Acts chapter 27. Just to bring us up to speed, Paul is in a ship on his way to Rome. He's a prisoner. He's not going there for a pleasure cruise. He's with soldiers and mariners, merchantmen and such the like. And that's where he's heading. Well, they get stopped by this tremendous storm called Urocladon. And the ship's in peril. And that's where we're going to start reading in verse 21. The ship is in trouble. And they're going to lose the ship. It's going to break up on rocks.

Verse 21, this is in the middle of a storm that's going on, but after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not loosed from Crete to have gained this harm and this loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer. Well, that's... It reminds me, and I'll stop for a second, it reminds me of a story that I heard personally in forestry class. It was like 10 of us. It was our 400 level class trying to get paper done to graduate. And this one guy was very antagonistic. And he said, we were up on this mountain, and there's fires all around us, and we thought we were going to die. And the Forest Service gentleman, who apparently was a believer, he said, have faith. Just have faith. And the guy just jumped up and said, that's the stupidest thing I've heard. We're going to die. The wind's coming up this way. And you tell me to have faith. And the guy that said to have faith wasn't there. He wasn't telling. It was a guy who was the antagonistic guy saying that. He goes, can you believe that? And then I just looked at him. I said, yeah. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? By your own free will, you're gonna say, stop wind and do this and do that.

Well, here's Paul, I exhort you, verse 22, be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but we're gonna lose the ship. Now remember who he's talking to. He's talking to people who have a lot more traveling oceans experienced in this than he does. What he says is he stands up, exhorts him. For 23, for there stood by me this night the angel of God, God whose I am and whom I serve. saying fear not Paul thou must be brought before Caesar and lo God hath given thee all them that are with thee that sail with thee wherefore sirs he says it again be of good cheer for I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me

that's what we're going to stop and I want to look at this phrase that's found in verse 23, the latter half of verse 23. I can think of no better anthem or watchword for the believer and or redeemed sinner than this short phrase uttered by Paul. Let's look at it. God, whose I am and whom I serve. That should be a universal anthem. watchword for the believer. This truth, if it's tucked in the heart by faith, leads each child of God to do and act and believe as Paul. Be of good cheer. Be of good cheer.

Now that doesn't mean that every day you wake up and you smile and all this and, you know, No, we all have different personalities. We all have different, you know, Melinda used to get aggravated at me when I said, well, you're in a bad mood this morning. Well, we all get in bad moods. We all get disgruntled. And things happen that are not joyous. Peter says that. The trial of our faith. It's not joyous at times. But we can say, if we realize The God we serve is over every single thing. Life, health, soundness of mind, be of good cheer. He says it twice. Be of good cheer. God, whose I am, and whom I serve. Just two points. That's what we're gonna look at. We are his, whose I am.

Now, first off, Every person in here, whether you're a believer or not, whether you're a boy, girl, man, or woman, every person in here is His by creation. His by creation. Everyone born of Adam are God's creatures, and as such, we owe Him a huge debt of thanks, gratitude, and reverence.

However, You look at the news, go to your neighbors, and they don't. And we don't oftentimes. Because he says in Colossians 1 that every, well, let's just turn there. Colossians 1, we are God's, my creation. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and are in earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him.

So just in creation, just in creation, we owe God a debt of gratitude. That's why I get so, there's certain things that don't fit well with me, my own sin for one, but when I complain or when I hear somebody else complain, He's given us longevity of life. He's given us our homes. He's given us all these material things, which we glob onto much more than we glob onto him. And still, woe is me. Look at what's happened to me.

We owe him thanks for not sending us to hell right after we took our first breath. Why do I say that? Because in Adam all die. Turn to Genesis chapter six. This is how good we are. This is how good we are. Genesis chapter six and verse five. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every Imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's us. I don't care how religious we are. I don't care how good our neighbor says we are. I don't care how good our parents say we are. We're born in sin. And every imagination of the thoughts of our heart is evil continually.

