When You Find Yourself Adrift

Well, good morning everybody. Good morning upstairs. Good morning all of you at venue. I'm so glad that you could all be here this morning. Which grab your message notes as we continue with our series "An Unexpected Journey" and if you're just joining us for the first time today, here is the briefest of summaries. The Apostle Paul is a prisoner on board a ship sailing from Palestine to Rome and fairly soon into their voyage they encounter a horrific storm. Hurricane force winds are blowing them across the Mediterranean and they are about as adrift as you can get.

Which is our topic this morning when you find yourself adrift. When I think of being adrift, I think of it as the difference between where you are and where you want to be. Maybe you feel adrift in your career or your marriage or your health. Things are not going the way that you expected and not only that but you don't see any signs of hope on the horizon. It's a very tough place to be.

My wife's grandfather was a missionary in Korea for a couple years, several years in fact. He started in the mid 1920s and during this time Korea was occupied by the Empire of Japan but even so I think he loved every moment of it. He was pastoring churches, he met a Korean national, they fell in love, became married her American name is Ruth and Grandpa and Grandma Ruth. They anticipated spending the rest of their life in Korea serving the Lord.

Then in early 1940 Grandpa gets word from home that his mother's health is declining and he wants to come see her. It takes three weeks by ship to get home back then and he also needs to get a visa approved for his Korean wife and that took quite a bit longer than he ever expected. Three months go by, six months, nine months. The fact that they've been living in Korea, this occupied territory, the fact that she's a Korean national, this is all factoring in but he feels very strong. He could just go by himself. It feels very strongly that he should bring her one of the rare times that she'd have the opportunity to meet his parents and it wasn't until a year of waiting and wondering if it was ever gonna happen.

A year later the visa is finally approved for Ruth and she's given six months and not a day more to be here in the States. So they arrive in late June of 1941. They make the most of their stay and then as they're packing their bags to return to Korea, December 7th, 1941, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, we are officially at war with Japan. Now they can't go back. Nor could they go back during the Korean War or the Vietnam War and so completely unexpected to them that six-month stay turned into a 35 year stay.

When they went back to Korea it was only as tourists. But get this, had Ruth's visa been approved just one month earlier, one month, they would have been back in Korea and they would have ended up in a concentration camp where all the other American and international missionaries were. Grandpa told me that all the missionaries that he knew that were in Korea at the time, not only did they end up in camps but most of them died there. Like Eric Little died in concentration camp in China, the man featured in Chariots of Fire. But Grandpa's friends, most of them perished.

He said the few that survived only lived another five to ten years because their health was completely broken. Ruth on the other hand, she lived to the ripe old age of 90 and Grandpa, he passed away last summer just a few weeks shy of 110. Yeah, so you just never know how things are gonna go. Along these lines, philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, "Life is understood backward but lived forward." We resonate with that because whether you're looking back over your day, your week, or a large chunk of your life, it's always easier looking back to see how things come together in a way you could never have appreciated or understood while you were living them.

So sometimes we end up worrying about things that never actually happened. We find that out eventually. And other times it's a good thing we can't see what's around the next bend because if we could, we'd be absolutely terrified. So as we continue with Paul's unexpected journey, today we're gonna see one of the most dramatic parts of this story. I love this because God is going to take things that appear to be completely chaotic and out of control and He's gonna weave them together in a way that accomplishes His promise to these men and His plans for Paul in a way that's just astounding. It is so cool.

But here's what we need to keep in mind. We're seeing all this after the fact. We have the privilege of understanding it backward. But Paul and everyone else on ship, they're living it forward, aren't they? In real time. And we live in that same tension. And I can look back over the years of my life and see what I believe to be dramatic movements of God's hand where providence has made a turn here or there that's made all the difference in my life. You've heard some of those stories. But right now, in the moment, God's hand, a lot harder to see, isn't it?

And this is important because there's no place in this story that we're gonna read today where the skies open up and it's just totally clear, "There's God, He's intervening in our midst." There is. Now far from it. The only exception I can think of in the passages we've looked at was last week when the angel comes and speaks to Paul. You were here last week, you remember that. But remember, no one else saw that angel. So when Paul goes and tells the rest of the people on ship, "Hey, angel appeared to me, told me not a single one of you is going to perish," most of the guys on the ship have to be thinking, "Well, okay Paul. If you say so, you know, I imagine Paul being like the elephant in Horton hears a who, you know, like, "Ooh, he can hear little people speaking to him." They're like, "Oh, Paul listens to angels." Okay, we got that going for us. Meanwhile, all heck is breaking loose on this ship.

