Transcription
It's wonderful to have you here today and to spend some time looking to the word of the Lord. I'm blessed to get to share the word of the Lord with you here this morning. And I pray that something in this lesson will will speak to you and and help us.
Somewhere back around the 1500s, there was a portion of the German Empire that kind of began to form and it became its own state within the German Empire. Became known as Prussia. Not not Russia, but with a P in front. Prussia. It was a state in Germany that was rather known, uh, for its military might. And one particular guy, I've got his picture up here. I don't think anybody remembers him. He's from the 1800s. His name was Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, because apparently there was also a Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, which is a tough name to be junior. But this guy was a was a Prussian field marshal. And he made a statement. And he's kind of famous for, or at least the statement is, again, I didn't know his name particularly, I don't know if I'd ever seen him before, but he made this statement. He said this: "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength." Let me read it again. He said, "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength." In other words, you can make all your battle plans and it sounds good on paper, and then you run into the enemy and everything changes.
Um, a much less eloquent man, but quite a heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson, said it a little more eloquently when he said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." I kind of like his better, to be real honest. It it makes it makes it clear. Um, this this little maxim of war has been has been shortened down to say that it it makes it a little easier to say it in our vernacular. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." And there's a lot of truth in that. We we think we make plans. Um, but we don't even know what tomorrow's going to be. But we like to think we've got plans made of how life's going to unfold, what we're going to do. James cautioned us about this. You remember the book of James? He says, "You say, 'Oh, tomorrow I'm going to go here. Tomorrow I'm going to go there.'" And he said, "What you really ought to say is, 'If the Lord wills, tomorrow I'll go there or I'll go there.'"
Um, I I had a grandmother who was very prone to to say that a lot. "The Lord wills," or "Lord willing, I'm going to do so and so." She wove that into her vocabulary. As a child, I remember thinking, "You say that all the time." But there's really probably a measure of wisdom in in having that mindset that um we we don't really know what tomorrow is going to hold. We think we can plan, and we might develop all kinds of schemes, and and the Lord has his own idea about how life is going to unfold for us.
Um, this this idea of the of the um from a military standpoint of of making battle plans and formulating all these things we think we're going to do um doesn't survive. I I think I've got another picture up there that can show you of of the an aerial view. This is the Normandy invasion. This is D-Day, June 6, 1944. Um, my wife and I were privileged to go visit that landing site a few years ago. We were in France and and had a couple days in Paris. In fact, it was right after Manny and Hilda got married. We were in Norway for their wedding, and it was Valentine's weekend. So, I flew my bride to Paris and took her to a battlefield. Not sure that's a good picture of our marriage or anything like that, but uh, but we did go spend a couple days in Paris. And the one thing we wanted to do, and it was special to her as well, because her grandfather, my my mother-in-law's father, landed on D-Day at the Normandy beachhead.
Um, I I read a little bit about that. In fact, when we were going, I I read a book. It was it was like 1,300 pages. It was a serious work on on the D-Day invasion. And I I marveled to read the detail to which they had this thing planned. I mean, there were there were hundreds of ships, and it was a massive thing with thousands of people, and some of the most brilliant military strategists put pen to paper and planned. I I I don't guess I mean, I guess it makes sense to me once they said it. I just hadn't thought about it. Every ship had a specific longitude, latitude where it was supposed to pull up to the beach and and a certain time. And I mean, it was regimented. This ship pulls to this location and offloads, you know, its crew, and they've got two and a half minutes for everybody to get off and back out because another ship is coming in, and this one lands next to it, and this one has phone equipment, and this one has the wires that they're going to string, and so they have to come in together. And that all sounded great when they were in England planning it out.
