To Whom Do You Belong?

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Open your Bibles with me and turn while standing to the 27th chapter of the book of Acts.
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Acts chapter 27 and turn your attention to verse 21.
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We're going to be looking at the whole chapter today, but we're going to focus in at verse 21 to 26.
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Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss.
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Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
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For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship.
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And he said, Do not be afraid, Paul.
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You must stand before Caesar.
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And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.
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So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.
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But we must run aground on some island.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I pray now that as I seek to give an exposition of it, that you would first and foremost keep me from error.
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For I am a fallible man and certainly capable of error.
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I pray also, Lord, for the hearts of my hearers.
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Lord, for those who are believers, who have been converted to Christ, who have been regenerated by the work of the Spirit.
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I pray that this message would be to them a comfort as we look to Paul, who is in the midst of a storm and yet finds his peace in the one to whom he belongs.
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And Lord, for those here who have come today who know not Christ, that they might find in this narrative a gospel proclamation.
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That there is only one to whom we can belong that will make a difference in eternity.
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And only to that one should we pledge our trust and devotion.
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And it is in his name, the name of the matchless Lord Jesus Christ that we pray.
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Amen.
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We are nearing the end of our study of the book of Acts.
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And it is a journey which we have been on now for a few years.
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And historically speaking, we are around the year 59.
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If you think about the first century, Jesus would have been born a few years prior to when we would have registered year one.
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Would have died somewhere around year 30.
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So this is now putting us almost 30 years after the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Paul has already written several of the books which we know as the New Testament letters, including both letters to the Thessalonians, both letters to the Corinthians, most likely the letter to the Galatians, and his magnum opus, his letter to the Romans.
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And we have come to an exciting portion of the narrative, which involves all kinds of tense moments in the life of the Apostle Paul.
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In fact, I think if there were one part of the book of Acts that could be put down as a movie of the week, or some other type of grand drama, it would be what we see in the chapters 27 and the first part of 28.
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There is a terrible storm at sea that involves a shipwreck, a thwarted massacre of the prisoners on the ship, an angelic visitation, and even a snake bite, which I will tell you is the worst part of the story for me.
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I'd rather be on three shipwrecks than see one snake.
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But you remember that this is all in the promise of God.
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We talked about this last week, that in chapter 23 and verse 11, Paul had had a visitation from the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord told him, you will testify to the facts about me in Rome.
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So Paul, in the midst of all of the storm, in the midst of all that he faced, no matter what the storm brought, no matter what the trial should come, and no matter what threat the world pointed in his direction, he knew throughout the entirety of the event that he was in the hands of the living God.
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And beloved, that is really the thesis of the message today, and you'll notice that the title of the sermon comes in the form of a question.
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To whom do you belong? Are you in the hands of the living God, and are you His today? Well, as I said, we are in chapter 27, and I'd like to just read as I did last week, read through the narrative and make comments as I go.
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And just to set the stage for those who have not been with us, to set the context for you, the Apostle Paul is having spent two years in prison in Caesarea, which is north of Jerusalem.
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He was there under 1st Felix, who was the governor.
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He then was placed under the care of Festus, and Festus placed him before Herod Agrippa, who was a king.
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And Agrippa, he said that because he had made an appeal to Caesar, to Caesar he would go.
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The Jews wanted him in Jerusalem because they wanted to kill him.
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They had over 40 men who had taken a vow not to eat or drink until Paul had died.
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They wanted to murder him.
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So they wanted him to come to Jerusalem for trial because they wanted to fall upon him and ambush and kill him.
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But rather, Paul said, no, I appeal to Caesar.
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And so, because he was a Roman citizen and had the right to appeal to Caesar, to Caesar he would go.
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And that's where we end in chapter 26.
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It says in verse 32, Agrippa said to Festus, this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.
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But Paul was not concerned with freedom.
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Paul was concerned with giving the gospel to the most powerful politician in the world.
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He wanted to stand before Caesar and proclaim Christ.
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So verse 21, it says, and when it was decided that we should set sail for Italy, they discovered, or rather, delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius.
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And embarking in a ship of the Adirantium, which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica.
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The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for.
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That's an important statement regarding the feelings that Julius had for Paul.
