I take your Bibles and turn back
with me to Psalm 107. I'll title this message, Sailors in
Great Waters. Sailors in Great Waters. The scripture says they go down
into ships and do business in great waters. Now, in this Blessed
Psalm of our Lord, I want you to understand who the Lord is
speaking to. And we can ascertain this simply
by looking at the very first verse in this. David is writing,
the psalmist is writing for a purpose, for a reason, and this is it.
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. Just in case you don't understand
why we should give thanks, for he is good, for his mercy endureth
forever. What a wonderful theme, isn't
it? Give thanks. Give thanks in the
very midst of our trouble, in the midst of our difficulty,
surrounded by our enemies. Listen, give thanks for these
two reasons. The Lord is good. The Lord is
good. And you know this, the Lord is
good regardless of my circumstance. The Lord is good all the time. And all the Lord does is good,
therefore, give thanks. Give thanks. And listen to this,
His mercy endureth, wait, how long? How long does God's mercy
endure? Because I tell you, I need mercy
every day. Well, it's good because I should
give thanks for this, that His mercy endures forever. Now, who are to give thanks?
Look at that verse 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Those of you who are believers in Christ, you have
been redeemed. Our Lord Jesus Christ bore your
sins in His own body on the tree and the justice of God was poured
out on Him so that He should redeem you. He should buy you,
purchase you. He did. He purchased us with
His own blood. The Apostle Peter said that we
were redeemed not with silver and gold You weren't redeemed
by your works, that vain conversation, by tradition of your fathers.
You weren't redeemed by your works. How were you redeemed? I was bought with the precious
blood of Christ. We were redeemed. So let the
redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the
hand of his enemy. And notice this, he gathered
them out of the land. Didn't he gather you? There you were
in the land of the enemy. And what? He gathered you. He
gathered you. Oh, this is comforting to know.
God is going to gather his people. I don't care where they are.
He's going to gather them. And he gathered us. We should
give thanks for that. If you've been gathered, isn't
that reason to give thanks? He gathered us from where? All
over. East, west, north, south. He gathered us. So then, listen,
in every situation we have reason to give thanks. Is there anything
greater that God could do for you than redeem you? Name something that God could
give you that's greater than the gift of His Son. There is
no gift greater. There is nothing greater than
to be redeemed of the Lord. So we have every reason to give
thanks. Every reason to give thanks.
When? Always. Why? His mercy endures
forever. You've got reason to give thanks
every single day of your life. And so we are encouraged to do
so. Now, in this psalm, so I tell you that all of these characters
now that we are going to see in this psalm. We've seen most
of them before. I've preached from these other
passages of scripture before. First of all, in verses four
through nine, the wanderer. They wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way with no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty,
and their souls fainted in them. Who is that but the redeemed?
Is that not what us? We wandered in the wilderness
and God found us, what? Dying of thirst, dying of hunger,
and what? Then we cried unto the Lord and
he heard us and he delivered us. We were the wanderer. The
next character is the rebel in verses 10 through 16. It says,
they sit in darkness in the shadow of death being bound in affliction.
Why? Because they rebelled. Isn't this us? We rebelled. We shook our fist in the face
of God and said, I'm not going to have you to rule over me.
I'm going to go. I'm going to do what I want to
do. I don't want you. Isn't this what we said to Christ?
I don't want you. I want my way. I want my sin. We rebelled. And what was the
result? We were in the shadow of death.
We were under the justice of God. And he brought us low in
our labor. When we found out we were dying,
what did we do? We sought to work our way out
of it. And then what? We cried unto
the Lord and he delivered us from out of our troubles. And
the fourth one is the fool in verses 17 to 22. It says, fools, because of their
transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted
their soul abhoreth all manner of meat. And they dwell near
to the gates of death. Isn't this us, or weren't we
fools? You know what a fool is. A fool is one who is against
his own well-being. He does things against his own
well-being. That was us, wasn't it? We wanted
our sin. And it was against our well-being.
