Open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 27. Acts chapter 27, and we'll continue our study in this wonderful book. The Holy Spirit had Luke pen these words about the travels of Paul and the early startings of the New Testament church. Remember, there was an Old Testament church too, wasn't there? Yeah, and all the elect, the Old Testament Church, New Testament Church, they make all the elect of all the ages. Oh my. So this is telling us about the start of the New Testament Church. Let's begin in verse 13.

And Paul is on this ship and the Roman Centurion Julius has decided not to take Paul's advice, but to go with the advice of the captain of the ship. And this is a ship from Alexandria. Remember, they switch ships. And this is a ship from Alexandria that they're going to go on.

And so they start out of their way. They start their way out of the harbor that they were in and are trying to go to another place where they can hole up for the wintertime. So let's read verses 13 to 17 of Acts chapter 27. And when the south wind blew softly, supporting that they had obtained their purpose, loosing fence, they sailed close by Crete. So they're still sailing near Crete, but not long after there arose against it a tempest wind called Uroclidon. So we see they even named storms back then. Just like we name hurricanes and typhoons, they named them as well.

And when the ship was caught, it could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. They just let her go. To the mercy of the wind, there was nothing they could do. It was like beating their heads against the wall. They probably tried to steer one way or the other. We see here. Nope. They just let her drive. And running under a certain island, which is called Claudia, we had much work to come by the boat. So, the boat's been battered in the storm.

And they gotta stop and fix it. Right? We all know we use equipment. You and your dad used equipment on the farm and you got to fix it up, Brian, to use it again and again and again. And well, the ship got battered in that storm. And they had to fix it in order to go on. It says, which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship and fearing less they should fall into the quicksands.

Strike, sail, and so we're driven. So last week we saw how our great God in his great providential control in guiding the ship Paul was on to go below Crete. Normally they would go above Crete. But this is all happening according to the will and purpose of God. And what we just read is part of that. They would not have ran into that storm if they had to went above Crete. But this is all part of God's purpose and plan, isn't it? They're gonna have to land on an island called Milta, which you know what that, I found out what that island is called today, Malta. It's Malta.

And there's a bunch of lost sheep there that no preacher's gone there yet. So again, we're going to see an answer to that age-old question people always ask us. What if there was people on an island who never heard the gospel and they were God's sheep? He's going to send them a preacher. And we're going to see that. It's going to come alive in this text. It's wonderful. So anybody ever ask us that, we just take them right here. Acts 27, look. God sent a preacher to a bunch of lost sheep on that island. And they were not planning on going there, beloved. They were planning on going to Rome, sailing to Italy. But God had other plans, didn't he?

Oh, and Paul had told, he'd warned that Roman centurion Julius, he'd said, you know what? We shouldn't switch ships. But again, the centurion took heed of the captain of the ship of Alexandria, listened to him rather than listen to Paul. We're going to see Paul's going to warn him in our text today about something, and he's going to listen to Paul this time. This time he's going to take heed of what Paul says.

And because he does, no one on that ship dies because of the grace and mercy of God. My oh my. We're going to even see the Roman soldiers cut the lifeboats off. We're going to see them sailors, they wanted to jump in those lifeboats and just leave them all there. God wouldn't allow that to happen. And those soldiers are going to cut those lifeboats right off that ship and let them go adrift.

My oh my. God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform, doesn't he? We just stand back in awe and watch what he does. And from this narrative here, we can be strengthened by God's grace because we know that even in our little storms of life, little huge to us, but little to God, right? But still appointed storms, that God's gonna take care of us. because we're Christ, aren't we? As we saw in Sunday school, we were given to him before the foundation of the world. And he says in Isaiah, thou art mine. And we looked in the Greek word, and the Greek word means to be chosen for oneself. God chose his people for himself, each one of us. That's amazing. That's absolutely amazing.

And because the Fair Havens, that was the place where they were, was not a fit place, remember? It wasn't a fit place for them to winter. So they had to go elsewhere to winter. Again, all this is happening according to the will and purpose of God. They're going to try to make it to Phoenice, which was another harbor on the island of Crete. It was more towards Italy. And so they had to, that's where they wanted to go.