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Julius is a Roman guard.
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He's meant to watch over Paul and ensure his safe passage to see Caesar.
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And he trusts Paul enough to allow Paul a time of freedom to go to his friends and be comforted.
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That says something about their relationship, which will later come up in the narrative, when Paul is seen along with the leaders of the ship gathering together to make decisions on behalf of the ship.
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He's a prisoner, mind you.
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But his integrity, his godliness, and his nobility have not been overlooked.
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By those around him.
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It kind of reminds me of the story of Joseph.
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If you remember the story of Joseph in the Old Testament, who, though he went to jail, became the head of the jail, everywhere he was, he was put in the head of something because of God being with him and using him mightily.
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It says in verse 4, And putting out to sea, from there we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us.
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And there's so much in this story, and I just want to make a quick comment.
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There is so much nautical references, so many nautical references in this chapter, and I am no sailor.
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I know very little about sailing, but I have read people who study ancient sea navigation and ancient sailing techniques, and they say that this section of Acts is one of the most clearly explicit statements regarding the authenticity of the writer, because everything is absolutely so accurate historically as to what would have been done at sea.
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Going under the lee of Cyprus means that they hugged the coast as they sailed, because that would keep them from the high winds and dangerous waves of the sea, so they would go close to the lee being under, as it were, the protection from the winds, the leeward side of the island as they are moving along.
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And when we had sailed across the open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra and Lycia.
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There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on board.
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We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Canidas, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmonae.
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Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fairhavens, near which was the city of Lassia.
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Now here, they've gone up the coast, they've kind of followed these islands so as to be careful and to be safe, because this is a dangerous time of year, and we're going to notice in the next section, it's going to actually say in verse 9, Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous, because even the fast was already over, Paul advised them.
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Now, very quickly, that fast is most likely talking about the Day of Atonement, the Yom Kippur, which would precede the months of October and November, which would have been a very dangerous...
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People didn't sail in that time in the open seas because of the danger, okay? So Paul's giving us a little insight, well Luke rather, because he's the writer, giving a little insight.
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And by the way, he's there because he keeps saying we, there's the personal pronoun being used, Luke is on the ship with Paul.
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And so he's giving a first-hand account of these events, and it's a dangerous time for sailing, it wasn't a time where they should sail, so verse 10 says, Paul advised them saying, Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.
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Paul is not speaking revelation from God here, he will later.
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Speak a revelation from God, but here he's speaking experience.
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Paul is an experienced traveler.
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He's gone on three missionary journeys that have taken him all across Asia Minor, through Macedonia, and all around the sea.
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And so he's saying, guys, I've been here, I've done this, I've got the t-shirt, as it were, and this ain't the time you want to go sailing out into the open sea.
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We need to wait.
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This is experience speaking.
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But the centurion paid much, or rather paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said.
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That makes sense.
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I mean, you know, we might want to give these guys a hard time, but you know, if I were on a flight, and the pilot and the co-pilot said it's safe, and a prisoner on the plane with me said, no, we ought to stay where we are, I might have a tendency to listen to the pilots and the co-pilots.
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But we're going to find out that they were wrong.
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Sometimes our instincts are doing what we think is best at the time, isn't always what's best at the time.
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And they should have listened to Paul, but they did not.
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So, verse 12, and because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.
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So they figured, we'll go just a little further.
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We'll go out just far enough, we'll make it out front, and then we'll stop for the winter.
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Then we'll put, you know, we'll put everything up and we'll wait.
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So we're just going a little while longer.
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We're not going to head straight out into the treacherous sea, but we'll go just a little further.
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Verse 13, now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore.
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But soon a tempestuous wind called the northeaster struck down from the land.
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The Greek here actually speaks of something like a typhoon.
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Which in our, you all, not all of you are Floridians.
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I know at least one who's not a Floridian is with us today.
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But most of you who've lived here for any length of time understand what typhoon-type winds are.
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It's what we would call hurricane-forced winds.
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And it's a dangerous time to be on the sea.
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And when the ship was caught, verse 15, and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along, running under the lee of a small island called Cauda.
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We managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat.
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Now that is a small boat that was carried along.