We were fools. No, his soul abhorreth all manner
of meat. Meat's good, isn't it? I don't want no meat. What do
you mean you don't want no meat? Aren't you hungry? Yeah, but
I don't want no meat. That's a fool, isn't it? Lay
some meat out there in front of a hungry fool, and what he'll
do? He'll throw it away. We lay the gospel out before
us, It was a feast. Jesus Christ, the bread of life,
was laid out before us. And what? We rejected Him. We
rejected Him to the loathing of our own selves. We were fools. Until when? Until we drew near
to the gates of death, and then what? We cried unto the Lord,
and He heard us, and He delivered us. You see a pattern here? Anybody
see the pattern? I think the Lord's repetitious
because we're stupid. I just think so. I think it's
necessary for him to be repetitious, for us to get this, and the Lord
is constantly reminding us, constantly, you were the rebel, you were
the wanderer, you were the fool. Well, tonight, we're gonna look
at this last one. We're gonna look at this last one here, the
mariner, the sailor. Now, look at this in verse 23.
Scripture says, and they that go down into the sea in ships
that do business in great waters. Now, I'm going to lay this out
for you. It's just a very clear picture.
We have a picture here. Here's a man, a sailor. He's
an experienced man of the sea. Makes all the preparations he
can. He is industrious in his efforts. He determines to go out into
the great depths of the sea to do business. To do business. And the scripture says as He
goes in, He notices all the wonders of God's work as He goes in.
He's sailing and everything's calm. Everything's wonderful. Look at this. This is going to
be a good trip. Everything's going well. And
he notices and he gives thanks for all the wondrous works that
God has made in the sea. Maybe see some dolphins, maybe
see some whales. All wonderful works God has done
in the sea. And then all of a sudden God
commands a storm in the sea and the waves begin to beat against
his small craft and the storm raises the waves of his craft.
Scripture says it lifts him up to heaven. And then what? Casts him down
into the depths. So now we see this sailor who
was once so sure, once so skilled in his craft, stagger like a
drunken man. running here and running there
trying to save his life and the ship. And what happens? Scripture says he staggers to
and fro like a drunken man. And then what? He's at his wits
end. This man has tied his last knot. He secured and fastened everything
he possibly can. He has done everything within
the realm of his knowledge as a wise sailor he could do. And he collapses then in the
middle of the ship and realizes that his ship and his life are
in the hand of God. He comes to his wits end. And then what does he do? unto
the Lord. He cries unto the Lord. He didn't cry unto a man, did
he? He cried unto God. Why? There was no man there.
You can cry out in the middle of the ocean. You can cry all
you want to. Nobody on the land is going to hear you. In the midst of a storm, you
probably couldn't cry to the person next to you. He cries
unto the Lord in the very teeth of his trouble. And what? And the Lord bringeth him out
of his distresses. He maketh the sea a calm, and
the waves thereof are still. And then what? That man is glad. That man is glad. He's glad for the calm. He's
glad for God's mercies. What a clear picture then, because
this sailor, this sailor, it's a clear picture then of every
redeemed sinner who has undertaken to serve God in this life. This
is a picture of every redeemed sinner who has undertaken the
great business of serving Christ. This is it. Now I have four points
tonight. Who's the mariner? Who's the
mariner? Secondly, who caused the storm
and what was its effect? Thirdly, what is the resolve
then of the sailor in the midst of the storm? And fourthly, I
want us to see in the end of this that everyone who's a believer
in Christ, what is our hope in such great storms? What is our
hope in the midst of our great storms? Now this mariner, this
sailor, he said, they that go down in the sea in ships and
do business in great waters. Notice his character is different
than the others, isn't he? The character of the mariner
is different than the wanderer, the fool, and the rebel. This
guy, he's not going for a pleasure cruise. This guy's not going
taking the boat to go out fishing. This guy is serious. He is serious
about his craft, he is serious about his vessel, and he is serious
about his business. He is determined to go out into
great waters and do business. And so I perceive that this is
a picture then of every true believer who seeks to worship
God. Every true believer who seeks
to worship God is very serious about this business of serving
Christ. Very serious. Very serious. Everyone who believes in Christ
seeks and longs to serve Him in a greater capacity. Isn't
this true of every believer? I love Him. You know what I want? I want to love Him more. I believe
Him. I trust Him. You know what I
desire? I desire to believe and trust
Him more. I love you. I long to love you
more. I want to worship God with all
my being. I do. We seek to do business in great
waters. I think of that time that the
Prophet went out into the water. You remember, he walked out in
the water. A picture of God's Word, isn't it? Wherever the
Spirit went, the water went, and wherever that went, there
was life. That's a picture of the Spirit of God in the Gospel.
