Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
What's up?
Is there more to that or what?
You guys were present. You made it.
It's next year.
Every event is next year.
It's next year.
When I survey the wondrous cross.
We're going to start with song number five.
There on the first.
When I survey the wondrous cross.
On which the prince of glory died.
My richest gain I count but loss.
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbidden Lord that I should boast.
Same in the death of Christ my God.
All the vain things that charm me most.
I sacrifice them to His blood.
Song number five verse three.
See from His head, His hands, His feet.
Sorrow and love foaming gold down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow mean.
Or thorns come fo' so rich a crown.
Were the whole realm of nature mine.
That were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine.
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Brother Brandon would you lead us in prayer this evening please.
Amen. Let's go to our next song.
413 stand up stand up for Jesus.
Now I just have a personal rule.
I really don't like to sing this song sitting down.
So I mean I don't ask you to stand up often.
But this is the song you're going to stand up for.
We're going to stand up stand up for Jesus.
413. I grew up in church standing up to sing anyway.
So you guys can endure one song with me.
413.
They're on the first.
Stand up stand up for Jesus.
Ye soldiers of the cross.
Lift high His royal banner.
It must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory.
His army shall he lead.
Till every foe is vanquished.
And Christ is Lord indeed.
Stand up stand up for Jesus.
The trumpet call obey.
For to the mighty conflict.
In this is glorious day.
Ye better men now serve Him.
Against the numbered foes.
Let courage rise with danger.
And strength to strength oppose.
Stand up stand up for Jesus.
Stand in His strength alone.
The arm of flesh will fail you.
Ye did not trust your own.
Put on the gospel armor.
And watching unto prayer.
Where duty calls your danger.
Be never wanting there.
Good singing.
Thank you so much for coming.
You may be seated.
If you don't have a bulletin you can slip to your hand real quick.
Brother Brandon would love to come by and get you a bulletin.
On the front we have our memory verse.
Or a verse that we're looking at.
Luke chapter 2.
I guess we need to make sure we're picking another chapter here.
Because we did the previous one was Romans chapter number 8.
But we have here Luke 2 verse 11.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.
I hope all of y'all had a Merry Christmas.
And tomorrow is going to be New Years.
So we'll look forward to that.
Also we have our service times and our soul winning there.
We have our church stats.
And been doing really good on the soul winning.
Is there, I know there was one from this evening.
Was there any other soul winning outside of that and it needs to be reported?
Anything outside of that?
Alright.
Keep up the great work on soul.
There's another one.
Okay.
Alright.
And then continue to pray for Ms. Darnell.
Who's expecting in June.
We also have some guest preachers this starting next year.
You have to come next year to hear the guest preachers.
Okay.
But fortunately for you that's next week.
Alright.
So it is Sunday in fact.
Brother Chris Segura is going to be back here January 2nd.
Brother Duncan Urbanics is going to be back down here January 9th.
Brother Ben Naim is going to be back here January 23rd.
So a lot of great guest preachers coming in January.
Also we have a couple prayer requests.
Continue to pray for Brother Edward.
And our prayers are working because we have Yair with us this evening.
So there we go.
And the Hernandez family.
Continue to pray for them.
And one note that's not in the bulletin that I wanted to make sure that everybody's aware of.
We have a picture remake or makeup day or if you just missed it's going to be this Sunday.
So it's this January 2nd.
And so we're very grateful that...
What's her name again?
Tori.
That's right.
I kept wanting to say Terry and I'm like it's not Terry.
It's Tori.
Alright.
Miss Tori has been taking pictures for us and she's going to be back here this Sunday to take pictures again.
Is it just the morning though?
Yeah.
It's the morning service.
So please make sure to be here if you haven't taken pictures or if you for some reason want your new outfit.
You know your new Christmas outfit to be in the pictures or something.
And also hopefully we...
Did we get the baby pictures?
Has she already taken baby pictures?
Okay.
So if you didn't get the baby pictures too make sure you get that as well.
So hopefully we'll get that wrapped up so we can start working on getting the actual yearbooks completed.
And we can order them and everything like that.
So thank you so much for participating in that.
And please respect Miss Tori's time and energy.
Please try to show up as best you can.
And we'd love to snap a pic of you.
And we're going to do a combined yearbook.
So we're going to have both steadfast and pure words in the yearbook.
And so you'll get to see some old familiar faces and some new faces and everything like that.
And I think it's going to be pretty cool to have all the different churches and to have them all combined like that.
So that's pretty much all I had for announcements at this time.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song for the evening.
We're going to go to song 145, It Is Well With My Soul.
One hundred and forty-five, It Is Well With My Soul.
You're on the first one.
When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul
It is well with my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blessed assurance control
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed his own blood for my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
My sin, all the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part, but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul
It is well with my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
And Lord, ace the day when my face shall be sigh
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend
Even so, it is well with my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
Very good singing.
Brother Samson is going to come read for us.
We're going to read Acts, chapter 27 this evening.
Follow along, we'll pass the offering plate as we read the entire chapter.
Okay, if you would, turn in your places, Acts, chapter 27.
We'll read this chapter together, as always.
We'll start right here in Acts, chapter 27, verse 1, where the Bible does read.
And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy,
they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius,
the centurion of Augustus' band.
And entering into a ship of Adretemene,
we launched, meaning to sail by the coast of Asia,
one Aristarchus, a Macedonian or Thessalonica, being with us.
And the next day we touched at Sedan,
and Julius courteously entreated Paul
and gave him liberty to go into his friends to refresh himself.
When he had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus,
because the winds were contrary,
and when we had sailed over the sea of Sislia and Pamphylia,
we came to Mirai, a city of Lycia.
And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria,
sailing into Italy, and he put us therein.
And when we had sailed slowly many days,
and scarce were come over against Cnidus,
we went, not suffering us, the wind not suffering us,
we sailed under Crete, over against Salmon,
and hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called the Fair Haven.
Nigh whereunto was the city of Lacy.
Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous,
because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished us,
and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage
will be with much 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.
Because the haven was not commodious to winter in,
the more part advised to depart thence also,
if by any means they might obtain to finish,
and there to winter, which is an haven of Crete,
and light toward the south-west and north-west.
And when the south wind blew softly,
supposing that they had obtained their purpose,
loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete.
But now long after there arose, not long after there arose against it,
a tumultuous wind called Eurus Ladon.
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 Clauda,
we had much work to come by the boat,
which when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship,
and fearing least they should fall into the quicksand,
straight sail, and so were 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 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,
Sir, ye should have hearkened 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 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 me.
Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.
But when the fourteenth night was come,
and as we were driven up and down in Adria,
about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country,
and sounded, and found it twenty fathoms.
When they had gone a little further, they sounded again,
and found it fifteen fathoms.
Then, fearing least they should have 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,
when they had let down the boat into the sea under collar,
as though they would have cast anchors out of the fourth 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 meat, saying,
This day is the fourteenth day that ye have carried
and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
Wherefore I pray you to take some meat,
for this is for your health,
for there shall not an hair 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 them all.
And when he had broken it, he began to eat.
Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat.
And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen soles.
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,
into which they were minded, if it were possible,
to thrust in the ship.
And when they had taken up the anchors,
they committed themselves into the sea,
and loosed the rudder bands, and hoisted up the main sail to the wind,
and we made towards shore.
Falling into a place where two seas met,
they ran the ship aground,
and the forepart stuck fast and remained unmovable.
But the hindapart was broken with the violence of the waves,
and the soldier's counsel was to kill the prisoners,
at least any of them should swim out and escape.
But the centurion, willing to save Paul,
kept them from their purpose, and commanded that they which could swim
should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land,
and the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of ship.
And so it was to pass that they escaped all safe to land.
Bow your heads for a quick word of prayer.
Amen, we've been going through the book of Acts,
and the apostle Paul had made an appeal unto Caesar,
and because of this appeal process,
he has to then be taken to Rome,
where he can stand at the seat of Augustus,
where he can actually go through this court proceeding.
And so we're in chapter 27, basically taking the journey to Rome.
