 Well, if you would turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 27. Today I wanna talk about the storms of life. The storms of life. And as I was talking to some people about this, one person got back to me and says, I went through four storms just this week. But it's been said that there are three kinds of storms that can blow into our lives. Maybe you've heard them. There can be storms of correction. You know, storms that come because we've disobeyed the Lord. And there are consequences for the poor choices we've made. There can be storms of protection or what I call direction. These are storms that are designed to protect us from something that will damage or harm us, to stir us in a different direction. You know, circumstances to keep us out of harm's way and point us to where God is leading us to go. And then there are storms of perfection. You know, these are the storms that God uses to teach us to trust in Him, to teach us on how to trust Him. Where we have the opportunity to put our faith into action. You know, one thing that I often say at my churches is trials are just opportunities for us to really live out what we say we believe. Because if you say you believe something, it's really just a theory, right? Until you actually have to do it. You can say, hey, I trust you, bro, with my life. But then when he says, okay, let's get in the will bearer, I'm gonna roll you across this little thin line across Niagara Falls. He says, there's no way I'm gonna do that. Well, it's cause I really don't trust Him with my life. Right? And we can say, I trust you, God, with everything that I have until God says, okay, give me that. And then you say, well, accept that, Lord. I mean, I really like that. You know, we have all those different rules in our mind. But what about the storms that simply come to us because we're living in a storm zone? You know, the storms that come to us were connected to someone who's going through a storm. It's not our storm, but we're living with someone or connected to someone and it's their storm. It's what they're going through. It's not anything that I did to deserve it or anything that I did wrong. It's not even my storm. You just happen to be in the boat with someone going through a storm. And I call these storms storms of connection. Storms of connection because these are storms that come because of the people that I'm connected to. And this is the kind of storm that we find Paul going through in Acts chapter 27 as we're gonna look at tonight. Now to give us some background before we get to our text, Paul is on his way to Rome to bear witness of Jesus Christ. He's going as a prisoner because of his appeal to Caesar in Acts chapter 25. In reality, he would have been let go. You know, he really would have been let go set free after appearing before King of Grippa in Acts chapter 26. But because he appealed to Caesar, he's being transported with other prisoners to Rome. And he's placed in the custody of a Roman centurion named Julius, who seems sympathetic to Paul's innocence. He seems to believe that Paul really has no reason to be incarcerated and he gives Paul a tremendous amount of freedom. In fact, when they're at a layover in Sidon, Julius lets Paul go out and visit other believers in the city and allows them the freedom to minister to the Christians there. But in Acts chapter 27, verse nine, we read this. Now, when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them saying, men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the thing spoken by Paul. And there's a couple of things I want us to notice here just as we're getting into it in this first part of the passage we're reading tonight. First of all, notice that Paul warned them against leaving. Paul brought a warning to them. He says, if you leave, this is going to end up in total disaster. There's gonna be losses, maybe even the loss of life. He warns them ahead of time. It's like when you go to the movies and you see the guy and he's about to walk into this room and you know the bad guy's waiting to shoot him in the other room and then you're sitting there going, no, cause you like this guy, he's the good guy and you start yelling at the screen, don't go in there, don't go in there. And what does he do? He goes in there, right? It's like he totally ignores the fact that you're sitting in the theater yelling at him. Of course, everyone else is going, that person needs their medication. But the owner of the ship and the helmsman convince the centurion who's taking Paul to Rome to set sail, we've got to leave. And they sail right into the clutches of a hurricane force storm. In verse 13 we read, and when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire putting out the sea, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, a tempestuous headwind arose called Euryl Clyden. And so when the ship was caught and could not head into the wind, we let her drive. And running under the shelter of an island called Clota, we secured the skiff with difficulty. And when they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship. And fearing lest they should run aground on the cirrus sands, they struck sail and so were driven. And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. And on the third day we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands. Now, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we should be saved was finally given up. You know, it's interesting because as they begin to set sail, it's as if they've made the right decision. You