And you remember, the Prophet walked out in the water, and
it was up to his ankles, and then it was up to his knees,
and then it was up to his waist, then it was up here, and then
next thing you know, he was overwhelmed with it. Friends, this book is
great waters. Paul calls it the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Have you found the bottom of
this yet? Can you measure God's love
yet? Can you measure it? Can you see
the beginning of it? Can you see the end of it? Can
you see the height of it? Can you see the depth of it?
And we can go on with every doctrine that is put in this book. We
don't know the half. Paul said, we see through a glass
darkly. And so as we go into this word
as a believer in Christ, we seek to do business here in the worship
of God. I perceive that this is a believer
in Christ who seeks to worship God. These are men that are not
wandering rebels or fools. They seek to serve God through
the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are such men as give themselves
to preaching. Isn't this true, preachers? Listen
to me. Preaching is serious business. No man should take this unless
God calls him to it. And I'll tell you, I struggle
with this. I want to know, if I'm called
to preach, I definitely want to make sure God calls me to
preach. I don't want to be up here by
myself. I don't. This is a great business that
we are doing here. This is deep waters. And so you
take a man who is laboring in the gospel. He does business
in great waters. Others seek to do business in
great waters, such as missionaries. They leave their homes, their
families, their children. They leave their country to go
into another place to preach the gospel. This is serious business. But listen to me, still some
that are not called to preach are to be a missionary. But you
who are believers in Jesus Christ, you are still called to do business
in great waters simply by being faithful to worship Christ. Believer, do you long to serve
Him more? Do you long to hear His gospel? This is a very serious and needful
thing, isn't it? Paul said that we should not
forsake the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some...
We should not do that. We should not do that. Why? Because
worship of God is something serious. It's not frivolous. And so then let us notice the
position in which He is to serve. It says He goes down into the
ship. Listen to this. In every instance Christ is always
pictured as the ship, isn't He? In the ark of Noah. Who's the
ark? It's Christ, isn't it? You remember
when the Apostle Paul was in that ship, right? And he was
sailing over and the Lord came to him and said, look, there's
going to be A great storm here and this ship is going to be
in trouble. It's going to be in peril. But
listen, everyone must stay in the ship. If one person leaves
the ship, everybody perishes. It's a picture of Christ, isn't
it? Remember what the soldiers did when they heard that? They
cut all the lifeboats. Nobody's getting out of this
ship. Isn't this so with us? We've
cut all lifeboats. I'm here to worship God only
in Jesus Christ. I would dare not come, I would
dare not make my voyage into these great waters of worshiping
God except I'm in Christ. That's the only safe place to
worship God, is in Christ. Have you considered this, that
no man is accepted of God except they are in Christ? Does anyone want to face God
in themselves? No, you'd be back in the fool
category, not in this industrious category. And so we who serve
Christ, we go down into the ship. And I like that, we go down into
the ship. You know what's in the bottom of the ship? That's
where the rowers are. We're not the captain, we're
the rowers. I was reading multiple times
how the apostle always said this, Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ,
a bond slave. a bond slave. When he said fellow
laborers, you know what that means? Fellow rowers. That's
what we are. We're rowers together with you.
And so we go down into Christ. In order to serve God, we must
bow in submission to his sovereign will and seek his glory. So this
day, if you seek to serve Christ and to do his work, consider
that such merchants must then and shall face great storms."
Anyone who desires to worship God, anyone who desires to come
to Christ and find hope and rest and refuge in Him, listen, you
will face great trials. You will. I know this is true of preachers. Before I preached, I thought
I knew. Well, I did academically know that preachers would have
more trials, more troubles. But I'll tell you this, I really
know that's so. And I pray that God would call
many laborers to his service that many would believe on Christ. But no matter who God calls to
his service and what capacity you're called to serve, everyone is going to experience
trials. And I've told you this story
many times, but it's the most vivid one that I have an actual
experience with, is when I talked to a brother who was converted
He heard the gospel and he came to me with such joy. Such great
joy as he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wanted to
let me know and was so thankful for it. But I was I'm not a used
car salesman. I'm not going to tell you that
everything is going to be rainbows and sunshine. I need to tell
you this. Now you should expect trouble.
And I'll tell you this, that man, that man did experience
great trouble. just like the rest of God's people
do. And so notice, notice that these
sailors then are made to see the works of the Lord. Look at
this now. They go down to the ship. This is into Christ. That's where we do this great
business. That's where we serve God. That's where we honor God.