He's getting this free trip to go to Rome,
and because they don't have airplanes,
it's actually quite an endeavor, traveling this far,
going from Asia Minor, which we would know as like Turkey today,
and then going all the way to Italy to Rome.
It's kind of a long journey that he has to take,
and it seems like they even don't necessarily even have like a straight ticket.
They kind of have to jump and hop all kinds of different vessels
and go a lot of different vehicles in order to get to this location.
So we kind of find it here in verse number one.
The setup to this chapter says,
And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy,
they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius,
the centurion of Augustus' band.
Entering into a ship of Adrametium,
we launched, meaning to sail by the coast of Asia,
one Aristarchus, a Macedonian, a Thessalonica, being with us.
The next day we touched the Sidon,
and Julius courteously entreated Paul and gave him liberty
to go unto his friends to refresh himself.
Now, we start out with this chapter.
Paul and other prisoners are being put on this ship.
They're being sent to Italy specifically to go to Rome
and basically stand at Augustus' seat.
Now, as they're going through this journey,
they're going to take a lot of pit stops essentially at different places.
So in verse three, they stopped in Sidon.
And Julius, who is basically the person that's in charge
and custody of these particular prisoners,
Paul being one of them, is gracious unto Paul
and allows him to go and see his friends.
So it's kind of like he's on bond.
In an American system, our legal system,
if you have a trial, you have a court date,
you're allowed to post bond, and you're actually not in jail.
You're actually just a free citizen.
But you're expected to come and show back up at court and whatever,
and you'd lose your bond money essentially if you didn't.
Here I don't know exactly how it worked,
but they're trusting Paul is not going to run away or hide
that he's going to honor his promise,
yet he gets this opportunity to go and to see his friends.
Now, when he goes and sees his friends in Sidon,
it's kind of interesting wherever they're going,
Paul's probably going to have friends because he just already went everywhere
preaching the gospel to everyone.
And so he gets these free trips to go check out his churches
and check out the friends and the people that he met
preaching the gospel throughout his ministries.
And he goes and sees his friends,
but the point that I want to make or draw out of this passage here
is the fact that the point of seeing his friends is to refresh himself.
Notice that seeing your friends has an emotional benefit to yourself.
You're actually going to reap benefit of being around like-minded brethren
and being around friends.
Now, having friends takes work
because the Bible says a man that has friends must show himself friendly.
So if you actually want to have friends in your life,
you have to first invest a lot of time, effort, and energy into other people
before you're going to actually receive the benefit of them being your friend
and the refreshing that you're going to receive from that.
So it's not that a friendship is a one-way relationship.
There is going to be benefit.
What we have to realize is that friends typically,
it's kind of like, in my mind, it's a lot like planting
in the sense that you sow a lot of seed,
but you don't necessarily know which ones are going to actually produce fruit from it.
And when it comes to friendships, you should really just cast your seed everywhere.
You should just try to be friendly to lots of different people
and constantly trying to make new friends and be friendly to people,
not necessarily knowing who's going to shake out.
Because in reality, if you actually have some good friends,
it means you probably had a lot of people you tried to be friends with
that didn't end up being successful.
Because many times you're going to try to be someone's friend,
and it's going to fail, or it's going to go wrong,
or they're going to not end up being a friend back or whatever.
And so a lot of people will say, well, I don't have very many friends.
And typically the reason is because you're not trying to have a lot of friends.
And it's not that you need a lot of friends.
But really, if you want to have even a few, you kind of have to cast a wide net.
You kind of have to constantly do good unto a lot of different people
and constantly sow your seed with a lot of different people
and be friendly to lots of different people,
and eventually you'll have a few stick.
You'll have a few that end up becoming friends with you
and that you actually end up building a relationship with.
And another thing about friends is they're kind of like the flowers
where they're beautiful one day and then they fade the next.
Friendships kind of come and go.
And anybody that's gotten out of high school
realizes that friendships are not lifelong typically.
You kind of are friends with people while you work with them.
Then you get a new job.
You're not really friends with that person anymore.
You're friends with this person in school.
People going to school with them, not friends.
Or even just transitions.
You go from the seventh grade to the eighth grade,
now you're not really friends with that person anymore.
Or siblings.
Sometimes siblings are friends, and then one gets a little older,
no longer friends anymore.
And then the next year they're friends again,
and the next year they're not, and it's just kind of like this ebb and flow.
And the reality you have to understand is that friendship
is often a very ebb and flow reality.
And you're going to have a lot of friends come and a lot of friends go.
You're going to have friends that are lifelong friends sometimes,
if you're fortunate.
Sometimes you're going to have friends that you're really close with,
and then you're far away, and then close again,
and then far away, sometimes kind of ebb and flow.
If you really want to ruin a friendship, have them be your roommate.
That's a great way to lose a friend.
And so there's a lot of things that kind of happen in friendships.
But you have to realize, you say, well, why go through all that hassle?
Why have to be friendly to all these different people
that may not end up being my friend?
Why have to be courteous to people that won't return the favor?
Why be nice to someone that I may not be friends with in the future?
It's because sometimes you are going to have a friend stick,
and there's a friend that's sticking closer than a brother.
Sometimes you're going to have a relationship with someone
that's not even you're related to, that you actually like more
or have a closer bond with than actual physical blood relatives.
And so a good friend is worth its weight in gold,
and you're going to have moments in your life where a friend
can bring a lot of refreshing to your life.
And one of the best ways to have friends is going to church.
Just frankly speaking, you show up at church,
and it's easy to make friends than just being out in the world.
If you didn't have church in your life, it'd be harder to have as many friends
because you may not like the people you work with.
You may not like the people that you see at the grocery store.
You might not like your neighbors or anything like that.
So church actually gives you a vehicle where you're going to find a lot of people
that kind of are more similar, like-minded,
have a lot of the same activities, lifestyle, things like that.
So it affords you the opportunity to have friendships that are a lot easier
than just being out in the world by yourself,
and those friendships can actually refresh you at times.
Now, go over to Philemon for a moment.
Go to Philemon chapter one.
Now, look, friendships are not all roses.
Sometimes friendships end in heartache.
Sometimes friends betray you or they stab you in the back,
or sometimes friends lie about you or disappoint you,
and at the end of the day, you can't put your trust in friends.
You can't put your trust in man.
You have to put all of your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what? Friends can give you a benefit.
Friends can help encourage you and strengthen you
and be there for you when you're down.
A friend loveth at all times, the Bible says,
meaning if you want to be someone's friend,
you're not a fair-weather friend.
You're actually a friend when they're going through a rough patch
or difficulty or struggle,
and the apostle Paul is obviously kind of a prisoner.
He's traveling with these other prisoners and everything like that.
It's not really the best time to be friends with Paul,
so the people that he's seeing must be his real friends, his true friends.
You know, Paul had a lot of people that were friends at one point,
and then they turn on him later, or they forsake him at certain points.
You know, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
You're going to have people that were your friend for a year, two years, three years,
and then eventually they're just gone.
They're just done. They don't want to be your friend.
They don't want to be anybody's friend anymore,
and they have their own issues and everything like that,
but you know what? You can be a good friend to people,
and when you're a good friend to people, you're going to refresh their soul.
You're going to do a lot of good unto them,
and the apostle Paul brings this up in the book of Philemon.
It's really just a simple letter here, but look at verse number 20.
Actually, I want one more verse for context, 19.
I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand. I will repay it.
Albeit, I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me, even thine own selves, besides.
So, the apostle Paul's sticking up for a guy named Onesiphorus,
and Onesiphorus had become Paul's friend,
and if you understand the context of Onesiphorus from reading the other epistles,
the Bible says that Onesiphorus had often refreshed Paul while he was in prison.
Onesiphorus had visited Paul in prison.
It was not ashamed of his bond and everything like that,
and so Paul is kind of writing this letter to the church,
to a few different people, to Apphia, Archippus,
and to the church at their house and saying like,
hey, if you run into Onesiphorus, be good to this guy,
and if he ever did anything wrong to you guys, he's like, put it on my account.