However, they had to delay it one day because of, uh, well, there were just numerous situations that arose to make them. Weather was the primary one that forced them to schedule it a different day. It was supposed to be June the 5th. They had to push it back to June the 6th. The day that they finally did go, there was a lot of cloud cover that inhibited the bombers' ability to take out German defenses. They anticipated that they would be able to eliminate a significant portion from the German defenses there along the bluffs. And because of the cloud cover, they couldn't see where the bombs needed to hit. And and so there was a lot more, uh, German, uh, firepower left active when they landed. And so casualties were high. Uh, more than 10. The wind was blowing significantly that day, and it blew landing craft out of place. And so it would land, and it would land at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and others couldn't get in. And so, and now instead of the phones being here and the wires being here on adjacent ships, the phones were way down there, and the wire they needed to string was way. It turned into absolute chaos to the point that there were more than 10,000 casualties on that first day. And in their plans, the the the benchmarks they wanted to make and the things they wanted to accomplish, they didn't accomplish one of them, other than being on the beach. Nothing they planned, nothing they thought they would accomplish that day was done because "Everybody's got a plan until you get punched in the mouth." Everybody's got a plan until until you start confronting the enemy.
King Solomon, uh, said this. This is Proverbs 16 and 9. It says, "We make our, we can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." This is a valuable life lesson to learn in terms of living for God. We can make all of our plans, but God orders our steps. And and and we like that word "orders." When he orders us to go somewhere, we like it. But if he says, "Okay, here are my orders. You're going to go through a season of sickness." You say, "Well, why would, why would a merciful and kind God do that?" Well, now he's got purposes and plans. I will say this. I've had a lot of people ask me a lot of questions through the years that start with that word, "Why?" "Why do I have to do this?" "Why do I have to go through that?" "Why did my child suffer this?" "Why did I lose my job?" "Why did this?" And I've told many folks, "If you get the answer to those questions that start with 'why,' write a book. You will be an international bestseller. You'll never worry about another financial thing in your life because everybody will buy that book that answers why." The truth be told, I have a book that answers why. You know what the why is? He's God, and I'm not. And and he orders our steps. He directs our lives. He guides it all.
There's an old Yiddish proverb that someone introduced me to. I love this. It says, "Man plans, and God laughs." And and not laughing, mocking us as much as just, "I've got better plans for you than you have for yourself." You know what God's plan for me is? For me to go to heaven. Now, that's that's good. But the path to get me there might not take all the steps that I think I want. Sometimes what God orders for me, what God directs for me, is going to lead me through things I'm not real excited about. But his plan is perfect. His plan. In his plan, watch this. "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose." I am going to freely admit when I've been going through some stuff, I don't see how there's any good in that. But I would have you note that that verse in Romans doesn't say "all things are good." It says "all things work together for good." They reach a good destination. They lead me to a good outcome.
One of my favorite verses in Jeremiah when the Lord says, "I know the thoughts that I think towards you to bring you to an expected end." I I can't always expect what's going to happen, but God has a method to lead us to an expected end, to take us to a place that he has designed. And that's kind of what we're going to look at here a little bit today.
Paul had a desire. He wanted to get to Rome. Paul had preached all over the the known world. He had started churches all over. But he said, "I must go to Rome." He wanted to preach in Caesar's household. He wanted to declare the gospel in what was then kind of the capital of the of the world militarily and culturally. He wanted to go to Rome. And so he is finally at the plan of God. In fact, think about it. If you remember, he was on his way to Jerusalem. And all kinds of people said to him, "Don't go there. They're going to arrest you. You're going to be captured. You're going to be in trouble." And Paul said, "No, no, no. I'm I'm going because God has a plan, and I'm going to get to preach in Rome." So, he makes his way to Jerusalem. Of course, he is arrested and he is being sent to Rome.
Now, I think when I look at the life of Paul, he's I think he has a certain measure, at least, of being kind of structured and organized, planning. I mean, he was he was responsible for overseeing churches and writing letters and ministers and ministries in different cities and provinces, and he seems to be rather structured and organized, address this problem, minister to that situation. And so now he is on his way to Rome, and he's on a ship because, and and soldiers are are I mean, sailors and vessels are pretty regimented. We've got schedules. We've got plans. We've got things. And and and all of it is just, it seems like he's got this this kind of plan in place. I'm going to sail. I'm going to go to Rome. I'm going to preach. And then a storm comes. Anybody ever had a storm interrupt your well-laid plans? Everybody's had a storm interrupt your well-laid plans.