It's only in Christ. We believe on Him. And then we
are now journeying to Zion. in great waters. Now notice what
everyone that's in Christ notices. These see the works of the Lord
and the wonders in the deep. They see the works of the Lord
and the wonders in the deep. Just as only those who do business
in the sea could see the wonders of God in the sea. Isn't that
right? I tell you what, I've never been
a sailor. I hear stories of sailors. And the great things that they
see, the horizon, the beautiful, I mean, how you just see, oh,
you could just fall off the edge there, just so beautiful, glorious. They see many wonderful works
in the sea. I've never been there. I don't
know. And so it is with people who
have never gone down into Christ. They may study this book, they
may study the wonders of this book, but unless they themselves
have experienced it, if they themselves have not gone down
into Christ, if they have not believed in Christ, I tell you
this, they've never experienced the wonderful works of God. What's
His wonderful works? Election. What a wonderful work. Isn't that a wonderful work?
God in sovereign mercy chose a people for Himself in love,
predestinated them to the adoption of children, purpose that they
should be saved and made holy, and then, what a wonderful work
this is, the Lord God Himself, Jesus Christ, came in human flesh
and redeemed them by His blood. What a wonderful work we see.
We see the wonderful work of God. Then in the power of the
Holy Spirit, He calls us to Himself, He gathers us, and we believe!
What a wonderful work this is! What a mystery! Why you? Why me? It's a wonder, isn't it? That
God would choose such a fool, a wanderer, a rebel as myself,
and call me It's a wonderful work. We see wonderful things.
Forgiveness of sins. Isn't this wonderful? We're just saying that my sin,
all the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part,
but the whole is nailed to the cross. I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Forgiveness
of sins. What a wonderful work of God
we see as we seek to do business in waters to worship God and
serve Him. And so now then, but I want you
to see this. In verse 25 the situation changes. Everything's sailing along. He's in the ship. He's doing
his business. He's headed toward Zion. Everything's well. He sees the
works of God and praises wonderful works. But then something happens. He said, For he commandeth and
raiseth the stormy wind and lifteth up the waves thereof. Listen, believer in Jesus Christ,
if you ever desire to serve the Lord in this world, If you're
longing to preach the gospel or witness of Christ, let me
warn you of this. You that have gone down in the
sea to do great business, you are not exempt from trouble. You see a man who gives up everything
for the preaching of the gospel. You see a man who leaves his
home, leaves his family, leaves everything he has, everything
he owns, and moves away. He gives his self to preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ. And people say, well, surely
everything's going to go well for that guy. Surely God will
not allow anything to happen or any troubles for that guy.
Well, that's false. In fact, the opposite is true. Our Lord said, in this world
you shall have tribulation. He said, this world hateth me. Therefore, it will hate you also. Don't you know that? that this
world will hate you. Our Lord said that the enemies
of his children will be the people of his own household. Satan, our enemy, walketh about
as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The world seeks
to enthrall us, The flesh seems to want to draw us away from
this great business of serving Christ, always constantly pulling
us in the opposite direction of where our hearts want to go. And God will not and has not
purposed that the way of believers be smooth. In fact, God has purposed that
Every way should be difficult. When these troubles come, when
these storms of providence and circumstance arise, listen to
me, it is vital to know who sent it. It is vital for us who seek to
worship God and believe Christ, it is vital we understand who
sent the trouble. Notice the scripture. For he
commandeth. It's the Lord. The one who did
all these wonderful works. The one who saved us. The one
who redeemed us. It's his hand that raiseth the
storms and lifteth up the waves. He commandeth. It is important
that we see that all our difficulties in providence and time are according
to the sovereign decree of God our Savior. To every believer
in Christ who is in the midst of storms and trials and afflictions,
remember, it is God that rules. It is God that rules. All things in time and eternity
are moving according to His sovereign will. The scripture says, I am
the Lord and there is none else. Declaring the end, when? From the beginning. from ancient
times saying, my counsel shall be done, and I will do all my
pleasure. So what's being done? In every
aspect of your life, believer, what's being done? In every dark
providence, what's being done? The will of God. The will of
God. And we often associate such things
as health and prosperity to the hand of God. Isn't that right? And you're feeling good and everything's
going smooth. Well, of course, that's of God. That's wonderful. We love that. We do not have
a problem at all saying, praise God from whom all blessings flow. What if you're sick? What if you're dying? Who's in charge of that? Praise God, from whom all blessing. We're going to see why he does
this. Now we see this. The cause is God. The word of
God is clear. Shall the trumpet be blown in
the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in
the city and hath not the Lord done it? Oh, you that have taken
to serve God and to worship Christ, are you in such a great storm?