I'm not going to preach the whole book of Philemon,
but the book of Philemon is kind of a picture of Jesus,
a picture of how Jesus Christ basically is talking to God the Father for us
and is saying, hey, when Brother Sampson shows up in heaven,
if he did anything wrong to you, God the Father, put that on my account.
That's what Jesus does for us.
He's our friend, and he's trying to restore us to relationship with God the Father,
and that's kind of what this picture of Philemon is,
is Paul saying like, hey, whatever Onesiphorus did to you,
put that on my account and restore him and be his friend or whatever.
Look at verse 20 now.
Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord.
Refresh my bowels in the Lord.
And see, notice by them extending friendship and fellowship to Onesiphorus
and taking him in as a brother and doing good in Paul,
it actually refreshes Paul. It makes Paul feel good.
You want to make people feel good?
You serve the Lord with them and you encourage them and do that which is right.
In later epistles that aren't Paul's but John's, he's talking about
I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth.
So according to the Bible, it's great when you see people do the right thing.
When you have this church that's doing the right thing
and is friends with your friends, it works out better.
Imagine you kind of have your group of friends and you want to hang out
but then you got this other friend and you kind of want to hang out with everybody.
But these two don't really get along.
It's a great day. It's kind of refreshing.
It's kind of a joy when everybody works it out and you can all hang out together.
You don't kind of have this mixed group or whatever.
And the Bible talks about this. Go to Psalms 133 for a moment.
Go to Psalms 133. Also, that should be the same way in church.
We don't want to show up at church where the left side doesn't like the right side
or the right side doesn't like the left side
or people can't be friendly to one another
or they can't hang out with one another
or they don't want to really see each other.
Church should be a place where we can all enjoy each other's company
and even if they're not going to be your best friend
even if you don't necessarily want to talk to them that much
you can still just enjoy them
and the fact that they're saved brothers, sisters in Christ
and that you can at least revel in the sense that we all believe the same doctrines
the core doctrines of the faith, we can sing hymns about Jesus Christ
and he's our savior and we're all the children of God
and we've got a King James Bible
and the more you have in common with someone
the more joy you're going to have with that person.
And that's why it's important that in a church you have unity.
Now unity is really specific about one thing.
It's about the doctrines of the Bible, right?
We get our unity from the Word of God itself.
We're not all here rallied together as Houston Texans fans or something like that.
We're not all here because we're all on the same sports team.
We're not here in a specific book club
I mean this book, but you know 66 book club
but we're not here based on some kind of demographic
a certain language that we speak
or a certain athletic ability
or a certain hobby interest or anything like that.
No, we're supposed to be gathered together in unity with the doctrines of the Bible
with the doctrines of Christ
and that's what really unifies us.
And when you have that in a church
it's the greatest experience.
Look what it says in verse one.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity.
You know and there's no fighting
it's just a great atmosphere when everybody can agree
when everybody's locked in
but when pride and these other things enter in
strife comes along and basically just kind of ruins the situation.
You know if you think about your family
why is it that you don't want to see your family?
It's because people don't get along.
Right?
You know if your family gets along
you love to go see them.
You love to go hang out with them.
And a lot of times people
this is what they'll often say
they're like I'm gonna go back for the holidays
and see grandma or mom or uncle
and they'll say I hope everyone gets along.
And you know so why do they say that?
Because they know that it's more fun
when everybody's kind of getting along.
They don't like it when Uncle Joe
doesn't like Aunt Sue or whatever
and you know they start talking trash on each other
and it's everybody's like you know
bringing out all the dirty laundry
and everybody's mom and grandma and sister
and what do you got going on here?
And it can get ugly real quick.
And you know we don't want church to be like that
we don't want our relationships to be like that
we want to dwell together in unity
and we want to have the same beliefs
and so that's why it's good to have friends
where you're like minded
you have the same things
because when you have those it'll refresh you
it'll make you enjoy your life a little bit better.
You know you want church to be a safe haven
for you to come in and actually feel refreshed
rather than showing up and kind of dreading it
or kind of you know mad that you're even here.
That's why it's also important
to reconcile issues you have with brethren in church.
You know you don't want to show up at church angry
or get mad at the people that
you know that's why you have to forgive
and you want to have meekness
when you approach other people
and you want to give them grace
and if there's an issue you want to try and fix it
so that you don't have this kind of animosity
because whenever you dwell in unity it's pleasant.
And notice it says it's pleasant
you know it's good and pleasant.
You know it goes down to the soul.
Look at verse two.
It is like the precious ointment upon the head
that ran down upon the beard even Aaron's beard
that went down to the skirts of his garments.
It's a long beard.
But you know what?
It's just pleasant.
It's something that he enjoys.
He's being refreshed.
You know that's kind of the picture that we have here.
Go to Hebrews chapter three.
I want to go to one more place here on this point.
But it's important to try and make some friends
and it's important to show up at church.
You know this is something you can't get over Zoom.
You know you can't necessarily get
you know by touching the screen.
You might get a different kind of feeling.
Radioactive feeling or something like that.
But you know you show up and you talk to someone.
You see them in the face.
You get the fellowship.
You get the laugh.
You get to have that camaraderie.
There's nothing really like that from an artificial perspective.
And our world today is trying to get more and more just virtual
in its fellowship and its camaraderie.
And a lot of the aspects of social interaction
are kind of stripped from people.
And what they don't understand is actually stripping joy.
Actually stripping you know your refreshing
that you get from seeing people and hanging out with people.
And it's not to say that you can't enjoy a conversation
with someone over the phone or you know via you know like
since my family lives far away we'll do the FaceTime right
where you can kind of see them.
But if you had to compare isn't the FaceTime
better than just the phone?
Getting just to even see their face
kind of makes it a little bit even better.
But if it was in person it'd be even better right?
I mean you just kind of keep elevating it
and it actually brings out more joy.
It's more fellowship.
It's more camaraderie.
It's more pleasant.
And it kind of refreshes you in a bigger way
than you know not having the friendships,
not having the relationships.
And so we want to make sure that we're constantly
investing in people and having relationships with other people.
Look at Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12.
Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you
an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God.
But exhort one another daily while it is called today
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sins.
So you know one other aspect of being around other people
is to be encouraged to do the right thing.
You know Paul is on a hard journey here.
You know Paul's going through a lot of difficult things.
Think about Paul.
I mean think of all the interactions he's had recently.
You know governors and kings and Jews.
Like his had a rough patch for a while.
Just people that hate him, despise him,
and really just surrounded by idiots, frankly speaking.
I mean these people don't believe the Bible.
They're liars.
They're deceivers.
I mean when he was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
he's preaching one of the greatest sermons
he's ever preached to King Agrippa.
You know Festus or whatever it is,
is just like you're mad.
Thou art mad you know.
Much learning doth make thee mad Paul or whatever.
And I mean wouldn't it's kind of just
it's kind of like draining to your soul
when you're like hearing the word of God being preached
or you're preaching the sermon or whatever
and then people are like that's stupid.
You know that's crazy or whatever.
You know if you're out there preaching the gospel
and you're trying to get someone saved
and you're doing like a really good job
and then their brother just opens the door
and is like that's crazy and just slams the door.
You'd be like well that sucked.
You know it kind of hurt.
It would kind of be frustrating or whatever.
So Paul hasn't had a like positive interactions
for a while right.
So then he finally gets to go to Zidon
and finally some brethren are there
and it's going to really refresh his soul
to be around normal people for once in a while right.
And that's kind of what church does.
That's what friends can do is they help you
get around normal people.
They don't think they're this flat or anything like that.
You know they don't they don't think that everything
the TV says is true right.
They're not like a CNN lover or something like that.
They don't they didn't vote for Biden in any capacity.
You know it's like it's like wow it's nice to be around normal people.
Just makes you feel better inside.
And so it's important that you come to church
and then you also be admonished to do the right thing.
You know keep serving God.
Keep reading your Bible.
Keep praying.
You know and you're reminded about prayer for other people
other people's lives and things that you can do for them.
So it's important to have fellowship
not just to check something off the list
but rather to even realize we all need it.
You know we need fellowship.