In today's world, I've I've pondered before that in in today's world, because of radar and technology, we have a pretty good, we get pretty good notice when a storm is coming. Now, I understand tornadoes come through, they hit very suddenly, and the sirens have been this big thing this, you know, the last couple weeks about the sirens not going off in the city and whose job it was to push the button. I get all that, and and I'm I'm sorry for anything that happened down there, of course, and lives lost and damaged. But but even with that, we all knew the storms were coming. I mean, the forecast had been there for days. We didn't know where a tornado was going to hit, but we all knew the storm was coming. Hurricanes are horrific events. My my wife is from Florida, of course. They grew up with, you know, always with the threat of hurricanes down there in Florida. We, this church took vans and went down after Katrina hit in New Orleans. And the devastation is unbelievable. But I've always said, and I I'm not minimizing, but if you die in a hurricane, you had two weeks of notice. I mean, you knew it was coming, and nobody, hurricanes don't sneak up on you. Not today.
But I have considered if you go back 100 years, when there was no radar to track storm systems and no satellites, you wouldn't know that that was coming. Life in the kingdom, we don't know, typically, that storms are coming. They hit suddenly. They're more tornadic than they are like hurricane. They hit suddenly. They they just drop out of the sky. You get one phone call from the doctor, and all of a sudden life is stormy, right? You your your job, your boss comes in and says, "Sorry, we're shutting down the company. You're going to, you don't have a job come Monday." It hits suddenly. Storms come.
But here's what I've got good news for you today. As we think about this situation of Paul's life, and we'll get into this this thing on the ship a little more, but think about this. Our God, who is omniscient, doesn't use or understand the word "surprise." Nothing surprises God. Nothing surprises him. There's not one thing. I don't know what I'm going to face this week. See, I've got all kinds of plans. We're leaving on vacation Friday. I got all kinds of plans with the the folks we're going with. They laugh at me because I carry a three-ring binder on vacation. I got I got every hotel we're staying in, everything we're doing. I got tickets to everything. That's my nature. I can't relax on vacation if I don't have all that stuff set. So, I got plans. I got a notebook worth of plans. And it doesn't mean a hill of beans because I don't know where we're going Friday. I don't know what we're going to do next Tuesday. I think I do. But storms can come, situations can change, things can happen in a heartbeat that changes our life. But God knows exactly where I'm going to be Friday. God knows exactly where I'm going to be next Tuesday. Nothing about your life, no storm you ever go through, surprises God. That's a comfort to me, folks. If I can hold the hand of somebody that knows exactly what I'm going to be going through next week, I can watch this word, trust him. I can trust him because he knows where I'll be.
Paul is is on this vessel. And Paul was not unfamiliar with sailing. He, um, he had done it often enough that in 2 Corinthians, he said he'd been shipwrecked three times. Not sure I want to sail with Paul. He has bad luck on sailing vessels. Apparently, he's been shipwrecked three times. I remember as a child, one time, Brother Benny De Merchant, the longtime missionary to Brazil, came to our church, just a little bitty church in Grayville where I grew up, and he came and he had his display table up there. And for those of you that will remember, and we've got ex-missionaries here, he used to carry this piston around out of his plane because his plane engine blew one time and he crashed in the Amazon, and the, and he and he carried the piston to show about how his engine blew up. And he's telling all these stories about crash landing in the river, and and another time I was flying, I ran out of fuel, and I had to land in the jungle. He's got all these stories. I'm about 12 years old. I'm just fascinated. After church, he said, "Have you ever been to Brazil?" I said, "No, sir." He said, "You should come. I'll fly you in my plane." I thought, "There's no way I'm going out and flying that plane. All you've done is tell me about how many times you've crashed." Actually, I would have done it, but but I'm just saying Paul had that same kind of pattern. He's been shipwrecked three times. So, he knows a little bit about it, enough.
