. He knows if he can encourage that church, grow that church, more people, the gospel will spread and more people will come to know Jesus.

So instead of defending himself and getting off the hook, he uses that as an opportunity to get a free trip to Rome. Albeit as a prisoner, and albeit that there's a good chance that Caesar won't like what he has to say, and he could die, which is actually what ends up happening.

But he wants to go there. So then they bring in King Agrippa before he goes. He goes, you gotta see this guy. He's like, I don't understand why he's doing this. And when he gets a chance to defend himself before the king in Caesarea,

what does he do? He tells his testimony. He starts sharing about Jesus, and he looks at the king. And he's like, king, I you believe in the the prophets. I know you do. And the king cuts him off and and says, wait. Are you are you really trying to make me become a Christian right now?

And he goes, well, whether it happens now or later, my prayer is that everyone here comes to know Christ. So in the middle of a trial to get off, like, might go where he could die, he chooses that as an opportunity to share Jesus.

So he says, fine. Send him to Rome. And then him and Agrippa and Festus, one of the last lines in the chapters before this says, it's weird that he did this, basically, is he's like because there was no case, and then I will let him go. But now he's going to Rome. So they put him on a boat, bunch of prisoners.

And and when they go, they're going late in the season. The Mediterranean Sea is kinda crazy this time of year. And and it gets to the season where for about three months, the winter, you shouldn't really sail on it back then. And they're getting late, so the whole trip has been rough. They're barely getting somewhere, barely getting somewhere, then they finally land in this one dumpy little harbor.

And they're getting ready to leave. They wanna get out of there. The weather looks teeny bit better, not really good, but just a little bit of a window. And they're like, we're getting out of here. And Paul feels led to tell the captain, the owner of the boat,

and the guard, I don't think this is a good idea. I'm pretty sure we're gonna run into a bad storm, and we're gonna have shipwrecked. You're gonna lose the boat, the supplies, the cargo, and maybe even will die. And, of course, they don't listen to the Jewish rabbi prisoner,

but they should have if they would have known anything about him because Paul had been shipwrecked three times already. He he he's been shipwrecked more often than Gilligan.

And and and and so they they they take off, and where they were trying to go is the reason it says in the text, the reason they didn't wanna stay in this harbor for winter is because it was a dumpy place.

You don't understand the English. They're basically saying, if we're gonna stay someplace for three months, it ain't here. So to take it out of the nautical reference so we can understand it, it'd be like if you were in Yuma

and the and the roads are terrible and it's bad and they say, you should stay in Yuma for the season, you're like, no way. I'm getting to Phoenix,

which is actually where they were heading. They were trying to get to Phoenix instead of where they were. Not Phoenix, Arizona for some of y'all, but and and and so they take off, and that's where the story happens. I'm gonna read the whole thing, 13 through 44. Verse 13 through 44. I want you to relax and just hear the story. But what is crazy about the story is there is so much nautical information in it. Like, it it's like, don't know if Luke had aspired to be a sea captain or whatever, but the reality is the Holy Spirit inspired him to share all of this information that's very nautical. But I think it's for a reason.

Because the audience that would have originally read this in the Mediterranean, they basically almost worshiped the Mediterranean. It scared them, and they worship because of its power, and they were completely enthralled in that era with nautical tales.

So they loved ocean seafaring stories. So, basically, the Mediterranean Sea was like Marvel movies to them back then. If you so they they he added up. So he knew that if he shared all this, people would be pulled into the story. And the detail at level which he shares proves that this is not a made up story.

And so I just wanna read it, and then I'm gonna pour it out four things that Paul does that's anchoring himself in his faith that I think is the same thing we need to be doing. No matter what you're afraid of, what's going on in the world, what what we should actually be doing to be ready. So here we go.

Starting in verse 13. When a light wind began blowing from the south, the sailors thought they could make it. So they pulled up the anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete. But the weather changed abruptly, and a wind of a typhoon strength called a northeaster burst across the island and blew us out to sea.

The sailors couldn't turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale. We sailed along the sheltered side of a small island named Kata, where with great difficulty, we hoisted aboard the lifeboat being towed behind us. Then the sailors bound ropes around the hull of the ship to strengthen it.