You know one of the worst punishments that people get
is solitary confinement.
And I think if you live a real busy life it sounds pretty good.
Go if you would to Acts 27.
It sounds pretty cool at first.
And look you got a lot of kids.
You're just stuck in the house with them.
Solitary confinement can sound like paradise.
But here's the reality.
If you get too much of that
you're going to end up realizing it's worthless.
No one wants to be alone.
No one wants to be by themselves.
And loneliness drives people into depression and suicide oftentimes.
And you know it'll drive people insane.
You know someone someone put in solitary confinement for a really long time
they'll often become very mentally deficient,
insane, just crazy and then they can't really function anymore.
We need human interaction
and we need to try to fellowship with people
and try to have friendships and realize that it's healthy for us.
Healthy for us physically, spiritually, emotionally, all of it.
We need people in our lives.
Look at the verse four now.
It says, and when we had launched from thence we sailed under Cyprus
because the winds were contrary.
When we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia
we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.
And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria
sailing into Italy and he put us therein.
And when we had sailed slowly many days and scarce
were come over against Cindus
and when not suffering us we sailed under Crete over against Siloam.
So they're traveling to all these different places.
They need changing ships.
They get into a ship called Alexandria and they're sailing into Italy.
Now what's interesting is pretty much every time they're going to any city
or any ship or anything in this chapter
notice it's just like hard, right?
Verse four, and the winds were contrary, right?
And then in verse number seven, we had sailed slowly many days, right?
And scarce were come over against Cindus.
Notice this, the wind not suffering us.
So this journey that Paul is on, albeit it seems like it's under
the provision of the Romans, it's actually under the provision of God
because God wants him to go to Rome
and God wants him to end up preaching the gospel in Rome.
So it's actually God's will here.
And notice it's being met with a lot of force, with a lot of resistance.
All these winds just constantly are beating and hitting against them or whatever.
And as we go through this chapter it keeps escalating and elevating.
But I want to prove something to you about wind
because this is an interesting point. Someone else brought this up to me.
And it's definitely a biblical doctrine.
But wind often represents something in the Bible.
Keep your finger here and go to Ephesians chapter number four for a moment.
Go to Ephesians chapter number four.
And when thinking about this chapter I feel like this chapter
has a really interesting parallel to just your life as a Christian.
And the goal that God has for you in this life.
God has a goal for you in this life and God has a vision for you.
God wants you to get to Rome.
God wants you to accomplish his will.
God wants you to preach the gospel.
And there's going to be resistance to following God's will.
The devil is not going to lay down and just take it.
The devil is going to fight you. The devil is going to attack you.
And one of the ways he's going to attack you is through wind.
But you say, what is wind?
Well, if you live in Amarillo, Texas, you know what wind is.
Down here in Houston is not as normal.
But where I lived in Amarillo, it's like the windiest city in the United States.
There's a city in a mountain area that sometimes they argue,
but it's not really that big.
Amarillo is a very large city.
And they call Chicago the windy city.
But let me tell you, Amarillo is windier.
And it is like 30-mile-per-hour winds is just your base.
That's just your normal day.
I mean, you're having days that's like 50, 60-mile-per-hour winds on a regular basis.
It is so frustrating.
I mean, women that have long hair, I mean, it's just blowing everywhere.
It's just like everywhere.
It's so frustrating.
You spend hours fixing it.
You go out in the wind, it's just like, you know.
You're just going to blow away.
I mean, I've been in so many windstorms and just seen so many crazy things.
And it was frustrating because I played golf.
And talk about one of the worst places to play golf is that area.
Because, you know, you don't really want to have super windy days
when you're trying to hit a little tiny golf ball.
Because you'll hit it and just go like.
You know, it'd be so windy at times, you could literally hit a lob wedge
or some kind of lofted wedge, and it'd go all the way up
and then like come all the way back over your head behind you or something like that.
It'd just be blowing so hard and so crazy.
And, you know, wind can just be really frustrating.
I personally just hate wind.
I'm just being honest with you, okay.
Now, I don't know if that's right or not.
Maybe I'm confessing my fault to you, okay.
But I'm just saying me and wind aren't that great of pals.
And frankly speaking, in the new heaven and the new earth,
I don't believe there is wind, you know.
And God eventually, you know, halts the wind and everything like that.
So, I feel like we're on the same playing field, okay.
And, you know, when I went to Phoenix, there's like no wind there and it's great, okay.
I really like that about the Phoenix area.
I just don't like wind, okay.
And, you know, you escape wind when you're inside.
And I've never had a day of my life where I've been inside and I thought like,
man, I wish it would be windy in here.
That'd just really help me out.
No, it's really frustrating, okay.
And when it comes to wind, though, in the Bible,
there's another parallel that I want to make like a spiritual parallel.
It says in Ephesians chapter 4, look at verse 12.
For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ,
till we all come in the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
So, he's saying he gave some apostles, prophets, teachers for what?
The point of us having that unity in church again.
Because you need leadership to have unity.
Without leadership, you don't really have any unity.
You don't have, you know, this camaraderie and everything that's necessary.
You need the strong leaders and the teachers and the evangelists to teach what?
Doctrine.
And if you don't have a strong leader teaching strong doctrines
and making it clear what everybody should believe and what's right and wrong,
you're going to end up having a lot of what?
Strife, division, heresies, all kinds of serious issues.
And what does this false doctrine look like?
Well, look in verse 14 now.
That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro
and carried about with every what?
Wind of doctrine by the slight of men in cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
So, notice that what evil people do, what the devil tries to do,
is he tries to trick you and blow you around with every wind of doctrine.
So, notice doctrine is actually in context here of wind.
And you think about wind, it's kind of like air.
Any of these preachers, there's a lot of hot air coming out of their mouth.
There's a lot of wind that's coming from their mouths and it's really frustrating.
And what does the wind do? It kind of blows against you.
It's contrary to you. It's pushing you around.
It's causing you all kinds of issues.
Your hair is going like this or whatever.
And that's what it's like when you have all these churches with all this false doctrine
just being blown everywhere.
It's just blowing everybody everywhere.
And nobody knows what to do and nobody knows what to believe
and there's all this confusion and it's just kind of frustrating.
That's what he's talking about.
And he's saying, we need strong leadership and people to basically combat that wind
and bring calm, bring the peace, bring unity and you resist that type of wind.
How do you do that? Verse 15,
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even the price.
Now, when it comes to wind, it affects certain things in this world differently, right?
Like, think of a tree.
A tree in its infancy, oftentimes you'll see people tie things around and strap them to the ground.
They'll get stakes and they'll nail them into the ground and they'll have these cords
or they'll have some kind of wire wrapped around that trunk of that little baby tree so that it'll do what?
So it'll grow up straight, right?
It won't like be all growing this way.
And you know in Amarillo, there's a lot of trees that grow this way.
You can kind of just tell which way the wind blows because they're all just kind of like,
or whatever.
So if you want to have a straight tree in Amarillo, I mean, you've got to stake that thing down.
But once you have a grown, full, mature tree, you don't have to have all the stakes,
you don't have to have it all tied down because even though the wind blows, you know,
it's going to stay stable because it's got a stable core, it's mature.
And it's the same picture with Christianity.
You know, a little baby Christian just learned the doctrines of the faith,
it just got saved, it's going to be a lot easier for all that wind to come and start knocking it
and it starts growing weird and it starts looking weird.
It starts, you know, getting a little Pentecostal bent to it, you know,
or it starts getting like a little, you know, Torah observing, you know, Yeshua or something.
And it's like, what are you doing, bro? No, no, no, no.
Let's get you up right, you know, let's kind of pick you up and put you back or whatever.
They start getting NIV, you know, this is like the message or something.
It's like, whoa, what is this tree doing?
You know, stake that thing down.
And, you know, when someone comes around, they wrap a little cord around it
and they get the stake and they nail it down, you know, they're not being mean to the tree.
What is that picture?
It pictures the preacher getting up and grabbing it and putting doctrine around it
and nailing that doctrine down to the ground and saying like, no, the Trinity is three persons, one God.
