Acts 27 Pt 1

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Saturday, March the fifteenth, twenty twenty five. It is currently one forty pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, all of this year, one of the themes has been this empty notebook that I just sit here right under the microphone kind of to be symbolic, right, It's an empty notebook that means there's nothing in it, right, meaning that for this entire year of twenty twenty five, I don't have a specific plan.

0:51 I don't have anything mapped out, So whatever happens happens. And one of the things that's happened this year was while we ended up in Salem, and we're still there where we're going to continue to be talking about the Salem witch trials and everything that happened in Salem. I think that's been pretty interesting. Never I never would have thought that that's where we would have ended up in twenty twenty five, but that's where we've ended up. I Mean, I could talk about it anytime, but it wasn't really like, Hey, I see the podcast is going to get really focused and preoccupied with Salem in twenty twenty five, wasn't there now? So that makes it fun, right, since we don't really have a good plan, we don't really know what's going to happen, so things just kind of drive where we end up. That makes it fun, interesting, and I like that and it gives me a lot of freedom. But there's also a danger in having an empty notebook because sometimes because I don't have anything planned out or mapped out, I kind of find myself walking into something that I didn't necessarily plan to do, and then I may have a little bit of regret of doing it. And this is the maybe the first time this year, I have maybe a little bit of regret. Man, I've kind of walked myself into this and there's no way to walk myself back out. What have I done? This could be This could be very long and be a lot of hard work, and I don't know if anyone's even going to be that interested in it in the first place.

2:21 So I kind of this is kind of what happened, all right, So it all started if again, if you open up the sermons the sermons by Sermon Audio app, the Sermon Audio app whatever we're calling it in twenty twenty five. If you open up the Sermon Audio app and you go kind of scroll down to you see radio, you'll see there's two radio feeds. Right, there's the Sermon Audio twenty four to seven feed, and then there's the VC Why. I think VC Why America Radio feed. And if you'll click on the VC Why America feed, especially late at night from about I think about eleven pm Central Time to about five or six in the morning Central Time, they have programming for the overnight period time period, the overnight hours. It's really good. It's I like it.

3:11 It's perfect to listen to overnight. And one night they started talking about, well, the storms in our lives, right, do you find yourself in storms? And we are offering a seven week Bible study on how to weather the storms of life? And I'm like, Okay, that sounds interesting. How do I get it? So they told me to go to the following website www dot LWF dot O RG forward slash v C why. That's lw F dot O RG forward slash VC why. And I looked at it and I'm like, oh boy, here we go. This is gonna take. So what they do in this seven week study guide is go through the storms that are talked about in the Bible, somehow make those storms and the stories of those storms prescriptive, somehow giving us the directions and steps that we are to take to navigate the storms in our life. So you can already see some possible problems. They're taking the Biblical account of actual physical storms and using those principles to somehow, now tell me how I'm supposed to navigate metaphorical storms in my life, emotional storm, a trial, And it's like, I there's a lot of problems right there. So I was like, oh man,

4:45 So my first idea is I just wanted to tell everyone about this resource. It's a free seven week Bible study. Go download it, enjoy it, you know the end. That's what I should have done. That's what I really wanted to do. Hey, guys, I just heard about this Bible study guide. It's free. Here's the website. Go check it out, go download it, enjoy the end. Right, that's it. But the minute I started telling everyone about the Bible Study Guide and kind of begin to see what they were doing in the study guide. I then committed myself that we are going to go through those seven weeks, and we're going to do this in kind of an interesting way. Well, we will look at how the study guide handles whichever storm.

5:27 The first storm they talk about in the study guide is Acts, chapter twenty seven, and then we'll talk, we'll see how they study it, will do our own study of that particular storm, and then we'll do sermon reviews as well on how others handle these storms. So that that's a big undertaking, right, working through the study guide, doing our own study, doing sermon reviews. I mean that that's going to take a lot of time. Who knows how long it's going to take us to make it through this seven week study guide. I really that was not my intent, but once I kind of once I kind of committed, I'm stuck. Now I'm stuck. And then to me that the first storm is Acts twenty seven, I'm like, oh, for crying out loud. Acts twenty seven is just one of those chapters that has a lot of names, a lot of places think sometimes, I mean, and if you listen to sermons, you'll hear people, you know, pronounce these a number of different ways, and you're like, so am I going to say these correctly? Okay? It's very wordy? How am I going to work through this?

6:32 So I've got to start kind of working on how I'm going to approach the chapter. And then it's like, oh, does anyone even really care that study guides, devotional materials and sermons take the storm and storms that are mentioned in the Bible and completely handle them in an incorrect way? Does anyone else even really care? Is it just something I'm bothered by? And I think the answer is probably I'm the only one bothered by it. But here we are, so we're stuck. So what are we going to do? Well? The first thing I'm going to do, and I'm going to do this in a little bit reverse order, and I'm not going to follow the same order for every particular story or every particular storm that the seven week study Guide covers. I'm going to remind you and how the study Guide introduces the first storm, which is Acts twenty seven, and then today we're just going to go immediately to a sermon review. What I intended to do was I was going to come to Acts twenty seven start doing my own work. First but it doesn't really matter if I do my work first, we listen to a sermon, or we work through the study guide. Doesn't really matter which order we take it, because we're going to still do all three things right. We're going to make it through the study guide. At some point, we're going to hear what other people have to say about each particular storm, and then we'll do my work, which order.

7:51 I think mixing it up makes it a little bit more interesting, And by mixing it up, I'm not locked in that I have to do it a certain way, and I can kind of follow whatever feels right. And for today, what feels right is a sermon review. All right, we still have some strong wind outside, it's a Saturday. The dog next door has been going crazy, so all kinds of things that can kind of interrupt and destroy the podcast. Even sounding remotely professional, well, that's very limited if you're doing sermon review, because my mic is muted for a good portion of the sermon review as we're listening to the sermons. So I just think it works best today. So that's what we're going to do. But first, let's go back to the study guide again. You can go download the study Guide right now WWWLWF dotorg, forward slash vcy you can go download it and you can open it up and you can start looking at everything.

8:47 We took a part. We did pretty good, taking apart how the study guide begins and a lot of the things. I'm not going to go back and review everything, but I am going to review this week one now right, here's week one in the study guide. Ride out the Storm, Ride out the Storm. Here's the introduction. Imagine selling along in the middle of the ocean on a big ship. All of a sudden, the worst storm you have ever seen rolls in, Waves are crashing, the sky becomes dark, and you are thrown about the boat with no way to keep your balance. You do not know what will happen in the coming hours. As the angry ocean wrestles with the ship. You wonder if you will ever make it out of the storm. Right, Very good introduction right there, draws me in. He uses very you know, language that really captures your imagination, really kind of gets your imagination going, imagining being on the ship and the waves. What's even going to happen? Okay, very good job right there. So then it then kind of transitions Paul speaking of the apostle.

9:58 Paul experience this kind of storm in Acts chapter twenty seven. In the first century, Paul was imprisoned by Roman officials for proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. He was transported by sea to Rome, Italy. On this voyage, the ship selled into a ferocious storm. By the end of the journey, Paul went from being a prisoner to being the captain of the ship because he chose to trust the Lord through the storm. Acts twenty seven. All right, here we go teaches us how to navigate the metaphorical storms of our own lives as believers in Christ. Now right there is kind of their thesis, and I completely reject it.