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You have this large ship, and there was a small ship that was carried along with it, which was used, the ship would drop anchor offshore, and the small ship was used for going to shore and coming back so as not to run the larger ship aground, which would have been impossible then to get back into the water.
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So they had this secondary small boat, which was used for traveling back and forth to the islands.
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And so they were trying to keep that one from getting away, because it was being beat all about.
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After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship.
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This, again, is another nautical sort of just thing.
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What they were doing, they were putting ropes and chains underneath, and they would try and fasten it to the top so to keep the ship from breaking apart, basically trying to tie it all together.
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And, excuse me, since we were, verse 18, since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo.
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And on the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands.
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And when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
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Now, I don't know about you, but I've never gone three days without seeing the sun, at least not through a window of some sort.
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But can you imagine being on the sea, seeing neither sun or stars, but only rain and wind and crashing water for three days? It's easy to think that we can imagine it, but I really don't think we can unless we've been there.
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And this is where Paul is, this is where the group is, and they are all saying, we're just dead! There's no hope, we just need to give up.
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Verse 21, since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, Men, you should have listened to me, and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss.
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Now, I'm not one for I told you so's, but that sounds kind of like an I told you so.
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And I don't think Paul is being ugly here, but he is being somewhat forthright.
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If you had just listened to what I told you, we wouldn't be in this mess.
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But you didn't listen, so here we are.
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Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
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For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, Do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand before Caesar, and behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.
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So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told, but we must run aground on some island.
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Verse 27, when the fourteenth night had come.
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That's two weeks, y'all.
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Two weeks and just being beaten all about the sea.
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As we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.
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So they took a sounding and found 20 fathoms, and this was basically a large, heavy object that was hooked to a long line that was laid down into the water, and it would hit the bottom, and they would be able to tell how deep the water was.
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That's basically what taking a sounding is in very lay terms, as it were.
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But it's just to tell how far out they are from the land.
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It says there were 20 fathoms.
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A little further on, they took a sounding again and found 15 fathoms, and fearing that they might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.
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And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.
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Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.
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Now that verse is important because that...
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Well, it's all important.
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Let me back up a second.
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The whole Bible is important.
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But that verse says something that sometimes is misunderstood.
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In fact, there are people who believe that you can lose your salvation.
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They believe that salvation is predicated on what we do, not on what God has done.
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And I've seen people come to this passage, and they'll say, see here, these guys are on the ship.
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And if they would have abandoned the ship, they would have abandoned their salvation, which is with Paul.
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And so they'll use this.
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What we need to understand is while that is true in the sense of what's happening here, that doesn't necessarily equate to salvation.
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But we can make a small parallel.
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And here is the parallel.
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Paul says, everyone who sails with me will be saved.
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That's what this earlier said.
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He says, God told me everyone who sails with me is going to be saved.
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These men didn't want to sail with Paul anymore.
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They wanted to get down on that little lifeboat and make a run for it.
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And Paul said, no.
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You leave this boat, you leave the only hope you have for survival.
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You're leaving the promise of God.
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And I do believe, just like we prayed earlier, there are people who come and who say they know Christ and then at some point abandon ship.
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And they are leaving the only hope they had for survival.
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Now I would say that if we could see into their hearts, we would say they were never truly converted if they truly desert the faith.
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Because 1 John 2 tells me that they leave us because they are not of us.
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And if they leave us, they make known that they were never of us.
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So that's key to that.
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But the reality is true.
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There is a parallel here.
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Christ is with Paul.
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And as long as they stayed with Paul, they were safe because that's where Christ was.
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But if they abandoned ship, they had no hope.
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Down to verse 33.
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As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them to take some food saying, Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.
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By the way, you notice Paul is in a leadership position now.
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The man of God tends to fall more into the leadership position the more people get close to death.
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Because people realize they have no one else to whom to turn.
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Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.
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But you're going to have to swim.
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This is the part that's not in the text, but it is in the narrative soon.
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Paul knows these guys are about to have to make a swim for it.
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You better get some food in those stomachs.
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You better get ready.
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Get a little strength up, because we're all about to get very wet.
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And when he had said these things, he took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat.
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He's not having communion with them.
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Some people have paralleled that.
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These are not all believers.
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He's simply having a meal to encourage their strength.
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But he is thanking God for it.