They were afraid of being driven across the sand bars of Syrtis off the African coast, So they lowered the sea anchor to slow the ship and were driven before the wind. The next day, a gale force winds continued to batter the ship. The crew began throwing the cargo overboard.

The following day, they even took some of the ship's gear and threw it overboard. That's a pretty bad storm. When the owner of the ship is they're throwing over the cargo, lost money, and then the captain's willing to throw over gear,

which is exactly what Paul said would happen, by the way. The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars until at last all hope was gone.

See, this is called narrative theology. It's teaching us from an actual story, but we can learn some stuff like this. How? Some of us are sitting here right now, and you've been fighting the storms. The sun has been blotted out and you're losing hope.

No one had eaten for a long time. Finally, Paul called the crew together and said, men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete.

You would have avoided all this damage and loss, but take courage. None of you will lose your lives even though the ship will go down. For last night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me. And he said, don't be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar.

What's more, God and his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you. So take courage for I believe God and it'll be just as he said, But we will be shipwrecked on an island. Because we're gonna live, but shipwreck's gonna happen.

He goes, about midnight on the fourteenth night of the storm, we were being driven across the Sea Of Adria. The sailors sensed land was near. They dropped a weighted line and found that the water was a 120 feet deep. But a little later, they measured again and found it was only 90 feet deep.

At this rate, they were afraid we would soon be driven against the rocks on the shore. So they threw out four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for daylight. Then the sailors tried to abandon the ship. Now you know it's bad. Who's trying to leave? The actual professional sailors.

They're wanting to abandon the ship. They lowered the lifeboat as though they were gonna be put, to put out anchors out anchors from the front of the ship. But Paul said to the commanding officer and the soldiers, you will all die unless the sailors stay aboard. We stick together, everyone dies. So, of course, the soldiers cut the ropes of the lifeboat and let it drift away.

Now they're listening to Paul. They're doing what he said.

Just as the day was dawning, Paul urged everyone to eat. You've been so worried that you haven't touched food for two weeks, he said. Please eat something now for your own good, for not a hair of your heads will perish. Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it. Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat, all 276

of us who were on board. So now he encouraged them all to eat, ate. Now they're listening to him and eating. After eating, the crew lightened the ship further by throwing the cargo of wheat overboard.

When morning dawned, they didn't recognize the coastline, but they saw a bay with a beach and wondered if they could get to shore by running the ship aground. So they cut off the anchors left and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed towards shore.

But they hit a shoal and ran the ship aground too soon. The bow of the ship struck fast while the stern was repeatedly smashed by the force of waves and began to break apart. The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners to make sure they didn't swim ashore. So now you got the soldiers wanting to kill the prisoners.

Now they're in a panic. But the commanding officer wanted to spare Paul, so he didn't let them carry out their plan. Then he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land. The others, I e, those who couldn't even swim, held on to planks or debris from the broken ship.

So everyone escaped safely to shore. End of story. Kind of a cool little story there of a nautical tale, but what does it teach us? What does it what does it show? And I think if you watch how Paul acts in this, there there's four anchor. They had four anchors that the crew tried to use to stop the shipwreck,

and it didn't work. What they were anchored in was the fear. We gotta stop this from happening. Paul knew it was gonna happen, but he stayed anchored in faith, and he had four anchors that he was anchored in.

And it changed the whole narrative. And because of his faith, all 02/1976 lived.

And and so that's kind of a story it tells us. So what was he anchored in? What was different about this that applies to us in the storms that we face where you think you're gonna be running around? Because here's the truth of the story. Same as in this story. You are gonna get shipwrecked sometimes. And

God might be directing the shipwreck. The question isn't about the problem of stopping the shipwreck. It's what am I supposed to do during it? And these four anchors that Paul had, the first one was he was anchored in God's presence. He said, hey, this angel came and talked to me. I knew he he was there. This angel

was was was there. And and and and so he knew. He knew God was with him. Now I know what you're thinking. Well, I haven't had an angel tap me on the shoulder and say, don't worry about it. Well, you know what? We have something better. We have the word of God, but we have the spirit of God.

The holy spirit. God isn't just with us. He's within us. And then he gives us his word.

And so if you look at it, Psalms 23 says it this way. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For I act like a good person, I trust God, and there's no way he'd let something bad happen to me. Oh, wait. That's not what it says.