But let us not lose sight of God's sovereign control over all things, over the weather, over a raindrop, over a snowflake. All his purpose is gonna be accomplished, isn't it? According to his will and purpose. Let's never lose sight of that. His sovereign control over all these events that we're reading about.

And even the advice Paul had given to Julius, we saw last week, that Julius did not heed, was all part of God's sovereign plan. All part of it. Now, Paul didn't know that at the time, and Julius didn't know that at the time, and Luke didn't know that at the time.

But now we can look and go, look at this. Look at this. And then we can look in our own lives to go, all those things that happened. I'll tell you what. We were talking about, Charlie and Brian and Zane and I were talking in Exodus about the things we'd done in our past.

And how many times we could have died. But God kept us alive. Kept us alive. Because we have to hear the gospel, don't we, Brian? We've got to hear the gospel. My. And Brian was telling us about a thing, and I said to Brian, and Zane said it too, that could have ruined your life, that situation you went in. But God prevented you, all that. And here you are today. And how many of us had events in our lives that could have ruined our lives? But God didn't allow them to happen.

I'll tell you. Even before we're saved, he's still working and moving in our lives, isn't he? I mentioned this in Sunday school. In religion, they tell you, now that you believe you're a son of God, or you're part of the family of God, they have it backwards, beloved. They have it backwards.

Because we looked at Ephesians 2, didn't we? And here we are, dead in trespasses and sins, look like the world. And we looked in Galatians chapter four, I believe it was, where it says, and because you're our sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, whereby you now cry, because we're sons, because we're children of God.

And then we looked at Jesus' words, and he said, all that the Father hath given me shall come to me, and I'll lose none of them. And this is before he even died for us. So we were sons before we believe, and we believe because we're children of God. And he regenerated every one of us who are true believers. Isn't that amazing? That's incredible. And when did we become the children of God? chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world. See, that which was planned and purposed becomes a reality to us when we're born again. And we must be born again, right? We must be. We must, and it happens.

And God gives us faith now to believe on Christ and repentance before God, and we are just in absolute awe of what he's done. Absolute awe of what he's done. See, God lets us in Gives us a little piece of knowledge about what he's been planning and purposing, doesn't he? And just as he's in control of our salvation, he's in control of everything, including this storm, including this storm. My, oh my.

Now, the Roman centurion, however, he would remember Paul's advice earlier when they're off the coast of Malta and they're about to be shipwrecked. He'd remember Paul's advice. The second piece of advice Paul gave him, which we'll see today. Because Paul must go to Malta.

He must. He must. I'm just going to call it Malta because it's easier for us to understand nowadays, right? It's Milta in the text, but it's Malta is the real island. Oh wow, my, and I believe Julius started to recognize that Paul was a servant of the Most High. All these things happened. I don't know if the Lord ever saved him. I hope he did. We don't know. We don't find that out. But I hope he did. Oh my.

And Paul, because Paul was on that ship, and Luke, And the other believers, that ship was spared because they must go to Malta. And then the Lord told Paul, you must go to Rome. Now it's going to be a hard way getting there, but he must be there, right? Let's read verses 13 to 17 again.

And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing fence, they sailed close by Crete. But long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind called eucladon. And when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. And running under a certain island, which is called Claudia, we had much work to come by the boat. And when they had taken up, and used helps undergirding the ship, so they redid, it sounds like they fixed some of the undergirding of the ship.

Got damaged in the storm. And fearing less, they should fall into the quicksands. They struck sail and were so driven. A lot of these islands had treacherous rock formations or quicksands, where if a ship got caught in there, it wasn't getting out. It wasn't getting out. And the rocks, they get shattered against the rocks a lot of times. But there was also quicksands.

And our Lord Jesus noticed he sent a soft wind to get the captain and the owner of the ship to believe that they could continue on their journey. He thought, I was right. This soft wind blowing us all the way along. Oh my, how proud men can be, right?

But it was God's ordained purpose to get that ship on its way. so that it would get caught in that storm. And it was traveling at the exact speed it was traveling at, so that it would be in the middle of the storm called Euryclida. And this is all purposed by God. See, when people say, I used to say it all the time, When a storm sent, oh, look what the devil did. The devil didn't do nothing. That storm's ordained by God.