You know, no, his name is Jesus.
No, it's a King James Bible.
You know, they're sitting there just nailing all these stakes down
and then once you get all those stakes and you start growing and growing and growing,
eventually you don't need those anymore.
You don't need someone to come and tie you down and beat that into you as much anymore
because now you're a fully mature Christian.
And that's what's going to help you, realizing that there's going to be all this wind
that's going to constantly come at you.
And the only way to combat that is to constantly grow and to mature in Christ
so that those winds won't knock you down.
Those winds won't cause you to grow in a weird and perverted way.
Go to Luke, chapter number seven. Go to Luke, chapter number seven.
And look at verse number twenty-four.
Luke, chapter number seven.
Now, wind is often brought up in a lot of contexts in the Bible.
You think about Jesus Christ, you think about them going with his disciples
and there's all these stormy winds.
It also just pictures just general like tribulation and persecution, things like that.
But a lot of times it's picturing false doctrine.
Look at Luke, chapter seven and verse twenty-four. The Bible reads,
And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John,
What witt ye out into the wilderness for to see?
A reed shaken with the wind?
So notice they're saying, hey, when you went to see John the Baptist,
what did you think you were going to see?
Were you going to just see him just kowtow to every single doctrine and every single idea and every single person?
No, no, no. You didn't see a reed just shaking with the wind, whatever happened.
No, he's a solid rock. No, he's an upright tree.
No, he's not going to bend to the will of all this false doctrine, all these false winds.
That's kind of the point that's being emphasized here.
Go to Hosea, go to the Minor Prophets.
It's kind of the first of your Minor Prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos.
So if you find in the Minor Prophets, just keep going to the left.
Right after Daniel, you have Hosea.
Look at chapter number twelve and we're going to look at verse number one.
Now the Bible says in Hosea chapter twelve verse one, Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind.
Notice this, he daily and creaseth lies and desolation.
And they do make a covenant with Assyrians and oils carried in Egypt.
The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways.
According to his doodings will he recompense him.
So notice he says look, Ephraim's constantly eating wind.
He's constantly feeding on wind.
And he's following after the east wind.
So what is he doing?
He's increasing lies.
Why?
Because all of this false doctrine, all of this deception that the devil's trying to give to people,
when they soak that up, it's soaking up lies.
And so it's illustrating again what wind is like false doctrine, wind is like lies.
Right?
Go to second Peter chapter two.
Now go back to the New Testament.
And we could prove this in a lot of places in the Bible.
But you're going to see a very consistent theme of false doctrine and lies as a picture of wind.
Trying to blow people away, blow people over, ruin people, pervert people, corrupt people.
And that's what wind does.
Wind blows you over.
Wind bends things.
Wind perverts things.
Wind corrupts things.
Wind destroys things.
Wind just ruins and blows them away just where they just go.
I mean, that's what wind does.
Scatters things.
You know, that's what the wind is kind of illustrating.
And that's what lies and false doctrine do.
Lies and false doctrine destroy people.
It scatters people.
It perverts people.
It corrupts people.
It just ruins everything.
Now look at second Peter chapter number two, verse seventeen.
These are wells without water, clouds that are carried.
Notice this, with a tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.
So when talking about false prophets, that's the context of second Peter chapter number two.
We're talking about the most wicked people, the most evil people that you could ever imagine.
Look at verse one.
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even dying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
So we have these evil wicked preachers, wicked teachers, and it compares them to clouds that are carried with a tempest.
Now, it's saying that they themselves aren't necessarily the tempest.
They're just this cloud, this vessel.
But what's carrying them?
The lies and the false doctrine.
And you know what?
A lot of people, I believe, that are false prophets and false teachers in this world are a sincere false prophet.
And what I mean by that is they really believe the lies that they're carried by.
It's not necessarily that they themselves realize that they're so evil and so wicked.
They just believe the false doctrine.
The Bible talks about the antichrist coming, that God's going to send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.
Meaning that most of the people that are worshiping the antichrist sincerely believe in the antichrist.
It's not like they don't believe in him or something.
It's not like they're just like, well, I mean, he's better than the alternative or something.
Or, you know, I just want to get some food.
It's saying that they really believe in him.
They really believe he's God.
They really believe he's the real deal.
And you know what?
That's why in false religion, you know, and a lot of atheists and agnostics, they'll say, well, I've met a Hindu and he seems very sincere.
You know, I've met a Muslim priest or I've met a Hindu priest or I've met a Catholic or I've met a Jew.
And these people are devoted.
These people are committed.
These people are sincere.
Sure, they might be as sincere as the next person, but guess what?
They're sincerely wrong.
And they're sincerely carried away with the tempest.
And what is that tempest?
It's that false doctrine.
It's those lies that are carrying them and dragging them wherever it wants them to go.
Okay?
And so really our big enemy is just lies.
Our big enemy is false doctrine and what it can do to us.
And it's drawing these people, it's dragging these people.
And notice what they do in turn, verse 18.
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh.
So while this tempest is carrying them, they end up fulfilling the will of the tempest and they also speak what lies, vanity, false doctrine, evil.
And they themselves become the vehicle of that wind.
Now go back if you would to Acts 27, Acts 27.
Why do I teach that?
Well, you have to realize that the devil, like I said, is not going to lay down and just let you walk successfully the Christian life.
The devil's not going to just, you know, get behind you and push you towards Jesus.
He's going to fight against you.
Okay?
Just like them getting in this boat, you know, they're not having an easy time.
Every direction they turn, what's happening?
Wind is coming at them and it's contrary against them and they're not even able to go very fast.
Some people might even look at the Christian life or they might look at a church or they might look at the things and they say, like, man, things are going slow.
Or, you know, it doesn't seem like things are going to the pace that I expected or I wanted.
It's okay as long as you're still headed in the right direction.
You know, it's not about seeing how easy you can make it.
In fact, God gets more glory out of you going through a really difficult journey, a really difficult task.
You know, resisting a lot of this wind and fighting against it gives him a lot of the glory rather than just automatically.
You know, this is what the Pentecostals will preach.
If you just get delivered, you know, basically the wind's going to come behind your sail and you're just going to float to Jesus or something like that.
No, no, no, no.
The way the Bible pictures it is you got on the boat and everything's trying to stop you from following God's will.
There's just constant wind and storm and rain and whatever and it's the toils of this life, it's the tribulation, it's the persecution, it's the evil, it's the lies, the deception.
They all want to drive you somewhere else.
They want to get you off course.
And that's what lies and deception do.
That's what false doctrine does.
That's why you don't even want to give ear to it.
You don't even want to entertain it.
When you start realizing that someone's preaching false doctrine or heresy or is perverting you in some way, you just want to get away from it.
Go from the presence of a foolish man when they'll perceive us not in him the lips of knowledge.
Or a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, reject.
We don't want to sit here and just be like, oh, that's definitely wrong, but tell me more.
Well, I know that's not what the Bible says, but I would like to hear more of what you have to say.
As soon as you start realizing it's wind, you're just like, I'm moving from here.
I don't want to stick around and let this corrupt me.
Look at verse number eight now.
And hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called the fair havens, nigh whereunto was the city of Lycia.
Now a much time was spent.
And when the sailing was now dangerous, as the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them.
He said unto them, Sir, as 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 in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attained a finis,
and there to winter, which is an haven of Crete, and lieth toward the southwest and northwest.
And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, losing thence they sailed close by Crete.
Not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Uroclodon.
So they are getting close to the end of the season of travel.
And again, because it's not 2021, they can't just travel whenever or however they want.
When it's winter, you know, it's just too dangerous to travel.
They're not going to end up traveling.
That's why it's talking about their boat is trying to find a place to winter.
Meaning what? That they would stay through the winter until it became a new season for them to travel.
That's basically what it's saying.
And the first place that they were in, it says in verse number 12, and because the haven was not commodious to winter in.
So essentially, wherever they had stopped, it was just kind of like a pit stop, but not really somewhere where you'd want to stay for a long period of time.
Imagine you're traveling across the country, and you stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
You know, it might be good to just fill up on gas and get a little food, but you're not like, we're going to stay a couple months here.
