I think it is online I don't know why it stopped showing that yeah
All right, well, let's get to see everyone this evening this afternoon if we would all turn in our turn in our hymnals to song 460
This old batch is right here.
Can you hear that singing?
Song 460, come thou fount, that's on 460.
Baptist Church to our evening service and I believe we got five souls once you
guys got two right Jesse and we got two and you guys got one so we got five for
the afternoon so we're at 164 for the year so between yesterday and today
We had 12. Sorry. My math is not that great.
And right there on the left, if you don't have a bulletin, Enrique, it's okay. Leave her alone.
Right there on the left, it's Sunday morning. It's at 10.30. Sunday evening, 4.30.
Wednesday service is at 5.30 p.m. And our sole winning time is at 2.00 p.m.
The hottest part of the day because, you know, that's just the way we should do it anyway.
Our memory chapter for the week, I mean, for the month is Hebrews 1.
And currently we are on the for the week. We are on Hebrews 1 1
God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times passed into the fathers by but by the prophets
We have all our birthdays coming up. So brother Kevin who?
does not know how old he's going to be. That's okay. And my daughter and Victor and Aubrey all
are within a couple of days of each other. Then we have the anniversaries coming up,
the Rogers and the De Matos. And then last yesterday we had 13 soul winners, seven souls,
eight children and five adults. Next week, July 26, next Saturday, we have a church work day.
We would definitely appreciate the help to get the church just back in order after the last couple of months
We've got a lot more people coming through and using everything
And so definitely just a little help cleaning it up tight it up tightening some screws
Things that come loose that would be great
And then we have the fire. I mean the man's mighty conference with a steadfast coming up August 14th through the 16th
And then the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship,
August 27th through the 31st.
And then we have the Soul-Winning Mission Script
to Mexico City, September 8th through the 12th.
And then on the back, we have our prayer requests.
So just pray for everybody.
Is there anybody that we need to update
on the prayer request or remove?
If not, I think most of, are you guys,
who's not getting my text?
Is anybody, everybody's getting the text
with the prayer updates and the different announcements?
You get him Jesse? Do you get him Christian? Yeah, you guys. All right. If you want to add anybody or remove anybody from that, just text me there and we'll get that information over to you.
Other than that, we're going to be in Acts 27. And if nothing else, I'll let Brother Moe give us the next hymn, which is... I don't know. Where are we?
went 150 401 that's why I was close 401 all right
all right turn in your hymnals to page 401
page 401. Now I belong to Jesus, page 401.
your song binders to Psalm 150.
Psalm 150. If there's an empty row, there's probably going to be a song binder there.
We're going to be in Psalm 150.
Song 150
Chapter number 27, we'll read the Bible and pass the offering plate.
We're there in Acts 27 where the Bible reads, and when it was determined that we should sail
into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion
And entering into a ship of Adremitium, we launched a meeting to sail by the coast of Asia, one Aristarchus, a Macedonian Thessalonica being with us.
And the next day we touched that side on, and Julius courteously entreated Paul and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself.
And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus because the winds were contrary.
And when we had sailed over the Sea of Cecilia and Pemphilia, we came to Mira, a city of
Lycia.
And there the Centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy and he put us therein.
Snidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete over against Salmone, and hardly
passing it came into a place which is called the Fair Havens, nigh whereunto was the city
of Lacea.
Now, when much time was spent and when sailing was now dangerous because the fast was now
already passed, Paul admonished them and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage
will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.
Nevertheless, the Centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more than those
things which were spoken by Paul.
And because the haven was not commodious to winter end, the more part advised to depart
thence also, if by any means they might attain to Fenice, and there to winter, which is in
haven of Crete, and lie toward the southwest and northwest.
And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, losing
but not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Euryclidon.
And when the ship was caught and could not bear up unto the wind, we let our drive.
And running under a certain island, which is called Clota, we had much work to come by the boat,
which when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship
and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, straight sail, and so were driven.
And we, being exceedingly tossed into tempest, the next day they lightened the ship, and
the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.
And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us,
all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.
But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should
to have gained this harm and loss, and now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no
loss in any man's life among you but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God,
Fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe, God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
How be it, we must be cast upon a certain island, but when the fourteenth night was come,
As we were driven up and down in Adria about midnight the shipment deemed that they drew near to some country and
Sounded and found it 20 fathoms and when they had gone a little further
They sounded again and founded 15 fathoms then fearing let's we shed our fallen upon rocks
They cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day and as the shipment were about to flee out of the ship
When they had let down the boat into the sea under color as though that
As though they would have cast anchors out of the poor ship, Paul said to the Centurion
and to the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved.
Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.
And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take me, saying this day is the
Wherefore, I pray you to take some meat, for this is for your health, and there shall not
be an hare fall from the head of any of you.
And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in the presence of
all of them.
And when he had broken it, he began to eat.
Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat.
And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea.
And when it was day, they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore,
and to the which they were minded if it were possible to thrust in the ship.
And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the seas,
and loosed under rubber bands and hoisted up the mainsail to the winds and made toward shore.
falling into a place where two seas met they ran the ship or ground and the
four the four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable but the hindered
part was broken with the violence of the waves and the soldiers council was to
kill the prisoners less any of them any of them should swim out and escape but
the centurion willing to say Paul kept them from their purpose and commanded
that they which could swim should cast themselves into the sea first and get to
And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of ship.
And so it came to pass that they all escaped safe to land.
Let's have a quick word of prayer.
Dear Father God, thank you for this day.
Thank you for this chapter in the Bible, Lord.
I pray that you fill Pastor Enrique with your spirit,
help them preach a blood and accurate sermon, Lord.
And I pray that you be with those that were saved today.
Guide them in your truth, help them to have a heart to serve you, Lord.
And I just pray that you fill our hearts with your spirit,
help us to receive the sermon with a gladness of heart
and help us to apply it to our lives.
In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
Amen.
You know, I don't normally preach without a COVID,
I'm just opted out, it's hot today.
So I'm just hot.
But a couple of announcements really quick.
Two things I forgot to mention earlier.