10:41 Their thesis basically is, when you go to Acts chapter twenty seven, it's teaching you how to navigate the metaphorical storms in your life. And I think that's completely bogus. That's a lie. It's not it's a historical narrative describing what happened. It's not teaching me how toate a metaphorical storm. It's a historical narrative describing what happened in a physical storm. So already I'm already bothered here, and this is what ultimately motivated me to say, Okay, we're just gonna go through every week of this study guide, and we're gonna look at every storm because I'm sick and tired of pastors doing this nonsense to the scripture. I'm tired of it because it tells people do this, do this, do this, or gives you promises, and you're just, you're just it's it's spiritual malpractice. You can't take It's a historical narrative.

11:32 It's not prescriptive, it's descriptive. Then it goes on to say, this week we will read Acts twenty seven and find out how God can use the challenges we face in life to grow our faith and to bless others. So remember I told you Acts twenty seven. I just started telling people read it, read it, and read it. I've already done an observational outline on all of Acts twenty seven. I have that ready to go. So at some point we'll work through my own observational outline of the chapter, because we need to do an observational outline, and then we'll probably do an exegetical study going verse by verse through all of Acts twenty seven, and we and of course we'll look at the study guide, but we also are curious on how sermons are going to handle it.

12:22 So I've started my work on Acts twenty seven. We will get to it. I want to jump right into the study guide, but you already know, I mean, we already know where the study guide is going. It's gonna to go through AX twenty seven and try to say here's the lesson, here's what you need to do in your metaphorical storm. And I'm gonna just lose my mind and take the iPad and throw it across the room and say, who came up with this? Dumb ideed I'll look at this study guide and then I will be reminded it was me. All right, But so I'm like, okay, well, I'm kind of putting all of this together, getting a plan. Let me just go to the sermon audio app I typed in Acts twenty seven, and I think it's one of the first sermons, second third sermon that I saw, which was entitled are you ready? What are you doing in the storm? What are you doing in the storm?

13:15 Now I'm already nervous, right because what are you doing? Now? What was the apostle Paul doing in the storm. What are you doing in the storm. So immediately it's going to take a historical narrative that is descriptive, and it's going to insert us into a story that we're not in. I don't know how pastors get away with this. Why do people go to church? And not only do they go to church, they put money in the plate that keeps supporting this spiritual malpractice. Stop going to churches that take the Bible and make it about you when the chapters are not about you. Stop it, man. This is why we're doing the work on Isaiah forty through fifty five.

14:00 I'm so sick and tired of open up your bibles to Isaiah forty or Isaiah forty one or Isaiah forty two, and I'm gonna make it all about you, even though Isaiah forty through fifty five has nothing to do with you unless you happen to be I don't know, living in Judah when they went into Babylonian captivity. It's so ridiculous. Now, I know when I say that people, well you're not saying it's applicable. Look, if you're gonna make application we've talked about it, it's got to be very careful, very thoughtful, and ensure that you're staying true to the text and you're not inserting something us into it. And you've got to make sure you're not taking promises that have nothing to do with you and applying it to you. There's lots of rules about how to apply it practically. So I'm already nervous at the title of this sermon is what are you doing in the storm? Because I'm not in the storm in Acts twenty seven and only that X twenty seven is a real storm, So how are you gonna take how to navigate a real storm? Has somehow turned that into principles to deal a metaphorical storm.

15:03 I don't know. When you're dealing with a real storm, there's like, you know, there's very specific things you do depending on the kind of storm. Right in a tornado you do one thing, a hurricane you do this. I mean, there's there's steps. I mean those are like literal steps because you're dealing with a literal storm, but you're gonna turn them into metaphorical lessons. The whole thing is ridiculous, but people eat this stuff up. That's why pastor after pastor, church after church continues to produce this kind of content and the people continue to support it, and when you challenge it, everyone looks at you like you're the bad guy. There's something wrong with you. I don't know. It's called reading comprehension. One on one, oh one, one on one, one, one oh one, all right, speaking, one oh one? All right, here we go. So are you ready? So we're gonna do the sermon review. That's what we're going to do.

15:58 We're gonna do the sermon review that gets this all caught up. Here we go. I don't I have a bad feeling, but remember I don't listen to the sermons. First. The only thing I did was hit play on. This seems to be loud enough, but he seems to be like I don't know if the microphone was five miles across the room. It sounds weird, but hey, this is what I pulled up. So this is what we're going with. Are you ready? Here we go? Sit back, buckle in. I think it's about to be a'll bumpy, right, And I do mean that metaphorically. Are you here we go? Anyways? I hope I stalled long enough by now I have good news for y'all. I left my tea out in the car. So that's a guarantee. I won't be that long today. So Acts Chapter number twenty seven. What I want to do, for the sake of time is we're going to read the first two verses. Then we're gonna skip down to verse nine and read through fourteen. The Bible says, and when it was the termine that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus, band and entering into a ship of Atarantium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coast of Asia. One Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonika, being with us verse nine. Now, when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous,

17:29 because the fast was now already passed, Paul admonished them and said, under them, sirs, I perceived 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 attain to Phoenice and there to Winter, which is in haven of Crete, and lie toward the southwest and the northwest. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose loosing, thence they sailed close by Crete. But not long after there arose against it a tempetuous wind called Urokladan.

18:34 Nowadays we call that a hurricane. Our Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord for all that you've done for us. I thank you Father forreaching everyone that is here in the sound of my voice. They could have been anywhere else, but yet they're here. But I'm grateful Father, especially that it's not that Dennis Sampson is speaking here today, know, but that it is God's word that is going to be doing the speaking here today. Thank you. We're a thankful Father for this, because if it's just me, we've. Already wasted our time and we need to go ahead and pack up and go on hold. But I'm grateful Father for you, and I pray Lord that you'd help me please to say what needs to be said here today, that it would be a light to the loss that someone here may see their need to get saved and respond to it before it's too late, that it could be a help and his strength to those who already know you. Thank your Father once again for Pacific Garden Mission, for the workers here, for the residents. We thank your Father for one hundred and forty seven years of service here in Chicago. And I pray Lord that it would continue to stay strong until Jesus comes back and splits that eastern sky for us. And the precious, glorious name of our High Priest, my big brother, Jesus of Nazareth.

19:52 We ask your Father, please, amen and amen. Okay, So they're at Pacific Garden Missions in Chicago. Pacific Garden Missions are the people who put out the program Unshackled, which I aired some of the episode. The two part episode of Unshackled about my sister's life all right, where I had a supporting acting role. Well, I mean I wasn't actually in it. They had someone playing me who was in a scene that never actually happened. I don't know how that scene ended up in that. I still need to ask my sister where did that come from?