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Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves.
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We were in all 276 persons in the ship.
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There's a textual variation there.
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Some texts say it's only 76 people.
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Some say 276.
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I tend to lean towards the longer reading.
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The 276, that's what shows up in our text.
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But either way, it's a lot of folks.
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There's about 76 people in here probably.
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So imagine we were all on a ship and we were all about to die together.
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It's a lot of folks.
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And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the weed into the sea.
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Lightening the load would allow the ship to sit higher in the water, not take on water as much and be as in danger of collapsing into the sea.
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Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned, if possible, to run the ship ashore.
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So they cast off the anchors and they left them in the sea at the same time, loosening the ropes that tied the rudders, then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach.
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But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground.
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The bow struck, stuck, and remained immovable.
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And the stern was being broken up by the surf.
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And the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape.
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Remember, the Roman soldier's requirement was to keep these men in prison until they go to court.
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And had any of these men gotten away, that was a contractual obligation that had they broken, they would have paid for their own life.
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So they said, you know, we're not going to let these guys just go for a swim and take the chance of running off.
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We're going to kill them here on the ship and then save ourselves.
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So here's a potential massacre of all of the prisoners.
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Verse 43, But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan.
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He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship.
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And so it was that all were brought safely to land.
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Now listen, this is like the fourth or fifth time that God has used Roman soldiers to save Paul's life.
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God can use anybody to do anything He wants.
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And here they were going to slaughter these men, but God said, nope, and He used Julius to save Paul's life.
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Now we're going to read just a few verses into chapter 28, just to kind of finish the narrative.
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After we were brought safely through, we learned that we were on the island that was called Malta.
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The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold.
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When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened to his hand.
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When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, no doubt this man is a murderer.
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Though he has escaped from the justice of the sea, rather he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.
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There are a lot of people like this.
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They look at how things go and they say, when something bad happens to somebody, that person must deserve whatever it is that's happening.
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He must have done something to be incurring such a judgment against him.
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This is often the case if you look at, even when Jesus and the disciples saw the blind man, what did the disciples ask? Was it him or his parents who sinned that he should be born blind? Well, here comes Paul.
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He's been saved from the sea.
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He goes to collect sticks and because of the warmness of the fire, the snake, which probably because of the cold had laid to try to get warm somehow, and the warmth of the fire allowed the snake to come out and bit him on the hand, and it got stuck on his hand.
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Normally, vipers strike and pull away, but you've all seen snakes get caught up on things as they grab a hold.
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And this is what happened.
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Paul looks up and there's a snake hanging off his hand, the absolute worst thing that could have happened if he were me.
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Holding it from his hand, seeing the snake on his hand, and the people said, well, there, justice has got him.
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The sea was trying to kill him and the sea failed, but fate has found its way.
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Do you guys know there are people who believe in that kind of fate? They believe the universe has some kind of mystical fatalistic power to get you if you deserve to get God.
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And that's what they believe.
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They believe Paul was under the judgment of the universe, and it finally caught up with him.
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Verse 5, He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.
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They were waiting for him to swell up and suddenly fall down dead.
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But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
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That's a quick turnabout.
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They go from a murderer to a god.
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But you see, that's what happens when your religion is based on superstition and false understandings of the world rather than on the God of Scripture.
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And finally, the last few verses, Now the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island named Publius who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.
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And it happened that the father of Publius laid sick with fever and dysentery.
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Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him healed him.
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And when this had taken place, the rest of the people of the island who had diseases also came and were cured.
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They honored us greatly.
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And when we were about to set sail, they put on board whatever we needed.
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So Paul demonstrates the power of God among the Maltese people.
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And this ends this long narrative of taking Paul from Caesarea all the way to Malta, which is just south of Italy, where he will get to in our study in a few weeks.
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But as I said, I wanted to read this to you because I couldn't find the place where I said, I just want to just read this part.
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I don't read the whole thing.
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Because like I said, it's so fascinating to follow the event all the way through.
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But the part that really I want to just give a quick point to and say this is the part that I think brings everything together, again, is verse 23 of chapter 27.
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So if you'll turn your attention back there just for a few moments, that's where I'm going to make my application today.