know, they get this nice soft breeze, you know? It says here that the south wind blew softly. And in their mind, they're thinking, we are going out in ideal conditions. We made the right decision. Paul, you were absolutely wrong. But not long after, the soft south wind becomes a violent northeaster. The Greeks call it the Euryclidon. It's Euro for south wind and Achilo for north wind. Two words kind of put together. The word tempestuous that's used here in verse 14 is the Greek word typhonic. It's where we get our word typhoon from. And so they're in the middle of this massive typhoon that threatens to tear the ship apart and they do everything in their power to stay alive. You might be asking, what's a typhoon? Well, I lived in Japan and basically a typhoon is a kamikaze version of a hurricane. That's all it is. It's the same thing as a hurricane, except it's over there and not over here. So they're in the middle of this hurricane, this typhoon, and the ship was at the mercy of the winds. They tried to stay close to shore to use the islands as a windbreaker to protect the ship, but the winds were too powerful. And fearing that the winds would tear the ship apart, they used cables to hold the ship together and they lighten the ship so it rises above the waves. But the storms persist for many days and after a while they gave up hope of coming out alive. Now keep in mind, Paul warned them, don't leave the safety of the harbor. Which brings me to the second thing I want us to notice about this, and that is that Paul was in this storm by no cause of his own. This storm had nothing to do with Paul. Paul just happened to be in the ship with the guys that didn't listen to him. It was the helmsman and owner of the ship that took Paul into the storm. And there are times that the storms we face are actually brought on by others. They're actually brought on by others. Like Paul, you might be warning them. Don't leave the safety of this harbor. Don't make the decisions that you're going to make. Don't leave the marriage that you're about to leave. Don't do what you're planning to do because if you do it, you're gonna end up in destruction, maybe even lose your life. And like Paul, your words are ignored. And when the storm comes, you're caught up in the middle of the storm with everyone else. Maybe you're in a storm because of a son or a daughter. It's not a storm that you wanted. Maybe you're in a storm because of a business partner. Decisions that they made. Maybe you're in a storm because of an aging parent or the poor choices of a husband or a wife. It could be a relational storm. It could be a financial storm. It could be a family storm. But whatever the storm is, you didn't ask for it. In fact, you warned against it. And now you're left dealing with it. And maybe the storm is so intense, you don't think you'll make it out alive. What do you do? What do you do when you're in the middle of such a storm? Well, look at what Paul did in verse 21. It says here, but after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, men, you should have listened to me. Now don't you love people like that? You're like, you're having a good day and you know that things are rough. And they go, you should have listened to me. You should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart for there will be no loss of life among you but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve saying, do not be afraid. Paul, you must be brought before Caesar and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you. Therefore take heart men for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island. What's the first thing that Paul does? He prays. The first thing that Paul does is prays. It says after long abstinence from food, what does that mean? That means that Paul was fasting. He didn't have to not eat. He chose not to eat because in the midst of the storm that was brought on that he was part of that was not of his own choosing, he needed to hear from God. And what did he do? He sought the Lord. He sought the Lord. He fasted and he prayed. You know, when you're going through a storm that's not the time to call up your friends and vent. When you're going through a storm that's not the time to throw up your hands and just say, that's it, I've had enough. When you're going through the storm that's when you get down on your knees and you seek the Lord and you pray and you ask God, God what is going on here? What is your perspective? What are you doing in the midst of this? Where is the storm headed? What did Paul encourage the Philippians to do in Philippians four, six through seven? He said, be anxious for nothing but in everything by what? Prayer and supplication. With what? Thanksgiving. It's easy to pray and supplicate. It's harder to pray with Thanksgiving when you're going through it, isn't it? It says, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Now you read those and those are great comfort to us that are going through storms but you ask yourself, how could Paul say that? How could Paul pen those words? Well, the reason why Paul could write these things down is because he lived it. He went through it and he knew that the only way through the storm is through prayer and that's the first thing he did. It's not the time to be discouraged. It's not the time to complain. It's the time to seek the Lord because you don't know what the outcome of the storm will be but God does. God does. He knows the end from the beginning and there's many storms that I've been through in my life and