20:33 Right? How did they make Okay? But we won't get it too. So that's interesting. Pacific Garden Mission Chicago, they produced Unshackled. Great, all right, the prayer I always I always get a little bothered, like, hey, you know, Lord, let them hear the word of God and not me. Well, if they're going to just hear the word of God and not you, then just read it and be done. Okay, it's such kind of like it's not really it's not really accurate. You're not really being honest. Hey, hey, let them hear the word of God and not me. Well, then don't talk, because what you're going to do is you're gonna take the word of God and you're going to talk. You're going to talk. And guess what, when a sermon is over, you can t what preachers can claim all day, I preach the word of God and only the word of God. No, you take the word of God and you give your interpretation of it a sermon. People are not hearing necessarily the word of God. They're hearing a pastor's interpretation of that word. That interpretation is either based off their own ideas, their own interpretation, or it's based off them interpreting it in an agreement with a specific philological system. You are hearing the interpretation of a scripture based on the pastor's own private interpretation, or the pastor interpreting the text in line with a specific theological system that he holds to and was trained in based off the Bible, college, seminary, or church that trained him. Let's stop playing games. We can sit there and talk all to I'm going to go to church to hear the word of God. You're

22:04 gonna go hear a pastor give you his interpretation of the Word of God. If you just want the Word of God, then just to read it, you don't need anybody else. But at the minute you listen to someone else, you're not necessarily hearing the unadulterated, uncorruptible, uncorruptible Word of God. You're hearing someone take the Word of God, read it and then going to tell you what it means. They're giving you their interpretation of it. Okay, So I just, oh, I can't. I can't stand that because it's just so disingenuous, and to me, it's a subtle form I'm not saying it's done on purpose, but it's a subtle form of psychological manipulation because the people are being convinced I heard the word of God. No, you heard someone tell you what they think the word of God means. But you're being convinced somehow that that's what the word of God says.

22:55 Now that's what someone says that it means you have to do some work. And of course, you know, I get sick and tired of hearing pastors pray. Lord, let me, you know, give me the words to say, or let me speak what you know, what is true, what is right? If God is controlling and guiding what preachers say and speak to make sure that it's true and accurate, then we wouldn't have fifty billion sermons with fifty billion different interpretations of fifty billion different passages. Okay, I'm using hyperbole there, but you get the idea. If God is controlling what preachers say, then everything said would be perfectly in agreement with what every other pastor is saying, and it would all be true and it would all be accurate. That's not the way it works. Okay, so stop that. But once again you could it's it's psychological manipulation because the people think, well, he prayed that God is going to you know, give him the words to say. Well, then obviously what he says has to be true. No, it doesn't work that way. Pastors can say anything from the pulpit.

23:52 God is not controlling what's being said or not being said. And if you say he is controlling what's being said, well, then when people say things that are false, than God wants him to preach things that are false. And then it becomes all kinds of complicated. So I know when sermons happen. Pastors, however, they put their sermons together, whatever materials they are using, they are going to preach their interpretation, their preaching as the result of their study and their training and the philological system from which they are presenting that material. If you do not catch on to that, then I don't know, then you're going to just be deceived.

24:33 All right. So now he says he's not going to take long. Well, at this point, he's got about twenty five minutes left, that's about it. So he's going to cover the story in acts twenty seven and about twenty five minutes. You already know how this is getting ready to go. I mean, I could be wrong, and I always got to be careful doing this in sermon reviews because sometimes I'll say something and I'll turn out to be wrong. Remember, I'm reviewing the sermon blindly, just it's like we're listening to it together in real time. My feeling, this is my prediction, is it's going to take him about three point two seconds to turn this all into a metaphor and allegory, and it's all going to be about us. And this is going to represent this, and this is going to represent this, and this is going to be representing this this, And guess where all of this comes from. It doesn't come from the Bible, comes from his own imagination. There is nothing in the text saying this represents this or this represents that. There is literally nothing. There's nothing in Act twenty seven that says it should be interpreted allegorically or metaphorically. There is nothing there.

25:38 And if he starts doing that, well, then ladies and gentlemen, we've left the realm of hermeneutics and we've entered into the realm of imagination. I don't know where it's going to stay. Let's see, here we go. A man. A bit of recent history, you can put it that way, because it is. In the past, though very recent. On September twenty sixth of this year, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida right there where the Peninsula of Florida comes up and meets the Panhandle of Florida, right in that one spot, and it just blasted straight on through.

26:32 By the time September twenty ninth was over, the storm had centered itself on the eastern end of Tennessee and the western end of North Carolina. It became the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina back at five. As of this morning here on October the second, one hundred and sixty seven are confirmed. I'm dead there in eastern Tennessee western North Carolina. Over six hundred and eighty five people are still missing to this very hour. Damages are estimated at over twenty seven billion.

27:18 With a B dollars. A couple of good things. One I didn't mention this, I do. He read the text really well, got some of those names, stated them correctly, or at least to my understanding of being correct. So that's really good. He got that down. I look, and I'm gonna say it because I'm going to probably mess some of them up, all right, So he did very good there. That was awesome, and it's kind of interesting. He's he's immediately pulling from very recent current event about an actual massive storm to how to pull people in. This is good just from a presentation perspective. All Right, everybody's like, oh, yeah, I remember that. Okay, yeah, I was watching this or I saw this on the news. Okay, trying to pull people in. Okay, so far we're good. Now. Just remember, though, the longer he takes with this opening illustration, the less time he's going to have to actually deal with the text. Because again, this is a very short sermon, so he's already taken about five minutes already up of his entire time already, and it we were now just getting into the introduction.

28:30 So at this point he may have about about fifteen eighteen minutes left, so we'll see he's going to have to really And the reason I'm watching the time is when you've got a chapter like Acts twenty seven, you could get the considering if he's going to continue to reduce the amount of time he's going to have, he's going to have to just go in it to it very metaphorically quickly. He's going to have to get there quickly. But let's see if I'm right. Towns have been flooded, wiped off the map. Towns have water so high that people are barely able to get to the top of their roof and have anything but the very apex of the roof to sit upon and wait for rescue. Roads and bridges have been washed away, water supply, fuel supply, food, electricity all out.

29:31 Homes are gone, crops have been lost, Churches have been wiped off the map. Yet the storm was not expected to do all that it did. Where it did is typically a hurricane hits. You don't hear about it in eastern Tennessee, the eastern side of North Carolina. Yeah, not the western side, but it did this time. Now, the crowd seems very engaged. You hear M. Yeah, yeah, I mean you're hearing that engagement now. From a preaching standpoint, you love that, right. I Mean, there's nothing better than when you start talking and you like people are actually paying attention, right then, there's nothing worse when you start and it's like no one's paying They're like looking around, they're doing something else. They're talking to someone who knows what they're doing. They're texting someone who knows what they're doing They're doing everything but paying any attention. There's nothing worse than that. So I'm happy for him. He's got a crowd that seems to be focused, they seem to be paying attentions. He's talking about this in a very dramatic I mean very I mean he's speaking very in a dramatic way. I'm not seeing that in a negative way, I mean in a way that captures your attention. So so far he read the text really well. He's setting this up really well. Of course, I'm already very concerned where this is going, but I want to point out all the good as well, because there's a lot. I mean, if I was listening to this, I'd be like, yeah, okay,

31:03 all right, you got my attention, let's go, because I mean to be fair, I mean, and this is I know, this is this is personal preference, right, So let's always remember that. On one hand, if someone's preaching style is one that you really really like, you got to be very careful not to let the fact that you like their style, you like their presentation, to get you to accept maybe an interpretation that's incorrect and you can't allow because you don't like someone's presentation for you to reject their interpretation just because you don't like them, or there we hermeneutics doesn't matter, should not be influenced by the way it's presented, because it's based off the truth of the text and how we should interpret it using certain principles.