Let's see what we can learn from the stressful, anxious, and surprising events that have unfold for Paul and the rest of the crew. And like I said, today's section is one of the most exciting parts of the passage. And so rather than have our typical fill in the blanks type of outline, I want to let the story speak for itself today. I don't want to parse it all up with too many fill-ins. And I've left blanks there in the notes so you can write down, which I think is more important, things that are important to you, things that speak directly to your heart.

Let's pick up their journey in Acts 27:27. "On the 14th night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea," that's what they called the central Mediterranean back then. "When about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. They took soundings and found that the water was 120 feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was 90 feet deep, fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks. They dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight." I bet they did. I mean can you imagine the tension? 14 days of drifting and now suddenly the bottom of the ocean, it's getting shallower.

"And they hear these waves breaking in the distance. They can't see them but they're certainly not, you know, imagining a soft landing here. They're imagining rocks. They're gonna crash at the rocks and they're big rocks, gnarly rocks with fangs. You know they're rigged with explosives. Not really, but clearly they're terrified and so they hit the brakes as hard as they can with these four anchors off the back and the ship grinds to a halt and now it's like, you know, a kite at the end of a string on a really windy day. If those anchors don't hold fast they just sail right into the rocks. And so they all agree this would be a really good time for prayer.

As you possibly know the issue of public prayer came just this week where a high school valedictorian was in the news because he recited the Lord's prayer during his graduation speak and you know whatever people think about all this it seems to me that the more stressful the situation is the fewer people you'll find who are opposed to prayer regardless of the forum. I mean if it's the night before major surgery or the hills are on fire above their home or their spouse has just left them people aren't too picky about where their help comes from. And if you're in the dark getting pushed towards the rocks whatever that might look for it like for you prayer always seems like a very good idea.

But for the sailors they pray and probably each to their their gods and the help doesn't come soon enough. So verse 30 in an attempt to escape from the ship the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Well those dirty rats just gonna slink away you know prayer didn't make enough a difference for them so they're like well doesn't God help those who help themselves? Let's go you know even if it means shafting everyone else.

But when you're in a state of serious anxiety and stress the temptation is very real to do whatever it takes to find relief even if it's at the expense of someone else. And that's exactly what these sailors are doing because the more desperate you are the greater that temptation is and the more desperate the means you will employ. It's like when this Titanic was shipped it was with sinking the director of the White Star cruise line the ones who built the ship he was on board he was a man named Joseph Bruce Ismay he survived by getting on one of the lifeboats only to be vilified by the American and British press. Tomes have been written about whether Ismay was a coward or simply someone doing what any reasonable person would do.

Either way he certainly didn't become the symbol of our better angels. Instead in his day he was really the face of something that we all know lurks within each of us which is this tendency to put ourselves first even at the expense of others and again clearly the sailors are doing this because no one can handle the ship if these guys slip away. Verses 31 and 32 then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers unless these men stay with the ship you cannot be saved so the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

I love how Julius and the soldiers they're not having a hard time listening to what Paul has to say now are they it's just like WAP! Cut the ropes ask questions later. If you were with us on the first week we observed two points which one was that you got to decide who you're gonna listen to and we are in this together and I'm so pleased that Julius and the soldiers have taken this to heart because as the lifeboat drifts away they are in it together.

But think about their stress level now. A bunch of sailors with swords drawn they are just itching to give the sailors what they deserve and the lifeboat that could have been used to shuttle everyone safely to shore the same lifeboat that they labored to pull and secure on the deck it's gone. I mean it's a miracle that this doesn't end it in a bloodbath right here but this is where Paul who started this this voyage as the prisoner on board he really shifts into high gear as the pastor on board and not only that but little by little if you've been keeping track God is stripping away all the things that they would otherwise depend on hasn't he?