Number one,
We did not have two full bathrooms, but brother Heath was able to solve that so we now have both bathrooms open again
So thank you brother Heath for that and then the baby mama room
Just we you know, it's not officially like all set up yet. But that's our goal
But it is it's exactly that it's called the baby mama room
So please just make sure that either mama's or babies in there or both. I mean or the time
I mean obviously toddlers
To me toddlers are babies because you know if they're babbling they're just babies, but anyways
Just uh wanted to make an announcement and at the end if everybody could just I know it's been a long day
And we appreciate everybody being here just if we can help clean up with all the stuff afterwards
I would greatly appreciate it
But let's go there acts 27 and the reason we're in acts 27 today is on Wednesday pastor cop preached. I
Already had the sermon ready
Then this weekend has just been really long. It's been a great weekend. It's been really fruitful, but it's actually been really long
Just I've just been non-stop and so I was telling my wife
I was like man
I got to prepare two sermons for something. She's like, you know when you talk about a help me
That's the the nice thing about I mean, it's a true help me. She just looked at me. She said, well, you already have the Wednesday service
Just preach on Sunday. I was like, oh perfect, you know, so I already had that one sermon set up
and we just which is good because it's on Sundays
it's good to just go over the Bible on occasion and
It's good to just let you guys know what we do during the midweek
So this is just a continuation on the book of Acts. So for the last couple of weeks basically since like acts 19 up till now
Paul's just been thrown around, I think this has been playing hot potato with Paul.
You know he's just been going to Festus and then Felix and everything and now
he's being transported to Rome. We're cutting here in the end of Acts and we see a couple of
things that really stand out and one of the things that I'm going to really focus on here
because it'll drive close to home is here we see what a mention of a hurricane.
And in Texas, especially to Houston, we're no stranger to those kind of storms
I mean who's been here during Ike during Harvey during I mean what was the one last year the one that just came in and out
Anyways, we huh?
Barrel we just I mean every few years we get a hurricane some are worse than others, but
We've been through storms, but the title of the sermon this evening is acts 27 be of good cheer
And the reason is that Paul's a good cheer because he believes God and God gave him specific instructions that he had a
specific purpose and
I think the thing that we want to apply
Spiritually even though this is a real event that happened and sometimes God does work through us through real events like that
But also spiritual events is that we are going to go through storms life is gonna throw
everything and the kitchen sink not but the kitchen sink but in the kitchen sink at us
and we need to just be prepared spiritually to just deal with that right as a matter of fact I
think a good example of that just even today is I was telling some of the young guys I love that
we have some young people in the church I'm not going to lie to you maybe because I'm 45 or maybe
because I just have a family and just really busy I was probably not going to go so any today just
And I just didn't have it in me. I'm just not lying with that a bunch of young guys showed up
And they're gonna go soul-winning when my ego got in the way and I was like well
I'm not gonna not go soul-winning because I got to show these young kids
You know what this old guy can do and so I went out there and we went soul-winning with them and we got five souls
So sometimes we need a little bit of a you know something to shake us up and get us back out there
But let's go there to act 27. Let's go there verse one
The first thing that I want to point out is that God shows
Mercy in this example God shows mercy to Paul even in prison
But God shows mercy to us through the trials, right?
Whether we're in prison for the cause of Christ,
whether we're ostracized for the cause of Christ,
whether we're attacked,
God's still gonna show us mercy.
Like he's not gonna withhold things from us
as long as we're living righteously.
I mean, Paul's a great example of someone
who just lived for the Lord Jesus Christ
and we're there in Acts 27 and verse one.
The Bible says that when it came it was determined that we should sail into Italy and they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners
Unto one named Julius a St.
Churian of Augusta's band and entering into a ship at Adrimadium
We launched meaning to sail by the coast of Asia one Aristarchus
A Macedonian of Thessalonica being with us and the next day we touched that Psydon and Julius
Kurdishly entreated Paul and gave him liberty to go onto his friends to refresh himself.
And when he had launched from thence, we sailed into Cyprus because the winds were contrary.
And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Panfilia, we came to Myra, a city of
Licia.
And there the Centurion found a ship of Alexander sailing into Italy, and he put us therein.
And when he had sailed slowly many days, the scares were come over against Nidus, the wind
were not suffering as we sailed on the Crete over against Salmoni, and Harley passing it
Now we're on to what's the city of Lecea, but we see here verse three.
Julius gave courtesy to who, to Paul, to do what?
He gave him liberty, even though he's a prisoner,
to go into his friends and refresh himself.
Look, the world will know that we are people of integrity,
of people of honesty that we're willing to live for Christ
if we actually show ourselves true.
And I'm not talking about lifestyle evangelism,
although I think there's an importance
to people noticing our lifestyle.
What they really should notice
is our actions based on the Bible.
I don't want anybody to notice that I'm a good guy just because I look good or I make sure everybody saw me pay a bill or buy someone.
No, I want people to notice that we're living for Christ because we're standing on the promises of God, right?
That we're willing to preach the Word of God unfiltered.
I mean, why is Paul in prison? Why is he headed to Rome?
Literally for pissing off the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
I mean the whole thing is that they're saying hey Paul you keep telling us that we killed Jesus and we don't like it I
Mean that's literally why he's being sent everywhere
They're falsely accusing him and what does Paul do Paul never backs down instead?
He anchors in no pun intended, but he just keeps anchoring down and just is like no
We're gonna preach the word of God, and I want to go all the way to Rome to do so
Go over to Philippians 1, go over to Philippians 1 and I'll read for you really quick.
Acts 23, a few chapters earlier, we see in it says in the night following the Lord stood
by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of being Jerusalem,
so must thou bear witness also of Rome.
You know what's interesting?
We saw that in chapter 23, we're going to see this again in chapter 27, God's constantly
You know why? Because Paul's human. And I'm not saying Paul is scared. Probably a little nervous.
I mean, they just keep moving him around. He's in storms. It looks like there's no way out.
And God's like, Hey, I got a bigger purpose for you. And look, today in 2025, spiritually
applying this to our lives, God has a plan for us. If you're here today, God has a purpose for you.
But I'm not like Joel Olsteen, you know, your purpose driven life.
Actually, I don't want to live my purpose-driven life.
I want to live a life that it's in the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
We go there to Philippians 1, verse 6.
The Bible says, being confident of this very thing, that He which had begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is me for me to think this
Both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel you are all partakers of my grace
For God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ and this I pray
That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment
That you may approve things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ being filled
With the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God
But I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out, rather, unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all play, in all the...
palace and in all other places and many of the brethren in the Lord waxing
confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Hey,
sometimes you need to have a leader that is suffering some things for Christ so
everybody else can see, hey, I can do that. I mean, I've been a recipient of seeing
others suffer for Christ.
go through some trials and tribulations and be like, man, I want to join that fight.