So, look at this verse in Acts 27 and verse 10. I know I gave you several, but let's go to verse 10. He issues this warning before they start off. He said, "Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives." Well, that's serious. This is the Apostle Paul. This is not some nutcase out on the side of the road with a sign. If you're getting on that boat and the Apostle Paul looks at you and says, "Hey, by the way, the cargo, the ship, AND ALL OF OUR LIVES are going to have much damage on this voyage." You're probably thinking, "Maybe I'll just go by chariot." So, he knew that there was probably a problem coming, but the captain and its owners ignored his advice. Of course, the Bible says when the south wind blew softly, they thought they had a good situation. And so, they took off. And all of a sudden, that south wind blossomed into a terrible storm.
Look at Acts 27:18 and 20. This is what the Bible says. "And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest. The next day they lightened the ship." They threw out the cargo to try to make it lighter. Look at verse number 20 where it says, "And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away." Wow. They've not seen sun or stars for day and night. This storm has raged for many days. AND PAUL SAYS, THE BIBLE SAYS THAT ALL HOPE WAS GONE. That's a bad place to be.
And in the middle of that situation, in the middle of that moment when from a natural perspective, they had no ideas, no solutions, no thoughts, no clue what to do, watch what happens in that moment. God sends an angel that boards that ship with a message for Paul in Acts 27 and 24. Look at this verse. This is so significant. Saying, the angel said to him, "Fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." Now, that to me is fascinating. You've got very conflicting opinions. All these veteran sailors, all the experts, all the folks who have all the nautical knowledge are saying there is no hope. "ALL HOPE THAT WE SHOULD BE SAVED is taken away." And God steps in and says, "You've got to go to Rome. I have a purpose in your life, and no storm can stop God's purpose." You need to hear that today. God has plans for you. God has designs for your life. And hell has never created a storm that can stop God's purpose. He said, "You're going to go to Rome. I've got I've got a pulpit all ready for you in Rome, Paul. You're going to preach to Caesar. You're going to go, and not only you, but everybody on this vessel. I'm going to give you all the souls of the people that are with you. My plan is bigger than the experts' opinions."
I don't know what you may be dealing with today, but I just know a lot of times there's negative voices that try to come to us and speak to us. And Brian, our district superintendent, Brother Park, calls them "mind monsters." They get in your head and they speak to you. They get real noisy at night. Have you noticed that? You get busy enough during the day, you don't hear them so much. But at night, it gets quiet, and the mind monsters start speaking to you about everything that's going to go wrong, and how bad it's going to get. And God steps in and says, "I've got a different opinion."
I see Sister Liberty sitting back there. She probably knows exactly what I'm going to talk about right now, but there was a night that our dear late, her husband, Brother Liberty, had to have surgery. It was very serious. He had an aortic aneurysm. And he was at the hospital awaiting surgery. And the surgeon that they wanted to do the surgery was actually at another hospital at that moment performing that surgery on another patient, and he was, they were waiting on him to come in that night to do this emergency surgery for an aortic aneurysm on Brother Bill Liberty. We sat there together. It was it was very touch and go. It was very dangerous. We're waiting on this surgeon to come. This surgeon came walking in the room and sat down with Sister Libby and myself. I'm sure he's a very gifted surgeon. I mean, he is. There's no question. In fact, later, I don't know if I ever told you this, this, I was in another hospital. Months later, I saw a magazine laying on a on a table, and it was about the medical community in St. Louis, and they had his picture on the cover as one of the most prominent cardiac surgeons in St. Louis. It was making a big article of it. So, he was really something. He, I'm sure he made straight A's in med school, but he did not pass that class about tact. His bedside manner was not that good. He walked in that night and sat down with us and he said, "Your husband's situation is very serious." He said, "I just left another hospital performing this same surgery on another man who did not have as many health risks as your husband, and he died on the table." Well, thank you. Remember that? You probably, it was probably chaos for you at that moment. I was like, "Dude, seriously." He said, "But I'm going to do my best." And he walked out of the room. Well, my dear sister was, I mean, needless to say, it shook her. And and I just looked over at her. She'll know exactly what it was. I looked over at her. I said, "Sister Liberty, listen to me. God gets the final say." That doctor can say anything he wants, but he is not in charge. God gets the final say. Whatever situation you're in right now, whatever storm has raged in your life, every sailing expert said, "We're going down." And God stepped in and said, "Paul, you listen to me. Don't be afraid. You're going to Rome." Telling this, "This this lesson speaks to me. We can make our plans, but we don't know what's going to unfold. We don't know what kind of storms are going to come." But God has purpose. God has a design. And so, reassured by this angel's promise, when the angel said, "Paul, it's going to be okay. You're going to Rome. It's going to be all right. Everything's proceeding exactly according to God's plan." I mean, I I know it's hard for you to see right now. And right now the storm is blowing, and the saltwater stinging your eyes, and you're seasick, and it's not much fun. But but it's okay. I knew this was coming. I saw this. It's all right. I'm I'm working in your behalf.