I mean first they have to throw away some cargo then they throw the ship's tackle overboard they lose their means of navigation they can't see the Sun or the stars and now it's the lifeboat one more prop is gone. But in this incredible deliberate way God is reeling them in. It's almost like he's sanctifying them despite themselves he's claiming them for his purposes and from here forward Julius and Paul are gonna be tight. I mean Julius is like Paul's right-hand man and if you got Julius you got the soldiers and if you got the soldiers well you pretty much got everybody else.

I mean can you imagine how orderly church would be if all of our ushers had swords? I mean I don't want to give them any ideas but like oh I'll take care of that cell phone. Yeah, you know. Here's why I think God is taking over the ship and these are these are big themes. First is that God alone is sovereign. Now that's probably worth writing down. God alone is sovereign. That's just a big word that means that God is supremely in control. Not Caesar, not the captain of the ship, not the centurion Julius. God is going to get Paul to Rome but it's gonna be crystal clear that God is the one that got him there. God and nobody else.

And second just as God alone is sovereign God alone sustains my life. Now follow me here. This doesn't mean that God doesn't use human action and choices in cooperation with with his amazing mysterious will. You see this throughout the story. I mean even today we have medical advances in technology that in many extend our life or in many ways can can bless us but make no mistake God is the Lord of life. He is over and above it all. Not human cleverness, not my perceived self-sufficiency, not luck. And when you're adrift you feel anxious and you feel helpless this is what you need to know. That God alone is sovereign and that he sustains my life.

Now watch how God will use Paul to advance his purposes. Verses 33 and 34. Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. For the last 14 days he said you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food. You haven't eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You needed to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head and notice again the emphasis on their anxiety. For 14 days you've been in constant suspense. You haven't eaten and I'm sure every one of us at some point in our life we've been in that same place. Constant suspense. Can't sleep. Can't eat. No wonder these people are also edgy.

Paul's just like you know you guys just got to sit down and have a meal. And I love this because it's just so basic. But you know what just as anxiety can drive us to take at the expense of others it can also drive us to despair. Where we shrivel up and we begin to neglect the things that we can and need to do for ourselves. Things as basic as eating and so that's where Paul begins. Guys let's see. In as basic as this is it's also very profound. In fact meals are often profound moments in scripture.

Think of as in think of in Exodus. When God is about to send his final plague on Pharaoh so he can deliver the children of Israel he comes to Moses and he says okay here we go Moses this is gonna be the last one this will break Pharaoh's will. This is what I want you all to do. Go home close the door have a meal to commemorate the deliverance I'm about to achieve. The night before Jesus goes to the cross he's commemorating this very same Passover meal with his disciples and in commemoration of the greatest deliverance ever his death on the cross what does he do? He breaks bread with him.

Now watch the parallel here with Paul. After he said this he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all then he broke it and began to eat they were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. Now notice those phrases he took some bread gave thanks to God and broke it. Sound familiar? Sure it does. I mean these are pretty much the exact same phrases that Luke uses in chapter 22 of his gospel when he describes Jesus instituting the Lord's Supper. In fact the words are even closer it's like exact same words in chapter 24 of Luke's gospel when Jesus meets the two followers on the road to Emmaus and he goes home with them they don't know who he is they can't recognize him until it says he took bread gave thanks broke it and began to give it to them and bing their eyes are open they recognize oh this is Jesus right here.

And so what I think Luke is doing is signposting for all of us you know what this is more than just a little simple meal this is this is Jesus moving Jesus is about to deliver these guys and I'm not suggesting they all saw it as a communion service but I am convinced that look that Luke is he's viewing this through what you might call a eucharistic lens he's understanding this meal backwards and he's saying this is so much more than about bread this is about the bread of life and all these guys can do in this literal darkness before the dawn the only thing that they can do is give thanks and receive what the Lord gives them receive the nourishment that they need in a few moments we're going to do the same thing as we observe the Lord's Supper intentionally where the Lord nourishes us and and and refreshes us as we remember what he's done for us that very simple meal we remember that our lives are bound up in his death.

And this is something that we can affirm not just once a month or in some churches once a week it's really the opportunity of every single day to say Lord my life is in your hands I live because of your love your grace your provision and you know you've heard me mention this before I'm in debt to my friend Craig Barnes but this is what it means to live our lives with an open hands posture before the Lord you know what I mean by this because when this is my posture what I'm saying is Jesus I didn't create my life and I cannot sustain it not really I don't have control over my next heartbeat but because of who you are you are my Lord I receive the life that you give me every single moment and Lord you may put into these hands whatever you wish and by the same token and this is the hard part you may also remove whatever you wish.