Because everybody wants to be part of something great, but we need to make sure that that path of greatness is based on Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, when I was a young man, I mean, I make no qualms about it.
My wife knows that all the time. I wanted to be this big mogul.
Like, I wanted to, you know, just rub shoulders with Elon Musk.
And I mean, I didn't know of him back then.
But, you know, those guys, like I wanted to be, have my private jet and my private helicopter.
My penthouse suite, but the reason that I really wanted to do that was because I just wanted to be part of something great
I think most people have this
Feeling or this purpose like they want to do something more than just whatever they're doing in life
But you know if you focus on the Lord Jesus Christ number one he removed all of that
That's the first thing like I don't really care about any of that stuff anymore
But now the greatness that I seek is just to please the Lord Jesus Christ
You know as John said he must increase and I must decrease
But the only way to do that is to constantly be focused not only on the Lord Jesus Christ
But also who is he putting at the forefront like who are the people that he's putting in the spotlight that you can follow and emulate
There's nothing wrong with following people
You know, sometimes we get a bad rap because we associate with one pastor or some church
or some other person, but, you know, people are always going to have an opinion.
So at the end of the day, just who cares?
Just follow the Lord Jesus Christ and the people who want to follow Him and everybody
else can go kiss a lemon.
You know, honestly, I don't care.
I mean there's days where I say stuff to people and I do stuff and then I'll catch myself in my humanity
I'll tell my wife like man, maybe I shouldn't have said this or shouldn't have said that
But the reality is if I'm doing things for the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn't really matter
You know, I don't care who likes me or who doesn't like me
All we need to do is preach the Word of God in 2nd Timothy verse 2 I mean chapter 2 verse 9
The Bible says wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer even unto bonds, but the Word of God is not bound
Therefore, I endure all things for the Alexic, that they may also obtain the salvation which
is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.
If we deny him, he will also deny us.
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
And by the way, I made a little note here, verse 13 is a really good soul winning verse.
How many times have you run into this where you're like, hey, can you ever lose your salvation?
Whether they're not for the gospel or even for the gospel and they're like, well
The only way you could lose it is if God took it away from you or if you stop believing. Who's heard that?
Oh, what if I stopped believing but God
Abideth faithful and God's faithfulness is not like our faithfulness, right?
The Lord is more faithful than any of us like God doesn't need my permission to be faithful to me
He doesn't care if I have a down day, or if I'm a little depressed, or if I doubt my salvation.
We all have those moments of weakness.
God's still faithful to us.
No man can pluck us out of his hand.
No man can pluck us out of the Father's hand.
This is a great verse.
If you just want to ... I don't normally use it, but if you wanted to go somewhere and
just say, look, you could never stop believing, because here's the thing.
Because belief is a one-time thing. It's like you can never be unborn
You know you can never be just like I didn't want to be your son mom and dad so
Reversed the whole thing
Going back in the womb and then disappearing. I mean, I know it sounds like you can't do it, right?
It sounds really dumb. What's the same thing with believe like you can't just stop believing
I mean, I'm as a human I'm sure you have moments of weakness and things like that
But at the end of the day once you're in God's family, that's it. You're in God's family like
There's nothing you can do about it. I mean my kids. I love them. I don't live in this
fake world where you know or this
Illusion that they're always gonna be perfect children and they're never gonna, you know be mad at me or rebel
But the one thing I know for sure is they're always gonna be my kids
You know, you think about the prodigal son, he left, and when he came back, before he even made it to the house, what's the dad already doing?
Loving on him, hugging him, forgiving him, he's part of the family. I mean, that's the way Jesus is with us.
Second point I have for you, go back to Acts 27. So the first thing we see is that God shows us mercy, even in prison in this example, but also just in life.
Right, we preach really hard sometimes. We preach judgment. We we preach judge righteous righteousness. We preach
Correction we preach punishment. But the other thing is we balance it out
You know why we preach so hard because we also know that God is very merciful and very graceful and he loves us
And because of that we have to balance this thing out second point is that God's counsel is often ignored
Right? In times of trouble, but really I put here in times of pride, because at the end
of the day, people sometimes will just not listen to you just because of who you are.
Right? If you're based on, you know, if you're a Christian, sometimes people, even if you tell them the truth, just to be contrary to you, they just won't even listen to you.
And we have this example here with Paul. I mean, literally a real storm that's going to affect them spiritually.
Because anybody, look, one thing is having a hurricane hit your house in the city of Houston, where the possibility of maybe losing the electricity for a couple of days, just inconvenience.
in the middle of the gulf and a storm hits you're gonna have some spiritual battles as well because
you're gonna be like i don't know if i want to die out here lord you know i have mercy on me
like this is serious i mean who's ever like just been out driving and all of a sudden a storm hits
and it gets a little hairy like you better you start thinking about god real quick right like
you're like lord just get me through this i remember several years back there were some
I think the car still messed up because of it, isn't it?
Like, remember when we drove through that storm and...
I turned on the lights or the windshield. I broke something remember I cut my hand. Anyways, you know
It was really bad and I ended up I got down and I think one of the lights came off
And I had to get down and I try to push it back and I cut my hands
But I remember thinking Lord just get me through this, you know, I'm with my kids
I'm with my wife a newborn baby
I just want to get through this situation and the Lord saw it through but this is what we see here
It says there in verse 9 it says now when the time was spent
And when sailing was now dangerous
Because the fast was now already passed Paul admonished them now admonish me and then his punishment
It's not a reproof. He's actually just calling him out nicely like he's being kind about it or not as
You know, he's not rebuking them as his basic look comes down to you instead of to them serves
I perceive that this boy voyage will be hurt and much damage not only of the lady in his ship, but also of our lives
Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship,
more than those things which were spoken by Paul, and because of the Haven was not
commodious in the winter to winter end, the more part advised to depart than it's also,
if by any means they might attain to Finise and there to winter, which is in Haven of Crete,
Supposing that they had obtained their purpose loosing thence they sell close to Crete. So basically they do the opposite of what Paul suggests
He's like, hey, I don't think it's a good idea
Hey, you know the one thing I think it would be why put this in here
I
Related this this kind of because it feels like why would Paul why even tell us this will number one Paul's already proven
To have some authority right and the fact that God's on his side and these guys know this and what do they do?
They just do the opposite
I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, because he does listen to the captain, he's
listening to his leadership, but it probably would have been smart to listen to Paul,
seeing that everywhere that Paul goes, you know, the Lord is with him, right?