31:46 The way it's presented is irrelevant. But hey, I mean there, look, I'm just gonna be honest. There's some summers we've listened to I'm like, oh my goodness, what can you? I mean, sometimes I'll hear people and I'm like, are you You sound like you you're so depressed that maybe you should never preach again. You sound like you loathe your job. I like when people seem like but a lot of people don't like when people seem excited. They're like, oh, it's theatrical, it's over dramatic. I think ultimately, each preacher has to be true to themselves. Right. If you're just kind of calm and monotone, and that's who you are, you know what, that's what you should do because you're being real. And if you're more dramatic, if that's really who you are, then be that way. Don't I don't think you should try to modify your style to please the audience. I think you should be true to yourself and presented in a way that reflects who you are.

32:38 So I come across very much more dramatic and theatrical. But if you ever talk to me about any subject, I can come across pretty dramatic and pretty theatrical. So I think I'm being very true to myself. So but all right, he's got my attention. But again I'm getting a little nervous because how much I mean, he's taking a lot of time here, there's not much time left for the text. And here they are Christians and non Christians, rich and poor, straight and homosexual, white, black, and every color in between, male, female, politician, infant, prisoner or freeman. All this very day are in the same boat, dealing with the aftermath of this storm that they have found has rushed into their lives and.

33:44 Set up shop. You're right, it is camped out, not in their front lawn, but in their very souls at this moment. There's the same when it comes to storms. You are either going into a storm, you are in the storm, or you're getting ready to come out of the storm. You are in one of those three places here today. And not all storms are physical storms that are gonna blow in off of the ocean. There are storms that are gonna come into our lives that are of a spiritual sense. Here and here we go, and immediately hear the crowdstar at amen ing. Hey, immediately, everybody loves this. All right, we're talking about a hurricane. Now those storms, and how storms now become not storms, storms now become well issues that happen in our life, trials, difficulty, pain, suffering, tragedy.

34:44 All right, So immediately we've gone from a Red Acts twenty seven a physical storm, talked about a physical hurricane, and all of a sudden, with no explanation, no justification, storms now become a metaphor for the difficulties in our life. Right, just immediately goes there, just immediately goes there. Right, well, and immediately people are gonna I mean, if he's preaching a Pacific garden, I mean that's a homeless shelter. So these are a lot of people who are probably have experienced storms in their life. If you're using that phrase, right, Okay, now that's great. These people need help. These people need something.

35:26 But is he gonna take it from Acts twenty seven, which has literally nothing to do with anybody's storm other than the physical storm that Paul endured. Now, this is where I may start getting a little ticked off, but I'm gonna remain calm and see where this is gonna go. But you can did you see that hear that switch? Boom? Right? Read Acts twenty seven physical storm, talk about a physical hurricane boom, Your life, my life, lives and just immediately we were often too. The metaphorical world. The storms are gonna come into our lives of an economic sense. There are storms are gonna come into our lives of a family sense. There are storms that are gonna come into our lives in a sense of a job in a school, whatever the case is in your life, a storm is always possible. Here's the question, though, what are you doing with that storm?

36:28 All right now? I'm not in the storm? Well, are you getting ready to get back in it? Because it's coming. It's the nature of things. So long as this world is still spinning around and round and a round, if another storm will come, a am I don't care if you have been saved for fifty years. I don't care if you've been saved five minutes. I don't care if you've absolutely spurned to call Jesus Christ to save your soul. Another storm will come your way. Will It is. Guarantee here in Acts chapter number twenty seven. And we're gonna be as quick as we can I find five different ways of dealing with this storm.

37:14 All right, So immediately now he's going to Acts twenty seven. So he gives us a story about a physical storm, quickly pivots to metaphorical storm, and hey, storms are coming. Now we're gonna go to Acts twenty seven to have five different ways that you can deal with the storm. Now immediately, wait a minute. So we're gonna talk about five different ways they deal with an actual storm, and we're gonna transition those principles being somewhat now prescriptive to dealing with storms in our life. All right, let's see where this is gonna go. Now. Now, what we want to do here. We want to be fair. We want to be fair, okay, and we want to see what these principles are. Now here's the thing that can be frustrating.

38:01 So let's make it very clear. He may give us five things here that are actually good principles. They may actually be true. They may actually be of great value. The issue is going to be, are you going to claim that these principles come from X twenty seven because X twenty seven that that's where the problem is going to become. Well, let's see how good these principles are. So I'm going to try to critique this on how good these principles are, and then not even worry that he's trying to pull them from X twenty seven, Then question why he took them from X twenty seven, because they probably could have just taken these principles and not even Hey, life is full with ups and downs and difficulties and tragedies, and there's five different ways you can handle when tragedy and difficulty comes into your life, and not even mention X twenty seven. Right, correct, We're.

39:05 Not gonna exactly deal with them in order that they are given here in stretch. But I want you to know right off the bat, as we were reading those first couple of verses, we did that intentionally because I wanted you to notice that Paul is sailing into the storm the apostle. Paul. Hey, if anybody's not gonna have a war, have any words, it should be Paul, I'm all right, come on now, the prisoners. It also says we're sailing with them. We tend to think, yeah, you deserve it, you deserve to go through it. You are presidenter, you deserve whatever. Comes your way. But not, Paul, we see that Aristarkis. And doctor Luke are also sailing into this storm.

39:49 Couple of good Christian brothers. I got some good Christian brothers right here behind me this morning, Praise God for them. But I also see that, since we're dealing with prisoners here, that there's also soldiers involved. See, they didn't have policemen. They used soldiers back then. You got out of line, they just went in and killed you. They weren't sitting there playing games. You weren't going to the prison to have your Hbo and your Playboy and three squares a day and whatever else. No, you were gonna be in trouble, that's right. But if they're sailing, that means there's a fifth group, the sailors themselves. Yes, I want to look at each one of these groups here. Number one, I want to start off with the bet Hords, not betters. They're not better than you. I'm talking about the Betters. Those guys, they bust out them money, come out. How much are we betting on the Bears to win this upcoming weekend? Right, here's my money? Okay those kind of guys. Oh, they ain't betting on the Chicago Bears. They ain't betting on who's gonna win the NBA. They ain't bet not who's gonna win hockey or baseball?

40:58 Bearing in oude and stuff. They'se got decide to bet their lives. Wow, they decide that they're gonna take a chance on it. Look with me, if you got your Bible down. In verse number three, they've been in this storm for several days now, the hurricane. It's horrible. It's terrible, and everybody's afraid of what's going on. Verse thirty says, and as the shipmen were about two, I think I need glasses, e Van Field. That looks like that word is flee. They're gonna run. Where are you gonna run to? On a ship? My hit says they're gonna flee out of the ship. Whoa, they're gonna flee out of the ship.