I didn't know how the storm was gonna turn out but God always did. And when I heard from God it was always an encouragement. As a friend of mine, friend of yours too, Pastor David Trujillo said, when I'm going through hard times. No. Ha ha ha ha. What were you laughing about? No. You know when you're going through hard times don't blame God, seek God and find great comfort and knowing that he'll bring about a glorious result. See, God, the second thing Paul did is he spoke the truth in love. He didn't become a victim of the storm. He became a source of truth and of love. And he says to them, guys, you should have listened to me when I told you not to set sail. And the purpose of Paul saying that was not to call him out. It was not to call him to accountability. It wasn't to throw down. It wasn't to condemn them. It was not to judge them. It was to build credibility with them because Paul was going to tell them what was going to happen next. And so he was building credibility. Listen, the Lord spoke to me and I told you that if you went out, it would be a storm. It wouldn't be good. It would be dangerous. And I told you not to do that. But listen to me because God has spoken to me again. Don't be discouraged. Don't lose heart because none of us are going to die. He had heard from the Lord. There's going to be consequences. The ship is going to be lost, but we're going to live. We're going to live. When you speak the truth in love with someone, it's not so that you can beat them up for making bad choices. They already feel bad enough. It's so that you can build credibility in order to speak life into them. You want to be able to speak life into their situation. Recently I had a friend make some bad choices and it brought some great risk into his life. And he was beating himself up so badly. And I called him every day and I just said, this is your daily call just to tell you I love you. I love you. Probably not going to call me back. I love you. I'm not going to take it personal. I love you, but I will beat you up when I see you. To tell him, this doesn't have to be a fatal decision. God can bring life. There's going to be consequences, but it's not the end. It's not over. Keep moving forward. Keep moving forward with Jesus. Now how did Paul know this? Because he sought the Lord and Jesus spoke to him in a dream. That's what we read here in Acts 27. Jesus himself spoke to Paul, which brings me to my third point and that is that Jesus was with Paul in the storm. Paul wasn't alone ever. Jesus was with them. In verse 23 an angel appears to Paul and says, don't be afraid. And he says there's two things you must do. Now when God says there's two things you must do, what does that mean? It means you're going to do them, right? Because he knows, right? He knows that you're going to do them. You must be brought before Caesar and you must run the ship of ground on a certain island because I have a purpose for you there. You must do it. Now my church is a very loving church. It's a very encouraging church and people love to cheer people on and they love to come around people that are hurting and they love to people that, you know, walk with people through difficulties. But in all honesty, when I'm going through a storm, I don't necessarily need all the encouragement. What I need is a word from God. I need to hear God speak to me and tell me what is going to happen. I need him to give me clear direction and I need to give him, give me his perspective on the situation. I need the perspective of heaven, not the perspective that I'm going through here on earth. I need something greater. And that's what Paul needed and Paul received that from the Lord. And God says, Paul, I'm going to use this storm for my glory. You didn't ask for the storm, but even in the midst of the storm, I have ministry for you to do. You know, I believe that probably at one point, Paul was probably praying, Lord, take the storm away. Get rid of the storm. But rather than deliver Paul from the storm, Jesus was with Paul through the storm. I can remember a storm that lasted in my life for probably, I would say 13 years, long storm. And I remember as I'm going through this storm, how difficult it was. And yet Jesus made himself known to me in ways that I never thought possible. And I grew in just my relationship with the Lord. And after I'd gone through the storm and it was clear, you know, it was obvious to me that the storm was over. I remember sitting with the Lord, I'm like, Lord, couldn't you have picked another route? Why did I have to go through the storm? And the Lord was very simply communicating. He says, that was the only way to go from point A to point B. You had to go through the storm. It was just the next step. But through the storm, Jesus was with me. None of us are immune from the storms of life. But Jesus said, I will be with you. He promises to never leave us, nor forsake us. And especially if you're short. Because the Bible says, low, I am with you always. Jesus says, not only will I be with you through the storm, Paul, but there are things that you must do. Paul, you must go to Rome. And Paul, you must go to this island called Malta. That's where your ship will run aground. That's the sure word of prophecy. That's God speaking to Paul. But here's the thing, it's not enough to simply hear the word. You need to do the word. You need to live the word out. You know, the Bible is not a book of theology that we study. The Bible is a manual for living that word to do. It's to be done. And we read it, we absorb it, we bring it into our lives so we can practice it and put it into action. Jesus said in Matthew 7, 24 through 27, therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the storm came, the rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rocks. It was not only hearing, but doing. That was the foundation. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its falls. You know, the person who hears the word of God and does it remains standing through the storm. The person who hears the word of God and does not do it is overcome by the storm. And the question is, are you being overcome by the storm or are you an overcomer? Are you standing in the midst of it? And it could be the reason that why you're not overcoming in the midst of the storm is simply because you don't know what the word of God says about you and about him. And praise God you're in a church that teaches the word of God because you're better educated to face the storms of life than the majority of the churches out there. But there's another reason why you could be getting overcome by the storms and that is because you've heard it, you know it, but you don't do it. You don't put it into practice. Regardless, in both cases, you're making a decision to ignore Jesus. You ignore Jesus by not spending time with him in his word to know what he is saying. And you ignore Jesus by hearing his word and not doing it. And here's the question, why cut yourself off from the greatest source of help that you can have in Jesus by spending time with him in his word? Why not make the decision like Paul to seek the Lord, to know his word, to be in the study of his word, to be where his word is being taught, to be in prayer, to be in his presence like Paul? That's what God desires, that you might find encouragement and help in the midst of the storm. The fourth thing I want you to notice is that Paul continued to minister in the midst of the storm. He's in the storm and he's ministering. In verse 33, it says, and as the day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying today is the 14th day you have waited and continued without food and eaten nothing. Therefore, I urge you to take nourishment for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you. And when he said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. And then they were all encouraged and also took food themselves. God gives Paul a word of encouragement to those who are in the boat with him that are going through the storm with him. In verse 24, Paul tells them, don't be afraid, take heart, be encouraged. And then here in verse 34, Paul tells them, eat food. Get your strength up. This is for your survival. And here's the key. God said, not a hair on your head will fall, but you need to participate with what God is doing here. Don't starve yourself, eat. Now I've taken that literally in my life. When God speaks, we need to participate with him. And when you're in the midst of the storm and God says, take courage, don't lose heart. We need to participate with him. We need to do what he says. We need to not lose heart, to be encouraged. You know, one of the most frustrating things I see as a pastor is I watch people go through storms and then they drop out, they give up. The storm becomes too intense. They're starving themselves. The storm is too much for me. And the first thing they do is isolate. They begin to quit showing up for Bible studies or quit going to church or they quit serving and they start drowning. They start drowning in their own sorrows. And I wanna commission you guys as members of this community, when you see people start to withdraw, when you see people begin to pull away to isolate, go after them because they're in the midst of a storm. They're going through something and they need someone to come and pull them out of the water because they're drowning when they isolate. People that are drowning become more critical, less gracious, more judgmental, less objective, more black and white, less focused on God's plan and more focused on the storm. And God said to them through Paul, get your strength back, eat, be encouraged, stop feeling sorry for yourself, you're going to make it. I've said it's going to happen. And sometimes that decision just to simply go and show up some place to serve. Feeds the soul. Sometimes that decision just to show up, I'm gonna go to church, I know I don't feel like being there, I'm just gonna do it. Feeds the soul. It brings strength back to you. And if you're in that place today, Jesus is saying to you, don't lose heart, get back into the fight. There are things that you must do, things that God has for you to do. Don't check out, engage. This is not the time to pull back. This is the time to move forward. And after encouraging them to eat, Paul gives thanks. In verse 35, Paul breaks bread, gives thanks to God in the presence of them all. In verse 36, we read that they were all encouraged and also took food. So Paul didn't just tell them, this is what you need to do. Paul led them in doing it. You need to eat. So I'm gonna give thanks and we're gonna sit down and eat. And when people are drowning, that's what they need. They don't need someone to say, hey, you need to get to church. They need someone to go pick them up and bring them to church. Or to go to their workplace, or to go to their home and say, hey, I just wanna come and encourage you in the word of God, let's eat together. Let's give thanks. Let's not starve ourselves. Let's be there for one another. And it leads me to ask myself, often