But we are his. And that's Paul saying, he's standing up and saying, be of good cheer. He could say it to everybody, not just, I think Luke or whoever was with him in his journeys, other believers, very few, but he could say it to everybody. Be of good cheer. God, whose I am and whom I serve. We are his universally by creation.

Now, secondly, we are his particularly in redemption. Those whom God has, through the covenant of grace, through the blood of Christ, and through the awakening of the Holy Spirit, those who are specifically said to be in 1 Corinthians 6, bought with a price. The price, the blood of Christ. Not everyone, I don't know who they are, I just know that there's a number no man can number. They're called sheep, they're not called goats. These are his particularly in redemption. These are his particularly in redemption.

These, these sinners, saved by grace divine, these having sinned as all other human beings have, yet they are delivered from the wrath to come. These are eternally indebted to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for everything, always and only so. God, whose I am. Can you say that this morning? In redemption? In substitution? By atonement? If you don't know, flee to him for mercy. Cry unto him for mercy.

This, our obligation through love, is very strong. Songs of Solomon 8 verse 7 says, you'll have to turn there, Waters cannot, the love, now I'm gonna have to turn there. Songs of Solomon. Many waters cannot quench love, that's it. Many waters cannot quench love. The waters of the wrath of God that poured over him. could not quench, could not stop, could not abate, could not detour the love that our father has for you. If you are his, if you are one of his, if you don't know father, make me one of yours. That obligation, that redemptive obligation is very strong.

Thirdly, we, children of mercy, belong to Christ like a bride belongs to her husband. Hosea chapter 2. Hosea chapter 2. God whose I am. The children of his mercy belong to Christ like a bride belongs to her husband. Hosea chapter 2 and verse 19. For I, says God, will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, in judgment, in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know, thou shalt know the Lord.

You know, I say it's not that complicated. If you're married here, does your wife love you? Does your husband love you? I don't know. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Not always, maybe. But this is different. The love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He knows. He knows. And He loves His people. This love shows intimacy. This marriage shows an unbreakable bond. This betrothal, it shows his righteousness given, his unswerving faithfulness to his dear bride, which is the church.

Fourthly, we, the saved sinner, belong to our God as a child belongs to his father or his mother. Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43, I'm sorry, Isaiah 49. 49 verse 15. Isaiah 49 verse 15. Fourthly, the saved sinner belongs to God as the child belongs to his father or his mother. Verse 15, can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, it's happened in history. They may forget, yet will I not. Forget thee. He won't do it. He won't do it. He can't do it. He proves all the paperwork for our legal adoption. He covers all our debts. He covers us from the law, real issues against us. And we say in Songs of Solomon 6, I am my beloved's and he is mine. How can we say that? Because we belong to him. as a child belongs to the father.

Fifthly, the secured sheep belong to God as sheep belong to the shepherd. Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 and verse 11. Isaiah 40 and verse 11, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. We belong to God as sheep belong to the shepherd and John chapter 10 at Famous passage starting in verse 27 of John 10. My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave me them is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my hand. I and my Father are one. It's impossible. It's impossible.

God, whose I am, whose I am. An old believer, I like this, an old believer once said, what, it was asked, what do you do when you're in trouble? He said, I look up to heaven and say, Lord, your property is in danger. Lord, your property is in danger. I'm your property. I'm your property. God, who is totally and completely sovereign over all, will tend to his business. And guess what? We are his business. We are his business.

Now let's back to our text in Acts chapter 27, the second thought. Paul standing up to those folks in the boat, God, whose I am, and secondly, whom I serve. Why are we gods? Even in creation, We're not to be idle, we're not to be selfish, self-centered, and that all goes out the window if you don't know the Lord. That's our motive, but even a believer's motive is oftentimes selfish. If God shows you this morning, if God shows you that you are his through redemption, not only creation, but through redemption, through forgiveness of sins, what's the natural, like every disciple, He called them they put that and he followed him He stopped what they were doing and they followed Christ Whom I serve that's what we are to do we are to serve we are Christ's servant for We are his servant for Christ's sake We are to be about God's business. We were to honor him promote his name and his glory

So I warn each of us Don't get distracted This world has so many distractions. You want to get ahead, you want to make more money, you want to do all these things, but never at the expense of serving Christ. This world is very alluring, and I know it's easy to do, and we want to do it, but do not. We are created, and we are more so redeemed, so we're His. So let us serve him. Let us serve him in the capacity that he has us. Don't get distracted.