You know, you're just like, no, no, no, we need like a better place, a more commodious place, someone that has more commodities.
Think about commodities as being what, you know, the things that you need as far as food, toiletries, all that kind of stuff.
At a gas station, while it might have a few things, it doesn't have everything that you need, you know, to live successfully, especially if we're talking about months here.
Now, the Feast of the Lord, there was a feast at the seventh month, and so when he's talking about the fast, I perceive that it's probably, you know, in my Bible, I even have a footnote here that talks about Leviticus chapter 23, which has the three feasts of the Lord.
You basically had the first feast, which was Passover, then you had the Feast of Weeks, which was around Pentecost, which was about 50 days later,
and then you had a third feast, which was in the middle, basically the seventh month, throughout the fifteenth day or whatever, and it kind of pictures a few different things.
Passover pictures, Christ for us, you know, Pentecost was pictured in Acts chapter number two, and it has these different gathering sessions,
and then you have kind of the final harvest that's coming in, kind of at the late portion of the year, in the seventh month, which is kind of picturing your fall harvest, right?
Most people that grow crops, when we think about harvest, you think of typically that fall type harvest.
What happens after fall? Winter, right? So it's basically, it's past fall is what he's saying, it's past that particular harvest time, they're entering into the later months,
they don't live in Houston, so it's not like 80 degrees all year long or whatever, you know, you guys have winter for like one week.
It's actually like a normal part of the country where they have a real winter, you know? There's certain areas in this country that have snow right now, you know?
You wouldn't want to travel in snow when you don't have a car, when you don't have, you know, these different vehicles.
You know, you live in Houston, you don't really understand seasons or anything like that, so I'm trying to educate you guys, okay?
Your season's just humid, you know, that's your season, like it's humid and wet and all kinds of stuff.
But other areas of the world have four seasons, you know, they kind of have a spring, a summer, a fall, and they have a winter.
And he's saying it's not good to travel in winter. Also, different parts of the country have stormy seasons, you know?
Houston has its stormy season, it has its hurricane season.
Now, I believe if I'm correct, someone can correct me, isn't it the spring kind of in Houston? When is the hurricane season for Houston?
It's in the fall too? Okay. Summer? Summer and fall kind of? Okay.
But depending on where you live, your kind of storm season can actually be a little bit different for every single person.
But you're going to have kind of changes of seasons or typically we're going to have the most volatile storms and the biggest storms that are either coming in from different parts of the world.
And in this area, winter is kind of a bad season for them.
I think that this chapter also evidences kind of the idea of, think about when we have hurricanes, we name them.
It's biblical, because notice they have a storm here and they named it, you know, I wonder where they got that idea, probably from the Bible.
They call it Urocladon. Now, if they ever have a hurricane coming here and it's called Urocladon, you better buckle up, okay?
This thing is a tempestuous wind, okay?
But in the Christian life, you know what? You're going to have wind, but then you're also going to have storms, okay?
Now, if we think about the wind, the wind just constantly always kind of hitting you.
It's always just kind of like there, just kind of there to pester you and hit you, whatever.
But sometimes in your life, you're going to have a literal storm.
And the storm is going to come and it's going to do some damage.
I mean, this thing is going to come and rock you and it's really going to do something to you.
I mean, the thing is that the storms of this life, you know, it's going to be frustrating. It's going to be hard.
You're never going to go through life not having storms.
And the storm could look like a lot of different things.
You know, maybe it's a loss of a loved one or it's a financial disaster that you go through.
Or, you know, you could have a marriage issue or you could have a relationship with your child issue.
There's a lot of storms that are going to come through our lives.
And the goal of the storm is just to get you to quit going where you're supposed to go or just to destroy you.
Because, you know, when you winter somewhere, you're kind of just weathering the storm.
You're just kind of like, okay, I know I'm going to Rome but I can't go right now.
So, I'm just going to buckle up, get through the storm, and then once the storm passes,
I'm going to go back out there and head towards, you know, where I'm supposed to be going.
And you have to understand that in the Christian life, sometimes you're going to have a storm come through.
And really, all you need to do is just stay where you're at.
You know, just be steady.
What would this look like, right?
Well, maybe you want to do more for the Lord.
Maybe wherever you're at, you're not necessarily content.
Maybe you say, you know what, I would like to go solo anymore.
Or, I'd like to, you know, be more and plugged into church.
Or, I would like to learn more things.
Or, I'd like to grow more.
I'd like to mature more.
Or, I'd like, whatever it is, maybe there's some kind of, you have some kind of ambition.
You have some kind of goal that you want to accomplish in your Christian life.
You know, maybe you want your children to accomplish something.
Maybe you're hoping for your children to get saved, to get baptized, to get plugged in.
You know, you're looking for something.
But, at this point in time, your life's not accommodating that because you're going through a storm.
And so, what you really need to do, though, is you need to just stay where you're at, though.
You know, whatever church attendance you're making, just keep at least going to church that much time, right?
Whatever Bible reading you got, at least keep reading the Bible that much, right?
Whatever soul winning you got, just keep doing that level of soul winning.
Don't start lessening.
Don't start weakening your Christian walk.
Don't start going backwards when you're going through a storm.
And the storm, the goal is just to push you even further back, or to get you off, or to get you to quit.
And really, the best thing to do when you're going through a really difficult time is to make sure that you just keep doing everything the same.
At minimum, just tread water.
You know, at minimum, just keep doggy paddling, just keep going.
And realize, you know what, at some point, the storm's going to pass, and then maybe I'm going to be able to pick up the pace again.
Maybe I'm going to start getting a little bit closer to the Lord and keep going.
But just don't quit.
You know, the Bible says, be steadfast, unmovable.
Also, you know, when I'm trying to help people in the Christian life, I try to help them realize that, you know, you don't have to worry about growing super fast.
You just want to make sure that you're constantly growing.
You know, because you can always speed up.
It's a lot harder, though, when you start going backwards, to get going in the right direction.
When you reverse direction, it's a lot harder to turn all the way around.
It's easier to just keep a steady pace, and keep going in the right direction, and keep doing good.
And I've seen people just burn out by making stupid goals.
Like, there was this one guy who said he was going to read the Bible ten times in a year.
Now, I'm like, look, if you could do that, great.
I have no problem with someone reading the Bible ten times a year.
But you know what I don't like about that goal?
Is it's super unrealistic.
Okay, and this was not just a random person.
This was a guy with a family and worked, like, 60, 70 hours a week.
And I'm, like, looking at him and saying, you have to read, like, three hours a day.
And he's like, yeah.
And you know what this guy did is he supposedly, I don't even know if he did or not.
He supposedly read the Bible all the month of January.
Which you kind of have to almost keep, like, a month pace, right?
So the first month, he pretty much just kind of, like, got it.
And then he never read it another time.
So he read the Bible in that year, like, one time.
Even though he started out with this high pace.
Because as soon as he gets into February, he didn't get the three hours.
And then the next day, he's like, well, I have to do six.
And then you skip another day, now it's nine.
Who's going to read the Bible for nine hours in one day?
I mean, I know some of you really spiritual people.
You're like, nine.
I do 12.
16 hours in a day.
I'm always, you know, pray without ceasing.
I also pray while I'm reading.
You know, it's like, you know, you pious person, you, okay?
But at the end of the day, no one's going to be able to keep that kind of pace.
And then when you have these stupid goals, you end up discouraging yourself from even reading the Bible that much.
Because, you know, to read the Bible twice a year would only be 30 minutes.
Right? So, why don't you have, like, a realistic goal?
Maybe if it only had 30 minutes, you might have actually kept that pace and read it twice in the whole year.
Ended up going further than if you had this stupid, crazy idea.
And, you know, I've seen people do the same thing with soul winning.
They're like, I'm going to go soul winning, like, every day.
And you're just like, okay.
And then they just quit eventually.
Because they just have a stupid goal that's not very realistic.
And what's going to happen is you're going to have a storm eventually come.
They'll start out and the soft winds kind of blowing them out.
And they're like, oh, it's going to work.