does my actions encourage the faith of others? Am I encouraging people through what I do to build up their faith? When they're around me, are they full of faith? Or do I barf my fears and insecurities on people until they feel just as fearful and insecure as I am? My wife calls that being real. I don't necessarily think that it's always being real. But so often that is the actual case in our lives. Everything seems dark and hopeless. There seems to be no light for a long season of time. As I said earlier, one trial I went through for 13 years. And you begin to sink into despair and you put your despair on others. You know, it's like Eor. How are you doing? Oh, I'm doing all right. I'm still here. Well, let's go do something I would love to, but I can't move. But the Lord says to Paul, listen, take heart, cheer up, change your mindset, stop thinking the way you're thinking, change how you're thinking. That's what the Bible calls repentance. When we change our thinking about something. He says, listen Paul, the next chapter of your life is going to be so exciting. Don't let this storm take you down. There's more to come. I'm going to use you to bring the gospel to Rome. I'm going to use you to bring the gospel to these people in Malta that have no clue. You're going to heal, they're sick. There's going to be a revival that's going to break out in Malta through you. And in Acts 28, God uses Paul to bring a great revival on this small island by preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and praying for the needs of others, healing the sick. You know, as long as you're breathing, God is working. And there's always help. Yes. Later on, when Paul wrote his letter to the church in Philippi from his prison cell in Rome, he says to them in Philippians one, 12 through 14. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord having become confident by my chains are much more bold to speak the word without fear. If you remember at the beginning of the message, I mentioned a Roman centurion by the name of Julius. He was in charge of getting Paul to Rome. And how he was drawn to Paul was kind to Paul. But you know, the thing about Julius is that Julius saw Paul go through the storm. He was right there with Paul as he went through the storm. He heard Paul warn them all, don't go. It's gonna be disastrous. He was there when Paul heard from God, when Paul prayed, when he fasted, and when he had this visitation from an angel and he says to the men on the boat, don't worry, none of you are going to die. You're all going to live. He was there when they all lived. He was there when they went to Malta and he saw the sick heal. He saw the gospel preach. He saw this revival break out in this island. He saw Paul all the way to Rome. And I believe that Julius is one of the palace guard here that Paul mentions in Philippians. I believe he's one of the ones that said it became evident to the whole palace guard, even Julius. And I believe that we're actually going to get to see Julius in heaven because of the example that Paul lived, his witness, not just with his words, but with his life. We never know who's watching us as we're going through the storms. For those of you that know our story, we have a son that struggles with mental illness. For the last eight, nine months now, I think it's approaching 10 months, he's been homeless. And I don't know if you know what it's like to be the parent or know someone that is the parent of someone whose child is homeless, but it can break a mama's heart. Not knowing if your son is safe, not knowing what's going on with them. It's not a storm we chose. It's not a storm we volunteered for. For us, it's a storm of connection. It's a storm that has come into our life because he's our son, we're connected to him. And there have been many times when like Paul, he's going through all this and he's fasting and he's praying and they're doing everything they can just to stay afloat, just to stay alive. Let's lighten our load, let's lighten our schedules, let's get rid of stuff. Let's just try to stay above the waves, but the waves are too strong, the wind is too hard. Let's go to this place and find some shelter, but it's short lived and we've had to learn how to seek the Lord and how to pray and how to take our direction from him and to listen to him for the outcomes and not look at our circumstances. Because when you look at the circumstances, it can feel hopeless. Like I don't know if we're gonna make it out of this alive, but what we have come to discover is that in the midst of this very difficult storm, we have a very present Jesus who loves us, who will never leave us, who will never forsake us, who gives us guidance, gives us direction. We've prayed to him, there's been times when we've said, Lord, he has no food. Would you please feed him tonight somehow? And then we'll get a text from someone in our church. Oh, we just ran into your son at the harbor. We went and bought him a hamburger, thought you would wanna know. Lord, what's going on with him? Oh, we just, and we'll get a picture from some people in our church. Hey, look who we've found. We got him some clothes, he's doing okay. And this storm that we find ourselves in, we have gotten to know Jesus in ways that we never thought we would know. And you might be in the midst of that storm, and I'm here to tell you tonight, not because I'm just here to tell you, because I'm in the boat with you, and I'm saying to you, do not lose hope. Don't lose heart. Be encouraged, because God is with you.