It says, I walk through the valley of shadow of death, but I will fear no evil. Why? For you are with me. See, God doesn't keep us away from shipwrecks. He doesn't take them around. What he does is he's with us through it.

And that's what we need to remember. Whatever you're stuck in, whatever you're afraid of out there, or whatever is afraid of in your own world right now, the thing that's driving that fear and that panic, you don't have to worry because God is with you. You have his presence. So what do you got to fear?

And a lot of us, you think, well, I'm not acting fearful. You might be acting angry. Anger is a secondary emotion. You know that? Something else is always causing it. And it's usually frustrations and fears. A lot of times, fear is what's driving your anger. I think the reason so many Christians are so hostile

on Facebook and social media and with each other and politically and out there is because we feel like we're losing ground. We we don't have any say. It seems like our culture is changing around us, and we're getting angry. You know why? Because we're trying to control a fear that we have. We're afraid

of what we're losing.

And then some of us, when you look at the end times, you look at is this is Jesus coming back? Or you look at all these stories. You're a little bit afraid too, and you don't think about the presence of God, especially in a shipwreck, because you're more worried about losing the presence of what you're losing.

It's like, I'm comfortable. I like what I have. I don't wanna be uncomfortable. See, we think God's supposed to keep us comfortable all the time. And we get frustrated when we're uncomfortable. And otherwise, we forget. Like, hearing that Jesus says, I will come back doesn't encourage us.

And matter of fact, if if if you wanna go study the prophecies, we're gonna be in in part of Revelation in two weeks. And we're gonna look at at at the first part of it.

But the but the reality is this, is is is is if you are afraid of that book, you you look. It's like, hey, the book of Revelation, the end times, if you are a follower of Jesus, that should be the most encouraging book you've ever read.

If you're not a believer or you just are more worried about what you're gonna lose, you're enjoying this life so much, you're not thinking about the presence of God, it's gonna be the scariest thing you ever read.

And so we gotta think about that presence. And some of us are so comfortable in the world, we don't even recognize the presence of God. My my oldest daughter, she was born like she's she tricked us into having other kids. She just was easy in so many ways. And and and then she she she she was so friendly.

Like, she wasn't the one that would freak out when you take her to, like, child care or something like that. Matter of fact, she's over and we went to the gym. And, you know, some of y'all, you have a kid and you try to take them to child care. Like, I guess I'm not working out anymore because they just it's it's a disaster. Well, she just went right in, had a good time. Memphis, she'd have so much good time. Suddenly, she'd fight us on leaving. And she was little. And and so one time we went to pick her up at the gym, and she was in one of those play things that you can go up, like, three stories up, has little bubbles you can look out and stuff. She was way up at the top. You can see her. And and we went to get her, and her and the worker went and said, hey, Micah. Come on down. Come out. Your your parents are here. And she's like, no. And she wouldn't come out. So then they let us walk in so they could

we could try. So we go up there and we see her. She's in the bubble, like, on. We gotta go. And like, no. And she crawled away into the back corner and wouldn't even come out and was resisting so strongly that you know what the workers did? They asked for my wife and I to show them ID.

She so didn't care about our presence and didn't wanna be with us. She was having so much fun doing what she's doing. They thought that we weren't really her parents. You're not her dad. Could that be you right now?

The reason you're freaking out in the in the world, in the shipwrecks of life is you are so comfortable in this world that it's hard to even see that you recognize that God is your father.

You gotta embrace the presence of God more than the problems you're facing. You see, God is not trying to show us how to not have scary things. He's not trying to teach us to go around fear. He's not we're never getting rid of that before he comes back. And you're always gonna have fearful moments. They don't just go away.

And you're always gonna fear feel afraid. The question is what he's trying to show us is this isn't how to avoid it. This is how to handle it. And the first step is to anchor yourself in the fact that God is with you and he loves you. This is the key thing. He loves you more than you love you. Did you know that?

When I talk about we need to trust God, it's not like you better trust God or else. It's more like, why wouldn't you? He died for us. He loves us. He loves us so much. He built us. He loves you more than you love yourself. And I get that's hard for me to understand because I think about it, if I'm really honest,

I love myself more than anybody else. And and and and and and it's a natural bent.