And, you know, there's an application here, you don't have to turn there for the sake of time,
but in Proverbs 14 verse 12, the Bible says, there is a way which Seamoth ride unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death. And, you know, the lesson here is that we need to
Right in a multitude of counselors their safety the Bible says where no counsel is the people fail
But in the multitude of counselors
There is safety right problems 1310 says only price come it only by pride come with contention
But with the well-advised is wisdom look if they would have to wisdom to listen to Paul I
Still think he gets to Rome. I just don't think they go through a hurricane
You know, I'll give you a good example, like where we need, we need to just have an attitude of wanting to do the best thing at the moment.
You know, we were out there soul winning and Moe was actually giving the gospel to the last person we led to Christ and he's with brother Jesse.
And we're just waiting because it's getting close to coming back here and it's brother Kevin.
And I don't know if you know anything about brother Kevin or I, but brother Kevin and I'm going to pick on him a little bit and brother Christian is with us.
And I thought we were far enough, but...
I know we I know that this is actually on us brother Kevin
I don't have what's called a whisper voice like we just don't have that ability
I remember when we first got married my wife and I we were sitting in the church in the Baptist church
And I'm whispering and I'm probably whispering something that shouldn't be whispered in the first place
And she just turns to me. She goes honey. You don't have a whisper voice like everybody can hear you
So brother Kevin I we're talking about language with brother Christian and brother Jesse comes he's like hey guys
You guys are being really loud like
Basically, we're distracting from the gospel now. There's two ways to respond to that right like who's Jesse like come on, bro
Like I'm 20 years old. I'm old enough to be your daddy son
Like who do you think you're talking to or it's more like you know what you're right?
And then we moved away
But people take that attitude how many times I remember being young I can't I couldn't I couldn't count on one hand the time
I mean I can count on more than one hand the times that people came up to me like oh, you're just you're still wet behind the ears
You know, the Bible says, you know, despise not thy youth when it comes to the things of God, right?
Now, there is a time and place.
And I mean, I guess I could put my foot down to someone who's 20 years my junior for certain things.
But hey, if it's the things of God, the authority is coming from Christ, not from Jesse, not from Christian, not for me.
It's from God Almighty, right?
Like, that's the kind of counsel we need to listen to, because the reality is
He's like, Hey, the reason I told you this is because I was getting distracted and he
thought to himself, what if we distract the guy from getting saved?
And if we were, if I had, if we had prideful attitudes, we would have fought back, lose
that soul and then that blood's on our hands.
You say that sounds like a dummy.
It's not.
You know how many times we get distracted when we're out so winning because people don't
know that you're giving the gospel?
And I'm not talking about our homeowners, but we shouldn't be the summoning block now the world. I can't do anything about those damn dogs
I mean, I just I can't stand dogs in this day and age because
Everybody and their mama has what a dog
Dogs are bad counselors by the way. I mean, they just they're bad advice. They're just horrible. And by the way, there's poop everywhere
It just stinks like just get rid of your dogs. I'm just hey, but anyways, let's not sidetrack
Let's go to step point number three. So the first thing we see is get God shows mercy
Even when we're going through trouble right even in prison God's counsel is often ignored
But when you have pride in the way
You shouldn't just ignore people just because they're prisoners, or because you think they're at some level in their life that's not equivalent to you.
We have that attitude sometimes too, right?
We might treat someone different because of race, or we might treat someone different because of, like, what intelligent level we think there are, or economic level, like, we don't have a caste system in God's, you know, family.
We don't have, like, an elitist system, you know, Mexicans are elitist.
Have you ever hung around a real Mexican like a set of Mexicans? They're not necessarily racist, but you know what they are
They're elitist my wife's witnessed it right?
I mean you get around a bunch of Mexicans and it's all about who has more and depending on who has more
That's how you people get treated am I wrong over there? No, I'm not see I got a couple of Mexicans in the audience today
I'm all my people
But point number three the storm will strip you
of what strip you to what really matters.
Now here's a, I know that the point sounds weird,
but this is what I really want to focus on.
Storms and life will strip you to what really matters.
Cause look what's going to happen next here
in Acts 27 verse 14 says,
but not long after the rose against it,
against it, a temp choice wind called Euryclidon.
And when the ship was caught
and could not bear into the wind,
we let her drive and running under a certain island,
which is called Clota.
We had much work to come by the boat, which when they had taken up, they used helps
undergirding the ship and fearlessly, lest they should fall into the quicksand,
straight sail, and so we're driven. And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest,
the next day they lighted the ship, and the third day we cast out with our own hands the
tackling of the ship. And when either the sun or the stars in many days appeared,
and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was taken away.
You you guys got to remember
They're in a ship in biblical times
It's not like you have like a port that you can arrive to and just
Re-up on lost supplies right today. You can go to the port of Galveston and
Every few days every week. There's a new carnival cruise or some other cruise going out and the reason that it's there though
It's number one. It's picking up a new set of people to go out
to party or whatever or so when there's a bunch of so when there's not doing carnival
I mean cruises, but also what does it do it? It's getting more supplies, right?
And even if they were in a storm and they needed to get rid of supplies
They could count on the fact that it within a couple of days. They could re-up those supplies
But back then when you're getting rid of supplies, you don't know where you're gonna land
you don't know what you're gonna run into and
You're just kind of out of luck
But that but what did they do they basically light the load they got themselves agile
This makes me think a little bit more of like a military style.
You know, in the Christian life, we have to be very, like, a malicious style.
We don't want to be overloaded with everything to where we're not even good on the attack, right?
If the storms of life are hitting us, we should take a step back and realize
what is God trying to remove from our life so that we're better at the task that God has given us to do, right?
business where I traveled a lot several years ago, and God removed that. And the
only reason that I really think that he removed it, it wasn't because I was doing
a bad job with my family, or anything like that. I was just gone every other week,
and it was really difficult to be consistent in the work of the Lord here
at Springcrest. I mean, I didn't skip church, and that was even the
hardest part. I was traveling to where I was here on Wednesdays, or Sundays.
But it's just not it's just difficult right to do like a soul-witting marathon on Saturday when you're traveling in on Saturday
Well, it's thanks to God through those challenges removed all that right and you need to look at your life because we have a tendency to what?
We'll have a tendency to want to complain
We have a tendency to want to just find the negative in life.
And Paul, he's the one that's like finding all the good stuff in the storm.
Everybody else is freaking out, right?
Go over to Psalm 107.
I really like this as it applies to this stormy sermon.