And so Paul gathers all the other people on the boat around about him and he says, "It's going to be okay." I I love this. I don't I don't know. Did I give you Acts 27 and 21? I love this verse because Paul is so human. Look at this. "But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, 'Sirs, you should have hearkened to me.'" I love that. "I told you so." I I'm I'm related to Paul somehow, I think, because Paul couldn't just step out there and say, "Guys, it's okay. An angel spoke to me. It's going to be all right." He steps out before he could even comfort them. He said, "I tried to tell you this was a bad idea. You should have listened to me and not have loosed from Cithon, not have gained this harm and this loss. None of this would have happened to you if you'd have just listened to me." I have to tell you, in my years of pastoring, there were more than a few occasions that I wanted to say that really bad to certain people. Nobody that's here this morning, I'm quite sure. And I'm only making eye contact because I don't want to look at them right now. And there were a few times, I'll have to say, during pastoral ministry, that I did want to look at when they came to me and said, "This is what's going on in my life." I wanted to say, "Sir, you should not have loosed and had this hurt if you'd have just listened to me." But I have to admit, there have been more than a few times if I'd have just listened, I'd have probably avoided some hurt, too.
But Paul had puts that little that little gig in there. Says, "You should have listened to me, this would have happened." BUT SINCE IT'S HAPPENING, here's this verse. "Be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you." Here's what I want you to get from that. The angel spoke to Paul, and Paul immediately his attitude changed. Before the thing, he said, "I perceive there's going to be all kinds of problems. There's going to be all kinds of hurt. All hope that we should be saved is taken away." And now God speaks to him and says, "It's going to be okay. You're going to Rome." And Paul turns around and says, "Hey guys, it's okay. I've heard from God." And I tell you, everything changes when you hear from God. If you can get a word from God and just hold on to that, it doesn't matter how the storms blow. It doesn't matter what unfolds. If God has spoken to you, you can get a clear promise from God. Okay?
And I know you say, "But Graham, I've prayed and I've prayed about this thing, and I just can't hear from God." Yeah, we have. That book says, "He will never leave us or forsake us." That's right. This book says, "My God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory." That's what this book says. He's already spoken to me. Now, I'm all for a direct word from God when the voice of the Lord speaks in your spirit, or the pastor's preaching and and Pastor Bland gives us some word and it grabs us. But, but this book has already spoken. It has, man. You can anchor your life to one of these promises because that's what Paul did. Once the once the angel spoke to him, he said, "I I I I've got it. He has spoken."
And not only, watch this, amazing to me is not only does that word from God, not only does that angel speaking to him give him strength, he starts encouraging others by what he's been through. The the the journey he made, the storm he's going through, is the platform from which he ministers to other people. In fact, I am of the opinion that perhaps one of the reasons God occasionally lets us go through storms that we don't like is because that's the that's the reservoir out of which we minister to other folks. If I have never been sick a day in my life ever, it's really hard for me to have compassion for somebody that's dealing with sickness. How do I testify God's a healer if I've never had to have I've never known the healing touch of God? So God puts us through things. He lets us go through situations sometimes to broaden our ministry.