And when people pass, they're passing according to the will and purpose of God. That's their appointment. It's like when that virus hit us, COVID-19. Those people who passed, that was their appointment. That was God's virus. And Donny Bell said, it's God's virus, and when it's ordained to stop, it'll stop.

And even one of our sisters, that was her ordained time, Sister Denise, that was her ordained time to go home to be with the Lord. Now, we grieved, but it was her time. And I'll tell you what, she's in a far better place. Oh my, she's in a far better place.

So this soft wind allowed them to sail by Crete, and then God sent the storm, a typhoon, a typhoon, that was named Eurycleidon. And this typhoon was recorded in history for our learning. It's recorded right here for us, for our learning, for our learning, beloved. And let's never forget, too, that this storm was created by God for God's purpose and will. To accomplish His eternal purpose and to accomplish His will. And that we who are the born-again, blood-washed people in Christ never forget that nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. He's still the one who creates the storms, small or great, and he sends them as he pleases. I've lately got into watching the weather guy. I like this weather guy on YouTube, Max. The guy's named Max Velocity or something like that.

But I watch him, and he's got this whole thing of America and Canada above, and he shows how these storms, they start to squirrel up. And then the wind, the wind come down, those arctic winds come down. And here comes the jet stream. And I'm watching that going, Lord, you're controlling all those little things. And he shows how he brings a storm up. One came off California, then it hit Colorado, now it's hitting the southwest, or southeast now.

That's why we got this little bit of snow here. And there's gonna be another polar vortex that's gonna come down and hit us pretty soon. All that by the purpose and will of God. And Vicki and I are watching it going, oh, that one's gonna just miss us. We're actually in a really good spot here, because there's a lot that blows right by us. It either goes north or it goes south. We get the remnants of them, don't we? Sometimes we get hit, don't we?

But that's all according to the will and purpose of God. Every snowflake that's falling outside right now is according to the will and purpose of God. My, and then, Man, in his wicked ways, makes a figment of his imagination called Mother Nature. A wicked woman who doesn't exist. And they say, well, look what Mother Nature's given us. You see, they don't want to acknowledge God's in control. But God's in front of us. Mother Nature's just, it's an idol cooked up in somebody's mind. Do you see how we make idol factories? We make idols in our hearts. My daughter is so cute now. She, because she used to for years call Mother Nature. Now she's like, oh God, I mean God sent her. It's so neat just to see that. She catches herself. It's wonderful.

Our God is in control. Small storms, large storms, medium storms, any storms are sent by our great God. My. And what happens in those storms, sometimes this little vessel of clay and your little vessel of clay, we go rocking on these storms, don't we? But you know, He's watching us the whole time. He knew exactly where Paul was, and Luke, and all those other things. He's watching that ship in that storm. He's guiding those winds.

Oh my. See, people only think, well, God was in that, and it's the devil that causes all that havoc. No, it's the storm that causes the havoc. God just unleashes it, doesn't he? And that storm's gone, but it's still under His control. Right? And it will accomplish His will and purpose.

If I'm to die in a hurricane, God will send a hurricane wherever I am and I'm gone. Or a tornado. Tornado. Gone. I don't know how I'm going to die, but God knows, and I praise God it's in His hands. Right? We didn't control the moment we were born, and we don't control the moment we die, and we don't control when we're born again. It's all God. And that's glorious.

So what can we learn from this? Well, we can learn here that our Lord Jesus is in full control. And these storms of life for our little clay vessel are sent to test our faith too. And think of this, He tests our faith and He gives us strength and grace to get through those things.

Because I know there's been some storms in my life that would have washed me away. And God kept me. Before I was saved, and after I was saved. I just now know about the things before I was saved. And things pop up. You notice our memories aren't as good as they used to be? But things will pop up, and you go, oh, I remember that. Oh, my, I remember that. Look what the Lord did. My, oh, my. So our little clay vessels get tossed around in boisterous winds of God's providence, difficult trials. But our sovereign risen King is still on the throne and still controlling all those things.

It's like the old preachers say, you know, these trials of life are sent by God to us to strengthen our faith. And a lot of times I find this, I don't know if you find this, but I find this, when you go through those things, it drives me to Christ. And so for you, drives us right to Christ. My, and then we see other people going through, like Dan and Kathy, when they went through the cancer.