41:43 When they had let down the boat into the sea under the color as though they would have cast the anchors out of the four ship. Okay, now, let me just let me paint this picture here real quickly for you. Okay, Now I'm getting a little lost here. I'm getting a little I'm trying to follow him. He's being all dramatic. I got no problem with that, but sometimes you got to kind of tune down the dramatic and try to explain here. So he's got the betters, so the first group is better. So I guess what he's going to say is the first way you can handle a storm is you can be someone who gambles. But then he reads verse thirty. All right, I'd have to kind of read exactly where they are because he's making a big deal. Yeah, okay, all right, I'm just I'm just trying to follow. I'm gonna let him paint the picture here. But yeah, I'm okay, all right, he's he's gonna have to go through these points really quick because he's got five points here, so he's gonna have to go through these like at mock speed.

42:59 So I think sometimes it's going to get really confed and he's going to try to pull it from the text, and I think at some point I'm going to be looking at the text going. Where in the world is this coming from? So let's see where does the gambling happen? In thirty one, 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 also to take me seeing the day. I don't know where. I don't know. I don't know what he's doing, because they're trying to flee that they're gambling. Is that what he's trying to say. I don't know. We'll let this just play out and see what happens.

43:43 You've got a ship that is big enough to carry a cargo and passengers on the Mediterranean. That's not exactly a little drink of water here, Okay, it's bigger than Lake Michigan. And this ship is designed to sail on the Mediterranean. And they're gonna get into a little lifeboat, a little dinghy. If I could compare the. Stage here to the ship, and this first set down here is the life boat. I don't have room to move around. Plus on this little lifeboat you're doing doesn't. Look like I got room to move here. On the fourth wor I've got room.

44:23 Plus I'm closest to the water now, something big enough I can walk around on something over here. I can barely move high up off the water, low in the water. Can someone please explain to me how that makes sense? Okay, I'm trying to understand his art. So his argument is that they should they should stay in the boat because it makes more sense to stay in the boat. So I'm looking some things up here, I'm utilizing Ai. Ai says in Acts twenty seven thirty the sailors attempt to flee the ship under the pretense of lowering anchors, but they're actually trying to gape in the lifeboat. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship when they had let down the skiff into the sea under pretense of putting out anchors from the pro pro prow prow, so I guess that they they're trying to make it look like they're just putting down the anchors, but they're trying to actually get on lifeboats to get out of the boat. The sailors weren't heading for a specific destination. They were simply trying to abandon the ship.

45:28 Given that they were still far from land, they may have hoped to drift away from the sinking vessel and reach safety before the shipwreck. The coastline was near, but it was still dangerous and unclear how far they could get. Since they had no guarantee the ship would survive, they may have believed taking the skiff, a small lifeboat, was their best chance. So he's saying it makes absolutely no sense. But these are sailors, So in the sailor's mind it made more sense. Hey, the boat, this boat's going to go down. Well, let's get off the boat now while we have time, because once the boat goes down then it's too late. So maybe he's saying it makes no sense, but it may make perfect sense, right, So we I mean, is he trying to see the sailors didn't know what they were doing, that the sailors were, that the sailors were idiots, the sailors were morons, the sailors would just overcome with fear. Is that his point here? I don't know, let's see where he takes this.

46:25 I don't get it. But they're gonna go down there, They're gonna bet they will be safer in the middle of a hurricane down there on that little bitty tiny thing instead of what's up here. So he's saying it made more sense to stay in the boat. That it made more sense to stay in the boat now and thirty one. Paul immediately recognize their intentions and warns the centurion and soldiers. Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. The sailors were trained seamen who knew how to navigate. If they abandoned the ship, the remaining soldiers and passengers, many whom were not sailors, would struggle to manage the ship. Paul's divine revelation verse twenty three and twenty five had already assured that everyone would survive, but only if they stayed together.

47:14 The centurions listened to Paul, and the soldiers cut their ropes to the skiff, forcing everyone to remain on board. The sailors were not heading towards a specific city or island, but rather trying to escape in fear, hoping to save themselves before the ship fully wrecked. However, Paul's intervention assured that everyone stayed aboard, ultimately leading to their survival. As God had promised. So so isn't this an idea here? This isn't the whole point of this story trying to draw a correlation between divine revelation which Paul had and these people not having divine revelation. So they're relying on human wisdom and what to do in this situation based off their experience. They're like, get off the boat. Paul is staying on the boat, not because it makes most sense from a human perspective, but because that's what God has told him. Is that not the story here? So he's making it sound like, and here's someone in the audience makes no sense to me either, Well, it's not making any sense because the pastor is telling you it makes no sense. But does it not make sense? Man oh Man?

48:21 As I was studying this passage of scripture, I came across this piece here. From eighteen seventy. Three, the RS Atlantic, owned by the same company as Titanic. Just in case you're curious, the RMS Atlantic was bound for Halifax Nova Scotia in Canada, which is when encountered severe weather and rough seas, which resulted in the ship striking a rock just off the coast, causing her to sink. The huge waves pushed the ship further into the coast in the process. As it turned out, those ways were more deadly than the sailor's thought. Every lifeboat that was loaded up and put down into the water was immediately picked up by the waves and smashed into the side of the ship, killing everyone.

49:18 Who is in that lifeboat. Pick it up, smash nuts lifeboat, pick it up, smash everyone dies that gets in that lifeboat. During the big boat it has been pushed up against some rocks. Yes, the boat will eventually sink, but you've got more time that way. As it turns out, the Atlantic was close enough to shore they literally could have slammed the shore instead. Okay, so he seems to be making the argument that you're an idiot to get in the lifeboat. All right, So I'm asking artificial intelligence here. The sailor's attempt to flee in the lifeboat and Acts twenty seven thirty made sense from a human perspective, but it was ultimately a foolish decision given the circumstances. Why their decision made sense from a human perspective. From a practical human standpoint, the sailors were making what seemed like a rational decision. The ship was doomed, the storm had battered it for two weeks Verse twenty seven. No, remember, he's just skipping around.

50:20 He's not reading. He did not even read the entire section. He's just jumping to a verse and saying, these are the betters. And they were dumb, basically all right, And it was about to run aground and break apart. A lifeboat might seem safer. They might have thought getting away early and smaller vessels would improve their survival chances. They had skills to navigate, unlike the soldiers and passengers. They were trained sailors. They may have thought they had a better chance on their own than staying on a sinking ship with people who didn't know how to sell. Why their decision was ultimately foolish. Despite seeming logical, the decision was ultimately foolish for several reasons. Number one, they were ignoring Paul's warnings and divine revelations. That's the point here.

51:02 And the lifeboat wasn't safer. The lifeboat would have been just as vulnerable, if not more so, to the storm and crashing waves. A small open boat in rough seas would likely capsize or drift aimlessly. Staying on the main ship gave them better chance of reaching shore safely. Okay, that's what he's saying. So AI does acknowledge. Hey, on one hand, it does make sense, but the lifeboats probably wouldn't have been safer. So then this becomes you know, the movies always do this, do we do this, or we do do this? You always have one group like we should do this, and the other groups like, no, we should do this. And then one group makes one decision and they all die and the other one they survived because they made the right decision. But I mean, but I think the point of this is about looking at circumstances, making a decision based off human wisdom versus making a decision based off divine revelation? Is that not the point of the story. Now, they were trying to save themselves and they were abandoning the other people. Now that's true, all right, So yeah, let's see where he takes this. Let's see where he takes this.