Does the storm beat against your vessel as it does mine? As the winds seem to blow contrary
to the way you want to go, then be sure that the winds and
waves are not by chance. Satan may claim to be the prince
of the power of the air, but he's only a pretender. You see, God rules him. God rules
him. God alone controls the winds
and waves of divine providence, and listen, He measures it out
according to our need. He measures it out according
to our need. Remember the disciples when they
took out, God commanded them, Christ commanded them to go across
the Sea of Galilee? He said, go to the other side. Now these
guys were experienced sailors. It's what they did for a living
before they before the Lord saved them. So they knew how to get
a ship across the Sea of Galilee. Done it many times before. The
Lord sends them over there and then what happens? A storm arises! And the Scripture says they were
toiling and rowing. Now listen, they were dedicated
folks. The Lord said go to the other side. They spent six hours
rowing. And listen, they didn't go nowhere. I tell you this, I felt like
that. I know that feeling. Lord said, go here, preach your
gospel in this place. Sometimes I feel like I'm just
going nowhere. Well, Lord sent the storm. And so it is with us who are
believers in Christ. Everything seems to be contrary
to us. How often we set our hearts to
serve and worship God. Did you set your heart to serve
and worship God tonight? Are you determined to come here and
worship God at night? Does it work out like you planned? It doesn't, does it? The winds of
the mind and the heart are contrary to us. Remember this, it is the Lord
who sent us and it is the Lord who sends our trials. Now what
is the reason? He sends these trials We determine
to serve Him. We determine to believe Him.
We want to. We desire to serve Him. We want
to be industrious in this matter of worship. What are the effects of the storms?
Look at this. And they mount up to heaven. And they go down
to the depths. And here's the reason. Their
soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man and are at their wits end. There's that
little vessel doing business in great waters and lifted up
to heaven. How often have we felt lifted
up to heaven? I enjoy those times. Don't you? I enjoy the time I spend And when
my Savior is so near to me, I just rejoice. I feel as though
I could touch Him. You know what happens after that?
He casts us to the dead. Isn't this
so when a good, when you have a, even have a good worship,
the Lord gives us a great service, a great worship service. We feel
the presence of his spirit. We hear the gospel and we're
so glad we're rejoicing. And then we go home and what?
Falls flat. Everything just bottoms out. So you see that vessel oscillating
up and down in the waves. It goes so high, and then it's
brought down to the abyss. Look at that experienced sailor
then on that ship, who was once so firm and sure, is now, he's
tossed. He's tossed. Don't know which way to go. Don't
know what to do. Man, he goes over here and he
sees something loose here and he fastens it and he sees something
loose over here, fastens it and he keeps going back and forth
and all of a sudden he's done everything he possibly knows
to do and then what does he do? The scripture says he is brought
to his wits end. He falls down in the middle of
the ship and confesses that his life and his ship is in the hand
of God. Is this not us under the chastening
hand of our God and God's dark providences? You see, the purpose is to cause
our hearts to melt. It's a sad condition, isn't it?
That if we're left too long in the calm, our hearts become hard
and cold and endearing. We expect it should be the other
way. We expect that if God would give us all of these wonderful
things, that our hearts would be melted with love. But that's not how it is, is
it? So what God brings these storms, the reason for the storm
is to melt the heart. To testify of something you already
know. Your life and the ship of your
salvation is in the hand of God. And there's nothing you can do
to save yourself. Have you found that out? I found
that out. And guess what? I need to find
that out again. I found that out and I need to
find it again. Constantly. What does the scripture
say? Tribulation worketh patience.
Patience experience. Experience hope. And hope maketh
not ashamed. And the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts. Start over. Tribulation worketh
patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope
maketh not ashamed, and the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts. Start over. This is a constant thing in the
life of every believer. Tribulation is necessary for
patience, endurance. Endurance is necessary for hope,
confidence in Christ. And then that's necessary so
that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. You see,
the reason for our storms are not just ambiguous. He's not
just throwing storms at a whim. They're necessary. Necessary
to what? Bring us to our wits end. So we, like this sailor in the
midst of our storm, have used all our skill and we find out
that we resign. we resigned. Thirdly, what's the result then
of this storm? What's the result of this trial?