I choose to be. I choose to love others. I choose to sacrifice. I choose. I don't have to wake up one morning and go, man, I gotta really learn to be selfish and care about myself more than something else. I don't have to talk myself into that. And that's our struggle.

We are worried that we know more about what we need than God does. And so we don't want the problem. But God says, who cares about the problem if you're with me?

Anchor yourself in his presence. Second thing Paul does in here is he he has the anchor of God's promise.

The anchor of God's promise. He had God's word. He had that promise. Knew what his mission was. He knew where what was happening, and he was able to to stay calm in that scenario. He's able to know that God had promised him some things. Do you

when you're worried and fearful, do you think of it? Do you go into God's presence, realize he's with you, and then open his word and trust it more than trust what he says more than what you see is the question. Because that's how you have to handle this.

You need to really trust him because we all have these similar experiences and we need God's word. In other words, this is how we are ready for Jesus at any time. We we we need to live our lives like we're always ready.

For example, I prayed growing up that Arizona would get a professor Major League Baseball team. And God loves me, so he said yes. And I was at the very first game they ever played. I actually got the shirt that says the inaugural game,

and then I got a hat that has embroidered on the side like the World Series hats now that says the very first game they ever played, because I was there for that. I was not gonna miss that moment. And and the picture came up before I set it up, but that's alright. There I am with it.

And and and and and and the whole idea is is is is this. I had that, and I wore it on that opening day. And then I couldn't wait for them to get to a world series, and they finally got there in 2001. Finally, took three seasons as a record.

Happened so fast, I wasn't ready. I I I I went to get tickets, but back then, you couldn't order them online. You had to you had to, go down to the

box office at the stadium. So I was down there with a friend till, like, two in the morning or one in the morning waiting in line, and I got three people from the box office and they said sold out. I'm like, well, not this time. I have no idea when they're coming back, but I know they will. So I waited.

And tomorrow I'm going to the game. Now

the picture's supposed to pop up and you're

I kept the hat and the shirt. I stayed ready. That is a twenty five year old hat and shirt. Surprised it still fits.

And I knew it. I knew I was gonna bust that out. That's what I'm gonna be wearing tomorrow. Because I knew I was waiting and I was ready. And guess what? The coolest thing is is purple, the color of the king. That's a that's a royal color.

And that, guys, are you clothed in Christ every day? Have you accepted Christ and then forgotten about it? Or are you ready for him to return? Do you clothe yourself in the king's clothes? Are you clothed in your new life? That's re re anchoring in his presence and anchoring in his promise.

That's what we need to be about. And then the third thing

is, are you anchored in God's plan? See, not only did he have this promise from God for him, but he knew God's plan. He knew Paul knew the purpose he was supposed to be living. So in that storm, even though it got crazy and you know he might die, he kept to the purpose. The storms did not stop him from his purpose.

I think that's not one of the biggest things we struggle with. The second life gets scary, we stop doing what God asked us to do. And that's when we should lean into it even more. I mean, I think Paul had this attitude. If God wants me to live, nothing can harm me. No storm can take my life.

If I'm still doing his purpose and I still have a plan, I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna be fine. Nothing can stop it. So what do I have to worry about? What do I have to worry about? That even in these terrible times, God has a plan. Matter of fact, the Lord revealed to Jeremiah, he's he that famous verse that everyone misquotes.

He says, for I know the plans I have for you, A plan to prosper and bring hope. And everyone thinks that means I'm never gonna have a problem. You know when Jeremiah was that was revealed to him by God?

As he's watching the fall of Israel and they're getting dragged off in chains into captivity after massive amounts of them were killed. What he's saying is, trust my plan even through this horrible thing. Don't walk away from your purpose. Well, what was Paul's purpose? The gospel. To bring glory to God

by embracing the love of God in his own life, knowing it, and then showing it by pointing people to Jesus, by loving them like Jesus with his whole life, his time, his testimony, his treasure, everything. That was his purpose. Guess what? Jesus already told every one of us that's our purpose.

That's what we're supposed to be doing. Matter of fact, the ship is already sinking. This world is shipwrecked and doesn't even know it. It's the Titanic. It's hit the iceberg. Our job is not to stop the iceberg.