That strengthened all of us, because you guys were just, okay, the Lord's in control. And I know he strengthened you guys, because I've talked to you about that, and he gave you guys grace and strength to get through all that, and here we are sitting there going, look what the Lord's doing. And we're all glorifying God then, aren't we? It's amazing. My, oh, my. We can trust our Lord Jesus Christ in every situation. And remember, there's nothing too small to bring to the Lord, and there's nothing too big to bring to the Lord.

Scripture says, cast all your care upon him, for he cared for you. He loves us, and he loved us so much that he shed his blood for us on Calvary's cross to save us from our sins. He proved his love to us, didn't he? through his perfect life and through his death. And here we have a picture of how he takes care of his people. Luke says, the winds were so, so strong, we just let her drive, just let her go. That's what that means. No control. So who's controlling what happens to that boat then? Who's controlling what happens to that boat? God is, isn't he?

Because they just took their hands off and went, we can't do nothing. See, that's the part that we need to come to. Because when things happen, the first thing we do is try to steer whatever situation we're in. And then we come to a point. Doesn't God bring us to a point where we just let it go? No matter how heartbreaking it is. might be family members, might be friends, might be brothers and sisters in Christ, we just have to give them to the Lord. Right? That's all we can do.

It's like when we have kids and we raise them up and we send them out into the world. You pray that what you taught them about the Lord that they're learned, that the Lord will reveal himself to them. But you let them go, don't you? Trusting that they're in the Lord's hands. My, oh my. Look at verse 17.

It says, when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand, sail and were so driven. These were sand traps that they could get into. I remember we used to go up to Hudson Bay in Canada when I was a kid and go up there and visit. And there'd be places you could walk out.

You get up to here in your head, and then all of a sudden you hit a sandbar. And the water's down by your ankles. That's what it's talking about. Running into one of them sandbars, and you can't get out. Not until the water rises. Sometimes you're just stuck there.

And then I remember when we wanted to go back to shore, we would walk on our feet, because we'd laugh at how you'd be walking along, and say this is the water level right here, I'm going to walk down here, and get deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper, up to here. And you walk, and all of a sudden, it goes back down again. But that sandbar was quite a ways out. You guys ever been in a lake like that? It's amazing. And that's what... And bays are famous for these things. Sandbars, out offshore.

And these mariners, they knew that those sand traps, once they got in them, with a ship the size they had, they weren't getting out. You know, One commentator said, those sailors of old, they feared those sandbars more than they feared storms. Because at least a storm, they had a chance of riding it out. Once they got stuck in the sandbar, they were trapped. And then if a storm hit them, look out.

There's pieces of boat everywhere. And all this that we're reading about is part of God's ordained purpose. See, the severe storm had hit, and now they're parked somewhere by an island, and they're making that ship seaworthy again, aren't they? See, we go through storms alive, and God makes us seaworthy again, doesn't he?

Oh yeah, he does. He patches us up. Our heart might be breaking and He's there to comfort us. Oh my. And when those storms of life are over again, we look back and we go, Lord, look what you got me through. Look what you got me through. Now let's read verses 18 to 26. Acts chapter 7, 18 to 26.

And we being exceedingly tossed with the tempest, the next day they lightened the ship. Okay, so they're on this ship and it is getting rocked. It's a wooden ship, it's not like the big old freighters we got now, although they get tossed around when the gales of November come, don't they? On the Great Lakes. Oh yeah, look what happened to Edmund Fitzgerald. Snapped her right in half. My. So this ship is being tossed to and fro. And then they start throwing over stuff. You know what this is picturing? Man trying to deliver themselves.

Okay, if we get this stuff off, we're gonna make it through this storm. If we do this, oh, surely God will take me out of the storm if I do this. That's what religion tells you. You must be doing, remember Job's miserable comforters? He must be doing something wrong. No, he's going through a trial, and God's putting him through a trial. He didn't do anything wrong. He was a faithful man of God.

Right? So this junk, when they say, name it and claim it, and, you know, have you ever heard people say, you say, oh man, I got a cold. Oh, don't say that! Why not? I got a cold. It's ordained by God. I'll be thankful when this part of predestination is over, though. Right? You ever think of that? You get sick or something, and you get better, they say, praise God, that part of providence is finished. I learned that from Brother Norm Wells. I was sick one day, and he goes, well, When providence is done with that sickness, by the way, you'll be feeling a whole lot better.