Now if you're like me that's where the hands come down and I say oh wait a minute not so fast I like to put in part I don't really like the remove part you know things like won't like my family their well-being I kind of like my well-being too and so to put my hands before the Lord like this it's gonna be a difficult thing if I really mean it I'm willing to hand the keys of life over to my Lord Jesus Christ but this is why this is why we suffer so much anxiety because we live under the illusion that we're the ones who are ultimately in control but guess what we're not we're not so like it or not the only true antidote for anxiety is faith we say that again the only true antidote for anxiety is faith not you thinking you can just do more or make it happen or try harder or manipulate other people or whatever it takes or leave the stress those are not true antidotes they're the false idols that come into our life so easily.

But when I have faith that Jesus is the Lord of my life and that he is good when I'm convinced convinced of this I can trust him even though I cannot see him and even though sometimes I do not understand him so in your heart right now with your spouse with your kids with your family your career your health can you do this can you say Jesus I hold it all up to you I'm convinced there's a lot of us here today that need to do just this to just hold it up to the Lord receive what he has for us and let him feed us.

So Paul sits all these guys down for a meal on the ship and then verses 37 and 38 all together it says there were 276 of us on board did you imagine that many people on board this is a big ship and these guys have been rolling around on it for two weeks like marbles in a jar they've been going crazy but now after this meal they're settled and they're chilling out the bellies are full when they had eaten as much as they wanted they lighten the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

Okay well no wait a minute there's got to be one guy on board at least whose heart is breaking right now the owner right because they may as well have been dumping gold the blooms into the water because that's what that grain was to this guy that was his paycheck and there it goes and they're all you know whistling like zippity-doo-dah dumping the grain over words we're happy baby we ate what we needed it's gone now.

Now could it be that they held on to this grain through this storm for two weeks because it provided some ballast maybe although this is a big ship with a lot of people on board but one thing's for sure the owner of that ship was not gonna give up the grain until his life depended on it until there were no other options left and it's just like us at certain points in our life there are certain decisions that we have to make that that constitute a choice between some thing and our very lives it's wedding recovery they call hitting bottom and it could be alcohol drugs pornography work success shopping it happens whatever some thing and it doesn't have to be a bad thing but something it moves in and it takes over and that thing becomes the main thing and when that happens your life is a peril.

It's like with you know Gollum and the Lord of the Rings that thing becomes your precious right the obsession the compulsion the addiction so before we move on to these final verses it would be wise of us to all ask ourselves what's my grain that's a hard question to ask what do you mean what's my grain could be a life-giving question to ask if we face it with honesty and courage but is there something that I'm holding on to tighter than anything else but in reality it's just a thing and if so what am I sacrificing in order to keep it some of those sacrifices you might not be pleased with in the final analysis.

Well let's face it it is it's very appealing to receive the life that Jesus offers us but as we've been seeing when Jesus takes over the ship he comes with his own set of priorities which may involve some clearing of the decks and not only that he's also going to deal with whatever I've got stashed down in the hold down in the dark behind the locked doors but but listen he does this not because he wants to rob us of all our fun he does this because he loves us and when Jesus says I'm here to deliver you he means it whatever it takes and with the guys on the boat Jesus has done this he has cleared everything that is gotten in the way from their deliverance and now he's about to make good on his promise to spare their lives because it's go time.

Verse 39 when daylight came they did not recognize the land but they saw a bay with a sandy beach where they decided to run the ship a ground if they could. Now remember in the dark all they could imagine were what rocks now there may have been some rocks there but there was also this nice sandy beach they never imagined that it just goes to show fear always assumes the worst fear always assumes the worst and never anything better.

Verse 40 cutting loose the anchors they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders now it's all for nothing because they've not only have they un you know hooked the the parking brake so to speak they've left them behind I mean they now it's pedal to the metal they hoisted the fore sail to the wind and made for the beach but the ship struck a sandbar and ran a ground can you believe this they are that close but the bow stuck fast and would not move and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding surfing holy moly storm-sized waves are crashing into the back of the boat and maybe you've seen this right over here at the cement ship but man when there's a big winter swell I mean these are some Macan waves that are they're hitting the ship Paul's is turned around but you get the picture here this thing is breaking up under their feet.