Look look at what he said. This is, um, 2 Corinthians 1:4. It says, "Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." I am able to take what I learn in my storm and minister to people that are in a storm. To me, it's why GriefShare works in large in large part. It's why the GriefShare class works because everybody in there has experienced that. If you've never been touched by the loss of someone close to you, you can't relate to it. You really can't. My my my grandparents, obviously, are gone. I've lost my dad, but they were late in life. It's not that it minimizes the hurt, but but they lived long and full lives before I had to say goodbye to them. But my sister, when my sister passed away a couple years ago, just suddenly, shockingly, way too young. Man, I I understood something about about grief that I didn't get. I couldn't understand it any other time.
I I've held the hands of people who suffered loss. I've stood at the front of this church beside caskets of people that had to view their loved ones for the first time. I've preached their funerals. I've stood at the graveside. I've walked them back to their car as they've said farewell at the graveside. But I didn't understand it until I went through that. So I stood up and tried to preach my sister's funeral. I I didn't understand it before then, but walking through that now, I I can minister to other people in ways that I couldn't before. And so if every time a storm comes in my life, I want to pout my bottom lip out and get mad at God, why why do I have to go through this? BECAUSE GOD MIGHT BE SETTING YOU UP TO BE ABLE TO HAVE BETTER MINISTRY, to be more effective in the kingdom. What you learn COULD SECURE SOMEONE ELSE in a moment that their storm might have taken them under if it wasn't for you. And so God knows by taking you through this thing.
Make your plans. Think what life's going to be. But then God says, "No, I got other plans for you." But it's leading you somewhere to be more effective in God's kingdom. And I just can't get mad. You know, we when our when our kids were young, young, I'm talking infant young, and and we'd take them in. Well, let me let me do a different story. When Jeremy was probably about, I don't know, four, five, maybe six, five, maybe something. He had to have tubes put in his ears because he was getting ear infections like every third day. So we had to go do the tubes in the ear thing, you know. And so we take him down to the hospital that morning. They're going to take him back and put the tubes, which, you know, I get it. This is not bypass surgery, but when it's your kid, I told somebody the definition of minor surgery is surgery on somebody else's kid. It's your kid. It's not minor. But anyway, so they're they're going to, you know, we're out. They've got him in the little gown thing and all that, but they haven't taken him back yet. And they're so devious. They come out and say, "Jeremy, you want to go for a ride in a wagon?" They got a little red flyer wagon, you know? He's like, "Yeah." They put him in the wagon to haul him down the hall. I thought, "He is never going to ride in a wagon again the rest of his life. Anytime somebody says, 'Want to go for a ride?' No." Because it was like this bait and switch thing, you know. But they took him on a journey that he didn't like that was for his good. And I think sometimes it may be oversimplifying it that sometimes God says, "Hey Scott, you want to go over riding a wagon?" "Sure, Lord. Let's go." And then he STARTS PULLING A WAGON. And he pulls it places. It was not on the brochure. He didn't tell me that's where he was going to take me. Do you trust ME WITH YOUR LIFE? ABSOLUTELY. And I'm expecting he's going to give me a popsicle or something, you know. And then he starts pulling the wagon and he leads me down paths I didn't ask for. I didn't expect it. He didn't advertise. He just says, "Trust me." But he gets me to a destination. That's what's happening with Paul. I mean, you know, God didn't advertise storms. I I thought about that with Joseph, man. Here, you're going to have this your son, your brother's going to bow down to you. Mom and dad are going to bow down to you. He didn't tell him about Potiphar's house. He didn't tell him about the prison. He didn't tell him about getting sold by his brothers into slavery. Because I'm thinking if God had said to Joseph, "Hey, I got an idea. I'm going to sell you into slavery. You're going to get falsely accused of sexual assault. You're going to be thrown into prison and forgotten about, but in the end, you're going to be the prime minister of Egypt." I'm thinking Joseph would say, "It's all right. I'm real happy here. Don't need that. Doing just fine." But instead, God says, "I'm going to make it." Gives him these dreams. "You're going to be a ruler." AND JOSEPH GOES, "COOL. SIGN ME UP. LET'S GO." AND GOD SAYS, "OKAY, get in the wagon." And he starts pulling him down roads. And and all I'm saying is we give our lives to God as his children. He has plans for you. He's got he's got an end he's taking you to, but all the twists and turns in the road, we don't get to plan all those.