52:13 But they opted to get into a lifeboat. If you read a little bit further on here in Acts twenty seven, you will find that they were close enough to swim to shore. But God said don't let him get in the lifeboat, because they would have been smashed. They would have placed the wrong bet and would have cost them their lives. Church, what storm is raging around us that we're willing to bet our lives on that we're going to lose? Besides, now there seems to be a disagreement, Ai says at the moment when the sailors attempted to flee in Acts twenty seven thirty, they were not yet close enough to swim to the shore. Verse twenty seven says they had been driven by the storm for fourteen nights and suspected they were approaching land. Verse twenty eight says they took soundings and found the water was decreasing from one twenty to ninety feet, but this does not mean land was within swimming distance. Verse twenty nine says they feared running around on rocks, so they dropped four anchors to slow the ship down and waited for daylight, showing uncertainty about how far they were from shore. The sailors were trying to escape at night, The sailors pretended to lower anchors, but they were really trying to get into the skiff lifeboat.

53:36 They were doing this before they could see land properly, which means they were not yet close enough to swim. The lifeboat would have drifted in darkness without clear direction in a violent sea. Paul's warning suggests the ship was still the best option. Paul said, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. If they were already close enough to safely swim, his statement would make little sense. The fact that the centurion listened to Paul and cut away the lifeboat means he understood than they needed to stay in the ship a little longer. They only attempted to swim later Verses forty one through forty four. Much later, when the ship actually runs aground on the sandbar near the island, the centurion orders those who can swim to jump into the water and reach shore. This means that before the ship ran aground, they were still too far to safely swim, so his statement there is not accurate. They weren't close enough yet. They weren't close enough yet. And that's see, this is what makes this so frustrating when you listen to sermons, when they start going all the metaphorical stuff here right, trying to make a point. They're so interested in making their the point and the sermon that in many cases, then they start falling.

54:44 The logical factual information starts becoming messed up. Stop worrying about trying to make a sermon point, try to get the facts of the chapter straight. That's why whenever, that's why observational outlines are so important. You got it, I know what's actually had. If you actually if you'll not worry about interpreting your Bible and just actually trying to know what is actually happening, what is actually going on, just factually, then that stops these nonsensical sermons from turning the text into some kind of make believe story where the facts don't match up. So there's already conflict here. He's saying, hey, they were so close, they could just went to shore. AI say no, absolutely not true, and Ai provides what it fills his scriptural support. He doesn't provide any scriptural support. He does jump to forty one to forty four, but that's later, that's much later when they hit the sandbar, so that whitch there in they're near the island. So AI explains all of it. He doesn't offer any justification. He's just making claims.

55:51 It's the betters, I find the bystanders over in verse number thirty one, it says Paul said to the centurion into the soldiers, accept these abide in the ship. He cannot be saved. You see, these bystanders were out of their element. They're soldiers. They're used to being up here. On solid grounds. They got the waves locking back and forth. They can march they feel like it, and they ain't okay, and they will pull out their swords and they will fight. They'll raise their shields high and be able to defend themselves, and they are just painchy king. But if they were to get over here on land or on sea, I'm sorry. See how this shaken?

56:36 Okay, So now we go from the betters to the bystayer. So remember he's supposed to be saying five different ways to approach the storm. So I guess you can be a better which means, Hey, if there's a storm, don't get in a lifeboat. So how does this work? Hey, if there's a if there's a big storm and uh, things are flooding and a boat comes by to pick you up, don't get in the boat. Stay on your house. I don't know what does that mean? If the If you're on a cruise and the ship is going down, don't get in the lifeboat. Like what if if problems are happening in your life and someone offers you a lifeboat or a way of escape, don't take it because you're a better and you're stupid. Just stay like, how does this even work? I don't even know what it?

57:18 Don't take any way out. So if the house is on fire and the fireman comes and says, here's the ladder, don't take the ladder, burn with the house. Is that? I don't know. I don't understand. How am I supposed to apply this to my everyday life? Don't take the lifeboat, don't Well, yeah, they're not to take the life boat because God has specifically told Paul what to do. God is not giving us direct revelation like that. He's only given us his word. And you can't take Acts twenty seven, which has nothing to do with you, and try to take principles from it and apply it to your life because it has nothing to do with you. I don't even know. Well, okay, now, don't be a bystander. Don't be a bystander. Let's see how this place out.

58:00 Okay, they're out of their element. They can't step on it. I wouldn't dare step on this thing. I know, I crashed down all the way to floor and hurt my full self. But they're bystanders. They don't know nothing about sailing a ship. They don't know nothing about what the sailors are worth even doing at that time, they have to go along. Do we know someone in our lives who just ends up becoming a bystander as we're going through our storm, we dragged them along with us? Oh have we been the bystanderd in someone else's storm and they've drug us along with it and we also got hurt just like them.

58:51 It happens church. These sailors they knew what they were doing and it was foolish. The soldiers didn't know what anybody was doing, so the. Soldiers, so the sailors knew what they were doing and it was foolish. So they they knew they were making a foolish decision. And now bystanders. And also this becomes us being a people being a bystander in our storms because we drag them along or were the bystander to someone else's story. How does this even I wasn't the the centurion and the soldiers there because they were ordered to be there? Weren't They're the ones instructed to take these prisoners to Rome? Are what do you mean we drug them along? I don't even understand there? Are they bystanders or they been commissioned to do a specific mission?

59:46 They they've been tasked with them, They've been assigned. They have been deployed using military term, they have been deployed. They've been assigned. Your mission is this? You will transport these prisoners from point A to point and then you will return. This is your mission? Are they not fulfilling their mission? They're calling their vocation? But now that they're just bystanders, how do you call them bystanders? They're the centurion and the soldiers. I don't understand. Praise God, though they at least listened to Paul this time. They didn't listen to them earlier when he said don't set sail. Now Paul comes up to him and he says, hey, fell us, foul us, don't let them go. Everybody needs to state a ship. You guys don't know how to run the ship. They know how to run the ship.

1:00:36 Make sure they stay in here because we're gonna need them. What I do not read in verse number thirty two is them saying, all right, let's have a committee. All right, my brother, why don't you lead us in prayer. We're gonna talk to God and see if God really wants to see those sailors. I'm bord or out. I don't read that. As a matter of fact. I read a verse number thirty two. It says, then the soldiers cut off through to the boat and let her fall off. They cut off that lifeboat. There, y'all are stuck here with us, and you're gonna help us. You see some of those storms. We have got to work together if we're gonna get through it ain't man. The Bible talks about there in Hebrews chapter number ten, Versus twenty five, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, but so much the.

1:01:21 More, as you see the day approaching, they sort one another, pray for one another, help one another, hey, gurds one another. Let's see what we can do together for the Lord God almighty. Amen. And everybody's like, preach, what are you preaching? What are you preaching? So? Hey, we have to work together. So what does this mean, so well, listen, hey applied it to church. Let's not forsake the assembling ourselves together. So is this like, if someone gets ready to leave, you cut off the rope so that they can't go. You're gonna stay in this church. You can't leave. You can't leave. We're cutting off the rope. You can't leave. Is that if you're going to how does this even work? I don't even understand this kind of preaching, And yet the people are saying, amen, like this is some good kind of sermon.