I mean if this was in like Star Trek or something Scotty would be in the engine room saying gotten she's giving it all she's got time to abandon ship and so his soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to present any to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping but the centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land the rest were to get there on planks or other pieces of the ship in this way everyone reached the land safely.

Are you serious this is like sheer poetry here Julius stops the soldiers from doing what they always do when they think someone might escape you can kill first ask questions later and the ship in its dying last gasp gives up the planks so the people who can't swim can boogie board to the beach how awesome is that it's amazing and now everything is gone everything except what mattered to God two hundred and seventy six souls Wow totally chaotic and totally according to plan go figure.

But listen there are times in your life when those two extremes are going to coexist side by side chaos and God's good and loving plans for you the chaos or you'll see quite clearly wave after wave of it the good and loving plan may not be so clear may not be visible at all and in that moment it will feel very much like being adrift but do not give up hope because someday we will be able to understand backward what we lived forward even if that someday is in heaven until that time God reserves the right to throw in a couple surprises here and there.

I'll leave you with one final example of this Jesus Vivand Salvador or Dennis and Lucille Rendon along with two other companions set out in a 25 foot fiberglass boat on a three-day fishing trip a three-day fishing trip sounds like the beginning of Gilligan's Island they set out on October 28 2005 from a harbor just north of Puerto Vallarta Mexico after baiting and placing their fishing equipment they celebrated and prepared for the big catch that was coming the following day at first light they returned to where they thought they had left their rigging but it was gone.

They spent the next couple of hours and all their fuel looking for their expensive equipment now out of fuel they were too far away from shore to row back and the winds combined with the current swept them out into the open ocean they had supplies for about four days but after this time passed they became increasingly thirsty for three days they drank and ate nothing on the next day the men succumbed to their intense thirst and drank some seawater this only made them sick but that night moisture could be felt in the air and by the fourth day without water a light drizzle started following so they cut the tops off their plastic fuel containers rinse them out and when the rain came down more heavily they were able to collect over 50 gallons of fresh water food was not so easy.

Lucille says we ate only twice in November hunger like I never imagined the first meal they had was a sea turtle that surfaced for some air they drank its blood and divided up its meat but their two other companions could not stomach the thought of eating raw flesh and died from starvation in late November so they've gone from five to three now they continued to catch turtles and seabirds they made hooks from nails and use the barnacles that started building on the whole of their boat as bait they would use the barnacles to catch small fish and then the small fish to catch bigger fish.

The men drifted until August 9th 2006 where they were spotted on the radar of a Taiwanese fishing trawler the trawler investigated and it came across three skinny but otherwise healthy men spending over nine months lost at sea has landed them in the record books as the longest sea survival ever they were found some 200 miles from the north coast of Australia and had drifted over 5,500 miles after receiving medical care they returned home where their funerals had long since taken place the people of the town believed their survival to be an absolute miracle a miracle that happened to three men Jesus Salvador and Lucio whose names incidentally mean Jesus Savior and light.

Someday you may end up in a storm that you never imagined and you do not welcome you may be tossed more violently than you think you can endure you may find yourself drifting for days but whether it's in this life or whether Jesus you choose to bring you home you will survive the storm when Jesus Christ is your Savior and your light.

Let's go to him precious we have precious Heavenly Father I thank you so much for the testimony of Paul and his companions how you brought them through such harrowing days at sea and yet Lord all the way you were demonstrating that you were in control and that despite the hardships that they suffered your promise to deliver them was as sure at the end or sure as at the beginning as it was at the end thank you father for the this example that I pray gives us hope.

I pray that your spirit will press into our hearts today a hope that is firm and fixed because it's focused on you and Lord I pray that your spirit would would lift the hearts and the hopes of the men women and young people in this room and over in venue that that Lord whatever it is that whatever area of life that we may feel adrift in helpless and vulnerable and scared Lord we would sense your presence even in these moments coming alongside us or Lord you're already there but we recognize it and we are given courage and hope and renewed strength Lord this is my prayer and I ask it on behalf of my brothers and sisters in Jesus name amen.