Yes. And so of course, the, you know, that I'm going to I'm going to have to skip forward a little bit, but the ship runs aground, and and the waves are going to batter it to pieces, and so the guys are getting ready to lower the lifeboat, and Paul says, "Don't do that. If you get off this vessel, nobody's going to live. Stay with the ship. God's told me everything's going to be okay." Boy, I'm telling you, he hung to that word from God. I think he's a little more, of course, he's Paul. Of course, he is. But I'm not sure I would have done that well. Angel or not. I mean, okay, an angel shows up in my house and says, "Now, Scott, here's what's going to happen. You're going to go to this, go to this, but here's the outcome. I have a feeling when the waves are breaking my ship to pieces, I might wonder if I just dreamed about that angel. I'm not sure. Can I really trust that?" You know, but Paul holds to this promise, "Stay in the boat." So, they do. The ship is broken in pieces. And and in fact, here's what's kind of cool to me. Yes, the ship is broken in pieces, and those pieces become what people cling to to get to the shore. Even the brokenness becomes their avenue of salvation. And so they get off the boat, they make their way to shore because Paul told him. Look at this verse 27 and 34. Let's go to verse 34. He says this, I'm skipping around a little bit. "Wherefore I pray you take some meat." He said, "You might want to eat something, for this is your health. For there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you." I wish you'd have told me that. He says, he says after they they, you know, they cut the ropes, let the lifeboat go, they're going to stay with the ship like Paul says, he says, "Now eat something." See, after figured they probably haven't eaten in a while, been pretty seasick in this storm. Now they're fixed on the rocks. He says, "Eat something. That's for your health." And they get off the ship, and they all make it to shore. In fact, the Bible says they were all of good cheer. That that verse blows my mind. They are aground on the rocks. The ship is breaking up around them. Look at verse 2, 36, 27, 36. "And they were all of good cheer, and they took some meat because they had a word from God." And God is directing their steps. And so, as you know, they get they make it to shore.
And this is what's really amazing to me. The the the guards were going to kill all of them lest some prisoner escape. And the centurion kind of convinced them, "No, let's not do that." They all get off. They all get on shore. All 276 of them are saved because Paul, God has a design for Paul. I got on a plane one time. I hope you won't think this is too bold, but um, I was going to preach at a at a at a camp, and the lady sitting next to me on the flight, not my wife. She wasn't with me on that one. This lady was very terrified of flying. Now, I realize there might be some of you here that you said, "I would never, I hate to fly. I don't want to fly." I respect that. She was terrified. I was trying to give her a measure of comfort. And I started by telling her, you know, about how safe flying is. I had to tell her she was in more danger driving to the airport than she is on the plane statistically. I had a guy one time sitting next to me was real scared. And I, we were in, we were in Wisconsin, but he's wearing a big cowboy hat and a big silver belt buckle and a studded western vest. And I'm just talking with him, and I, he said he's from New Mexico. He was up there because his grandmother was sick. He came to visit her. I said, "You look like you're a little nervous." He said, "I hate to fly. I hate to fly. Scares me to death. I hate to fly." I said, I said, "You're from New Mexico. I said, 'What do you do?'" He said, "'I'm a professional bull rider.'" I said, "Now wait, [applause] wait a minute. I said, 'You tie, wait a minute. You tie yourself to the back of an animal that weighs, you know, 1500 pounds that wants to kill you, and you're scared on this plane?" He said, "Sir, there's a couple points you have to consider." He said, "I only have to stay on that bull for 8 seconds, and I don't usually make that." And he said, 'And when I fall 8 or 10 feet to the ground.' Good point.