Our job is not to go analyze the iceberg. Our job is not to argue about the iceberg. Our job is not to run around the deck telling everyone, you know what? We're all gonna die, you're stupid. Our job is to calmly be the crew and build more lifeboats and point people to the lifeboats.

That's our purpose. A lot of us have different jobs. I'm called to be a pastor. But guess what? My purpose in this world is the same as yours. My job description, my everyday job description looks different.

But I don't care what job you have, what you're doing. If you are a follower of Christ, you are supposed to be putting your life around the gospel call. That's why this section of acts is called the church. We are supposed to be the church.

And the number one reason I hear people like, yeah, know Jesus, but I'm not serving. I don't give. I don't it's always because you have a problem.

You will never get out of that problem what God wants to give you through that problem if you avoid your purpose during that problem. You never will. And the reason you won't surrender is fear. And you say it like this, I can't. You're right. You can't. But if you surrender to the Holy Spirit and his power, you can.

But it's fearful. Yeah. My dad used to say it this way, as as as a combat soldier in three wars, led men multiple times. I go, how do you not go insane? Because I mean, in Korea, he was in a combat zone for three straight years.

And and I go, how do you not just die from all the fear and exhaustion? He's like, the way he was able to handle it is he goes, I learned it in World War two. And you ask any true combat veteran, they'll tell you that's true. Is what you had to decide is, I joined the military because I believe in the cause

and I love the men I were served with. So I just decided as he's taken the beaches of Iwo Jima, as he's at the landing at Inchon, as he was in the in the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, as he was in all of these moments, he had already decided, I'm gonna die for this cause. He's just assumed he's already dead,

and any good soldier does that. You assume that you'll die, and you're okay with that. Because once you just surrender the fact that this cause is worthy and I will die doing this cause, you stop worrying all the time. It's weird. And Jesus called us to the same thing when he said, hey, count the cost.

Look at the cause, count the cost, and take up your cross. You wanna stop worrying about your life and where it meant be willing to just give your life for the cause of Christ. In other words, a lot of us get half of the equation right with the gospel. I accept the love of Christ that he died for me.

But you don't pick up the cause that says, since he died for us to give for us to have life, then give him my life in service to him. I would say 99% of the time when I counsel a believer that just can't seem to get past a struggle, is because you won't do the second part.

And you're using the shipwreck and the storm and the problem as the excuse to not. Paul didn't play that way. He had spiritual grit and that's what God's called us to as well. Where are you at on that? Are you anchored in God's plan?

Right now in your life, ask yourself, am I living God's purpose in my life today? Am I being the church?

And then if not,

maybe figure out what's stopping you and deal with that instead of just hiding behind the storm.

Because what we're supposed to do is walk towards the purpose, not worry about the end.

That's what we're called to. Paul did it well. And then finally, the fourth anchor is the anchor of God's power.

The anchor of God's power. In this and how did God's power work? In the end, it's like soldiers were gonna kill him, and they didn't die. And not only did they not die, everyone lived. 02/1976. Because of Paul's faith, they all lived.

So his faith encouraged others, and that encouragement helped rescue others, and it and it and they they they lived. That's kind of the analogy of this story.

And and we understand that god's power is always there in our life. But we have this we have this misunderstanding that god's power means he'll stop the problem. He'll stop the shipwreck. But remember, he says, we're all gonna live. The ship's gonna sink. You're gonna lose the cargo. You're gonna lose the gear, but we're not gonna lose our lives.

That's what God's power is promising. He's a hey. You might lose a job. You might have a problem. You might lose a relationship. There might be things that you lose. In other words, your boat may sink. Your boat may sink like Paul's, but you'll be saved. Many things may be destroyed,

but you will be preserved. And in the process, other people will too. The gospel will go forward. And it even says in in in the New Testament that all of those tough things we go through as believers, it says, if you trust God, he will use those things in your life to bring encouragement to others down the road.

I think Paul was perfectly set up for this. He's like, oh, I've been here before. This was the fourth time he's been shipwrecked. He was the right guy for the scenario.

And if you ever thought that some of those deepest issues you've had, if you just trust God for that healing and his love and believe that he loves you more than you love yourself, you can trust his plan, go for his purpose, You'll get past the fear and you'll stay in the fight.