But in Hebrews 12 verse 27, the Bible says,
that are shaken as of things that are made,
that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Man, I love that verse, right?
What's this word?
This word will remove all the crap in your life,
all the freaking just stuff that gets in your way
and just leave what?
The good stuff.
I mean so much so that 10-15 years ago I probably wouldn't have said both freaking and crap from a pulpit
You know what those are the least things those are the least things that should worry you from a preacher behind the pulpit
What should worry you is if they're preaching the wrong gospel like John MacArthur
He's way better spoken than I was in his lifetime
But I guarantee you more people are going to hell because of John MacArthur than because of me
It's a fact
Joe Olstein is way better spoken and he looks way better in all his nice suits than I will ever look I
Mean the guy's like almost 60 years old. Hey, man, brother
He does he looks way better, but what what what was I headed with it?
but and he's got all that plastic surgery you guys know he's almost 60 years old or he's probably the 60s
the guy looks like younger than i do but you know what god doesn't care about that what he cares about
is what you're gonna do for people here on this earth right go to Psalm 107 and right there in
verse 23 says they they go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters these see the
works of the lord and his wonders in the deep for he commanded and raised it the stormy wind
They mount up to the heaven.
They go down again to the depths.
Their soul is melted because of trouble.
Hey, storms do this.
They reel to and fro
and stagger like a drunken man
and are at their wits
and they cry unto the Lord
in their trouble.
And he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm
a calm
so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet so he bringeth them unto their desired Haven oh
That men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men
Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders
I love this because you know what it's saying. Hey somebody's going through a storm
Somebody is
And the Lord's seeing them through and where do we do the praise in church?
You know why church is so important not only to edify you to prepare you to give you more ammunition
To call you out on sin, but also you guys are going through stuff
Everybody is sometimes I'm preaching to myself like sometimes I'm going through stuff
I'm like oh, amen. I didn't know that was gonna be so good, but sometimes I'm preaching to you guys
You know, I don't know what you're going through.
I'm not nosy.
Like I'm not calling everybody and trying to figure out
what's going on in this life.
But you live in this world, don't you?
You know, somebody died in your family.
Somebody did something to you.
Somebody wronged you.
There's a storm.
And I love that it says,
and they are at their wit's end.
How many times have you been at your wit's end?
I mean, I can't even tell you you run it if you've ever run a business and I run a business and then you're in the ministry
And I'm in the ministry. I'm at my wits end like every other week. Okay, there's just I'm at like every other week
I'm just like Mary Sarah. That's it. I'm just
I'm close to shop
We'll get a job
Keep my head down
pay bills and debt for the rest of my life
and then just never have to deal with anybody.
Cause it just be so much easier for the short term.
You know, I'd be so unhappy in the longterm.
And so I'm glad that the Lord just cleanses our soul.
You know, there's nothing like just coming to church,
being tired and then getting a bunch of young guys
to show up and then the rest of the afternoon was great.
I'm not kidding.
Like you guys pumped me up.
Like I'm ready to roll.
Like you guys should just be here every Sunday
so that your old pastor just can go out there
and soul in with you and just feel young again.
Jonah 1 14 the Bible says wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said we beseech thee O Lord
We beseech thee let us not perish for this man's life and lay not up
Upon us innocent blood for thou O Lord has done it as it pleased and I mean of course
We saw remember Jesus was in the boat and the apostles are with him and he's asleep because he controls everything
And the apostles are freaking out and isn't that how we treat the Lord Jesus Christ?
I mean we're going through trials. We're going through life, and we're like God wake up
And the guy's like, what are you talking about?
All of this is mine.
Like, I control it.
I don't know what you're worried about.
Well, let's go to point number four.
Go back to Acts 27.
So the thing that we've got to see
is that God shows us mercy, right?
Good counsel is often ignored when we're prideful,
but we should listen to good counsel.
And actually, the better term would
be good, godly counsel, right?
And then the storms, they will strip you down to what really matters, right?
I mean, honestly, when I was young, I hated running, but now as I'm older, it's probably
one, even though I don't run as much as I used to, it's my favorite sport.
You know why?
Because running, all it requires is for me to just go out and start running.
I don't need any space. I know it's gotten weird, but I could go running
And what I'm wearing right now like I don't need any special equipment if I wanted to I could go running like this
I could go running barefoot. I could go get some fancy shoes and go running
I don't need to like have a basketball or
Shoulder pads or a nice set of golf clubs. I just go running keeps you light
And what is it? What does the Bible like in our feet to write the gut?
You know it says that we're shod with the gospel of Jesus Christ
It's the simplest thing. How hard was it to go out there and go so many today?
I mean, yeah, we carry some Bibles if we want to.
I don't need any Bibles though, except for my Gospel Bible, right?
I don't need the cards that we give out.
I can just give the Gospel to anybody at any time.
And if you have it set in your heart, then you don't even need a Bible.
Now, I think that that should be a rare occurrence, but if you don't have the Bible, well then
you should just have the Gospel, you know, for all have sin, come short of the glory
of God, for there's no one righteous, no one at one, and we can just go on and on and on
Sometimes we encumber ourselves with the things of this world right you go to other churches
You go to other ministries, and it's full of all this stuff except the gospel. I mean my wife
The kids the only the only positive. I mean, it's I don't even think it's a positive
I was the only benefit of these churches being so arrogant with their money
Is it my kids get to go to all these Baptist churches that have parks inside of them?
Did you guys know that like there's like churches in Houston that are so big?
They literally have open hours with these big indoor parks, and I think to myself
Just so they could show off
There's no purpose. It's not like you're getting the gospel because your kids running around and and going down a slide or something
You know, you can just set those the world has that
Right, but let's go there to acts 27 verse 21
The fourth point is those who hear and do
And the reason I notice I made a point to say those who hear and do
We don't want it to just be hears of the word. We want to be doers of the word
We're gonna be the ones to strengthen others
Right this is the elite Navy SEAL group the people who show up to church
Sunday morning Sunday evening who go to the soul in the marathon the rest of the world
They think they've got it going on, but when trouble comes, you know, they're gonna need they're gonna need us
And if you think I'm joking, I'm not
My family knows
Then number one, they don't have to talk to me. Nobody talks to me
Nobody comes visit me
Nobody comes hang out with me the only people that love me or my my parents my brother and sister love me
But it's not like they're like coming to spend the weekend with me. They don't hang out with me
But when trouble comes
You know who's the first they call me?