And then your arclodon comes.
And it's just like, ah, you know.
It's better to be closer to the winter haven, you know, and realize, hey, a storm might be coming or I'm in a storm.
Just at least stick with what you got, you know.
And I'm not saying do nothing.
Don't hear what I'm saying wrong.
It's not like they turned around and went back.
They just were wintering.
They're just saying, you know what, whatever course I'm on, whatever pace I'm on, I'm just going to stick here for a while.
While I kind of weather this arclodon and get through that.
And then I'll go back out as opposed to what's going to happen.
This arclodon is going to destroy their ship.
Let's read a larger portion here.
It says in verse number 15.
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, they used helps undergirding the ship and fearing,
lest they should fall into the quicksand, strake sail, and so were driven.
And we being exceedingly tossed with the tempest, the next day they lightened the ship.
And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.
So now they're just in a crazy situation.
I mean the ship's just going everywhere.
They're afraid they're going to run into things.
They're not knowing what to do.
They're just throwing stuff off the ship.
They're just like, they're in life survival mode.
They're just like, we need to survive.
And when you start just hearkening to false doctrine and you don't really know where you're going,
sometimes it just becomes survival mode in your life.
And you don't even know what's going on.
You just start dropping things and ruining things and just your life becomes insane.
And I think a lot of unsafe people do this.
They don't really know where to go.
They don't really understand the Bible.
And they let a lot of false doctrine creep into their mind.
And then they start doing weird things.
All of a sudden they're just like, I bought this hat and I got this subscription to build the temple in Jerusalem.
And you know, Yeshua.
And it's like, what are you doing?
And then they start ruining things.
They start destroying things that don't even make any sense because they have all this wind of this false doctrine coming in.
I've seen all kinds of people.
I've seen people say like, we're going to not eat meat anymore.
And I'm like, why?
And they're like, just because it's sinful.
And I'm like, well, if you want to make the decision for a different reason, that's fine.
But you know, to say that eating meat is sinful is actually a doctrine of devils is what the Bible says in First Timothy chapter 4.
Now, if someone doesn't want to eat meat, there's nothing wrong with that.
But the reasoning, if you're going to tell me that it's a sin to eat meat, now all of a sudden you're just like throwing stuff off the boat for no reason.
It's like, show me that in the Bible.
You know, and then like they go back to some part of the Old Testament.
It's like, well, the Old Testament restricts certain meats.
Where does it say only?
I mean, they're like, well, you've got to go back to the Garden of Eden.
And you know, they start getting these weird ideas.
Then they start telling me that milk's wrong, you know, and then bread's wrong.
And I'm like, why are the children of Israel going to a land flowing with milk and honey?
You know, I thought it was supposed to be a good place.
You know, and then they start just, they just start getting weird.
They start saying like, oh, you can't wear this type of clothing.
They start becoming like the prairie woman or whatever.
They start becoming Amish or something.
Electricity's bad.
What?
Electricity's of the devil.
You know, it's like, what do you even mean by that?
Amish, hey, they have a furniture store and it has electricity in it.
And you know what, I bet you they even had a big semi truck come and take all their furniture from their little Amish factory or whatever over to their furniture store.
And you know what, these furniture stores that are Amish, guess what?
They probably have credit card programs, which is usury.
I mean, it's just silly what people start doing with false religion and false doctrine and the things that they throw away.
I have people, they tell me, they're like, well, I can't come over the family gathering anymore because it's my Sabbath.
I'm like, it's Tuesday.
That's not even the real Sabbath day.
And they're like, well, I take my own Sabbath day, you know, whenever I want.
So they've spiritualized the Sabbath to be whatever day they want, but then they still have to literally observe it.
I'm like, it's either you spiritualize it or you don't.
You can't spiritualize the Sabbath to a Tuesday.
That doesn't even work.
Now, if you just want to say, I want to only work six days and take a day off because that seems like a biblical principle, go for it.
But then don't tell me it's your Sabbath on Tuesday.
You know, they just start doing weird things.
It isn't throwing stuff off.
I mean, if you got on a ship and people just started throwing stuff off, wouldn't you be like, that's kind of weird.
Like, what's going on here?
You know, like, why are you throwing stuff off?
But that's what wind will do to you.
That's what a storm will do to you.
It'll make you do crazy things.
It'll make you do stupid things, things that don't even make sense because, you know what, lies and deception.
God just wants, I'm sorry, not God, the God of this world, the devil just wants to confuse you.
And he just wants you to start making weird decisions and crazy decisions and throwing stuff off your boat and getting out of your routine and not knowing what to do.
And that's what the devil will try to do in your life.
That's why it's important to actually follow the word of God so you know what's right, you know what to do.
And look, if there's something bad on the boat, throw it off, right?
You know, you got a wicked evil person on the boat, you got a sodomite, throw him over.
You know, I don't have a problem with that.
It just kind of illustrates things that will happen in your life.
Let's keep reading verse 22.
I don't know if I read, let's read verse 20, I'm sorry.
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 have hearkened 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 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.
I believe, God, that it shall be even as it was told me, albeit 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 shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country, and sounded and found it twenty fathoms,
and when we had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms,
then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.
So we have, you know, essentially they're being tossed, and Paul comes up and is like,
Guys, you know, we should have never left. I told you we shouldn't have left. You wouldn't listen to me.
And it's not that he's really rubbing it in, even though he is.
He's just trying to point out the fact that, look, I already told you this was going to happen.
It happened exactly like I said. Go ahead and listen to me now.
And again, this is just my symbolism for this chapter.
But I kind of picture this story as being a little bit like a church.
And you kind of have Paul as being kind of like your pastor.
And you kind of have the ship as being kind of the church, and you have these people.
And you have all these people that just want to like, you know, do their own thing and not really harken to Paul.
But if you do what Paul said, you wouldn't be in all this trouble.
You wouldn't be in all these problems.
And notice by false doctrine, bringing a lot of false doctrine and harkening to false doctrine,
what it's going to do is it's going to destroy the church, isn't it?
And even though it would destroy the church, the people would still be saved by the Spirit of God.
You know what? In the Christian life, you need to harken to the leaders that God gave you.
That was the whole point of Ephesians chapter number 4, is that he gave some apostles and prophets and teachers and pastors and evangelists.
He gave them so that we would know who to harken to and who to listen to.
And God wants us to harken and listen to the leaders that he's given to us in our life,
to help us be on the right journey and to protect ourselves.
And look what he says in verse number 30.
And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea,
under color as though they would have cast anchors out of the fourth ship,
Paul said of the centurion and to the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, he cannot be saved.
So, they want to abandon ship. They're basically trying to get the little boat and they're trying to hop in the little boat to get out of the big boat.
And Paul's saying like, if you hop out of the boat, you're not going to be saved.
And I kind of think of it as like Paul's like saying, you know, the preacher's like saying, you get out of church, it's not going to go well with you.
And this is what often happens. People start going through a storm in their life and what's the first thing they want to hop out of? Church.
Because they think that the church is their problem. But just as foolish as it would be to be in a literal storm in the middle of the sea
and think like, I'll be better in a little life boat as opposed to the big ship,
that's the same as like going through a hard time and be like, I'm going to hop out of church and I'll just have devotions at home.
It's like, what? No, no, no. You need to stay in the ship. Don't forsake the one thing you got going good for you.
Stay in the house of God. Stay with the Lord and He's going to help you and He's going to help guide you.
You need Paul there to tell you what to do next. Paul's the one that, you just want the wind to keep driving you wherever it wants.
Because you know what? The wind's never going to get you where you want. You need that voice of reason.
You need that Paul in your life to help guide you and to help direct you and to counsel you.
Why do people not want to do that? Pride. Why not harken to Paul?
Well, you think you're smarter than Paul. You think you're better than Paul.
You know, why not go to a church? Why do people not go to a church?
Because they know more than the pastor, don't they? How many people have said that?
A lot of people say that. I don't need church. I don't need a pastor. I don't need anyone to tell me what to do or whatever.
You know, it's a really prideful, arrogant attitude that people have when they think they don't need church.