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Because I think that in the midst of all of this drama, in the midst of all of this amazing event, there is one moment where Paul speaks a revelation from God that is in and of itself one of the most precious things that one could ever say regarding the station of life that he is in.
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Remember, Paul is in a boat that's being rocked back and forth.
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He's in a ship that's being torn by the winds and the waves.
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There's no light, only darkness.
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All you hear is wind and howling and water and everything is damp and everything is crushing about you.
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And he says, for this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong.
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If there was one thing that Paul understood in this ordeal, it was to whom he belonged.
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One of the things people often ask when they're witnessing is, do you believe in Jesus? Sometimes they'll even be a little more vague.
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And they'll say, do you know Jesus? And a bolder evangelist might even say, have you trusted in Jesus and repented of your sins? But a question we don't often ask, and perhaps maybe we should, is do you belong? To Jesus.
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One might say, well, we all belong to God.
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He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
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Everything belongs to Him.
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But that's not what we're asking.
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If I ask you, do you belong to Jesus? I don't mean, were you created by God and thus belong to Him by the very nature of having been created by Him.
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I mean, do you belong to Him? Are you His? Jesus said this in John 10, 27, My sheep hear My voice.
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I know them, and they follow Me.
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I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
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My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
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I belong to Him.
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I'm in His hand, and He's in the Father's hand, and that's where I belong.
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I belong to Him.
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You know what Jesus told the Pharisees in that same chapter, just before He said that? He said, you know why you don't believe in Me? Because you're not My sheep.
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You know why you don't believe in Me? Because you're not Mine.
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You don't belong to Me.
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You're of your Father.
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The devil.
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But Paul said, the God who was in control of his situation, the God who was in control of that boat that is rocking to and fro, seemingly out of control, was the God to whom he belonged.
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Do you belong to Jesus today? I want to say this, if you do belong to Jesus today, if you are His, do you realize what that means when the storms of life are beating down upon you? Because it doesn't mean you're going to miss them.
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And it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to come through them without many scars.
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But what it does mean is that the God who is over the storm is the God to whom you belong.
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When I think about the storms of life and the difficulties that sometimes believers face, my mind almost always goes back to Horatio Spofford.
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Are you all familiar? Some of you maybe know, I think I said Horatio Spofford.
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Horatio Spofford was a Presbyterian layman in Chicago, Illinois.
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He had established a very successful legal practice as a young businessman and he was a devout Christian.
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Among his closest friends were several evangelists, including the famous evangelist Dwight L.
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Moody.
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And Spofford's life, while for a time was very prosperous, ended up becoming reminiscent of the life of Job, because his life took a turn that's almost indescribably tumultuous.
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At the age of two, his son died.
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And then a short time later, the great fire of Chicago in 1871 destroyed most of his fortune.
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So he then planned to leave for Europe.
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But in a last minute change of plans, he sent his wife and his four daughters ahead of him while he stayed behind to attend to some unfinished business that he had.
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And while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship collided with another vessel, quickly took on water, and sank to the bottom of the sea, taking along with it his four daughters.
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His wife did survive, one of only a handful of people who survived, and she sent a telegram back to him that simply said, saved alone.
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Upon hearing of this tragedy, Spofford boarded a ship to go comfort his grieving wife.
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And while sailing, he came upon the place wherein his daughters had died.
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And it is there that he began to pen the words of one of the greatest and most beloved hymns in all of Christian history.
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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.
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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.
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My sin, oh 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.
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Praise the Lord.
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Praise the Lord.
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Oh my soul.
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Some of you are in the midst of a storm and some of you aren't, but you have seen the clouds begun to form.
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And some of you have gone through the storm and in the wake of the disaster you have come out with many blows and bruises, cuts and scars.
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And may I say to you today that the only way to find peace before, during and after the storm is to have your eyes set on the one to whom you belong.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your Word.
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I thank you for this narrative that reminds us of the power of God and the salvation to all who believe.
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And I thank you for Paul as the example, but more so for Christ as our Savior.
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And I pray that all under the sound of my voice would know Christ and belong to him and to any who do not, that you would turn their hearts towards yourself today that they might know to whom.
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They belong.
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I pray it all in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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Let us stand and sing and prepare our hearts to receive communion.