And you'll see the power of God work in the way God's power wants to work. We think God's power is just solve all my problems. God's power wanted to solve our biggest problem, our separation from him because of sin.

And then he wants to open us up to be able to live out that life through the power of the holy spirit that he's called us to and the joy of what happens.

In other words, bottom line is God uses storms to reposition us for his call and his purpose. God always uses storms to reposition. If you get in a storm out on the water, by the end of the storm, your boat is not where it started ever. And it's the same. And God does this all the time.

And a lot of us only think of it one way. I have a storm because I'm not listening. Well, that's the story of Jonah. Right? Just preached through it a while back. Jonah ran the opposite way, so God sent a storm. I'm gonna make you go back the other way. Literally. He saved all

Jonah, all of the people on the boat got saved too because Jonah got tossed in the water. He needed to go back the other way. Reposition.

We understand that part. But some of you struggle with this message because you might be like Paul. I am absolutely all in, and I lost my job. I'm absolutely all in, and something happened to my kids. I'm absolutely all in, and look at the world. I'm absolutely all in in this relationship. I'm absolutely all in. I don't get it. Well, Paul was all in, and he still ended up in a storm that ended up shipwrecked.

Why? Because God was still repositioning him too. But instead of discipline, it was a detour.

So you ever thought about that? That maybe God's taking you on a detour if you trust him, that he's gonna use the bad thing. It even says, he makes all things work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. It doesn't mean everything always works out good. We go through bad things. But he says if you trust and stay involved in his purpose, he will take that bad thing, and it'll end up becoming a good thing,

which is exactly what happens with Paul. Because they land go read the next chapter. The island they land on is Malta. Just go Google Malta. Malta to this day is 96 to 98% Christian. Guess who brought the gospel to Malta?

A guy named Paul who had never even they said they didn't even recognize the bay. They didn't recognize where they were. These sailors and Paul had never seen this place before. But God knew they were there, and so he ends up sharing the gospel. The church gets established.

And to this day, they're still believers. And you know what? They got established pretty strong because Malta for hundreds of years was ruled by Muslim kings, and they stayed Christians.

God knew what he was doing. The question is, if we're gonna be anchored in faith, we need to start believing that God knows what he's doing. And trust him, especially in the most fearful things. The most fearful moments. The most fearful things that that are there. So bottom line, final question

is this. Are you anchored in faith or fear right now? And what I would challenge you to do is get alone. You can start thinking about right now, but maybe spend some time today, tomorrow, maybe take as much time as it needs. And when you look at the purpose that God's given us,

which I'll just tell you, this is the way we word it, but you can go read the New Testament for yourself. We're supposed to be pointing people to Jesus by loving like Jesus, by embracing the love of God, worshiping him, and knowing, growing, and going.

Know his love, worship, get to know it, be in the word, grow in community, and going and living intentionally with our time, our talent, our testimony, and our treasure. And put it in put put that in play with reaching people for Jesus. That is our purpose. So ask yourself, are you doing it? Are you doing all of that?

And if not, ask yourself what the fear is. And here's what I mean by fear. See by some of your faces, you're mad that I challenge you to that. That anger, ask yourself why you're so angry about it. Because I'm telling you, you can come I can show you in the bible clearly what God wants you to do.

So it's not about truth at this point. It's about what you wanna do versus what God wants to do. And I guarantee those of you that are angry about that, well, I'm a believer and don't tell me I gotta Guys, I'm gonna rattle your cage. I need to rattle it so you you know you're in one. You're angry because you're afraid.

And you're afraid because you want what you want, but you really want and need what God wants to give you. But you can't figure out how to give him what he's asking for without losing what you think you need so badly. And that's the problem. I'm trying to show you the freedom.

And how I know that is we live in a world that's not calm. Christians aren't being calm. And did you notice in this story, you know why they all started following Paul? He's the only one that stayed calm. That's the peace that surpasses all understanding. You only get that peace when you anchor yourself in faith.

But yet we're angry. We're mad. We're mad at the world. We're mad at all these things.

Matter of fact, a guy named John Maxwell, great pastor and leadership developer, he described that we carry around as human beings two buckets. And whenever we come into an issue or problem, relational thing, we choose which bucket we're gonna throw on that fire. And one bucket is water, one bucket is gasoline.