When they don't need other people to help encourage them and to lead them.
You know, why would God give you a church? Why would God even give you pastors or teachers and all this stuff if you don't need them?
It's kind of an exercise in futility, isn't it? You know, God's giving you these people.
And oftentimes, you know, when you're in a position of leadership, you kind of see this story as people's lives.
Where there's a, you're a rock on coming and you're looking at them and you're like, stay in the ship, stay in the ship, and they just dive out.
You're just like, oh man. Or you're saying like, stay here, winter here. And they're like, no, we got to go out there.
And you're just like, you know, why are you doing this kind of stuff?
And often it's not that it's hard to know what to do. It's just people don't want to do it.
People come to you with marriage problems and you're like, here's how you fix it. And they're just like, I'm jumping ship.
And you're like, and then you see them just crash and burn. You just see them destroy themselves.
You know, people want to stop going to church and then you just see their lives just devolve into just complete chaos.
And it just ruins their life. Their marriage, their kids, everything just goes bad for them.
And you're just thinking like, you should have stayed in the ship. You know, it's not going to benefit you.
And look, this salvation, we're not talking about going to heaven here. We're talking about being saved from destruction.
From physical death, from physical destruction. And you know what? You want to be saved from the physical perils of this world?
You need to stick with God. You need to stick with the word of God and Christianity and go to a church.
And obviously in this story we have one. But you know, it's not that you have to be in this church to be pleasing to God.
But you need to be in church. You need to be hearkening to a pastor. Let me prove you that.
Go to Hebrews chapter 13 for one second. Hebrews chapter number 13.
And let's look at one verse here. Verse 17.
Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls.
As they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief but that is unprofitable for you.
Notice Hebrews is saying, look, there's going to be certain people that are over you and it's their job to protect you.
And they have to give an account and be like, what happened with this guy?
Well, I warned him and he just jumped off the ship. I mean, what do you want me to do?
I don't want to stand before God and be like, well, I just laid down and took a nap.
I screamed at him to stay on the boat and he just jumped. He just decided he could swim or whatever.
And it didn't work out. It's sad. It's frustrating. It's not that you want people to just do this kind of stuff.
But as a leader, as a pastor, as a preacher, you often see people just jumping ship.
Go back, if you would, to Hebrews, I'm sorry, to Acts. We'll finish this chapter real quick.
And it says in verse number 32, so you say, well, then what do I do? Verse 32.
Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.
So as soon as they find out, like, you don't jump the ship, you know what they did?
They just got rid of their old life. They just cut off that little miniature boat and they said, there's no escape.
I'm in for life. They just got rid, they said, because once you cut off the little mini boat, there isn't another option.
You know, you're not like, not a realistic option. Obviously, you could just commit suicide and jump off the boat.
But it's like, you know, at that point, you're just basically saying I'm doomed.
Or you're saying I'm committed to the ship. And you know what?
What people need to do is they need to just cut all the ropes that are keeping them from getting committed to Jesus Christ.
You know, whatever it is that's stopping you from saying, you know what?
I'm dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to just cut that rope and say, you know what?
If it's money, if it's a house, if it's a job, if it's a relationship, whatever, false doctrine, you need to just cut all those ropes and say, you know what?
I have no more safety boats. I'm all in.
Whatever Jesus wants me to do, whatever he wants me to go, you know, I'm committed to the ship now.
And I'm going to hearken to the preacher that God has given me and put me in custody of.
It says in verse 33,
And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying,
This day is the fourteenth day they have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
Wherefore I pray you to take some meat. This is for your health.
For there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you.
And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in presence of them all.
And when he had broken it, he began to eat.
Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat.
Notice as soon as they obey, as soon as they drop their plans, as soon as they become humble,
they drop their pride, they get rid of the safety boat, what happens?
They all get to eat. They haven't eaten in two weeks.
Talk about being hungry.
Who in here has ever gone two weeks without eating a single thing?
They don't even know what it's like.
I've gone like a day, maybe. I don't even know if it was a day.
And I was like dying.
So I can't even imagine two weeks.
But notice as soon as they do the right thing, they get the feast.
As soon as they do the right thing, they get meat.
As soon as they do the right thing, they get the nourishment, the refreshing.
And maybe you have something in your life that's kind of weighing you down.
You just cut it off, so then you can start eating again.
And he said in verse 37,
And when we were all on the ship, two hundred threescore and sixteen souls,
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,
into 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 into the sea
and loosed the rubber bands and hoisted up the main sail to the wind
and made toward shore.
And along into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground,
and the four parts stuck fast and remained unmovable,
but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
And the soldier's counsel was to kill the prisoners,
lest any of them should swim out and escape.
But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose
and commanded that they, which could swim,
should cast themselves first in the sea and get to land.
And the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship.
So it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land.
So, you know, kind of what's the moral of the story?
You stick with Paul, and you stick with the ship,
and you all make it safe to land.
Notice every single person made it safe to land,
and the Bible even said that the Lord did this for Paul's sake.
Because when he was talking about his dream, it said in verse 24,
saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar,
God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
So as a blessing to Paul, because of Paul's sake,
all of the other men's lives were also pardoned and spared because of Paul.
And what did they have to do, though? They had to listen to Paul.
They had to obey Paul, they had to stick in the ship,
and they had to do what he commanded,
and in fact they had their meal, then they got rid of their meal,
they run into the ground, it's unmovable,
and now they are on land and they're safe again.
And when it comes to the storms in your life,
you know, I've had people come to me and they have a bad situation,
and I try to give them advice, and it's like a lot of times they just won't do it.
And I'm not saying you have to do everything I say.
You get to do whatever you want.
But at the end of the day, if what the person is telling you is coming from God,
then you need to do it.
You know, Paul's not just making things up here.
Paul's not just like, I think we should throw wheat off.
You know, I think we should go do this.
No, no, no, he had the instructions given to him from God,
and then he's just relaying God's message to these people.
And often when I give someone advice, I'll make it clear,
like this is my personal opinion, or this is the Bible.
You know what, if a pastor, a preacher, an evangelist, a teacher,
anybody's opening up the Bible to you and saying, like,
thus say the Lord, you just need to do it.
You need to just abide by what the Word of God says.
Otherwise you're going to be like all the unsaved,
and they're just carried about with winds,
and they're just driven every single place,
and they don't know where to go or what to do.
And you know, the only thing that's going to keep you safe
in the winds of this life are Jesus Christ, is the Word of God.
And fortunately though, He's given us some people in our lives
that dedicate themselves to the Word,
that want to tell us and give us the messages of God,
and we need to listen to them too.
And not be so prideful and think that we can figure everything out on our own,
but realize we are dependent on other people.
We're dependent on other people for friendship.
We're dependent on other people for church.
We're also dependent on leaders in our lives to help guide us
in the directions we need to go so we'll all land safely.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this great chapter,
and thank you for being the master of the sea,
and that we realize that while you're allowing us to go through a tempestuous wind,
there's all kinds of scary winds and storms that are out there,
and we understand that Christian life will never be easy,
that you've given us a ship, the church, the house of God that we can stay in.
And I pray that we would never depart from the ship,
that we would never go and try to swim on our own or get on a different boat,
but rather we would stay on the ship that you've deemed us to be on,
that we would hearken unto the pastors and the teachers
and the evangelists that you've given us,
and that we would just cut loose all the ropes that all of our exits,
anything that we're hanging on to, anything that we think we could just leave with,
we would just get rid of it and just commit ourselves to Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Sing our last song for the evening, 120, song 120.
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
On the first.
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
Over life's tempest you see.
Unknown ways before me roll.
Hiding rock and treacherous shoal.
Charted compass come from thee.
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
As a mother stills her child.
Thou canst such the ocean wild.
Boisterous waves obey thy will.
When thou says to them be still.
Wondrous sovereign of the sea.
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
When at last I near the shore.
And the fearful breakers roar.
Twixt me and the peaceful rest.
Then while leaning on thy breast.
May I hear thee say to me.
Fear not, I will pilot thee.
Very good singing.
God bless. You're dismissed.