It's not because I'm some great solver, but they just know that I'm grounded in Christ and I'm gonna give him a biblical answer
And this is not something that I brag about.
This has just been the pattern for at least the last 15
to 20 years.
Anytime that my brother or sister have an issue,
you know what they call first?
Me.
That's not a point of bragging, it's just,
they know that I'm not gonna freak out.
I'm just gonna give them a straight biblical answer.
Sometimes they'll call and they'll be like,
you know, we've got something going on
and we know that you're gonna give us a biblical answer,
but that's okay because we need to hear it anyways, right?
Some other times they're like,
we know you're gonna give us a biblical answer
I know those things happen. Well, let's go there x 27 verse 21 the Bible says but after long abstinence
Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said sirs
You should have harkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete and to have gained this harm and loss
And now I exhort you to be of good cheer for there shall know there shall be no loss of any man's life among you
But of the ship
For there stood by me this night the angel of 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 sail with thee.
Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God,
that it shall be even as it was told to me,
how be it we must be cast upon a certain island.
And I love Paul's attitude. He doesn't back down. He's like, Hey, you should have listened to me
You know people don't like that. You know, especially if you
When you're married, nobody likes their spouse telling the other spouse
I told you so but Paul didn't care Paul's like I told you so I said you shouldn't done it and you still did it
But don't worry because you got me
and the angel of the Lord came to me, not to you, they said, I'm going to take care of all you guys.
And I mean, that's really the fact of the matter, right? Think about it, during persecution and hard
times, if you're not reading your Bible, if it's going to be a shock to you that these things are
going to happen, right? People are going to freak out. What happened during COVID?
What happened after COVID all the crazies came out? I didn't know there was that many crazy people in the world
And then COVID happened. I wish I was joking. I told my wife. I was like wow the world's just nuts
Everybody and their mama just went crazy.
Am I wrong?
Who thinks that the world is better off after COVID?
Like everybody that was crazy,
that was keeping it at home,
all of a sudden decided,
we're just gonna let everybody know.
Social media just became like this
venting place for all the kooks.
Everybody's opinion started to count.
And you know what?
Not everybody's opinion is worth listening to.
I was just like,
I just remember going through COVID and thinking to myself,
This guy shouldn't be online.
This guy needs to shut up.
I'm like, what's going on here?
What happened over here?
Like just, it was insane.
And I'm not saying I'm the most sane person,
but I usually try to just tell you stuff from the Bible
so that I don't sound insane.
Go to 2 Corinthians 4.
Go to 2 Corinthians 4, but I'll read for you really quick
in Job 13 and verse 15.
The Bible says, though he slay me,
yet I will trust in him.
but I will maintain my own ways what before him so we can maintain our own it's interesting the way Job words it right because we always preach that we shouldn't have our own way and I agree with that but we can have our own way inside of the will of God right because obviously I just preached on that this morning like God's not
forcing us to do anything. He gives us free will, but also our free will can
line up with the will of God and then we can have our own way before Him. In
2 Corinthians 4 verse 13 the Bible says, we having the same spirit of faith
according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, we also
believe and therefore speak, knowing that that which raised up the Lord Jesus
for all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving
may redound to the glory of God, for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day."
For what our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
Weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen
But at things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal
But things which are not seen are eternal. Well, I love these verses because the Bible's I
Mean it is just a light affliction and you know what it is. It is a moment
I'm looking at you young guys because you guys got me excited today, but I'm gonna tell you something
45 is around the corner like it's not as far as you think it is
It's like tomorrow you'll wake up and you'll be like whoa. What happened to 23 years of my life
Am I wrong pastor come it goes
And so when you look at life like that, it is just a light affliction, you know, you need to stop letting the things of this world weigh you down.
First of all, Paul's talking about a light affliction after being in bonds and almost left to death. None of you guys are even under the threat of death.
So, you know, we need to get a little bit tough and stop complaining so much about the things of this world.
If you have Christ and you live in this country, you have everything you need.
There's nothing else that you need in this world. Did you eat today? You're fine. Do you have clothes on your back?
Fine. Stop worrying about the rest of the stuff.
Right? It's just a light affliction.
What is what does Paul say? He says but the things he's we're focused what on the things which are not seen
We focus on the eternal, you know the work that we did yesterday the work
We did today. That's the weight that carries what the Bible says it says it worketh for us a far more exceeding an
Eternal weight of glory
You know the the greatest metal we can get is the one we're gonna get in heaven
Which today we're preaching and I the young lady, you know Christian was with me. She she got it
She's like so you're saying that I can just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then just like
Continue being a bad person or making it messing up and and still be saved. I was like, yeah
And she's like, okay, I mean she didn't like she wasn't fighting me. She was just kind of shocked
That it was that simple and I said, but here's the thing
You want to get to heaven and when you're looking out at the audience of everybody that's saved
The reason that you do things for Christ after salvation is because you want to be like being called up, right?
You know, and you want to get I don't know how it's gonna be. I just imagined it on the microphone
We're like, okay, come on up here, you know, and you get the crown of life
And the crown of glory
But then somebody else gets called up and they're like you get the crown of life and you get the crown of glory
You get the crown of martyrdom and you you're like, whoa, what happened?
So I just don't want to get up there and not get as many crowns as possible
You could be the least in the kingdom and still be in the kingdom, but why why would you want to settle for that?
No, I just don't get it go to the first Thessalonians 5 and
I'll read for you really quick Isaiah 43 and Isaiah 43 the Bible says when thou passes through the waters
I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire
That shall not be burned neither show the flame kindle upon thee look no weapon formed against thee shall prosper
Nothing can stop us from preaching the gospel.
Nothing can stop us because God is with us.
The 1st says, Eloniah 5, verse 11, the Bible says,
wherefore comfort yourselves together
and edify one another, even as also ye do.
And we beseech you brethren to know them
which labor among you and are over you and the Lord
and admonish you to esteem them very highly
in love for their worksake.
and be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you brethren,
warn them that our unruly
comfort the feeble-minded,
support the weak,
be patient toward all men,
see that none render evil
for evil unto any man,
but ever follow that which is good,
both among yourselves and to all men.
Hey, it's not my duty to beat you up
one-on-one.
We gotta comfort each other.
My duty is to beat you up from the pulpit.
I mean, that's just, at some times, I just gotta preach hard
and just call you guys out for the sinners that we are.
But at the same time, it's also our duty to just edify
and esteem each other better than ourselves, right?