The first Samuel 2.30 says, them that honor me will I honor. Them that honor me will I honor. Knowing this and the truth that we are his, we can, as Paul exhorts, be of good cheer in any situation, any circumstance. It doesn't mean we may have a smile plastered on our face, but in our hearts we know God does that which is right, and only that which is right. Matter of fact, he tells us this in Philippians chapter 4, Philippians 4 and verse 19, But my God, see there's that, that's why the believer says my God, not just the God, my God. That's why those two words are together, my God, because we're bought with a price. We're not our own, we're his. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We know that, so therefore we serve him.

And if we go back to our text, we know God is over the storm. He's over the storm in our text. in verse 14, but not long after they left, they left Crete, arose against it a tempestuous wind called Heraclodon. So they're in the middle of the storm. So we know that God will supply all of our needs, we know we're His, and He can't do anything wrong, so we serve Him. We have jobs, we render under Caesar, which is Caesar, pay taxes, do this, do that, as responsible citizens, But we know he's over the storm in our text and in our life. We know that God is over the ship in our text and the ship of our little family or the ship of this little church. If you want to liken it, he's over it all. We know that he's over the lives of men, women, boys, and girls, as it says in our text, be of good cheer. He's over everyone either as a judge or as a merciful Lord.

And I'll deviate just a second, because I've got to share this, because I've read all these different commentators, and Spurgeon just had this little thought over here. It wasn't, and I'm like, oh my. And here's my desire, and I hope it's your desire. This is the ship, this building, 120 North Oklahoma. And I pray, as he says in the text, there shall be no loss of any life. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Salvation, salvation, salvation. Use that thing. Use that. True conversions. true baptisms, true and they follow the Apostles doctrine, and breaking of bread, and fellowship. And the Lord added daily such as should be saved. I wish it were so, and I pray it is so. Neighbors, friends, come into this ship. May it be so.

I want us to remember where Paul was and who he was speaking to. These are heathen. He's among heathen, he's among rude and profane soldiers and sailors, yet he still gave sweet testimony of the grace of God. He says, be of good cheer, because nobody's going to die, but the ship's going to be lost.

And I'll bring up God, whether you frown at me or you don't frown at me, whether you, it's going to cost friendships or relationships, and it will. And it's going to cost a lot. But God, whose I am. I'll help you. You call, I'll help you. I'll go over to your next door neighbors, I'll help do what I can. But God, whom I am. Who owes me? Who owns me? Whose I am and whom I serve?

I can't do this because I'm going to go worship with the brethren. Come with me. Come on. He still gave the sweet testimony of the grace of God and he didn't change his character. He didn't change his demeanor. He wasn't this way at church and this way at home. He wasn't ashamed of the gospel of the grace of God.

Now, that's why I said, be careful. Be careful, because this world allures and draws you away, and it will not draw you closer to Christ. It will not do it. He didn't change his character, his demeanor for his audience, but he was more concerned of who he was, whose he was, and whom he served.

Brethren, let us remember, lest we let these things slip. Like he says in Hebrews, I keep bringing them up, lest we let them slip. We are our majestic Lord, by redemption and forgiveness of sins and or creation, and we serve him. Let this be our heartbeat. Let it penetrate every decision, every action, and every lead of our lives daily, not just Wednesdays or Sundays, May we not be ashamed to own our Lord as He it is that owns us. May this be said of all of us here today and every day.

And if not, seek Him while He may be found. He is not far from each one of us. May the Lord bless the reading and the preaching of His word.

Bruce, would you close us please? you.