And I was like, man, that's so true, brother. We don't look at it like that, do we? We're like, oh man, I got this cold. Oh, I'm miserable. Well, we are miserable when we get cold and stoned. But it's all part of God's plan, isn't it? It'll help us through these things, little things in life. It helps us through them, I'll tell you what, it really does.

And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, so it was cloudy. This morning we drove up the ramp there, and we saw the sun, and it was so obscured by the clouds. You just saw this round circle. You didn't see the sun, just the round circle of the sun, but it was obscured by clouds.

Now here, they're in a tempest. They're in storms. It's black. It's dark. Little storm clouds roll. So day and night, they couldn't see the stars, and that's what they navigate with, right? They navigate with the stars. They couldn't see the stars, and they couldn't see the sun.

My. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, though it was a large tempest, all hope that we should be saved was taken away." Look at that. They lost hope. Not the believers, but all those who were on that ship who were unbelievers, they were just terrified.

But after a long absence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should hearken unto me and not have loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you, be of good cheer. Now they're in the middle, they're in the middle of a huge storm. And here's Paul standing up saying, well, you should have listened to me. And the reason we're in this storm, because you didn't listen. And look at this. Now I exhort you, be of good cheer, for there shall no loss of life of any man's life among you, but of the ship. So they're in the middle of the storm. And Paul's not a sailor. And all these sailors, they're throwing stuff overboard, trying to loosen the ship, lighten the ship. They're pitching stuff over. We're going to see they even throw the tackling over. Everything they can get to throw over, they're throwing over.

And Paul stands up in the middle of them and goes, oh, don't worry. Be a good cheer. They can't even see the sun and the stars. Be a good cheer. No one's gonna perish. How do you think they looked at him? They must have said, this man's a crazy man. What is he talking about? Right? If we weren't saved, wouldn't that be our thing? Dude, you're messed up. There's something wrong with you. Well, no, there was nothing wrong with Paul, was there? Nothing wrong with Paul. Not at all. Look what he tells them. This is how he knows this is to be. For they stood by me this night, the angel of God. The angel of God stood by me. Who's I am? Oh, that tells us who that angel God was, doesn't it? Who's I am? Who are we? We're Christ. Oh, man. In whom I serve. Who do we serve? We serve Christ.

Saying, fear not, Paul. What does Christ say to all his people? Fear not. We don't have to fear the punishment of God, because Christ took our punishment. We don't have to fear the wrath of God, because Christ extinguished the wrath of God that was against us. We don't have to fear the justice of God, because Christ fulfilled the justice of God in our room and place. We don't have to fear the law of God, because it has no claim on us now, because it extracted all its claim upon us through Christ.

And we don't have to fear our great God, do we? Because he tells us, fear not. My, this is great comfort for us as we go through the storms of life. And then he says, wherefore, sirs, be a good cheer, for I believe that God that it shall be, even as it was told me. How abate? We must cast upon a certain island." Now, here we go. So he said, revealed to him that they must go to a certain island. They're not planning on going to this island. But look at that. Look at the words here.

How abate? We must. What did our Lord say about the lady at Samaria? I must needs go through Samaria. Why? Well, because that lady was there, and then we found out there's a whole bunch of other sheep there, aren't they, that are lost. And he says, here, how about we must be cast upon a certain island. You know why? God's got some lost sheep on that island. People that were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Oh, my. So they hoisted the sails and let her drive. Let her drive.

And these storms of life come to us, but let us never forget that our great God is in full control. And look what he says, look what Paul says to them. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve. See, our Lord's ever with us. He's ever with us. Saying, fear not, Paul.

Fear not, thou must be bought before Caesar. Look at that. And lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Look at that. God's given into your hand that not one that sails with thee shall be lost. And notice he says, again, this is the second time he said this to Paul, you must go to Rome. You must, why? Because there's a bunch of lost sheep in Rome he's got to preach to.

And there's even some of Caesar's household. Remember, we saw that in the book of Philippian study? There's some of the Praetorian guard who must be saved. There's some of Caesar's household that must be saved. Oh, my. Now let's read verses 26 to 38.