Like, we should not come to church
and expect to just be crapped on by somebody else, right?
Or whatever.
And people get all kinds of weird ideas.
I mean, in the last decade, I'm not going to go through because I've already touched on it, but I've just had some weird things that have cost strife in the church.
And it had nothing to do with the gospel or the preaching. It was just weird stuff. And I just thought to myself, you know, that has no bearing on the furthers of the gospel, right?
My goal is to just love on you guys as best as possible.
And I'm not, I want to make that clear. Let me first say I'm not a hypocrite.
Loving you doesn't mean that, you know, I'm a human too and you're you don't have to like me to love me
I mean, let's just be honest
You don't have to like me to
To love on me and to esteem me better
That's the thing that we call swallowing our pride and humbling ourselves before the Lord Jesus Christ
I don't think that I don't live under this delusion that when I come to church you guys all like me
Actually, I think the opposite I come to church and I'm like I wonder how many people actually like me because you know
Just being the person that we are for Jesus Christ
You're gonna rub people the wrong way like I just know that that's just the way it is
But you need to come to church and have the attitude of like, you know what so-and-so sits in front of me
and they always block in my way
because they don't know what people get mad about
and I wish he would just switch pews
but I'm on a level in them anyways
or so-and-so destroyed this
or so-and-so did that
or so-and-so's kid did this to my kid
or vice versa, I mean these things happen
I'm not even having to give a specific example
because that's just life
How many people just do stuff like that? We need to still love them
We still need to be there to edify them because two things happen number one
Some people are obstinate, but I honestly think that if you're serving in a good church
Most people probably just don't know or they're still growing in the grace of God
Everybody has a different path that they're on or I should say a different like
What do you call those?
Like in a marathon, you're like you see the water stations, you know the eight stations
Everybody's in a different eight station in the marathon of their life
Right. So some are more tired. Some are more beat up. Some just don't know
They're lost. They're like, how did I end up in this eight station? Oh, the race is actually over there. You're the wrong race, right?
These things happen in life, but we need to love on each other. Like we need to be patient with each other.
That doesn't mean we don't admonish, we don't reprove, we don't rebuke, but it always needs to be with the right attitude.
Don't just pick on somebody out of your own pride.
Do it for the right reasons. We'll go back to Act 27 and you know, obviously, let's just review this. God shows mercy.
To us, you know, even in prison, but in tough times good godly counsel
When ignored
Just gets us in trouble, right?
Storms of life will strip you to what really matters and sometimes God puts you through a storm just to purge you to refine you
You know those who
Read I mean who here and do
We're the ones that are going to strengthen others like it's our duty to be
Militarily in the spirit of God prepared, right? We are the soldiers of Christ. This is a real battle
Right today people got saved because you guys were prepared for the battle because I guarantee you
There's churches like ours here in Houston that are Baptist that are not doing diddly squat for the Lord Jesus Christ
It's not a bragging point. It's actually a sad point. I would prefer to say to get up in them
You know what? You know what? I love I love to get here Sunday morning and be like man
Such as such church down there the Baptist church down the street. They just got 50 people saved. What are we gonna do this week?
Oh, these guys just got 60 people saved. We're dropping the ball, but it's not even like that
We have no competition
Isn't that sad?
We got five people saved and here at Houston at least we don't who else is getting people saved
The only church that I know that actually has it on their website is West Baptist Church
So I'm not gonna knock. I'm not gonna pretend. I don't know we went and visited
We didn't go so many that time when nobody offered it to us that now. I'm not saying they don't do it
I'm not saying anything
I'm just saying they're the only other church that I found in my research in Houston that actually display so any
And I pray that they do because honestly with eight million people, we need way more soldiers.
I mean, I was excited that it was like six or seven of us today, but you know what, in the grand scheme of things, we're like a, like a vapor.
This is like, it went in and went out, like it didn't do.
But for those five people, those five people that got saved, it made a difference.
But right there.
The point number five is you want to stay in the ship. What's the ship here?
You want to stay in Christ the word of God and church and you want to stay the course
You don't want to bail out when you think it's gonna go down
When the tough times come, you know, that's how you know the true test of a church when we start getting some a little bit of
Affliction because we'll see quickly who's gonna stay and who's gonna go
right
We're right there in Acts 27 verse 27 the Bible says well when the 14th night was come as we were driven up and down in
Adria about midnight the ship the shipment deemed that they drew near to some country and
Sounded and found it 20 fathoms when they had gone a little further
They sounded again and found it 15th fathoms then fearless we should have fallen upon the rocks
They cast four anchors out on the of the stern and wish for the day and as the shipment were about to flee out of the ship
when they had led down the boat in the sea under color as though they would have
cast out anchors out of the four ship, Paul said unto the centurion of the soldier,
accept these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved."
Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off
And I mean, this is a good spiritual application, right? Look, you've got to remain now
We're safe. We're remained in Jesus Christ
But if we want to endure here on this earth and do great things for the Lord
We can't just like bulk out every time trouble comes our way
Well, I'm tired, so I'm just not gonna go to church today
And then you miss once and the next thing you know you miss next week. I've been guilty of that
So let me just tell it myself so nobody feels like I'm calling you out when my wife and I left the Baptist Church
We were serving because of you know differences
We just didn't go to church for a while because we couldn't find a church and the excuse was well
We can't find a good church
But that's not an excuse spring crest was here all along. They've been here for 60 years. We just didn't look hard enough
So it was in Springcrest fall. It was my fault not leading my family in the right direction
Right, but that's because you just I let the storms of life get in the way
And we just we just got off the beaten path
The reality is you need to you need to be with your family and be like no
We're gonna do the things that got to ask us to do my kids know
If they're not ready for church especially on church day
There's gonna be some consequences like there is no like oh, I don't want to go or I you know
I don't feel like it. You're just you're just going
I mean you better be dying if we're not coming to church
Like you better be sick or very contagious, right? The only time I missed the festivities was
What Easter earlier this year? I didn't come to church. I didn't even preach but I was highly contagious
I was not gonna come and infect everybody. I was just really sick
but
You stay there and ask let me just close start closing this thing out in John 15 verse 6 the Bible says of a man a buy not in me
He is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned
Hebrews 10 39 the Bible says, but we are not of them who draw back onto
perdition
But of them that believe to the saving of the soul. I want to be that I don't want to be part of the group that draws back
I don't want to be you know, remember the parable of the the sower some got saved. They just never did anything
The world got in the way
Ecclesiastes 3-14 says,
I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever.