Verse 28, then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. I'm often confused as to why
this is not the This is the last resort instead of the first response. It just is. I don't want to tell
you about this nature and this depravity that we, this old man
we still have, this corpse we have about our neck. But it is
of necessity that we be brought to our wits end. Otherwise, we
will do and try our own way. Only when we are brought to our
wits end Only then do we cry unto the Lord. Now listen. How would you feel if you were
always the last resort? You got a kid that's always in
trouble. And man, he'll go to anybody else but you. Until what? Until he ain't got no money and
ain't got no place to go. And where does he go? Goes to
you. And then you fill it up and then what? He goes out and
does the same thing again and waits for the last minute to
come to you. Son, daughter, why didn't you come to me first?
They won't. Neither do you. Neither do I. It's only when
God brings us to our wits end that we cry unto the Lord. Only when the soul is melted,
only when we see the weakness of our flesh and the inability
to fix our troubles, do we cry unto God for mercy and power
and strength. It's often that I pray when the
storm begins, I say, Lord, melt my wisdom quickly. Please. Melt my resolve quickly,
so that I should cry unto you." If we'd ever learned to pray
like this, we would find great boldness to approach the throne
of grace, because this is why God sends a storm. And lastly,
what is the response of the sailor? Here it is, they cry unto the
Lord. and he bringeth them out of their
distresses. Believe and remember that God
will never hear your prayers because of you. He will never hear your prayers
because of you. The only reason God hears our
cries, the only reason God heard the cry of this mariner is because
of Christ. because of Christ. God will hear our cries only
because of His Son. When the disciples, when they
were rowing in that storm, you remember what fixed that, right? The Lord came to them. The Lord
Jesus Christ came to them walking, I like that, He's walking on
the very thing that they couldn't row past. He couldn't get past
it. He's just walking on it. It shows His power. And you remember, they cried unto Him. They were
afraid. They were afraid. You know what? Did the Lord chide them for calling
on Him? Was He angry? No. When God's people cry unto him,
he is always full of mercy. He is always full of mercy. He
said, don't be afraid. It's me. It's me. And once he was in the boat,
listen, immediately they were on the other side. Immediately
they were on the other side. Are we in danger? Are we overwhelmed? Has our strength failed us? Then
cry unto the Lord. He will not delay, but will calm
and quiet the waves that resist us. And all who has ever experienced
great storms in the service of God has also felt the calm and
peace. This is always the result of
crying unto God. It's always the result. And then what's the attitude
then of the sailor? Look at that in verse 30. They
were glad. They were glad. Isn't it a happy thing to know
that God hears me when no one else can? Isn't it a joyful thing to know
that the one who cares for me has all power? and his heart is full of mercy,
full of compassion. And so what is this? This makes
us joyful. We are happy if we are found
in Jesus Christ. What's the final result? Look
at that. He bringeth him to his desired
haven. This is the joy of every sailor.
Listen to this. that regardless of the storm. regardless of the trials, regardless
of how many times our soul melts, regardless of how many difficulties
we face, no matter how many times we call out to God, and He hears
us, and delivers us, and then puts us back in the storm, and
then we melt, and we fall down, and we cry out to God, and He
hears us, and He calms the storm. We may go through many of those,
but this is my hope, this is my hope, that I will meet my
final destination. I will get to where I'm going. God will receive us into glory,
into heaven. Some sailors' trips are shorter
than others, aren't they? Thief on the cross. He had a
short trip, didn't he? I think three hours. And his vessel made it home. Then you got Methuselah. He had
a long trip. He had a long trip, didn't he?
Long trip. You know what? Did he make it?
You bet. Why? Just like Peter said, he
said, we are kept by the power of God unto salvation, ready
to be revealed at the last time. Isn't this a joy to know that
regardless of how many storms or the severity of the storms
No matter how many times the Lord delivers us in this life,
and He will, that we will all make our final destination. He
will bring us to Himself. Why? That's what He purposed
to do from the beginning. That's exactly what Christ accomplished
at the cross. He removed all obstacles to keep
us from eternal life. He said, I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. The Father which gave them me
is greater than all. Neither can they pluck them out
of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Are
you in Christ? And this is the reason the sailor
makes it. Really, it's the ship, isn't it? It's not the sailor. Who's the ship? Christ. So regardless of the storm, if
you're in Christ, guess what? You'll make it. You'll make it. I pray that God would give grace
to weary sailors. Those who are tossed. Those who
are melted. Those who are at their wits end.
Crying to God. And there will be a calm, a sure
retreat. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Tears dismissed in prayer, please.