1:02:06 What is this? This makes literally no sense. So we're going to apply it to church, and we're well, you're just going to apply this now to this means work together? No, this means you can't leave. We're not letting you live. We want to go. Sorry, you can't go? Why because we need you? We can't drive this ship you can. So if you leave, we're gonna die. We're cutting off the rope. You can't go. So it'd be like, hey, you're hey, you run the soundboard. You can't leave. Hey, No, no, no, you do our online marketing. You can't leave. You do our finances, you can't live do I just determine the people who can't leave the church, and then say I'm cutting off the lifeboat. You can't leave here. Ever again, people say, well, that's ridiculous. That's not the point he's making.

1:02:48 The point is he's not making a point because the point he's making has nothing to do with AX twenty seven, because cutting the rope of the lifeboat has nothing to do with church and us working together. This is they're like, you can't leave. They don't want to be bystanders. Let's make them co workers. Someone doesn't want us to be bystander, let's become a co worker with them, a man. First of all, they're not bystanders. They're they're on a mission. And second what, oh wait, wait, no, wait a minute, if they don't, if they don't want to be, if they if they want to be bystanders, make them a coworker. No, I don't even understand how that works. The people that you're forcing to do something here are the sailors the I guess you're making them co workers by telling them to cut the rope. I don't even understand. Oh, this is this is why I hate metaphorical preaching so much.

1:03:47 I hate this. I hate this stuff so much. When I was young, I would have eaten this stuff up because I could have been the ooh, and I could have turned it into and I would have I would have molded it and a whole lot better and shaped it. But then I could have turned this into a sermon, and then I could have preached a good sermon, and people are like, oh, that's really good. Those were some good points. Yeah, but I didn't teach you the text. I preached a sermon. Sermons are the enemy. Sermons are the enemy to understanding the word of God. They are the enemy. And this is another I mean, how many examples do I need to give you? Every sermon review proves this over and over. Sermons literally keep you from seeing the text. So remember when his prayer, don't let them hear, you know, let them hear the word of God. Nobody's hearing the word of God in this nobody. The word of God is being absolutely covered up in this. I don't even know what this is.

1:04:39 That's how you can react to the story. Wow number three. Why is someone saying wow? What are you saying wow to wow? And how bad this is? What are you wowing? All right? So we got betters, we got bystanders, are all these gonna be bees? I bet you all these gonna be bees, right, because that's what you do in a good sermony. Let's see what number three is. Here we go, I find the beleaguered. Remember we read back there in verse number one that there were also prisoners that were brought on board, besides the apostle Paul, who was going as a prisoner to Rome. These guys here, they've already had it bad. They're already chained up, they've already been beaten, they've already gone hungry.

1:05:32 They're already hurt, they're already thirsty, they're already miserable. And now when you look in verse number forty two, the Bible says, the soldier's counsel was to tell the prisoners just how sweet and kind they are. No, oh, no, the soldier's counsel was to commend the prisoners. I'm doing such an excellent job. No, the soldier's council us to kill the prisoners. We've gone through this storm for two weeks. At this point, we're hurting, we're hungry, we're seasick. We're as messed up as the rest of y'all are. Here.

1:06:14 We done been tore up from the floor up, and now you want to kill us for it. Man, I don't blame the soldiers one bit. It makes your job a little easier, a few less people. Have to search for. But the fact of the matter is, my God promise Paul, all of y'all are getting off that boat. Amen alive, I should add, But these guys, they just can't win. Have you ever been in that situation? You just can't win. Everything has gone wrong. You've been a bystander, You've placed the wrong bets on your south, and yet you can't win. Every time you turn around, something else is happening to you. And look, my brother up here, we're bust to his chaps earlier about him singing a soul. I'm gonna hold you that next time I come, all right, But he just can't wait because we keep picking out of state. Only this is a whole lot worse. This is a matter of life and death. These guys are leg We're hard. They understand everybody is against them.

1:07:26 Except God. Because God promised all of y'all are getting off. Yeah. Why does everybody sing yeah? I Are you getting ready to imply then that don't don't make a wrong bet don't be a bystander, stay on the boat, don't take a lifeboat, and everyone gets out alive. Is that? Is that? Like? I don't even understand. I don't even know why the church the Bible. I really don't because we just we just make it. I I don't understand what is happening. Okay, let's just let's just say he's only got like about five minutes left.

1:08:13 Here we go. But the fourth group the Brethren. All right, so the fourth group is the Brethren. Now, I still none of this is really telling me what I'm supposed to do. Does anyone know what you're supposed to do during a storm? Now, So I guess I got to determine if I'm a better, if I'm a bystander, if I'm beleaguered, or am I a brother? And I I I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with any of this, like, and everyone's like amen, amen, Amen, wow, good Amen? Like I preach it, brother, what do you pray? I don't even understand what's happening.

1:08:57 Oh? I love it. We're told. Back in verse number one and when it was determined that we and we know doctor Luke is the one who is writing the book backs so that we doesn't just mean Paul, it also means doctor Luke is setting sail. And we're told at the end of verse number thirty two one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. So we've got two of the brethren here with us. Aristarkus is mentioned five times in the New Testament.

1:09:38 He's all over the place. He may not be the big name, but he is one who is serving his Lord the best that he possibly can. Lord, you need me to go over there and hold the door open. I will go and hold the door open. Well, Lord, you need me to help pass out to the communion, I will do it. Father, you have told me I need to go over there, and I need to get a holy girl's hands. Say bless you. Hear my pockets in the ladder. But that's what God would me do. Praise God? How do it? Aristarcus, he's the man for that job right there. And doctor Luke k he wrote two books in the New Testament.

1:10:19 As a matter of fact, when you look it up in the original Greek, doctor Luke wrote more of the New Testament word count wise than even the apostle Paul did. And all he wrote was the Gospel according to Luke, and the acts of the Apostles. That's it. These are two great spiritual giants. Amen. But notice with me in verse number twenty, and when neither sun nor stars in other words, they ain't seen the day, and they. Ain't seen the night. In many. Many days appeared, and no small tempests. In other words, this thing's still going on, like done could come here layan us all hope that the prisoners, No, all hope the sailors.

1:11:11 No, all hope the soldiers, no, all hope. That we. Should be saved. Was then take it away, scratch it out, no more. Gone, You're up, You're finished. This is doctor Luke writinginess. Yeah. Remember I just told you he wrote two books of the New Testament. Ara starks over there, bite his nail to the quick. He's so seasick, he's so messed up, he's so torn up from the floora over what's taking place here? And it's like it's been so long, Oh what's gonna happen?

1:11:57 So it's go. What don what Dad? We're happen to? Yeah? Oh god, Now people are applauding. I I don't even understand what's going on right now. I don't even understand what's happening right now. I don't even understand. I don't even understand. Okay, I was checking some of the claims he was making. So far, a lot of the claims he was making there are factual claims. I just verify everything. But okay, all right, we'll just man did I don't even know what to say. Let's just let it go.