Nothing can be put to it,
nor anything taken from it.
And God doeth it,
that men should fear before him.
We need to remind ourselves
that God's the one doing the work.
And that we are just part of it.
We get to just enjoy that.
Right?
Let's go to the last point.
Let me make sure that is the last point.
Yes, those last point.
No matter what,
God will see it's carry you through right. He's gonna see us through and look
I don't know what that looks like and it does sound kind of a cop out
But at the end of the day, even if it's to death God's gonna see us through because we're going to heaven. I
Mean, that's why I think I love the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
It's not so much that they just got carried through it was their attitude. What did they say whether God save us or whether he not?
We're still not bowing the knee like I don't care who you are
Because they just knew the possibility was it maybe God didn't have it set for them to be carried through that time
But they knew what in the twinkling of an eye they'd show up where in heaven
You know x 27 verse 33 the Bible says and while the day was coming on
Paul besought them all to take meat saying I love all the symbolism all the pictures that we see in the story
He says Paul besought them to take me. What's the meat for us the meat of the word, right?
This day is the 14th day that you have tarried and continued fasting. I haven't taken nothing
Where uh, wherefore I pray
Pray you to take some meat for this is your health
For there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you who said this who counted all the hairs on our head Jesus
And when he had thus spoken he 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 all they have good cheer and they also took some meat and we were
In all in the ship two hundred three score and sixteen souls and when they had eaten enough
They lighted the ship and cast out the weed into the sea and when it was day
They knew not the land but they discovered a certain creek with a shore into the which they were minded if it were possible to thrust into the ship
And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea
and loosed the rudder bands and hoist up the mainsail
to the wind and made torture and fall into the place where two seas met.
They ran the ship of ground and the four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable.
But the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves and the soldiers council was to kill
the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape. But the centurion
Paul saved these people, even indirectly.
Kept them from their purpose and commanded the day which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and
Get to land and the rest some on boards and some unbroken piece of the ship
So it came to pass that they escaped all safe to life. Hey, the Lord was true
He spared them all even though Paul had said hey, none of you are gonna die
Because God's already spoken to me through an angel. What do these soldiers want to do?
They're like, hey, we need to kill some of these guys because they're gonna escape
But the centurion was like, no, we're not killing anybody because I got to deliver Paul
And I don't want to get fired. I mean, that's literally what he's doing it, right?
He's like, I don't want to get fired. So don't kill anybody because Paul's got to get there and go to Psalm 34
That's the last place I'm gonna have you turn but in 2nd Corinthians 1 verse 10
The Bible says who delivered us from so great a death and death deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us
Acts 27 verse 22 says, and now I exhort you to be of good cheer
For there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship and then Psalm 34
We see this great song and says the eyes of the Lord upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth
the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and deliver them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are broke of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Hey, just a reminder, many are the afflictions
of the righteous. You're not owed anything in life, so just buckle up and get ready.
You're like, but but life is great. We'll enjoy it because it's not gonna be so great next week or next month or next year
Somewhere along the road. You're about to face some problems. That's just life
But the Lord delivered him out of them all
He keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken
evils shall slay the wicked, and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate, the
Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate."
You know what desolate means?
Alone.
You're not in the desert.
That when my flesh wants to just be poo-pooed and you know poor little old me life sucks
Why don't I have this and why don't I have that and you know?
Why didn't I do this and I should have could have what up? He's just like I've already taken care of it all
I'm gonna redeem you anyways, so why don't you just shut up? Praise the Lord
Because I mean some of the Psalms are really nice, but then other times God's like I love Jesus, right?
That's one of my favorite things about Jesus because people like to
You know modern Christianity likes to like
Feminize Christ, but when I read the Bible, I don't see that at all. He's like I
I've yet been with you and you still don't get it. Like what are you dumb?
I mean, isn't that how like a dad talks to their son when they're just like, they gave him a good lesson and the son doesn't get it?
Like Jesus is like
Wait a second, you still don't get this. Oh ye a little faith. I mean, did you think the Apostles felt like that was really, you know
Kumbaya Jesus when Jesus going around saying hey, you still don't get it
Like what's going on?
Oh ye of little faith, you've been with me this long and you still you don't understand.
Look, it's for them to not understand how come you don't get it.
Right, sometimes when I get up and I somebody asked me a question after I preach something I'm not it doesn't it's rare but
every once in a while I do have that attitude like I just didn't I just preach that.
But isn't that how God is with us sometimes like you'll be reading something. You're like, oh, didn't I just read that shouldn't
I've like not done those things we read these things, but we don't apply them to our lives, right?
I mean God's given us a lot of good
Rules for how we should live and yet you know what we do we have hard times in life
Some of it of our own doing some of it of God's doing if it's God's doing this great, but if it's our doing that's rough
So anyways
Let's close out with the fact that
We need to be of good cheer and you know why we're of good cheer because we believe God
We believe every word that's written in this book
Look, we don't mince words, but we also don't back down.
I am not doubtful about the Word of God, and neither should you.
The reason that I do this three times a week, the reason that we have the events that we
do, the reason that I'm like sometimes spread so thin that, you know, I can barely keep
my eyes open, and you should, by the way, live your life the same way is because we
know that this is true.
Right people need the gospel and what we're not, you know, how was it people need the Lord?
You know the the old IFB likes to sing that song, but we go out and we just give him the gospel
We're not gonna sing sing some altar song and then nobody do anything about it. Let's close in a word of prayer heavenly Father Lord
Thank you so much for today. Thank you Lord for for the second wind. Thank you for all these young
vibrant souls here Lord just willing to serve you and not waste their youth on
the stupidity of the world Lord how many of us grown men could go back and
just redo these things again and not waste so much time but the one thing we
know about you Lord in the Bible is that you've already forgiven us our sins and
You know, I can't do anything about the past, when's the best time to start something today?
Let's get things done to day Lord today is the day of salvation and regardless of the storms and regardless of the
Ship be on the thread of falling through and sinking
We know that you're with us Lord and you'll redeem us and remind us that every day that we that we face these challenges
Remind us that it's just a light
Affliction help us to have a good rest of the week and bless those as they go back to their work
Give them the unction to function in Jesus name we pray. Amen. And we do have a him a closing him. I didn't forget
So we have a closing him brother most coming up. Let me just take the mic off
Stop recording
All right, turn in your hymnals to song 4 38
Song 438.
Saviour like a shepherd lead us. Song 438.