How bait when we must be cast upon a certain island. But when the 14th night was come, As we were driven up and down in Adreia, about midnight, the shipmen deemed that they draw near to some country, and sounded and found it twenty fathoms. When we had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms.

Then, fearing lest we should have been fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day. And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, now here we go. Remember I told you earlier they were going to take off? They were going to get out of the ship. And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship when they had let down the boat into the sea, so they even had little boats on the side of the ships then to be able to sail away from a sinking ship. They let down the boat. under control as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship. So they're doing it sneakily. They're doing it under the guise that they're casting anchors in the foreship.

And Paul said to the centurion and to the sailors, soldiers, except there abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. So he goes over to Julius and he says, if anyone gets out of the ship, they won't live. They won't live. My. Look at verse 32. Now, Julius listens to Paul, doesn't he? Look at this.

Then the soldiers cut the ropes off the boat and let her fall off. Could you imagine those sailors? That's their only way escape. And those soldiers, those burly soldiers, man, they come over and just whack with their little swords, the gladius, dongles the boat, man. For the sailors, there goes their hope. So they've already done everything they can do, humanly possible, to try to save themselves.

And while the day, verse 33, and while the day was coming, Paul besought them that they all take meat, saying they had been rationing their meat. And he said, let us all take meat. This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Fourteen days. They're probably starving. They've been drinking water. The water will keep you alive. Look at this. Wherefore, I pray you, take some meat, for this is for your health. For there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you.'

And when he had thus spoken, they took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. Then were they all of good cheer. They got some food in their bellies. And they also took some meat. And we were all in the ship, 200 threescore and 16 souls. Look at that. There were a whole bunch of them in there, weren't there? And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea. So they're throwing even more over.

So the sailors were about to forsake the ship, in which the passengers would have no hope then, because they didn't know how to run a ship. These were experienced mariners and they're ready to get off the ship. Paul says, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. They all have to be there. They all have to stay on the ship. In verse 32, immediately the soldiers cut the ropes and let the little boat fall. Again, they cut off all source of hope for those sailors. My oh my And everything that they They needed there's they're pitching it overboard again.

Look at this After they ate verse 38 and when they had eaten enough they lighten the ship and cast out the wheat unto the sea now The only way they could make bread is with wheat and and romans lived on bread Roman legions lived on bread they would actually they would actually rebel against their commanders if they weren't allowed to gather wheat in places that they went to. Because meat wasn't their staple, bread was. Bread was.

And you know, storms have a way of changing our values, doesn't it? Storms in life have a way of changing our values and all the things that would appear important to us No longer appear as important So they're pitching everything that would be important to them overboard How they gonna eat without wheat Well, they're heading to an island aren't they God's already made provision for them. They just don't know it For saved and lost. For saved and lost. Does not God have the sunshine on the just and the unjust and the rainfall on the just and the unjust? Does God not out of his abundance of crops and different things feed people in the world out of his abundance? Both the just and the unjust? Yep. My oh my. My, oh, my.

We see that they stayed in the ship, and we're saved. So let us remember when we're going through the midst of storms in our lives, just to keep holding on to Christ. Listen to this, John 15, 9. As the Father had loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. Continue trusting the Lord. No matter what we go through, Continue hanging on to him. You know, Zane has an incurable brain disease, and he's just hanging on to Christ, aren't you, brother? No matter what happens. And I think your faith has been strengthened even more through all that. It's been amazing.

Now let's read verses 39 and 40, Acts chapter 27. When it was day, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore. Oh, they all of a sudden discovered that. Nope. That was by the providence of God, wasn't it? It's always been there, all according to God's will and purpose, with a shore into which they were minded if it were possible to thrust in the ship. I'll get the ship down the creek. When they had taken up the anchors, they continued themselves into the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoist up the main sail to the wind and made towards shore.

Oh my. Where are we headed, guys? We're heading to Canaan Land, aren't we? This little ship of life. Who's our captain? Christ. And the captain of our ship will get us home, won't he? Oh, yeah, he will. Oh, yeah, he will. And when they had taken up anchors, they committed themselves into the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoist up the mainsail to the wind and made toward shore.