I feel like a lot of us in the church today in the Western world put down our water bucket, and we have two buckets of gasoline and matches. I don't see a fire there yet, but I'll start one. And that tells me there's fear and frustration because the world's not going the way you want it to go.

But if you understand God's power, God's presence, God's plan, if you understand God's promises, the bible says it's gonna go this way. And we have the opportunity to make a difference. But you gotta choose. Sit down and go, am I afraid of? What am I frustrated with when it comes to trusting God's plan in my life?

And real quick before I I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll be real with you guys. I struggle with finances. I do. I'll talk about as, you know, your your your money needs to join a church like anything else. God asked us to share our resources.

And a lot of you think, well, I just it's easy for me. I do it. I'm yelling at all you to try to get money out of you. No. I literally, since I grew up as a kid, always it always made me nervous and freaked me out. I think it's that when I was a kid, my dad lost his job. They my parents were really open about it, which I liked that they were open. But being, like, five, six years old and open, it created a sense of insecurity for me.

And it's hit me ever since.

And so I worry about it. I get it. If you're worried about it, I am the king of worrying about it. Matter of fact, I worry about time. Matter of fact, every time we have to do something as a church, I freak out. Part of that is good. We should. I'm a steward of what we've given, and but we have a plurality of leadership. Building this next building scares the snot out of me.

Not because I didn't think God told us to. Our whole leadership team. I'm not the only one to make the decision. We prayed about we know that we're supposed to point people to Jesus by reaching them, you know, by loving them like Jesus. That's what we've been doing. We're out of room. We the 200 we've baptized over 200 people this weekend. That puts us over a thousand this year.

A thousand people in bed. 2,100 people have said yes to Jesus this year in this church. And and and and and and, yeah, we need the room. People are coming. For the sake of the next generation, we gotta build that building. You realize all you have to do to lose the gospel in your culture is miss one generation.

That is what I'm a part of, but we are a part of in England. One generation decided we're done with church, and now less than 3% of the population goes to church. That children's building is one of the most important things we will ever do. And I freak out because I'm like, I have to trust that we will be the church

and get past our fears and get it done. And I'm okay with being a little bit concerned because I always look at the fight. And you know, we live in a weird economy. We don't know what's going on. It's scary, but it's like, but who cares what's going on out there? God called us to this. So we gotta move forward.

And I gotta trust. But why I say that is because I am not the one acting high and mighty and it's easy for me and why are you guys all stupid with your money. I stress it. It's the one thing that'll get to me. It's the one thing that'll get to me. Matter of fact, we have a finance team, great guys, volunteers,

our executive pastor, and they're looking at the finances. I don't even look at what the giving is any given week. I figure no news is good news. If we got a problem, they'll come and tell me. Because I don't like stressing over it. It it it affects me. I just trust God.

But how do I do that? How do I not let it eat me up? Exactly what Paul does here. I choose to just do what God asked. Because at that point, it's up to him. It's up to him. And you know what makes it a little bit easier? This go around? Paul had been shipwrecked four times. When it comes to we have to take a big step

in building a building or doing something to keep reaching this community in the world for Christ, this is my ninth time. In twenty one years, nine times I've had to get up and challenge us to say, guys, let's sacrifice and give to this thing. And it's always worked out. Never the way I thought in my head.

Every time I thought some guy like Bill Gates is gonna hand me a couple million dollar check. I'm praying at least one of these times, someone in this room,

I'm praying that someone's gonna hand us a couple million dollars that'll really help us get where we need to go. But it never seems to work that way, but I don't know. God always does it different. But I know if I trust him, we get where we're supposed to go. We get to Rome.

Like God promised Paul. So how about you? Father God, I just thank you, Lord. I thank you that you love us more than we love ourselves. You give us your word. But Lord, I thank you that we have your presence, your promise, your plan, and your power. All we have to do is accept it and surrender to it.

So Lord, I pray for me, everyone in this room, anyone online, that we would embrace that. We would embrace that hope even in a time where the world seems hopeless. We would embrace that hope even in times when maybe my own personal life feels hopeless. That Lord that we would look to you and not have so many whys,

but we'll have one who, and that is you. I pray this in your mighty name. Amen. Hey, I love you guys. Thanks for being

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