1:12:42 Here we go, God, hoop been expected, end, it's gone. What do we do? What do we do? Someone tell me what we do? If it can happen to them, it can happen to you, to you, to you, to you, to me. Those storms can come and smash the daylights out of you, knock you down, pick you up so I can smash you down again and again and again, all the while Satan's laughing at you.

1:13:26 Come ons, you go in the town. Boy, you can't do it, you can't wain. Just give it up. I've done whoop too good. I'll send another storm after you. God, you're one of the brothers. Oh you've got a name, Oh people you know who you are? Well, I don't care. I'm gonna send another storm after you. By the way, storm s t o R M. Satan's temptation over running for the master. Wow, he's doing his best to break the brother, to get him to throw in the towel, And Luke said, here.

1:14:11 It is, do you know what I like? Paul picked up that towel and wiped off Luke's face. His boy, put that back in your pocket, because this is how you're supposed. To deal with the storm. We see the bold fifthly here Paul, Chapter twenty seven, verse number twenty one through twenty five. But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of what was Paul doing doing all that time? I'll tell you what Paul was doing. He's praying, but he ain't praying out of fear.

1:14:52 He's praying for God's will to be done because Jesus himself appeared to Paul earlier and say fear not, Paul, because you you're going to Rome and you're gonna testify before Caesar. So Paul knew he's gonna make it. He's praying for everybody else. Let me finish reading, sirs, Ye should have hearkened unto me and not have loose from creed to have gained this harm and loss and now I exhort you to be of good cheer. Cheer up people, 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. He's reminded them that Jesus promising that, And Lo, God hath.

1:15:40 Given me woo. All of them that sail with thee whoerefore sirs, be of good cheer. For I believe God. Hey, man, till you believe. God when he says I'm gonna go through the fire with you. Do you believe God when he says I will go down applaud with you. Do you believe God when he says you're there in the storm, A right there with you? At man, I believe God. By the way they lost the ship, not everybody swim ashore. Some had to fine pieces of broken up boards from the ship and used them to float in. But when they got to shore, no one had been executed by the soldiers, no one had got lost out at sea.

1:16:29 Bout every last one of them, all two hundred and seventy six of them all two hundred and seventy. Six made it to Shore Amen. Because someone believed God. Someone relied upon God. Someone kept trusting in God. Someone kept operating in faith with God. Someone kept praying to God. Someone kept saying, God, you've promised me, and I'm hauling you jelly. Oh man, I'm just at a loss for words here. So now is the indicator? If I mean, so, when the storms of a life come, we're gonna make it through all of it. If we just believe in God, we're gonna make through it. Gonna make through it. I mean, I mean, you still need die of cancer, and you may not get your job back, and your child may still be paralyzed, and you still may have been molested for ten years, or you still may have been raped, or but hey, if you just believe God, you're gonna get through the storm. I guess you're gonna survive. Well, no, not everyone survives because people die, people get murdered, people get killed, people could die of disease, people die in storms.

1:17:50 What are you promising me here? What are you guaranteeing me here? Right where? With you? And first of all, this has no promise and no guarantees to me about anything, because it has nothing to do with me. You swear by no other. That's God. He swore by himself. So when God promises you something that means he has sworn by himself, He's gonna do it. Amen. Church, I'm telling you right now, you. Want to respond the right way. You will respond the bold way and trust in God and look to God and pray to God. You will get in your bibles and you will read those Bibles. Because you will study those Bibles, you will take good notes when the preacher's preaching, when the stundents go classes being given, and you will take those notes there and you'll go back and you'll look at them afterward in your free time, and you will learn, you will grow, and you will become the Christians that God will have you to be.

1:18:39 So how do you respond in storms? You read your Bible, You study your Bible. You go to church, and you take good notes, and then you study your notes after church is over. That is how you deal with a storm. Read more, study more, go to church, take notes and review your notes there you and that that's the answer to everything. Hey, my life is falling apart. Read Go to church, read your Bible, study more read more, take good notes and review your notes. Well, if these are the notes I'm reviewing, I'm up the creek, and. If you ain't saved today, you'll look inward and say, you know what, he's so crazy.

1:19:26 I want what he's got. The call to salvation isn't I'm so crazy you want what I got. That's not a gospel call. That's that's not the gospel. That's that's like I want you want to be like me, so you can be crazy and yell and scream about a text in a way that has nothing to do with the text. But let me tell you something. I'm an intro by nature, which means it's a completely against my character to get up your act. The fool that I've done here today, it's all God Church.

1:20:12 So God takes introverts and makes them extroverts when they preach. That's what God does. Salvation is making introverts extroverts. Is that is? That? Is that? So if you're an introvert and you want to be an extrovert, you need to get saved because that's what God will do in your life. And that's not even that's not even a self. This is not even a gospel call. This is not come to Christ because you are a sinner. This is come to Christ so you can be an You no longer be an introvert. That that what. I want you to know that Jesus loves you, and maybe that storm you're in right now is what He's haveing come your way to show you your need to be saved by Him today before it has ever lasting too late. What I want is all heads to be bowed, all eyes to be closed, no one looking around but me and the Lord. I know some of y'all sitting out there right now, save Fooie. I don't need Jesus.

1:21:20 You don't know what I've gone through, all that good stuff. I've been there, done that church. Let me tell you something. You still need Jesus, and he still wants to save you, whether you want him to or not. He loves you so much. He died upon the cross to pay for all of your sins. If you will just accept him as your Lord and savior, would you be willing to ask him to save you. He's willing to do it today. It's all you've got to do, is Jesus. I'm a sinner. I know I'm a sinner. And I'm asking you please to save me from my sins so that I can go to heaven one day. You don't got to use those exact words. You say them however you want.

1:22:11 I don't know what just happened, So betters, bystanders, beleaguered, brethren, and bold, and I still don't really know how I'm supposed to deal with storms in my life other than read my Bible more, go to church, take good notes, and then study my notes. Oh and if people want to leave the church and cut the ropes that they can't leave, and tell them to get to work, because we got to do this together. Oh and if someone offers you a lifeboat, don't take it. I Acts twenty seven a historical narrative that's descriptive, telling us what happened, And somehow we turn that into a prescriptive text about things we're supposed to do, not in a literal storm, but in a metaphorical storm. And after listening to an entire sermon attempt to do this, I am more confused than I was when we started. And we already know the Bible study guy that sparked all of this is going to do pretty much the same similar thing all right, I'll stop. There's Acts twenty seven. We know we've got to do a lot of work on this chapter. Actually, we don't really need to do a lot of work on this chapter. I think if we'll just do an observational outline, you'll see that hasn't I mean, it has

1:23:46 nothing to do. With what we just heard. I mean, this is where this is the perfect example of sermons actually keep people from the text. All right, thanks for listening. I wish I could offer you some great insight. I can't, but now you at least know the story of twenty seven, and for some reason you don't. Now I don't think the story, and the story was pretty for the most part, accurately told him he kind of missed that one point that they were they were so close they could swim to the shore when he mentioned that that wasn't the case. But everything else is pretty accurate. But again he just skipped around. There was no really trying to put it in any kind of context. All right, thanks for listening. I don't know what else to say. God bless