Let us seek Christ. Let us throw everything aside in this life and seek Christ, no matter what we go through. Seek to draw nearer to our wonderful, merciful Savior. Toward, toward shore. Toward him. Toward him. My. This reminds me of when Paul, Paul wrote in Colossians, wrote to the saints at Coloss in Colossians chapter three, verse one. He wrote this, if you then be risen with Christ, Seek those things which are above.

Don't get caught up in things in this world. Everyone and everything you see is temporal. Temporal. And may we not let those things get our eyes off Christ. Right? Listen to this. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. That's a fact. He's on the right hand of God, isn't he? Set your affection, this is your heart, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Mine. What's that telling us? Everything's temporal. Keep your eyes on the Eternal One. Keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Set your affection, your heart, the seat of your affections, your heart. Now in this world, there are lots of distractions, isn't there? And we got an enemy who will throw even more at us. Let us keep our eyes on Christ. Let us keep our eyes on the King.

Listen to this. It says this. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. We're dead to this world, beloved. We are absolutely dead to this world. Think of it. Does it hold the value it once did for us? We seek a better place, don't we? We seek a place where Christ is, don't we, Brother Brian? We know this is just a, we're just a passing through, like that old song says, the angels beckon you, we're just a passing through.

One day we're gonna be in glory with Christ forever. And we will love each other with a love that absolutely has no sin at all. So the love that we have for each other will be even magnified even more. I believe we're going to know each other in glory, I do. I believe we're going to meet a lot of folks, too. But I believe we're going to know each other. Yeah. My, it's wonderful, isn't it? And if Christ is all our desire, then He's all we need during the storms of life, isn't He? He's all we need. Let's read Acts 41 to 44. We'll close out this passage.

And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground. Again, all this is happening according to the will and purpose of God. And the forepart struck fast and remained unmovable. But the hinder part, the rear part of the ship, was broken with the violence of the waves.

And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape. So the first thing those soldiers want to do, because if they lost one prisoner, what happened to them? That's their life. So the first thing they want to do, they want to pull their swords out, and they want to kill them all. And you can't blame them, because if they lose one, they forfeit their lives. That was the whole thing with Roman. When you were a Roman soldier, your life was to the state.

My. But the centurion willing to save Paul, look at that. Now this centurion now, he's like, I don't want Paul to die. The Lord's put favor in his heart for Paul, right? That's why I hope that the Lord saved him. I don't know, but I hope he did. But look at this, all of a sudden now he's got favor with the centurion. Willing to save Paul. He don't care about the other person, he wants to save Paul.

My. kept them from their purpose and commanded that they which could should swim and cast themselves in first into the sea and get to land. Now, not everybody back then knew how to swim, just like now. Not everybody knows how to swim, right? Okay. So this soldier, this centurion said, get out of the ship. If you can swim to shore, swim to shore. And look what it says here in verse 44. And the rest, some on boards, some on broken pieces of ship, So the ones that could swim, swam to shore. And other ones, they just floated on pieces of wood.

But they're all under the careful watch of our sovereign God, right? And look what it says. And it came to pass that they escaped, all safe to land. All of them. Saved and lost. Just like God had said. And now those who have went to shore are going to get to see Paul and hear Paul preaching the gospel to the people of Malta. And we're gonna see next week, they were there for a little while. So what can we glean from here, from these verses? That our great and glorious God will graciously bring us through the storms of life. no matter what they are, to our desired haven of rest, which is to be with Christ forever, to be in Canaanland, to be in glory with our King.

And we see that some swam to safety, some floated on board, some rode on broken pieces of ship, but they all came to that place where the two seas met, and they all came to shore, all according to the will and purpose of God. They came to pass, they escaped, all safe to the land. Beloved God, so shall it be with all of God's elect.

All of them. The Lord said, I'll not lose one of them. I'll not lose one of them the Father gave me. Not one. We'll all make it home to Canaan land. We'll all make it home to glory. Why? Because our God is absolutely sovereign. And those he saves, he keeps. And those he saved and keep, he takes them to glory. It's wondrous, isn't it? Isn't it glorious? When we say glory be to our great God, amen and amen. Brother Brian, can you close us in prayer?