This lady was so scared, and I was trying to talk to her about all the statistics and, you know, I said, 'You know, you're really very safe. I mean, I know it's just, you're fine.' And she said, "Yeah, but what if this is the one plane that goes down?" I said, "Oh, you've got nothing to worry about." She said, "Why not?" I said, "Because I'm going to preach this camp, and God wants me there." She kind of gave me this funny look. I said, "Oh, no. I'm serious. I know where I'm going. what I'm doing. We ain't going down." Now, you say, "Well, that's kind of vain." No, I'm nothing. But I I knew God had spoken to me about that week, and I knew, and you know what this, I don't know what her faith structure is. She may not believe in God. She does now. All I know is she settled down. She took, watch, she took comfort in my confidence in God's plan. You might be able to minister to somebody by just a calm assurance that you know my life is in God's hands.
So they make it to shore. I got I got six minutes. They make it to shore. And this is this is like really wild. You know, look, the Bible says, "So it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land." Praise the Lord. The end. Be careful driving home. No, not the end. Because they get on shore. And Paul starts building a fire, gathering sticks for a fire, and a viper comes out of the of the flames and and bites his hand. A poisonous snake. NOW LISTEN, you don't think, are you human enough to admit that if you had been Paul, YOU MIGHT HAVE GONE, "WAIT A MINUTE. I JUST GOT THROUGH THAT ONE, held your word, and now this." I've had some of those "now this" questions. I just thought things were shaping up, and now this. I I I just I just kind of thought maybe we were about to get through this storm, and now this. I've been there. And all the people there, they don't help him. They said, "Uh-huh. He's a murderer." And that that that's why this has happened because he's a murderer. You know what's amazing about that? You preach this sometime. He had been a murderer. They were exactly right. Because snakes tend to bring up our past. Throw that out there just to chew on. He had been a murderer. Not anymore. He's redeemed. So they just step back and wait. They watch for Paul to fall over dead. They just watch for him to die. And he doesn't. Shakes that thing off in the fire. I don't I'm not terrified of snakes. Do we have any snakeophobics in the house? Yeah. He's scared of snakes. So it wouldn't have mattered if it was poisonous. You'd have died just because you saw it, is what you're telling. I got it. I got it. Any bird? No, never mind. I'm just kidding. Just leave it alone. I don't I'm not really necessarily terrified of snakes. They don't bother me. I mean, I don't I don't I don't want one for a pet or anything, but I just I can hold one. It doesn't scare me in that regard. But a poisonous one comes out of fire and bites you, and everybody's sitting back, "Oh, you're a murderer. You're dead. We live here. That's a poisonous snake. We've seen 100 people bitten by that snake. All die. You're gone." And Paul just shakes that THING OFF IN THE FIRE. And watch watch. I don't read anywhere where this time when that snake bit him, another angel showed up. "Fear not, Paul. You are super snake man. It's not going to hurt you." Because he still had that promise. I got to go to Rome. You He's sending me to Rome. And even if there's multiple storms along the way, his purpose in my life is not stopped by storms nor snakes. It doesn't matter what happens. He has a purpose in my life.
Now, I'm going to stop one moment to say this doesn't give us a right to be ignorant because there are some storms that I create. And if I make self-destructive choices, I can't just sit back and say, "Well, God will get me out of it because he's got a purpose in my life." No. Sometimes I'm going to pay a price for that. Well, I mean, if I'm not faithful in my finances, I really can't lay claim to God's provision. It's free. You didn't ask for me to come. I'm just a guest here. I'm not a guest, but I'm not I'm just one of you. I I I can't lay claim to to, you know, to God's going to provide for me if I'm not being faithful in my finances. So, some storms I create. I treat people like dirt. I I can't be real upset that folks aren't friendly to me. Some storms I create. So, I'm not I'm not giving us license to just live foolishly.
Here's my point. Out in the middle of the ocean when the storm was raging, PAUL DIDN'T JUMP OFF the ship and go, "God will save me." No. No. He expects us to use good sense. He expects us to govern our lives by the principles of this book. But if we do that, then I promise you, hell can't create a scenario that can derail what God designs for my life.